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Nov. 24, 2006 For those of you who watched this show and saw the finale last night I am going to give my opinion as to why Emmitt Smith and Cheryl Burke won over Mario Lopez and Karina Smirnoff. A long time ago, I taught Ball Room Dancing. I was never a champion or even a great dancer of the caliber of the professionals that we saw on the show, but I loved it and it was a lot of fun. Ballroom dancing is very intricate and difficult if done correctly and each and every dance has it's own steps and patterns that must be followed to do the dances correctly. You can be dramatic and you can be entertaining, but you MUST follow the correct steps in order to do the dances properly. I believe that on a reality television show where not only a panel of judges are involved with scoring, but that audience participation is required, the entertainment factor out-weighs the preciseness of the dance steps themselves. It's about improving, likeability and entertainment and all of those factor contributed to the final result. Jerry Springer lasted far longer than he ever would have in a strict contest where Ballroom dancing is judged. He probably wouldn't have even gotten past his first attempt. The reason why he lasted so long was two-fold...he was immensely entertaining and he brought a lot of heart to his attempts at dancing the difficult requirements set forth in Ballroom. He danced for his daughter and he clowned around when he knew that he couldn't possibly keep up with the other dancers. He NEVER pretended to be a dancer but the audience at home loved his personality, charm and sense of humor and pathos. The final two were Mario Lopez and his professional partner, Karina Smirnoff, (ranked number 2 in International Ballroom competitions) and Emmitt Smith and Cheryl Burke (last seasons winner with Drew Lachey). Emmitt started out as a burly, ex-football player with the absolute wrong body shape for Ballroom and no skills whatsoever. He improved week after week, smiled his way through each and every dance no matter how difficult and continually appeared to really enjoy himself. He was the heart of the contest. Mario had taken professional dance lessons when he was younger, is a professional actor and is very handsome with his huge dimples and terrific dancer's body. He was sure that he would win even though he broke the rules and often didn't do the correct steps and improvised many times throughout the show (from Michael Jackson-like crotch grabbing to leaps and splits that had nothing whatsoever to do with any of the dances he performed) Mario's partner, Karina was a fantastic dancer but a sore loser. When Emmitt and Cheryl won in the end neither she nor Mario congratulated them and Karina made the comment that Mario was the BEST. She also had a sour look on her face and her disappointment was evident. There were rumors that Karina and Mario had a little something going on during the show and after hours and I believe that this was encouraged to keep the heat going and the audience entertained. I think that it may have backfired because some of us know of Mario's 2 week marriage (he cheated) and his womanizing ways. It didn't endear him to many women in the audience despite his dimples and handsome face. He was cocky and arrogant and that does not appeal. Mario always appeared as if he were looking at an invisible mirror in front of him whenever he performed and he also appeared to be semi-professional, unlike Emmitt. He kept stating during televised rehearsals that he had to "act" the next day and I kept thinking that he was saying that so we would think that he was an important actor who works constantly. Frankly, since "Saved By The Bell (his big hit show), I have not even seen Mario doing anything of note until DWTS. Regardless, he reminded me of a self-promoter who used the show to showcase himself for future work. He probably succeeded because he did have a huge fan base by the time the show came to an end. The part that Mario didn't anticipate was that the audience (people like you and I), also look for heart and soul as well as skills when we vote for contestants on these reality shows. Yes, it IS a popularity contest and not always about the dancing skills that are necessary to perform competitive Ballroom dancing. That's probably true of many reality talent contests where we are asked to vote for our favorites. I voted for Taylor Hicks on the last American Idol because I genuinely liked him as well as respecting his talent. I voted for Emmitt Smith because I also genuinely liked him and felt that he had improved the most during the course of the show. I also felt that he was more humble and happy to be there and that he was not about to use the contest to further his dancing or show business career. He has no dancing or show business career and he did this as a challenge and because he is a team player and it showed. During the free-style final dance on the show prior to the finale, Mario almost danced alone. his partner was left to stand back and move around while he stepped out in front of her and did his funky thing. He was good...but he was a solo act. Emmitt and Cheryl were insync throughout that free-style just as they were for the entire run of the show. Once again, the differences were glaring. Mario was the better dancer and Emmitt was the nicer person. Because I love Ballroom dancing and I love the steps that go into each dance. I also love the feeling of entertaining and making an audience enjoy the performances. I believe that Emmitt Smith felt the same way even though I doubt that he ever believed that he would reach the finals. So, congratulations to the better man, the better performer and the most improved dancer on a show that is supposed to showcase non-dancers with professionals and see who improves the most. The winner was the perfect choice considering the above criteria and I couldn't have been happier with the end result. ------------ About the author: Meri has a Medical/Legal background and is a former forensic researcher specializing in psychological profiling. https://www2.xlibris.com/bookstore/bookdisplay.asp?bookid=27335 Email: writers2@cox.net Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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