DWTS: The Next Pro Week 1 Recap
Initial Thoughts
My first reaction to hearing about this new show was of course, excitement. I am very happy to see that last year’s season of DWTS was so successful that it warranted a spinoff show this summer before the main show in the fall. The premise is pretty interesting. Only six men and six women dancers will compete each week until one is chosen to be an official member of the DWTS pro cast this season. Those are some pretty high stakes as we are already starting off with slim numbers. Even to get to the first week of this show mean that they must believe that each contestant truly has a shot.
Before, I believe the audition process was tighter and more closed off. It would help to have connections or if you were already part of the DWTS dance troupe and they thought you had enough talent to be part of the big show. There is another difference, in that DWTS decides its winner based off of viewer votes, and the guest judges don’t hold ultimate power on who advances or who goes home. From what I understand the entirety of DWTS: The Next Pro was already filmed. They have already decided who will be the next pro to join this year’s season. Whoever advanced to the finals and won was completely up to the judges of the show.
That brings me to my next point: the judges. It looks like the two recurring judges each week will be Mark Ballas and his highly regarded mother Shirley Ballas. The first week featured Derek Hough as a judge but from the sneak peek of next week’s episode, it looks like Brandon Armstrong (a current pro from DWTS) will be taking Derek’s spot. My guess is that each week will feature a new current or past pro from DWTS to judge along Mark and his mother. My only concern is that Mark and Shirley are son and mother. They already played into the idea that Shirley is the big boss and that her opinion more or less overvalues those of the other judges because of her experience and status. This could only be reinforced by the idea that Shirley is Mark’s mother and he might be willing to agree with her more than another judge would.
I hope that this is just me overthinking and that it won’t affect the judging of this show, although I feel like it would be better to have a judging panel as diverse as possible for complete fairness.
The host is Robert Irwin which just chuckles me. Who doesn’t love Robert? It’s cool to see that he is officially apart of the DWTS ecosystem after his win last season. It might also be because the show was filmed in Australia, who knows. Maybe they chose to film it there just so he could host!
The last thing that I want to talk about is the style of the show. Within ten minutes I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had seen this before and then it hit me: this is literally Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE.
If you don’t know what that is, KATSEYE is a recently emerged girl group that was manufactured using practices from K-POP record label heads. I didn’t finish that show but they basically got a lot of girls from around the world who auditioned and let them live in a big house together while they practiced dancing, singing, and performing every day from professionals in order to compete to be in the next big girl group.
Now in DWTS: The Next Pro, they got several talented dancers from around the world and put them in a big house together and have them train under professionals to compete to get a spot on the big show. I’m not sure if they will lean into what goes on at the house outside of the dance studio or if that will lean too much into reality TV and not the strict competition show that DWTS is.
Pretty similar formula.
Now, this show is of course a lot less stress-inducing and seems more ethical than that of Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE but it is still something to note.
The Dancers and the Dances
Erik Linder and Tristen Christopher’s Jive - to be honest after the first episode I know really nothing about Erik. His form seems to be fairly clean and polished. I’m not sure why he wants to win. Tristen is honestly the one that I am rooting for. I love and underdog story and the fact that his background is mainly in street dancing and dance battles is so fresh and intriguing to me. A start contrast to the dozens on these shows who were trained classically from a young age. His part of the jive was great and I love how he involved flairs of his hip-hop dancing into his solo, however this did not fare well with Shirley who wanted him to add more strict jive moves to his routine. Unfortunately because of that he was up for elimination among the men but was spared for another week. I was worried about him because the footage they showed of Tristen’s rehearsing was abysmal. He blanked out and forget his choreo in front of Derek.
The dance was a good start but felt awkward and stiff at times - 6.5/10
Selena Hamilton and Natalie Jolley’s Samba - yikes. I mean the judges loves Selena and praised her “star-like quality”. She is a good dancer and was very loose and confident. She had a professional tinge to her but I just wasn’t wowed. I could definitely see her previous experience as an on stage background dancer shine through. I believe she recently danced for Doechii’s tour. Natalie was very stiff and looked uncomfortable. It would have made sense to me if she was sent home this week, respectfully. It looks like she would be great for very smooth and classical dances but struggles with the latin movements. As of now I could not see her on DWTS, however she could have just gotten unlucky this week as Samba is supposedly very hard for everyone. Throughout the other weeks when we see these “could-be-pros” dance through other genres we might see weaknesses appear in other places.
