Something About Ashleigh and Karen

I had to miss last night’s show, unfortunately. But today, I found out a friend of mine, Toni McGee Causey, is a SYTYCD fan and had tvo’d the show. She was gracious enough to let me come over and watch it.

She poked her head in at one point and I said that Kathryn is probably my favorite female dancer at the moment and we talked about the two dances she and Legacy had last night. Then, I said that Ashleigh was growing on me, which I never would have thought when she got into the Top 20. And Toni, who’s a lady who knows a lot about a lot of things, blew me away with her theory about why Ashleigh is growing so steadily on people.

“It’s her lipstick,” she said.

“What???!” I said.

“She used to wear harsh, bright red lipstick and now she wears a lighter, pinker shade. She switched the same week the criticism turned in her favor. And she’s stayed with the more gentle lipstick and makeup ever since. Her approval has grown each week. ” **

And you know what?? I think she’s right!! Check out these two pics that I found here (scroll down almost to the bottom of the page if you click through).

ashleigh-guns-22975ashleigh-garner-29884

It kinda does make a difference, doesn’t it? It’s not the *only* difference. Toni also pointed out that she mostly stopped referring to Ryan. Plus, she’s been able to demonstrate her strengths and grow a lot in her partnership with Jakob.

After that startling revelation, I mentioned that Karen was kinda like Ashleigh’s foil in my mind. The other “married lady,” I had once liked her a lot, but not so much anymore. Toni pointed out that she’s in an impossible position. Not only is she going through a divorce and pursuing her dream in an intense, highly public way, but she’s also having to deal with Nigel’s pervy comments and his insistance on making her The Sexy One. She’s kinda in a no-win situation. If she follows through with the sexy, she’s riding that and the focus is drawn away from her dance. If she’s not sexy, she gets a backlash for it and STILL the focus is not on her dancing.

Which I think is really insightful and I really feel for Karen because of all that she must be going through (Noelle and Mollee have both been injured and that’s been mentioned and they constantly mention that Russell’s a “street dancer” and Legacy’s a “B boy,” yet Karen’s divorce has only been mentioned once. No sympathy votes there, which I respect). Yet…she’s my least favorite dancer at the moment. I didn’t appreciate her face when she and Kevin were in the bottom 3 rather than Mollee and Nathan. Yeah, it’s tough. She’s in front of millions of people and you can’t always control your reactions. Every time Nigel’s about to give her feedback, you can see her bracing herself for pervyness. Which really sucks. I wish Nigel would stop. It might have cost Karen some of our approval, unfortunately.

So it’s interesting to me how these two have kind of traded places in my affections and that makeup and Nigel’s “sexy” label might have in some way accounted for it. What do y’all think?

I have to miss tonight’s show too. :'( Maybe Toni will let me come by soon and see it…

** Not actual quotes. Toni and I are both fiction writers, as well as screenwriters. I think she’ll allow me the liberty of creating dialogue that’s similar to, but not exactly, what she said.