Bill Clinton Loves To Tango

Think Chaz Bono is a polarising Dancing With The Stars contestant? It could have been a lot worse. Former US president Bill Clinton appeared on the Rachel Ray Show on September 20 and admitted he had been asked to compete on the hit dancing competition - but the grueling training regimen would have been too much for him.

Asked if he'd ever consider appearing on the show, Clinton said, "This is interesting. Actually, they contacted me once about this. And I told them I didn't have the time to train for it. You know, you actually have to go out there and train - you really work at it - so I had to pass. But I think it's a hoot."

But if he did have the time to put himself through the paces, Clinton is certain which dance he'd most like to take on. "I would like to master the tango," Clinton offered. "Just last night, Hillary said to me. You know, when I'm not Secretary of State anymore, we should take dance lessons." (Reuters)

There is something about tango which men find fascinating. Maybe it's the passionate character of the dance, the close hold or the music. Many think the tango is a difficult dance to master and shy away from learning it. Actually, of all the ballroom dances, the tango is the easiest to learn. So, for those who have always wanted to learn how to tango but were afraid to try - go for it!

Donny Osmond Wins "Dancing With The Stars" Season 9

Dancing With the Stars (DWTS) Season 9 premiered on ABC television network in the USA on September 21 2009. The 16 celebrities who participated in this season's show included showbiz entertainer Donny Osmond, Grammy Award winning singer Mya and TV reality star Kelly Osbourne. Donny is following in the footsteps of his sister Marie, who had previously competed in Season 5 of DWTS and who was placed third in that season. Among the well-known professional dancers who took part in Season 9 were Mark Ballas, son of dance legend Corky Ballas, Karina Smirnoff, former partner of Slavik Kryklyvyy and Anna Demidova, the younger sister of World Ballroom Dance Champion Katusha Demidova (partnering Arunas Bizokas).

Len Goodman, Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba returned as judges as did hosts Tom Bergeron and Samantha Harris. For this season of DWTS, the dances that were performed included the 10 Ballroom & Latin American dances, Salsa, Mambo, Jitterbug, Argentine Tango and Freestyle. In addition, 4 new dances namely the Charleston, Bolero, Lambada and Country Two-Step were performed for the first time in this competition. Through a series of elimination rounds, the contestants were whittled down and 3 contestants were eventually chosen for the finale. The 3 finalists were Donny Osmond, Mya and Kelly Osbourne. As in previous competitions, the winner was determined by a combination of the judges' scores and viewers' votes.

The finale was held over 2 evenings - on November 23 and 24. On the first evening, the 3 finalists each had to perform a freestyle dance routine. The next evening, Donny and partner Kym Johnson showcased a slick Argentine Tango performance. Crowd favourite Mya and partner Dmitry Chaplin high-kicked their way into the hearts of the crowd with a high energy Jive routine. Kelly and partner Louis Van Amstel received a standing ovation from the audience for their flawless rendition of the Viennese Waltz. Donny Osmond was adjudged the winner of DWTS Season 9 to the consternation of many who felt that first runner up Mya was the better dancer and clearly deserved to win. The next season of DWTS is scheduled to air in the spring of 2010.

Shawn Johnson Wins "Dancing With The Stars" Season 8 Crown

Shawn Johnson, an Olympic gold medallist gymnast, won the Dancing With The Stars Season 8 crown on May 19 and added the mirror ball trophy to her collection of Olympic medals. With her partner Mark Ballas, they performed a group Paso Doble as well as a Freestyle dance on the first night and a Cha Cha Cha on the second night. The judges Len Goodman, Bruno Toniolo and Carri Ann Inaba were impressed enough to award them 58 points out of a possible 60. Sex And The City actor Gilles Marini dancing the Argentine Tango with Cheryl Burke also obtained 58 points for a tie. Johnson and Ballas however pipped Marini and Burke to the trophy by a majority of just 1% of the viewers' votes. The favorite, Melissa Rycroft, a former cheerleader who danced the Samba with her partner Tony Dovolani came in third.

Dancing With The Stars (DWTS) Season 8 premiered on ABC television network in the USA on March 9. The 13 celebrities who participated in this season's show included Holly Madison, former Playboy model and ex-girlfriend of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, New York Giants footballer Lawrence Taylor, singer Jewel and her rodeo star husband Ty Murray. Among the well known professional dancers were Karina Smirnoff, Mark Ballas (son of dance legend Corky Ballas), Julian Hough and Cheryl Burke. Two new dances, the Argentine Tango and Lindy Hop were introduced this season. As well as being remembered for the finale with the tightest competition since its inception, this season's show will also probably be remembered as the show with the most number of injuries suffered by the contestants.

