There was a US version of Skating with the Stars a year or more ago. I think DWTS has done great things for ballroom, people actually know the different dances. And I give the show credit for bringing people into the studio to, at least, give it a try (although not many go beyond level 1). It has also raised the awareness of ballroom with young people. The average age of the new students goes down every session with almost half the class now being young people in their teens and twenties.

CliveHarrison and Ladydance. Hmm…Shows how much I've kept up. Do these skating shows have the same format as DWTS? It seems to me that at least in skating, choreography plays a bigger part. One of my (and others', I gather) problems with DWTS is the distortion it creates of the partnership aspect of ballroom dancing.

Our Dancing with the Stars has been very good entertainment. Nobody is going to have perfect poise and polish in a few weeks without years of training. With us who understand what the correct techneque is will look at it differently to people who have never danced a step in their life. The program in which millions of people watch and vote, it is their program not ours. Out of all the people viewing we are minimal. Percentage wise how many zeros behind a decimal point would there be .ooooooo1% or more..When complaining let us first apply a bit of common sense.

OK. Common sense tells me that if a show purports to be about ballroom dancing then dancing should comprise more than 10% of its content.

I don't dispute that DWTS is popular. What I don't understand is why it would be well liked by people who fill threads on this board with discussions of the fine points of heel leads and waltz timing.

jj

jofjonesboro. They should keep their traps shut. This is a show for the TV. The TV audience is hugh. A Soccer match held in Moscow Between Manchester United and Chelsea a while ago finished after 1 am this morning Moscow time. The late time was to suit live audiences around the world..

Popularity does not put a show - or anything for that matter - above criticism.

I cannot imagine that you believe that DWTS owes its fame to the quality of the dancing. Take away the attractive, scantily clad young bodies and see how much of the audience stays around to admire some has-been entertainer's telemarks.

jj

what it on the web and you can fast forward past the filler. You're right it makes about a 20 min show.

I mean watch

if you want to see a popularity contest talk to the women who watch the show it was not kristi yamaguchi that won it was mark ballas' chest. once tony was gone and his chest was not longer bare it was the natural choice why else have men one for the past five seasons it is not so much a popularity contest as it is a chippendale show at least this season someone with a mininium of technique won even if the vote where placed more for his chest than for her dancing.

Where on earth did you get the idea that women are voting for a "bare chest"? Give us some credit. I and all of my friends, male and female, watched the dancing. Having good looking men and women dancing was icing on the cake. Kristi had more than "a minimum of technique" IMO.