#alan bersten

[mellxncollie]

Ilona Maher and Alan Bersten Dancing With The Stars Season 33 Episode 7

[readmyhockeymind]

Please watch DWTS

[beguilingcorpse]

I THINK I HAUVE COVID

[rvllybllply2014]

Hi yes I volunteer to be squished between them

[krystinaarielle]

Had the best time last night at Dancing With The Stars! There's an absolutely incredible cast this season. Thanks for taking me back to the ballroom Ariana💞

[bestofme1996]

IF ILONA GOES HOME I WILL RIOT

[bbypsyduck]

IM SOBBING ILONA HOLY FUCK THAT FREESTYLE

[shujubeelamoglia]

Alan Bersten

[always-rolling-my-eyes]

Ilona was SO MUCH BETTER this week

Technically, still some issues, but her nerves subsided and her performance was 10x better and that made all the difference

Good job, Alan!

[5sosnobody1420]

Am I the only one that would totally watch a season of dancing without the stars?? Like… i understand the premise of dancing with the stars is for celebrities to try dancing. But am I the only one that would love an all pro season. (Even if it was a mini off season thing)

Like not all of us can afford the tour, and traditional ballroom competitions aren’t the same. But I’d love to see these pros just dance. (This was inspired watching pasha and Sasha’s recent tik tok) like and pro/pro couples like Val and Jenna and Pasha and Dani could be paired together. And friends like Rylee and Ezra. Again, I know it defeats the whole purpose of this show, but we’ve gotten to know these current pros so we’ll because of social media and I would totally enjoy watching them compete against each other just for fun.

(They’d need better judges probably, and different scoring rules but this would be so fun even as like a mini series during the off season)

[chmerkovskiyvalentin]

Perfect Score + Skybox Cuteness

[space---girl]

I don't care, if Carrie Ann is giving 10s out like this Ilona deserved atleast a 9!!

[rvllybllply2014]

I love their friendship so much

[dwtsfun]

Dancing with the Stars Season 33 Week 10: The Finale

Hey everyone. Hope you're having a great week. If you celebrate Thanksgiving, hope you all had a great time. If you don't, hope you had a fantastic Thursday.

I wanna say that I really enjoyed this season. Since the Athlete Season, I think this season has been my favorite. It wasn't perfect and there were a lot of problems. But I think this is the most back to basics the show has been in YEARS. And I personally love that.

Before I get into the couples, I wanna address a few things. The first thing is that CAI showed us exactly why she's the most necessary judge on that panel right now. After Halloween night, she went back to how she was judging last season. That's a good thing. With Derek and Bruno blowing smoke up people's butts, we need someone to bring folks back down to earth and give actual CRITIQUES. She started doing that again towards the end. I'm glad she did. Secondly, I wanna get into the results. Some of you are being quite disingenuous with the talks about Joey (and Ilona and Chandler). Joey deserved the win as did everyone else. Ilona was actually a good dancer. Chandler being on the show while having prior dance experience is not some sort of crime against humanity. You need ringers who can keep raising the bar and forcing folks to try and catch them. It makes for a better competition. And finally, y'all gotta take a breather. Things will be okay. I'm gonna get into Chandler and Brandon in a moment. But just know that the chances of them winning were slim for all the reasons that we all know. I want us to not look at it as some sort of failure and look at the success of their season. View them as trailblazers. This couple opened up doors. They left a huge impact and for that, we need to look at it and celebrate them vs mourn their loss. Anyway, let's get into it.

