Review - Episode #2 Skating with the Stars

It's so nice to have something exciting on Monday night again ( just like Johnny’s be good Johnny weir last time ) , we really enjoyed watching the Episode #2 of Skating with the Stars on Monday night.

It was sad Sean Young / Denis Petukhov team were eliminated in this episode.
We loved and enjoyed very much with their performances.

I thought Sean Young has so much personality in her performance ( and also off ice ) and has a big impact whatever she does. Denis’s music selection ( I always loved his music choice for his and Melissa’s programs ) and his interesting choreography and creative idea were fantastic.
It was also interesting to see Denis took Sean to indoor sky diving place.

I thought it’ a great idea to take her to the place to catch “feeling “ , without “ thinking” for her performance, and it was sweet of him to do it. The sky diving looked so much fun BTW, I want to try it !

For performance itself, my favorites were Rebecca & Fred, and also Brandon Keauna’s and also Sean & Denis ‘s performances.

I thought Rebecca has charisma, and I loved her movements for each pose, well stretched body, legs and arms. It was beautiful to watch. Ray also loved her performance a lot.

Also I agree with Johnny (Weir), I also thought her beginning of facial expression need more impact. It’s a tango so only missing part was more passion like Dick Button and Johnny said.

But within a very short time, Rebecca did amazing job, we even thought she may be able to compete in US Nationals. Quick learner = Talented. (IMO) I was also very surprised to know her age. Becuase she looked around 26 to me. Looks very young and beautiful !

Brandon & Keauna I loved Brandon’s rhythms with music, how he moves , it was comfortable to watch his performance without having worry, not so crazy for some of his pose though, his musicality was fun to watch. Loved his partner Keauna’s outfit. It looked like goth style.

Brandon is a roller skater, and has dance experience , so I think he has advantage for the background to catch the balance on ice and how to use the body.

Jonny / Brooke were doing very good, too, challenged difficult moves lifting Brook from opposite side, it can be really dangerous but he did it. His face is handsome, and reminds me of Tom Cruise ’s face a little bit. His body looks family man type. He was really fierce. I thought more than his movements, was impressed with his strong mind which pulled everything well.

Vince / Jeniffer I really loved Vince’s character. He is so honest for his feelings and looked so disappointed for his fall.

Actually when thinking about his age, with no dance experience, almost no skating experience, he did really good job. I really loved his partner Jeniffer’s passionate expression for tango.

Sean and Vince are doing very good when we think about age. Sean is 51. And Vince is 49.

Brandon is the youngest ( 21 years old ) and has dance & rollerblading experience and a very little experience with ice skating. I think he has advantage from his background and age compared with Sean Young and Vince and also Bethenny Frankel. I found this when Ray and I went to the ice rink in our first time ice skating. We both are same ages, and no skating experience, only difference is I have dance experience unlike my husband.

And when we both got on an ice rink, somehow I could catch the balance and soon could skate to the center of the rink and circling around the rink with the bulk of people and felt fantastic feeling to skate, while my husband was grabbing the poll at the edge of the rink for a while until I took his hand to go to the center, but he was just exhausted by putting too much power to his legs trying not to fall.

I didn’t try spin or jump or skating from back , also I didn’t fall, so next time I will try more difficulty without having fear of fall.

I have ski experience and this requires the balance of body using feet and lower back but not sure this is also helping to catch the balance on ice.

But for speed, skiing needs to remove the fear of falling and fear of sliding with speed. So that experience also helped me for not getting fear for speed.

My first time skiing was one of the most tough experience because I didnt take a class and lesson to learn the basic and directly went to the top of the mountain ( which was not for beginners course ) with my co-workers at that time.

I had no idea how to balance my body, how to use edge to stop, so fall was the only way to stop, and learned how to fall without getting hurt at that time. lol For dance,

What I learned by myself is you can’t dance naturally with “ thinking” mind.
Need to have “ Feeling “ with music and your body. Mind, body and music need to get altogether.

I just feel the source of dance ( which I learned ) balance comes from hips for jazz dance ). It’s all about feeling to catch the balance.

And what I learned from my dance teacher was you can’t dance without learning the basic of movement so soon, except for super talented dancer such as Shakira was born as a dancer who never took a dance class, and has amazing rhythm and musicality. Within 5 or 6 weeks, Sean Young at her age plus no skating & dance experience , she did really good. I’m not sure I can do like that if I were her situation.

Bethenny & Ethan, I think Bethenny also doesn’t have experience with skating and dance. Facial expression, it’s really difficult to make it for most people because most of us use left side of brain, don’t usually use our right brain in our daily life.

This “ thinking “ is blocking her to connect with music and show natural expression. I thought all three judges gave her useful advice to improve her skill. I agreed with Johnny ( Weir) about her facial expression.

I’m glad Johnny (Weir) pointed it out, because many figure skating commentators are careless for facial expression, so it’s nice to have the judge or commentator like him who cares for real artistry.

About Johnny Weir,

Johnny looked like a pretty cartoon character with yellow jacket in this show and I ‘m kinda loving this. Much more loving than last week’s his outfit, hair and make-up. ( only loved his intro look )

Ray also says this week’s Johnny is better than last week.

I loved his judging. I think he plays fair and honest. Artistry is subjective and except for Rebecca’s artistic score, I was feeling the same way as Johnny.

Many Bethenny fans were complaining about judges and I saw they were attacking Johnny in twetter in that night. But I think Johnny scored fairly and honestly, IMO.

There is a great article which explains why Bethenny was not scored high written by Jenn Sale who is a former figure skater.
Here is the link below, Skating with the Stars Week 2Recap Nobody Gives Bethenny a 6 !

I like strict fair judges If I were them because we can improve more, tough advices are better to know my weak point.

So Bethenny’s twitter comment against Judges made me disappointed since her last week’s comment for her performance and the result sounded objective to her fans.

But we all are human, so everyone has ups and downs for our feeling. And it’s easy to see other’s weak point than ourselves. I’m also learning for myself by seeing these celebrity’s challenge for new things. Hope she will take it positive way for her motivation for next week.

Johnny has said in interviews ( before the SWTS started ), he will be a tough judge because he wants to show figure skating is not an easy world like so many people are thinking. I personally think Figure skating and gymnastic are the most tough sports.

Episode#2’s result was

1. Brandon / Keauna
2. Rebecca / Fred
3. Jonny / Brooke
4. Bethany / Ethan
5. Vince / Jennifer, Sean / Denis

Overall result

1. Rebecca / Fred
2. Brandon / Keauna
3. Jonny / Brooke
4. Sean / Denis
5. Bethenny / Ethan
6. Vince / Jennifer

Survival teams from audience votes

1. Rebecca / Fred
2. Brandon / Keauna
3. Jonny / Brooke
4. Bethenny / Ethan
5. Vince / Jennifer

Good luck for all the challengers next Monday !

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