By KATHLEEN COREY Special to the Palisadian-Post Steve Guttenberg, the former honorary mayor of Pacific Palisades, certainly represented his town well on the season premiere of ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars” Monday night. Who could have known? I had been concerned that he might talk too much, or spend too much time being funny; I was also quite aware that at 49, he was the second oldest of this season’s male competitors. Public opinion is that he is one of this town’s most beloved ‘mayors,’ and maybe now I know why. Steve Guttenberg played a perfect game, somehow avoiding all the pitfalls that have tripped up many a male contestant in the first five seasons of one of TV’s most popular ‘reality shows.’ First of all, he genuinely seemed glad to be on the show, fully knowing the ordeal that being a ‘star contestant’ involves: the extraordinary physical demands of rehearsing for several hours a day; the pressure of ‘live’ TV, where a glimmer of a bad attitude gets magnified many times over in front of 20-some million viewers; the potential personality conflicts that come with working under the close tutelage of a professional dancer whose job it is to try to whip their celebrity into a winner by ‘practice, practice and practice some more until you get it right.’ I think Steve established a whole new fan base for himself in the 90-minute premiere, bowling us over with the respect he showed the judges, his ease in the way he handled every facet of the live show, his relaxed charm, and his comfort with his physical self. The premiere of DWTS always introduces its new season of contestants one at a time, in a close-up shot as they descend a staircase down to the stage, side by side with their professional dance partner, to the pulsating rhythm of the show’s theme music. Not many contestants manage to safely maneuver the stairs in perfect synch with their partner, while looking straight into the camera and managing a warm and relaxed facial expression. Steve did. When all 12 contestants are done taking the stairs and being introduced to the audience, the group forms a sort of reception line, down which the camera slowly pans, giving the audience a second chance to look over the contestants, and the contestants a second opportunity to win over the viewers. A deadpan expression doesn’t cut it in this line-up, or a diva-like attitude. Steve? One could read his lips, saying to the camera, ‘Hi, Mom!’ He instantly started melting hearts, and came across fresh-faced and accessible. Then comes the succession of the professional dancer-celebrity pairings, doing what they’ve spent the last four weeks preparing, knowing there won’t be any re-shoots because this is LIVE–a performance of a uniquely choreographed dance routine in full costume, to their own choice of music. The dancing on the season premiere can sometimes be a bit painful to watch, where contestants are ‘showcased’ by their pro partner, who often resorts to dancing around their ‘star,’ seemingly using the celebrity more as a ‘prop’ than a dance partner. The most suspenseful moment on the show is immediately after each couple’s dance, when they get ‘critiqued’ by the three judges. This is no time to be sensitive about one’s dancing, or worse, by one’s height, weight, natural facial expressions or habits of movement. On Monday’s show, one contestant, who happens to be 6’6′ tall with a heavy build, was described as a ‘Shrek’-like character with “monstrous feet,” attempting to do the cha cha. Steve Guttenberg’s first go-around of dancing, the foxtrot, may not have earned a standing ovation, but there wasn’t much of a downside to the judges’ comments, either, just to work on his posture and arm positioning. The judges all agreed that Steve actually looked like he was enjoying himself, which indeed he was. My prediction is that Steve Guttenberg will be safe until at least the fourth week, with comedian Adam Carolla and magician Penn Jillette facing early elimination. I believe the men to beat are Jason Taylor, a defensive end for the Miami Dolphins, and “Mario,” the 21-year-old R&B/Pop singer. On Monday, March 24, all 12 celebrity competitors (the six women competed Tuesday night) will perform another dance in a different style, and then on Tuesday, one male and one female star will be eliminated from further competition. (Kathleen Corey is a native Palisadian who, under the business name Palisades Dance Connection, teaches those from seven through to their active senior adult years to become adept at everything from social dancing to competitive championship ballroom dancing. Contacts: (310) 729-4160 and www.PaliDance.com.) SAVE SAVE SAVE Tuesday night’s show featured the female celebrities. The no-surprise favorite was Kristi Yamaguchi, the Olympic champion figure skater, while Priscilla Presley, actress and former wife of Elvis, gave an unexpectedly breathtaking performance. The first female celebrities to be voted off may very well turn out to be former tennis champion Monica Seles and actress Shannon Elizabeth. For any DWTS fans and viewers who think they have this season’s outcome already pegged, there may be some surprises in store. It is extremely common for dancers-in-training to be very uneven in the division of their talent between the ballroom (foxtrot, waltz, quickstep and tango) and the Latin (rumba, cha cha, samba, jive, and paso doble) dances. I think the exception may be Kristi Yamaguchi, who trained in both styles as a figure skater. One thing that all the stars agree on is that ballroom dancing is much more difficult than they ever expected it would be. A fitting consensus, given that under the new name, “DanceSport,” ballroom dancing has already been certified as an official Olympic sport, and will probably make its debut as such in the 2016 Summer games. This is why huge numbers of Olympic hopefuls aged five through their teens are already seriously training. Even on college campuses and universities across the U.S., one of the favorite activities is competitive ballroom dancing, with the schools competing against each other to produce the top-winning team.
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