Dancing with the Stars Season 7

[EricMontreal22]

I love Susan, I voted for her, but man she needs to just RELAX. Everyone seemed to think she did this weke but I didn't--sorry. Yeah she did a cat claw thing at the end of her dance but she was just as hesitant, to me, for the rest of it, and she WAS completely off time as Bruno said. The hip hop routine was beyond awful for nearly all the non dancers, but Susan just didn't hold her own at all. She still is way way way too controlled--it's frustrating to watch as I honestly think she has it in her but we won't see it.

[Jonathan]

I agree with you. I think her problems stem from a number of factors:

1) Dancing is a sport and she's never done anything this physically and mentally challenging.

2) Time. Because she's keeping her work schedule on AMC she doesn't have the training time that the other dancers have. Sure, the others have outside responsibilities too but having to fly back and forth from the West to the East cuts down on her rehearsal time.

3) Because of the lack of training time, her focus is memorizing the steps rather than to feel out the music. If one is pressed for time, knowing the steps is of course going to be the first priority. As a result, she's coming across to the audience as too calculated in her moves rather than expressive.

4) The choreography is bland. I've said this before, but Tony Dovolani doesn't choreograph the most exciting routines. Even when he danced with Stacy Kiebler, I felt his choreography was boring. But of course, even with more exciting, difficult choreography, it would still be hard for La Lucci to execute because of....time. It's a vicious cycle.

I know that she has it in her to be as good as the rest of the cast. But unfortunately, these factors are holding her back. Plus, with the foot injury, she's going to perform even more cautiously. This next week is almost set up perfectly for La Lucci; she's dancing the viennese waltz and the paso doble. She'll do well in the waltz because she has natural carriage and flow and the paso doble has the same intensity as the tango. So if she nails it, I see her staying another week.

[EricMontreal22]

Agreed on all of that except...

"1) Dancing is a sport and she's never done anything this physically and mentally challenging."

Well she did do a run on Broadway in Annie Get Your Gun--for a few weeks anyway when Bernadette Peters was out, right? A Broadway show is pretty demanding--of course it's demanding much more in the ways she's used to from doign a daily soap opera but he did do some choreography, and was apparantly really good--I assumed it woulda helped a lot

[Jonathan]

Yeah, but that was a few years back and she had a lot of time to rehearse. Plus, IIRC, she performed during the time AMC was shutdown during the winter, so she wasn't having to juggle Broadway and her regular day job. With DWTS, she's having to juggle her acting gig plus learn a new dance within the span of 3-4 days and make it look flawless.

[Jonathan]

So it looks like wikipedia was wrong. Susan is only dancing the paso doble and the team dance. No viennese waltz this week.

[Cheyenne]

Wow, I'm sooo glad CL is gone! It was about time!

I disagree with you Cheap21. She was kind of funny the first week. She doesn't know when to quit with her so called "jokes" and that's REALLY annoying. I didn't find her amusing at all. I wanted her to finish her routine and just zip it.

I hope they won't focus on her too much when she's sitting in the audience the upcoming weeks.

Ohh btw. I was so glad somebody said something. Carrie Ann was right on the spot! I didn't think anyone had the guts to say it, but I guess we can always count on Carrie Ann. lol

I believe Susan is going home next week. It would be unfair to the others if she didn't.

About this season being boring. It's boring in the sense that CL has been on for so long. But otherwise not so much. I love to watch both Cody and Brooke dance. I think last season was beyond boring. Besides everyone knew Kristi Yamaguchi was gonna win anyway. Season 3, 4 and 5 are my favorite seasons so far.

[Jonathan]

I have tickets to next week's results show (which incidentally is on Wed instead of Tues because of the election)! I don't want to be there in person if she's going to get kicked off! I want her to stay past next week!

[Cheyenne]

Since this is a dancing competition I want the best dancers to be there, and she's not even close to being a better dancer then the other celebs. imo

[Jonathan]

I really loved Susan and Tony's paso doble. Definitely her best dance and had they danced later in the competition I think we would've seen some 9's.

I didn't think that the team dance was as bad as Carrie Ann made it out to be.

[Faulkner]

I felt really bad and embarrassed for La Lucci tonight. Especially because Carrie Ann set her up to look like a fool with that "I'm doing good!" nonsense.

I'm thinking that DWTS hasn't quite been the platform she would have liked to showcase her talents and personality. She looks frightened and lacking in confidence. And her offscreen personality isn't irreverent enough to make up for it; she's very "pageant queen" in interviews.

[Jonathan]

Look for me in the audience tonight! I'll be there rooting for La Lucci! (I'll be the one in tears if she gets the boot!)

[EricaKane70]

Susan's hip hop dance really gave me nightmares so I haven't watched the show since. An I love her too much to watch again. I have to say that I'm relieved that she is gone, I don't like people talkin about la lucci in a negative way.

[Jonathan]

I just got back from the show. It was great to see live. I'm sad that La Lucci was eliminated but she gave it her all and she had some really great things to say at the end of the show. He's so gracious and classy. I'm proud to be a Susan Lucci fan.

[Darcy]

Jonathan, I"m curious to know if anything on the "live" show is pre-taped. Obviously the filmed segments are (does the audience see them - did you see Dance Center last night?) and are any of the dance performances / singing performances pre-taped. I know sometimes they are but was wondering about last night. Any other behind the scenes tidbits? Thanks!

[Jonathan]

Dance Center is not live, it's pre-taped. But we didn't see the taping of that so that was definitely taped at least a few days ago and just played back as if it was live.

The Macy's dance segment was pretaped because of the strobing lights and CO2 that was used for the fog effect, too much technical set up involved to actually do it live. We got to see that being taped before the show.

Lionel Richie was live. I was surprised by this because I know that a lot of the musical guests will pretape their segment early in the day and they usually just play it back like it's live. But he was live and NOT lip synching.

The dance with Cheryl/Maks and Tony/Kym was also live. They just changed out of their outfits really fast during commercial.

The contestants seem to genuinely enjoy each other and like each other. They congratulated one another after their names were called safe. You could also definitely tell that Susan was close to Warren Sapp despite their banter throughout the season, lots of congratulatory/good luck wishes between the two of them. Same with Cody and Susan.

Susan, as you saw on TV, was gracious in defeat. The entire studio audience gave her a standing ovation. I think people forgot how old she was until they mentioned it last night.

Cheryl is NOT fat. She's tiny.

Oh, and I got to sit in the VIP section! Marlee Matlin was there and her translator.