Jewel fractured both her shin bones, while Nancy O' Dell tore the meniscus in her knees during rehearsals. Both were forced to withdraw from the competition and were replaced by Holly Madision and Melissa Rycroft. Gilles Marini suffered tendonitis in the shoulder and Steve Woznaik the co-founder of Apple Computer sprained his foot during training. Jackass actor Steve-O injured his back while practising the Salsa. Season 9 of DWTS is expected to be aired in the fall of this year. The Americans are so fortunate in that they are able to watch really fantastic TV dance reality shows like DWTS and So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD). It looks like there won't be a SYTYCD Malaysia Season 3 this year. Seems the global financial crisis is taking its toll. We can only pray for the storm to blow over soon!

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Hugh Hefner's Ex-Girlfriend Holly Madison Competes In Dancing With The Stars

Dancing With The Stars (DWTS) Season 8 premiered in the USA on March 9 2009 with 13 celebrity contestants taking part. Two of the original 13 contestants namely, Jewel and Nancy O' Dell had to sit it out due to injuries sustained during pre-show dance rehearsals. Holly Madison, former Playboy model and ex-girlfriend of Hugh Hefner, and who is now being seen on The Girls Next Door replaced singer Jewel who broke both her tibias (shin bones). Madison who admitted she did not really have any dance experience, performed the cha cha cha with her partner Dmitry Chaplin and scored 18 out of 30 points from the judges.

Melissa Rycroft, a former Dallas Cowboy cheerleader who has a background in ballet stood in for Nancy O' Dell who tore the meniscus in her knees. Rycroft's past dance experience helped her and partner Tony Dovolani earn 23 points for their waltz. Giles Marini who performed the cha cha cha with Cheryl Burke scored 24 points to become the top dancer in round 1. Steve Wozniak who did the same dance with Karina Smirnoff was at the bottom of the list with 13 points. Each week, the contestants had to perform one of two dances chosen for the show. For the first week, it was the cha cha cha or the waltz. For the second, it was the salsa or the quickstep.

Injury seems to have hit many contestants in this and previous seasons of Dancing With The Stars. For this season, Gilles Marini suffered tendonitis in the shoulders whilst Steve Wozniak sprained his foot during rehearsals. Both have however chosen to continue dancing in the competition. Steve-O is considering pulling out from the competition due to a back injury sustained while practising the salsa. How on earth did Jewel fracture both her shin bones? What dance figure was she practising when she was injured? Winning the DWTS crown may be prestigious, but do the contestants really have to go for broke? (Pardon the pun!)

Those social dancers out there or those who are contemplating taking up dancing as a pastime are well advised to know their own fitness level. If you intend to take up "strenuous" dances like pole dance or breakdance and if you have not been exercising for quite some time, it is advisable to do a medical check up before signing up at a dance studio. Forget about the Quickstep Scatter Chasses or the Vienesse Waltz Fleckerls if you find yourself breathless or feeling dizzy. These figures are not for the beginners or the not-so-fit. Dance some of the basic or simple figures instead. Or maybe take up line dancing. Happy Dancing!

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Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak To Compete In Dancing With The Stars - Season 8

Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak will be competing in the next edition of the popular television reality show "Dancing With The Stars" (DWTS), ABC Television announced recently. The man known as "The Woz", created the original circuit board used for the Apple computer and teamed up with Steve Jobs in 1976 to market it. Wozniak quit working full time at Apple two decades ago and after years of working on various projects, re-emerged last month as chief scientist at Fusion10, a data storage start-up. Fusion10 uses closely-packed clusters of flash memory chips in servers to enable them to find data very quickly.

Wozniak will show off his dance moves alongside 12 other celebrities in season 8 of DWTS which will air on March 9. He will be competing against Jewel and her rodeo star husband Ty Murray, singers Belinda Carlisle, Chuck Wicks, Lil' Kim, and Denise Richards, actors/artistes Gilles Marini, David Alan Grier, Denis Richards and Jackass star Steve-O, gymnast and Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson, football legend Lawrence Taylor, and entertainment reporter Nancy O' Dell. Renowned ballroom judge Len Goodman, and dance choreographers Bruno Tonioli and Carie Ann Inaba return as judges for this season.

Dancing with The Stars (DWTS) is based on the format of the top rated British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) show, Strictly Come Dancing in which celebrities are partnered with professional dancers in various dance routines that are judged by an expert panel and by public votes. Season 1 of DWTS premiered in the USA in 2005 and was an instant hit there. Unlike SCD where only standard ballroom and Latin American dances are performed, other dance styles like American Swing, Smooth, and Rhythm are also showcased in DWTS. The dancing greats who have taken part in DWTS include Karina Smirnoff, Corky Ballas and his son Mark Ballas.