The matchup did not seem to help each other out as much as it magnified one’s weaknesses - 5/10
Jake Monreal and AJ Pritchard’s Jive - umm. I mean look Jake Monreal seems like a super nice guy and all but I was already unsure coming into this dance. The footage of his rehearsals showed that he wasn’t quite in “jive-shape” meaning he lacked the stamina necessary for such a demanding dance routine. AJ Pritchard was already a pro on the British version of DWTS: “Strictly Come Dancing” (terrible name, I know) and was on Britain’s Got Talent, so he is not as “green” as some of the other contestants. Because of this, however, I feel like he has entered with a sort of arrogance which so far does not seem justified. Again, this is the first week so I can’t judge a dancer’s complete capacity based off of one routine but this dance was just not it. I need to feel mesmerized when I see a pro dance. I need to forget that I am watching something rehearsed and scripted and get drawn into the story, the movements, the show of it all. This dance just looked like a performance, in a bad way. It looked like something two guys kind of practiced and just did. Jake was eliminated seemingly due to his lack of physical energy. He lacked the same sharpness or quickness that others had, which was crucial specifically in a jive.
nah - 3/10
Briar Nolet and Stephani Sosa’s Samba - this dance was honestly pretty okay. Of course, we have to talk about Briar’s fall at the beginning of her routine. I barely noticed it at first, thinking maybe they integrated it into the choreo somehow? Honestly I don’t have a trained eye to these sort of things and I mainly go off of what I notice and like. Anyways, the judges also noticed how her foot positioning was all off which was a big deal to Shirley who is like the “queen of technique”. It basically just showed her lack of technical prowess and ultimately got her sent home. This might not have been terrible since she did introduce herself partly by saying how many Instagram followers she had. That was honestly a red flag and made me wonder if she was there for the right reasons. Anyways, Stephani was incredible. She is the first dancer during this episode that I could totally see being a pro this year on DWTS. She is sharp, has body control, and has a little bit of that “it” factor. She is sister to Ezra Sosa who is a current pro on DWTS and I really believe this gives everyone a higher standard for her. She only got one compliment from the judges that we saw which was surprising to me, but again I think that they are trying to not show favor which I can understand. They said she was a little rough in transitions and a little wild at times but I don’t think it’s something that can’t be fixed!
Revealing and Important - 6/10 (if i was only judging Stephani the score would be higher)
Benjamin Castro and Allen Genkin’s Jive - what a banger! This dance was electrifying from start to finish. Both are polished dancers which very impressive move sets and finesse. You can tell that both dancers are confident in their abilities and are excited to put them to work. It was nice to finally see a duet of dancers who are competing to show their shine instead of one carrying the other. Allen is dancing for his late mother, which is incredibly powerful and you can see that emotion come through during the end of the number when he hits a little contemporary dance move along to the music. It was great and definitely set this dance far above the rest. I’m excited to see what both do next week.
Blinded by the lights - 9/10
Adele Zaikman and Nina Mayster’s Samba - goodness! Now this was by far the best dance among the females this week and my second favorite overall. Very polished and straightforward. It did enough for the first week and I gotta say that these two are a powerhouse combo. It was hinted that they had some issues in the past between the two and I love this dynamic for TV. Adele is confident and energetic while Nina is calculated and sharp. It is no wonder they were chosen to pair together, as Shirley herself said that they could each take a page from each other’s book. I hope that they continue to sharpen each other if they remain a duo or become friends.
Impressive start - 8/10
Disclaimer
I am no expert! I simply love watching this show and voicing my opinions and personal ratings, however these ratings are arbitrary and are not an official ruling! I wish the best for all contestants and do not mean anything against them personally. They all dance better than I ever could (especially considering that I know nothing about dance) and I am just grateful that we get to watch them each week!
