There is no getting around the subject of Hope Solo's song choice. This week the contestants were supposed to dance to a song that meant something to them personally. She chose Enrique Iglesias's "Tonight," which she described the "team's song."
Really? Because, if true, that is AWESOME.
No wonder she made a (wonderfully) dorky 'sexy-face' through practically the whole number. It's the kind of face that any of us might pull under a disco ball, after a couple of shots of tequila and especially if the Ludacris version of that Enrique Iglesias tune was on deck.
Anyway, Solo looked fantastic. But the competition is really tough.
My fellow critics of the sexist industrial complex will unite in making their pleas to the judges: "Can you just stop telling her she isn't feminine enough, that she's too strong yadda yadda?"
Good luck with that. Dancing with the Stars is all about routine, routine. So I don't expect to see them depart from the script unless Solo wins the whole thing - in which case her victory will be all about her triumph over her own strength.
As my last post indicated, I'm less circumspect about the gender politics of Dancing With the Stars than I am about the gender politics of, well, just about everything else. DWTS is, to repeat myself, a drag show. So, I get interested in the technical information the judges share with us regarding what it takes to walk like a girl. Because shy of Ru Paul, the information the judges offer on this point is as good as you'll get.
Bruno Tonioli, for example, usefully observed that Solo needs to walk much more on the balls of her feet. As anyone who has really worn high heels knows, the heel itself doesn't carry you in a proper "walk." That's why your grandmother, who was probably forced to wear them to work, has crazy bunions - that joint was flexed, and her weight was shoved right into the heart of it. Anyway, landing on the balls of your feet rather than your heels is a tip right out of runway walking 101.
Regarding Solo's performance: Solo doesn't lift from her center - the judges are right to observe that her walk is kindof heavy - there really is a big difference between how she moves and how the other women move.
Also - I noticed that the more successful women dancers do a lot of posing.
 | |
| Chynna makes pretty lines out of herself. At the moment when she switches from moving away from her partner, to moving toward him, she strikes a pose, asserting "Look at me! I'm pretty!" |
 |
| Hope Solo, at more more less the same point. Rather than strike a pose, she dives into the next move, thinking, no doubt, "I am SO going to nail this." |
 |
| Chynna looks like she has a string pulling her body up from the floor. Her weight is more or less just on that right foot, but you can hardly tell. |
 |
| Solo is doing a different dance, of course, one with a more carnal vibe. But her back is hunched, and you can see her weight is resting in her hip. More barroom than ballroom. |
 |
| More ethereal posing from Chynna. |
One of these days I will get back to soccer. I promise.
Blogger lost my last attempt, but I'll try again:
ReplyDelete"My fellow critics of the sexist industrial complex will unite in making their pleas to the judges: "Can you just stop telling her she isn't feminine enough, that she's too strong yadda yadda?""
Is it sexism though, or is it a lack of knowledge of football? In the UK, the show is called Strictly Come Dancing, but most of the rest of the show is the same (Len and Bruno are judges here too). In our current season, we have former Premier League midfielder Robbie Savage on the show, and suring his career he was regularly booked (in the 19 year history of the Premier League he was booked 89 times, only two players have been booked more), and picked up a bad boy reputation. However, he wasn't the sort of player who would make a two-footed challenge with his studs up (Savage is a very ironic name in that respect), he was more into gamesmanship - using histrionics such as diving, winding players up verbally, and doing all he could to put his opponents off their game (while at the same time putting himself off too). However, because of the number of cards he picked up, the Strictly team speak of him as though he's going to brutalize them, when it would have been more appropriate of them to make the comment that the last time they saw someone get as close to him as dance partner Ola Jordan did, he dived to the floor (an observation they could have made of the celebrity that followed him - former heavyweight boxer Audley Harrison - but I digress). This is despite judge Len Goodman claiming to be a huge fan of West Ham United. Odd.
On the flip side, the Strictly team often talk about the Robbie/Ola pairing in terms of vanity, how much time they take doing their hair, and getting ready in general, in such an ambiguous way so that you don't know if they are talking about Robbie or Ola: http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2011/09/27/article-1317151469785-0E13F66100000578-97244_636x300.jpg
"As my last post indicated, I'm less circumspect about the gender politics of Dancing With the Stars than I am about the gender politics of, well, just about everything else. DWTS is, to repeat myself, a drag show."
Ballroom and latin dancing is a gender politics minefield in itself, I would have thought.
In Ballroom dancing, the man *always* leads.
In latin dancing, the men can lift the women (to show their strength), and the women have to trust the men with their bodies, in a way that the men never have to trust the women. And then when you consider the Paso Doble, the man is the all conquering matador, while the woman is either the bull he is about to defeat, or even just the matador's cape.
Abby looks cool.
ReplyDeleteI'm not watching the show but am interested in how it all works out. If you get back to soccer, fine, but in the interim, I could do for more of this ...
Provided Hope's around much longer ...
Which I'm having trouble caring about.
Oh! Double ellipses!