May 06 2008
Dancing With the Stars and the One-Armed Man
That boom us reality TV viewers had over the winter and early spring is finally coming to a close. With TV execs panicking in the midst of the writers’ strike, they turned to game shows and reality TV, aka non-scripted TV. Now it’s all ending within the same time frame, and Dancing With the Stars is down to its final five. What fans are talking about, though, isn’t the fantastic dancing we’re seeing at this point, but Christian de la Fuente’s decision to stay in the competition despite suffering an injury last week that needs surgery.
Hey, my reality TV is really important to me, and probably more more than it should be, but even I can’t see putting off needed surgery to win the disco ball trophy at the end, especially when he isn’t a frontrunner. Kristi Yamaguchi was given that title in the first week, or at least it seemed so. Okay, so a friend of mine is currently suffering from a case of Rock Star Shoulder after three straight hours playing the game, but she’s on the mend, and I like to think she’d get surgery if she needed it, instead of insisting on continuing to pursue her lofty goal as a rock star.
And while the judges were fawning all over Christian’s one-armed dancing last night and his professional partner Cheryl Burke,s choreography, audiences were only noticing how odd it looked to have him executing multiple spins with only one arm, while the other is dangling at his side. They scored a 29 for that dance, one point away from perfection. Granted, if anyone would be able to pull off a Latin dance with one arm, it would be this Chilean-born actor. Yet, it was odd.
Last season, we watched the judges fall all over Heather Mills as she danced on an artificial leg, and she did irritate the snot out of me, and this was before her big divorce settlement from Sir Paul, so maybe she was looking for some extra cash, just in case, but she was voted out by this point, as what she could do on one leg was good, but couldn’t compare to the others. This season, we watched Marlee Matlin dance amazingly well, despite being deaf. Interestingly enough, the judges weren’t fawning over her or her professional partner, Fabian Sanchez, for dancing without hearing or creating choreography to cover it.
I think Christian has amazing drive to stay in the contest and put this much effort into it, despite being in pain, but it would be a shame to see him stay and others leave. Marissa Jaret Winokur has had her struggles and was in the bottom two last week, so it would be understandable if she left, and maybe even Mario who the judges always find fault with, but certainly not Jason Taylor. As of now, he and Edyta Sliwinska deserve to be in the final two, right next to Kristi Yamaguchi and Mark Ballas.
Photos Courtesy of abc.com.
For more information on Dancing With the Stars, see SirLinksalot: Dancing With the Stars .
4 Responses to “Dancing With the Stars and the One-Armed Man”
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Sorry, you have no idea what you are taling about! You need to rewatch the show.
It’s a matter of opinion. Speaking with several other fans of the show, many agreed about Christian, and one felt he did well. Thanks for the comment!
We feel that cristian’s injury is a bogus. He lifted it up in the air a few times. a ruptured tendon is painful, Yet, he moved that arm. He had a sling that kept the arm bent, but now he has it straight-it’s odd like you say. We do agree the lift was good, but he’s part of an acrobatic team so it’s no big thing. We really didn’t like it that he went into 1st ahead of Kristi, but Kristi’s 2nd dance was not as good as the 1st. How can cristian’s scores be that high, is this sympathy from the judges? Len’s sarcastic remarks to Mario and Kristi were unapropriate…..