Is Allison Holker good enough to be a pro on Dancing with the Stars?

I love ballroom ballroom dancing and I like Dancing with the Stars.

How did everyone feel about Allison Holker being a pro on the past two seasons on Dancing with the Stars?

While I love her as a contemporary dancer and I think she's great at that, I think her ballroom dancing just isn't that great!

Understandably, ABC hired her to be on the show because of her huge fan base from So you think you can dance, but I am a huge proponent of having actual REAL ballroom dancing on TV.

Her technique just isn't anywhere near the rest of the pros on the show and I find it a bit dissapointing to have her on there.

While my sentiments may be unpopular, it's just a shame they fired actually good dancers such as Chelsea Hightower or Lacey Schwimmer! Her dancing is also such a contrast from a world class dancer, such as Valentin Chmerkovskiy or Karina Smirnoff, who both have amazing technique!

The deficiencies in her technique are the most apparent in the pure Latin ballroom dances, such as the cha cha, rumba and samba. DWTS kind of doesn't do a good job with showing International style ballroom anyway because they mostly hire Latin dancers, so that doesn't matter as much. Also a dance like salsa, technique isn't as important.

I don't know if viewers can tell, but there were a few blog posts and message boards with the same sentiments and I am just not sure someone who is a very amateur ballroom dancer can do a good job at teaching on the show. Her dancing is "good enough" for the showcases on the show, but I think to be a good teacher you should have a certain level of mastery of the dancing! I also feel like if there's one show that shows what ballroom dancing is to a mainstream audience, it should be showing off "real ballroom dancing".

Here are some videos that prove my point:

A very trick heavy cha cha routine. The judges ripped her on this afterwards for the lack of "cha cha" content. I must agree with their sentiments.



A very amateur looking samba.



A trick-heavy rumba with very little basic.



However, she's certainly improved from when she was on SYTYCD

WSDF lifts sanctions for participating in "Non-WDSF Events"

Very exciting news! Maybe dancers will finally get the freedom to dance.

WDSF announced yesterday that it would be allow dancers to participate in non-WDSF competitions. They had a General Meeting to resolve this issue. For the past few months, WDSF also allowed Facebook users to discuss this issue.

In the past, dancers such as Stefano di Fillipo and Valentin Chmerkovskiy have spoken out against these restrictions.

So perhaps the Amateur and Professional dance field will be more exciting?

I hope to see all dancers do Blackpool and World Championships next year. That would be definitely make things more interesting for me....

Let me know your thoughts!

Stefano Di Filippo is a time-management genius!

Okay for most professional dancers, a stint on Dancing with the Stars means career-suicide.
But for Stefano Di Filippo, currently ranked sixth in the world (with his partner Olga Urumova), he can train for dance competitions AND do the Italian version of DWTS, Ballando con le Stelle.  

Here is the clip from the show with Stefano di Filippo:



I love Stefano even more for remaining in competition even while doing the show! I wish other dancers like Karina Smirnoff could do the same!

Valentin Chmerkovskiy is also a rap artist

Maybe I have been living under a rock, but I had no idea that Valentin Chmerkovskiy AKA ValC was a rap artist.

I think him being on DWTS will definitely help him break into the music scene.

Here is his latest music video. What do you think of this song?

Valentin Chmerkovskiy retires, joins Dancing with the Stars

Photo credit: Thomas Morton

The recent news that high level dancer, Valentin Chmerkovskiy at 25 has prematurely ended his competitive career has sent shockwaves throughout the ballroom dance community.

Like when Stefano Di Fillippo decided to switch from IDSF to WDC, Valentin issued a letter that explainned his reasons, which were primarily due to the politics in dancesport competitions today.

Valentin was dancing with Daria Chesnokova (girlfriend of Slavik Kryklyvyy) and at Blackpool 2011 he placed third. He was first the US and 9th in the world in the Amateur division.

He will be joining his brother Maksim Chmerkovskiy and be a pro on the 13 season of Dancing with the Stars. I think of all the male pros, he is probably the most talented.

He joins other high-level dancers such as Alexei Silde and Anna Firstova (who really did not get to reach their potential as professionals) in retirement. He was a truly great dancer who could have made the finals as a professional. Maybe he will one day decide to compete again (like Maxim Kozhevnikov), but that is rarely the case when a dancer joins DWTS.

To speculate, I think that Slavik might take Daria has his next partner. She is a very elegant dancer and high level who I think could hold her own against Slavik. If he does, let's hope that it lasts longer than his last partnership with Anna Melnikova.

UPDATE: I think Slavik isn't going to return to competition. Daria is on Dancing with the Stars with Val, so a partnership between them would be unlikely. In the upcoming documentary, I hear he has severe hip pain. Sad!

Here is a piece of Valentin and Daria's beautiful rumba