Chandler and Brandon- So you know what. I'm not gonna waste anymore time. I just wanna talk about them. As you all know, these two were my favorites this season for so many different reasons. I wanna talk about how talented she is. Their jive was spectacular. Chandler has really amazing and long legs. That works in most dances. It's hard to have long legs in a jive. You gotta work that much harder to get that right kicking action and you gotta get those legs back under you in the same amount of time as someone who has much shorter legs. She looked great AND she didn't lose steam. It was a cute dance and Brandon knocked the choreography out of the park. Now I wanna talk about the freestyle. This was my favorite dance of all time. This dance was a celebration of Blackness. It was a celebration of what we, as a people, contributed to dance and entertainment. It was acknowledging those that came before Chandler and Brandon (and every other Black dancer on that stage). It was a lesson in Black history. I saw Lindy hop. I saw tap. I saw hustle. I saw hip-hop. I even saw some jazz. All of those styles of dance were originated by Black people. We got a reference to the Nicholas Brothers and that iconic tap routine of theirs. We got a reference to the dance scene with all the Black workers from Hellzapoppin. We got a look into 70s Black fashion and not in the costume-y way that folks tend to do. And we got a Curtis Mayfield song. What's even better is that the jive was also originated by Black folks. So their entire night was a celebration of Blackness and it was such a huge moment for them, for Black folks and for the show in general. After that freestyle was done, I started to cry. I knew how much it meant, but I really felt it after it was over.I wish Alfonso had done a better job of acknowledging. Y'all may hate Tyra, but one thing she's gonna do is point out a moment like that. Anyway, we know that they got 3rd and I know it sucks. But like I said earlier, let's focus on what they did accomplish not only on Tuesday night, but throughout the entire competition. Brandon killed it with the choreography every single week. There was not a week where he slacked off like so many other pros do. He was given a lot of responsibility with Chandler as his partner and not only did he meet those expectations, he exceeded every single one of them. He is the heir to the throne of Mark and Derek and we need to accept that. And Chandler? I view her season like I view Jordan Fisher and Amber Riley. That is the biggest compliment I can ever give to a celeb on this show. The MBT would've been nice but if you go back and watch those two all night, they were at peace. So bravo to them both.

Stephen and Rylee- These two are actually here because Stephen and Rylee finally figured out his biggest problem. For me, the most shocking thing of the night was watching grasp counting music and stay mostly on time for his quickstep and be completely in the pocket for the freestyle. If they had a couple more weeks, I think we would've seen him get less rigid as that comes with not feeling comfortable with the music. As for that freestyle, Stephen shocked me with how on time he was. Rylee killed it with the choreography as well. A lot of times, pros will mess up their first freestyles because it is so different and choreographing something with no rules that encapsulates your partnership, the person you're dancing with and the season that the person had on the show is a daunting task. Both Rylee and Brandon (juniors doesn't count) excelled in their first freestyles. To me, choreographing a good and meaningful freestyle is the sign of a truly great pro.

Ilona and Alan- When I tell you all that Ilona has turned me into an Alan truther? Listen, I always liked him. He's always been pleasant and fun. He seems to work well with all of us partners. He tries. For me, he's a good pro. But this season, I saw him blossom and transform into a great pro. Their relationship was so good to watch. I loved how he was there for her the whole time. Their jive, while not perfect, was an impressive several steps up from their previous attempt. And their freestyle was PERFECT for Ilona. I was shocked that they went in the direction that they did, but it made sense. I don't think Ilona would've been able to pull that off within the first few weeks of the competition. But she definitely killed it and was 100% comfortable during this dance. And I loved it. As a side note, I think the freestyle round regained some of the magic it lost over the years during this season. I'm not sure what happened, but there was a shift in thought process from every pro.

Joey and Jenna- These two are fourth for me, but that's not a bad thing. They deserved to win. I just wasn't as impressed with them as I was with the first 3. I still hate that the judges didn't give him critiques because this cha-cha would've been 100% worthy of a perfect score if the judges told him to turn his feet out and articulate through his foot. Everything else was fine and it was still a major improvement. As for the freestyle, it was good, but I was also underwhelmed. I get the tennis thing. I don't think the idea translated well to the dancefloor. On top of that when you start turning out lights and lighting up specific accessories, everything has to be tight and perfect. And Joey was a tiny bit behind the rest of the pros during that part of the dance. It maybe wouldn't have been a problem if the lights were on. But the lights being off meant that was the only thing we could see. And I saw the mistakes, clear as day. It also just wasn't all that exciting. Good routine. But when looking at everyone else's dances, it just felt kinda blah.

Danny and Witney- Danny definitely improved on his tango. It wasn't perfect. It was rigid (even for a tango's standards). But his frame looked better. Like Joey, I wish the judges had been real with him in weeks 5 and 6. A lot of the problems we saw on Tuesday would've been worked through at least somewhat if the judges had consistently told him some of his problems with his frame and being comfortable out on the floor (or looking comfortable if he felt comfortable in his mind). The freestyle was very camp. Nothing was serious. It was goofy. It was silly. But I enjoyed it. It worked. It wasn't perfect. It wasn't my favorite of the night. I don't think it deserved a 10. But it was incredibly entertaining and a perfect dance for those two for some odd reason.

So that was season 33 of DWTS. Let me know your thoughts and I will talk to you all soon. We'll do some other things before the end of the year. And once again, congrats to all of the finalists.

[iwriteaboutfeminism]

Ilona's femininity and Alan's masculinity...

OBSESSED.