#but he didn't. which is v v interesting. he knew that len wouldn't like it but he still chose not to go the safe route. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

frigidlyauthorial · 26 days ago

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fascinating okay so i'm watching season 17 of dancing with the stars and it's like. you can literally tell that derek was taking a very deliberate gamble between relying on points from the judges vs doing what would be most impressive for the audience.

In Week 3 for Most Memorable Year, Amber and Derek danced a foxtrot. It was an absolutely gorgeous dance, because with those two there is no way it could not be, but the routine departed from foxtrot standards (namely, the amount of time spent in hold).

The scores they got were extremely across the board (9, 7, 10), but I'm so curious about how derek offhandedly mentioned that he'd prepared Amber for Len to rip into them for the choreography. Both of them seemed shocked that Len went so far as to give it a 7 (their lowest score on the show thus far), but it is very telling that derek knew that his choreo was pushing the envelope far beyond what would be allowed, and decided to go down that path anyway because he knew that it would be shortsighted to focus on appeasing one judge when he could instead be using that dance as a way to build up his partner in the eyes of the audience.

#dwts #once again writing dwts takes that no one cares about #idk it's interesting just to see like. these very deliberate and strategic decisions.#people complain about how much power viewers votes have but at the end of the day you can't ignore that 50%#it's a dancing competition. but it's also a show largely watched by people who have no idea what they're looking at.#no wonder derek is the most decorated pro in dwts history. my mans knew how to play the game.#I do feel bad for the pros that would try to push the creative envelope and then get verbally eviscerated for it.#but like. if it works it works. you know what i mean?#my thoughts on the derek v mark creativity debate #is that mark is more creative but derek is better at tailoring his ideas to match his partner's arc #and this is a good case study because like. amber can DANCE. if derek gave her a classic foxtrot she would have nailed that too.#but he didn't. which is v v interesting. he knew that len wouldn't like it but he still chose not to go the safe route.#'stop talking about derek hough' all my followers cry out in unison

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