The past winners of DWTS were:

Season 1 - Kelly Monaco & Alec Mazo

Season 2 - Drew Lachey & Cheryl Burke

Season 3 - Emmit Smith & Cheryl Burke

Season 4 - Apolo Anton Ohno & Julianne Hough

Season 5 - Helio Castroneves & Julianne Hough

Season 6 - Kristi Yamaguchi & Mark Ballas

Season 7 - Brooke Burke & Derek Dough


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Brooke Burke Wins "Dancing With the Stars" Trophy

Brooke Burke, television host and model waltzed away with the mirror ball trophy in the Dancing With the Stars (DWTS) Season 7 finale on November 25. Dancing a Viennese Waltz with her partner Derek Hough to the song Daughters by Joe Mayers, she impressed the judges and television viewers, and scored 88 out of a maximum 90 points. Coming in second was former National Football League player Warren Sapp who did the Hustle with Kim Johnston to the catchy tune of Funky Town. At third place was former 'N Sync singer, Lance Bass swinging the Jitterbug with Lacey Schwimmer to the song Jim Dandy.

Dancing With The Stars is based on the format of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) hit television show Strictly Come Dancing in which celebrities are partnered with professional dancers in various ballroom and Latin American dance routines that are judged by an expert panel and by public votes. Season 7 of Dancing With The Stars premiered on ABC TV on September 22 2008 and was one of the most popular television shows in the United States. During season 7, Salsa, West Coast Swing, Jitterbug and Hustle were included for the first time in the show.

The 13 celebrities who took part in Season 7 included singer Toni Braxton, actress Cloris Leachman and Olympic sprinter Maurice Greene. Among the professional dancers were world renowned Latin American dancer Karina Smirnoff (the former partner of Slavik Kryklyvvy), Corky Ballas, the US Profession Latin Champion 1984-1991 & World Professional Latin Champion 1995-1996, and his 22 year old son, Mark Ballas. Mark who danced and grew up in England became the British Junior Ballroom and Latin American dance champion at the age of 10.

The day after being crowned Dancing With The Stars Champion, Brooke Burke's past as a Playboy model was a hot topic on the internet. Burke had been featured on the cover of Playboy twice, first on the May 2001 edition and most recently on the November 2004 issue. No sooner had the champagne bottles been popped that there is already buzz about the next season of the show. Season 8 of Dancing With The Stars is scheduled to premiere on Monday, March 9 2009 at 8.00 pm ET. The celebrities who will be taking part include gymnast and Olympic gold medallist Shawn Johnson, singers Jewel and Belinda Carlisle.

Warmest Regards,

Dance Aficionado
Dancesport Malaysia

Strictly Come Dancing China Season 1 Premiers On Astro

Strictly Come Dancing is a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) television show which was aired in the United Kingdom in 2004. The show features celebrities partnering professional dancers and competing in ballroom, Latin American and other styles of dancing. During each show the couples will perform a dance before a live audience. The contestants will be judged by a panel of judges as well as from the television audience through their telephone votes. At the end of each show the bottom 2 pairs will face each other in a "dance off" and one pair will be eliminated. Finally at the last show of the season the judges and the television audience would then choose the champions.

The show was a roaring success in the United Kingdom. The popularity of the show could be due to the fact that the audience got to see some really great professional dancers perform and also that a certain percentage of the charges received from the telephone votes were donated to charity. For the Season 4 show which ran from October 7 to December 23 2006, more than 12 million telephone votes were received, raising a total of 1.5 million pounds for Children In Need. The show attracted more than 13 million TV viewers and the competition was won by Mark Ramprakash and Karen Hardy. The dancing greats who have taken part in previous shows included Paul Killick, Matthew Cutler, Hazel Newberry and Hanna Karttunen.

The show Strictly Come Dancing has been syndicated to television stations in many countries around the world. In the USA, Dancing With The Stars which is based on the format of the BBC series is a top rated show. In 2007, China Hunan TV entered into a joint collaboration with Television Broadcast Ltd (TVB) of Hong Kong to produce Strictly Come Dancing. The show for the China edition first season was well received in China and Hong Kong and is now into its second season. One of the two comperes for the first season was well known Hong Kong actress Carol Cheng. The first season of Strictly Come Dancing China is showing on Malaysia Astro WaTV channel 315 every Saturday at 9.00 pm.

Ten popular celebrities each from China and Hong Kong took part in the first season of the show.The celebrities from Hong Kong were Joe Ma, Carlo Ng, Stephen Huynh, Michael Tse, Benjamin Yuen, Sonija Kwok, Sharon Chan, Mandy Cho, Shirley Yeung and Janet Chow. In the first show which was aired over Astro on October 11, the 10 guys from China and Hong Kong got to perform with their dance instructors. Amongst the dances performed were the samba, rumba, paso doble, hip hop and Argentine tango. Their performances were insipid and most of them were unable to portray the character of the dance in their routines. Let us hope the ladies can rise to the ocassion and do better.

Best Wishes As Usual,

Dance Aficionado

Dancesport Malaysia