December 4, 2008

Picture of Benji Schwimmer at Dancing with the Stars Finale

Written by: John

Last week my wife and I were lucky enough to be able to attend the Dancing with the Stars finale live. You can read more about it over on Pure Dancing with the Stars. After the show, I must admit that the person I wanted to meet most wasn’t really a part of Dancing with the Stars. It was someone in the audience supporting his sister Lacey Schwimmer. So, I made a fool of myself and headed over and introduced myself to Benji Schwimmer. Here’s a picture with Benji right after the finale.

Benji Scwhimmer at Dancing with the Stars Finale

Benji Scwhimmer at Dancing with the Stars Finale


Benji was very kind to us. We chatted with him for a few minutes asking him about what was new with him. He told us about a couple movies that he’d been working on. At least one of the movies Benji helped produce. Of course they are both dancing movies, but I believe he said that they had some comedy also. Should be fun to see when those come out.

Benji also told us that he canceled that week’s choreography with So You Think You Can Dance Canada in order to be there to see his sister perform on the finale of Dancing with the Stars. What a great big brother. I also think that Canada might be seeing a whole lot more of Benji on the show in the future. Canada will be happy about that.

Yes, I was a bit flustered in his presence and forgot to ask him the most relevant question of all: “Would Benji be joining Dancing with the Stars and start competing against his sister?” The rumors have him possibly coming back so ABC has the sibling storyline which may be gone if Julianne ends up leaving. However, I have a feeling that Benji is plenty busy right now and so we probably won’t be seeing him on Dancing with the Stars anytime soon.

Benji did however say that him and the girl he was with were competing at Disneyland the next day in the Swing Dance Championships (if my memory serves me correct). Kind of cool to see him still competing in that competition.

In case Benji finds this post, thanks Benji for being so gracious. It was a real pleasure meeting you.

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November 18, 2008

Nigel Lythgoe’s New Show and Thoughts on Dancing with the Stars

Written by: John

Nigel recently talked in an interview about his new show which is a sort of dance olympics:

Nigel describes his new dance show as basically a dance Olympics with dancers from all over the world and judges from all over the world also. Judges would only get to score those dancers that weren’t from their country. Sounds like it could be really interesting or really lame depending on how well the show is produced.

In a separate place, Nigel Lythgoe talks about Dancing with the Stars and fat dancers. I like that Nigel is happy to share the dancers between the various shows. Makes a lot of sense to me and I’m glad he sees that these dancers need work. It does make me wonder what kinds of contracts people on these shows sign to participate.

I was also very interesting in Nigel mentioning that Dancing with the Stars was possibly interested in having Chelsie Hightower on the show. She’s a great dancer. Quite the tom boy as you might recall, but she’d be pretty entertaining on the show. I’d be interested to see how versatile she is just as I was interested to see how versatile Lacey was when she made the switch.

Nigel is also pretty open about the idea of fat dancers. He doesn’t address specifically if Lacey Schwimmer is a fat dancer or not, but he does say there are a number of fat dancers that shouldn’t be dancing. I appreciate his comments there. It’s just not pleasant to watch. People are welcome and encouraged to dance if they are overweight, but don’t make the rest of us watch it. It’s just not pretty.

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