"Dancing" with the ... Stars

Sharna Burgess, Charlie White, Meryl Davis, Maksim Chmerkovsky

I used to be an avid viewer of Dancing with the Stars, although in recent seasons, not so much. I don't think I've ever seen Sharna Burgess in action.

I've certainly seen Maksim Chmerkovskiy before, and no doubt he thinks he has a ringer.

Normally I'd say, boy is he in for a surprise, but the tricks available to Davis White that helped them pull off the gold medal heist at Sochi are available a hundred fold to Maksim C. Meryl has stamina, she's more than accustomed to performing under pressure live, and she's used to fake dancing, which is something they do a great deal on DWTs. I'm thinking Maksim C might be surprised at just how much faking will be required to pull this off. He doesn't really have a dancer here. He's also kind of bad at what he does. His taste in costumes and make-up for his partner trends toward the drag queen and his choreography can lean to the literal and labored. He's not often been successful in drilling rhythm and musicality into his partner. He's best with partners who have natural rhythm. But this is DWTS; if the pros have a partner who know how to train and perform by rote, that's can be as good as doing it, and Meryl Davies certainly has experience there.

For Charlie, clearly some of this is right up his alley - he can skip all over the stage in quickstep with his hair and tails flying. I'm interested in is the rumba and other romantic dances, to see if the problem in the past was Charlie couldn't relate, while moving, to Meryl - or couldn't relate, period.

I'm kind of surprised at the repeat of the "direct from the rink to DWTS" move here, as it didn't seem to work especially well boosting Evan Lysacek's celebrity profile even though he did well.

Over on another message board somebody objected to the idea that Charlie and Tanith hid or downplayed their relationship during the past season, seeing as how Tanith was right there in the stands talking to Charlie's folks. Yes, because being in the stands at the arena so fans can see you is the exact same thing as being on twitter or talking it up in your nationally syndicated interviews. Charlie and Tanith weren't hiding. They were keeping it out of the spotlight while amping up the spotlight on Davis White.

P.S. - I want to add this about Dancing with the Stars.  DW spent almost two years spinning a new narrative that they shared chemistry "you could cut with a knife". Charlie's own girlfriend hyped up their "soul-to-soul" connection. What that shit had to do with ice dance nobody said, but they wanted to cover every base.

My speculation is that Meryl and Charlie fans are fans of the duo, and what they see as the dynamic between the duo.  But after all this bullshit the past two years, Meryl and Charlie exit Sochi and immediately sign up with DWTs where they're each paired with sexy, glamorous other partners and are going to compete against each other instead of dancing with each other.

I love Virtue and Moir. They actually dance. Because of that, I confess I might be curious to see how Tessa danced with a DWTs pro, because she's exactly on their level, she's as much a professional dancer as they are - she really is. I'd kind of like to see Maks try to teach her and learn she's better at everything than he is, including choreography.

And I'd be interested to see if Scott were able to adapt to a partner who wasn't Tessa - looking into their eyes, for example, seems as if it would be a challenge. Also, Tessa is the one who disciplines his frame, at least in pattern dances.

So I'd be curious, but maybe not eight weeks worth of curious. Maybe one dance worth of curious. I want to see them dance together, not dance with other people. I'm a fan of the team.

I wonder how excited DW fans actually are that their first project subverts the entire narrative of the Olympics and hooks them up with other people, pitting them against each other. We're talking contemporary dance with other people (which is lyrical, romantic, emotive, story driven - Charlie drew the DW assignment), the rumba (which ain't the ice dance rumba pattern but a slowed down cha cha rhythm that's colloquially considered the bedroom dance) and all kinds of romantic stuff done vis a vis someone besides each other. How much does this venture really thrill their fans?

If DWTs plays to form, Meryl and Charlie will finish the premiere with identical scores.