The Hinchburg Chronicles

Lesallee wrote:I'm having eye surgery tomorrow morning so by show time I will be a one eyed jack and that one eye isn't that efficient. So I am depending on blow by blow descriptions from everyone. I will have to read them with a magnifying glass I guess.

                                                    For you sis!!!

Lots of luck to James and Sharna tonight!

James and Sharna will win!

Lol, poor James!  On his Twitter page there is an interview he did earlier with Dave Furst where he is reluctantly telling him that he has to use spray tan tonight, and it sounds like his outfit might be black and low cut in the front.  Plus he tweeted his girlfriend to pick up some makeup wipes for him.  James is not thrilled.  

You can do it James!  Good luck to you and Sharna tonight!


James and Sharna will win!

Oooh, check out this pic!  

That is one intense pic... and hot.

James and Sharna will win!

Oops, double post.

My bad.

That was one steamy dance!

That rumba was exquisite!  What must James and Sharna do in order to receive a
10 from Julianne?  

I find myself yelling at her tonight to please STFU.

I wonder if Julianne is trying not to show any appearance of favoritism to an IndyCar driver and friend of Helio.  Well, Len is coming back next week so maybe they will then have a better chance of getting a 10 from Julianne.  I think the scores were fair enough since James and Sharna performed in the first half of the show this time and had to leave room for the other teams.  Their next challenge will be getting a 10 from Len. 

Had to laugh at the opening package.  I was guessing that Ricardo might come back, but I didn't expect him to walk through the door!  I'm glad they were saying that they didn't need Ricardo for the sexy.  I don't know how James and Sharna managed to stay serious leading into the dance. 

What a great rumba!  Liked the arrangement of the song here better than the original.  I think in the rumba a more gentle sexiness is called for, and James was able to bring that out.  To me it was both intense and tender at the same time.  They even had their own variation of Helio and Julianne's ending move with James sliding on his knees to Sharna and putting his arms around her waist.

There are some people on YouTube that said they viewed the dance in slo-mo and that it looks great at that speed too.  They're right--adjust the speed to 0.5 on YouTube's settings (you might want to turn down the music too).

TV Guide... Today’s News

Dancing with the Stars: Can an Unknown Canadian Really Win?

by Tim Surette | Oct 18, 2016 5:33 PM EDT

Lots of us tuned into this season of Dancing with the Stars for the big "get us in the door story" -- Ryan Lochte, fresh off trashing a Rio gas station bathroom... dancing! But like most seasons of ABC's reality competition, other more interesting stories have emerged once the tabloid-style attention grabbers died down.

There's obviously Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez, the season's most consistent and bedazzling performer, whose talent belies her age. There's Little Women: LA star Terra Jolé, whose passion and enthusiasm we all expected, but surprised us with her incredible skills on the ballroom floor. We can even talk about how many of us will get pregnant just from watching Jana Kramer and walking men's cologne commercial Gleb Savchenko sex-dance on stage.






But the real story in Season 23 of Dancing with the Stars is James Hinchcliffe.

It's okay, you can say, "Who?" The 29-year-old race car driver from Ontario, Canada arguably had the lowest profile when this season's cast was announced as he's famous in a sport that's internationally recognized but not that popular here in the United States. But those who have watched this season are quickly taking notice.

Hinchcliffe, who admitted to being "dancing challenged" when he decided to join the show, and partner Sharna Burgess have notched the week's highest score twice through six dances, second to heavy favorite Laurie, who has four. But last night, Julianne Hough proclaimed that James has been the best male "star" dancer the show has ever seen, and she wasn't just caught up in the moment.

The dude can DANCE. I wish I had feet like that.

After a two-week dip following an impressive opening routine, Hinchcliffe and Burgess have scored 95 out of a possible 100 points for their last three dances. Read that again: 95/100. Five 9s and five 10s in three dances. That's the most points over the last three weeks, better even than Laurie's 92.


That kind of steady improvement subconsciously seeps into the judges' brains, and Hinchcliffe is still riding a relative wave of anonymity, meaning the pressures of expectations aren't being held against him and he can go out there and continue to impress despite sitting near the top all season.

And Hinchcliffe's athletic background allows him to take feedback and implement it in his next week's routine. You can see his mind taking in the criticism during each judge's summary, and he's not just looking for compliments. He's soaking up the advice like a sponge and using it to make himself a better dancer.

However, as we all know, Dancing with the Stars is also a popularity contest and America's vote counts. This is where you would think James would hit trouble, with his Canadian-ness and exotic job holding him back. But as impressed as we've all been with James fluid dancing, it's his personality and charm that may be even better.

James is a humble goof, deflecting praise away from himself toward his partner Sharna at all opportunities and playing up the "I can't believe I'm doing it either" routine, but with sincerity. He can't believe it, we can't believe it, the judges can't believe it. He came out of nowhere to be a powerhouse in the show, and people still don't know who he is.

He's also game to ham it up for the scores, as he did as a circus ringleader during Cirque du Soleil week, or in any of his training videos, like last night's which showcased James' "sexy" alter-ego Ricardo in a self-made skit that was funnier than anything Saturday Night Live has done in years. The man is a born entertainer.

This package of talent and personality is exactly what the judges and viewers are looking for, and it could lead to one of the show's most surprising upsets once the season is all done. Canada's biggest secret may become its biggest export very soon.

Dancing with the Stars airs Monday nights at 8/7c on ABC.

A cute video moment on DWTS Instagram where the members of Team Past gather and then honor their Team Captain. 


https://www.instagram.com/p/BLwJVDpg63S/?taken-by=dancingabc

This could lead to more votes for him and Sharna which would be great because I predict it's going to be close.  I'm guessing that Sharna is already thinking about ideas for their possible freestyle, and it could definitely come down to that.  They need to keep up the momentum. 

It's been fun to see how the DWTS crew have been reacting to James:
*Derek and Emma are among his biggest fans.
*Len was blown away with his first dance (and hopefully will continue to be now that he is back)
*Carrie Ann has been really impressed. 
*Despite Julianne's critiques, it's obvious she is impressed too. 
*Bruno has been loving their dances and has often given them the higher score.
*Erin was compelled to give James a big pep talk after the Paso Doble--both on camera and off.
*Tom frequently tells James about how he has been surprising everyone with his unexpected ability to dance.