Why America Should Not Vote - in Celebrity Dance Contests

OK, so I was going to post on the magic of the Red Sox victory and parade, but there's (shockingly) more important news - Sabrina Bryan and Mark Ballas just got voted off of Dancing with the Stars!!

Alright, so in the scale of world affairs, this is not that big a deal - but I'm really unhappy! Sabrina was doing very well; she did have some things she needed to address as far as softening her moves, but her technical skill was unparalleled on the show, and she should have obviously been in the final competition. This is totally ridiculous, and I'm rather inclined to stop watching because I just don't know how to get into the rest of this competition when one of my favorite pairs is gone. This is so much worse than when Laila Ali didn't make the top two - and I stopped right in the middle of watching last year's final when that happened. (Though I saved it on my DVR for months, I could never bring myself to finish the show.)

It's clear that while DWTS's popularity contest tendencies are somewhat balanced out by the fact that there are professionals judges (so that it doesn't become American Idol), the fan base is clearly what determines winners, more than the dancing quality. I have nothing against Marie Osmond, and I really like Jane Seymour; but they are running on their non-dance related popularity and not the level of dance skill. Both have done fairly well this season, no doubt; but they are not keeping up technically with many of the top contenders. It may or may not be age-related; I don't necessarily think so, because professional dancers can go well into their senior years. But while Jane is beautiful and graceful and Marie is cute and sweet, neither of them is top ballroom material.

But the real reason that America shouldn't vote is probably the ABC.com message boards ... wow. I know I should be used to this by now - but every so often I go on to internet message boards hoping to have a fun, reasoned conversation, and get bitterly disappointed. The vitriol, the insults and attacks, the grammar and spelling! That might be the real outrage of the night, despite how sad I am about Sabrina. Interestingly, it does seem she had a whole anti-fan base; but there's also a lot of pro-Sabrina protest, including the petitions for a) a dance-off between her and some of the other contenders; b) for Jane and Marie to give up their slots; and c) for ABC to immediately revise their voting system, and reject the results of these votes.

Sidenote: Oh, she's on Jimmy Kimmel now, and she's so cute! Also, I think she and Mark Ballas totally were about to kiss on the floor at the end of the show, and I predicted they date soon (if they're not already). I wish Mark had come on the show with her. Also, she's a lovely lady, and I appreciate a woman with some curves! She gets added to my Womanly Women Heroines list, along with Queen Latifah. (Hey - I want to hang out with Sabrina and Mel B! I'm very jealous.)

Which reminds me, one of my chief ambitions in life is to get to be on this show, because I love competitive ballroom dancing. Mind you, this week's voting debacle makes me think again ... but I am constantly trying to figure out how to become famous enough to get ABC to call me.

However, I might be overqualified; one of the apparent big debates about Sabrina among fans of the show is that she is a professional/dancer choreographer, and shouldn't have been on the show in the first place. I think she probably does have more dance experience than some (like Helio), but she's certainly not the only one (classically-trained Jane Seymour is an excellent example, along with Spice Girls singer Mel B). Her experience is not in ballroom, which is different from hip-hop, and skill with one doesn't necessarily transfer to the other (although the increased comfort with moving your body does help). I do think she had to learn ballroom like everyone else, but that she is also a natural dancer who picks up dance easily (besides being a dancer trained in another genre). Anyway, all this is to say that, with a background in both ballet and actual ballroom for a little while, I probably might get rejected for too much experience. But does it still count if my experience is more than a decade old?