Tag Archive for 'dancing with the stars'

I have been watching the ‘Dancing with the Stars‘ show for a while now and I have grown accustomed to watching great ballroom dances and good non-Latin Latin dance routines. I praise the celebrity dancers for their hard work and determination in learning something completely new to them. This is nothing against them because I truly admire their progress. However, I always have an issue when the professional dancers on the show are required to dance a specific genre of dance, such as salsa, and we come to find out that they don’t know what is real salsa dancing. Now, I do understand that there are different styles of salsa dancing around the world. My judgment takes this into account. However, when you slap on stereotypical non-salsa dance steps with house music and state that you are salsa dancing – that is a whole different story. The video below is what gives salsa dancing an improper typecast compared to what you and I know and love.

My biggest gripe with the whole thing is the judges. While Carrie Ann Inaba is measuring entertainment value and Bruno Tonioli is measuring timing (you can see him hit the table when couples dance), Len Goodman is supposed to be judge who prefers traditional steps and music. Len usually criticizes couples when they don’t follow proper dance structure in terms of proper steps for the assigned dance, but last night was a different story. I have finally come to accept no judge or professional dancer in the show knows what is real salsa dancing.

See for yourself at the judges reaction and let me know what you think!