Wednesday, April 22, 2009

modest is hottest

I love Dancing with the Stars. Just love it. I don't watch it every season, but I try to catch it when I can. I'm engrossed in this season since it piggybacked on the Bachelor, and I've got to watch dumpee-Melissa get her vengeance on dumper-Bachelor Jason ("Jason who?").

Anyway, ballroom dancing is just so romantic and the performers are so enthusiastic and the costumes are so sparkly. The costumes. They are sparkly... and barely there. Let me preface this post by saying, hey, I don't really care. The ladies for the most part look lovely and it's not obscene or anything, but let's all be honest with each other when we say the costumes aren't modest by any means and a lot of times not much is left to imagination. But again, it's sparkly and flashy and fun and it's not ME being all scantily clad and they're professionals, so whatever.

But, to further emphasize my point, I must tell you about the hilarious Seattle Times TV/movie columnist who has what she calls the "Edyta Nudity Factor" in her recaps. It's hilarious. She reports on how naked Edyta (one of the professional dancers) is on each show, since she seriously wears the least amount of clothes of any of the dancers. I speak the truth! Some comments from the last few weeks:
  • Edyta Nudity Scale: High, with a new twist. Edyta wore pants, but left out the part that usually goes from the hips to the knees. (April 13 show)
  • Edyta Nudity Scale: High. Basically, a bikini that seemed to be leaking fabric in the form of random flowy pieces. (April 6 show)
  • Edyta Nudity Scale: Moderate — a sequined bikini top, tiny skirt, and random floaty scarf thing. (March 9 show)
Generally, the professional dancers do the costume designing for the celebrity competitors, which makes sense. They are the professionals and they know best, right?

This week, they did a "funny" switcheroo and let the celebrity partners decide on the costumes. Cheryl, one of the professional dancers, said she thought it was an "awful idea." (Incidentally, her and her partner Gilles are who I bet will win.) They did some funny montages with the celebrities conniving with the costume designers and saying stupid things ("less is more"), while the professionals are acting genuinely scared and rolling their eyes, etc.

But. The results of the "switcheroo" were telling. There are seven contestants left, four men and three women. Let's see how they did with the costume designing:

Not a single belly button. And Edyta is the one in BLUE.

This is Ty and his partner Chelsie. Her dress was a beautiful sundress: gorgeous, floral, and full length.

This is Gilles and his partner Cheryl. WOW! She looks just beautiful. She expressed on the show how impressed she was with Gilles choice of costume. She looks like Belle from Beauty and the Beast. I like how it comes to a "V" at her waist; I had an Easter dress like that when I was a little girl and every time I wore it I felt like a princess.

This is Lawrence and almost-always-mostly-naked Edyta. Her dress was GORGEOUS and flow-y and even at one point during the dance got stuck over her head. Her only remark, after complimenting Lawrence on designing the dress, was that she wasn't used to wearing that much clothes.

(Hahahahahaha: The Seattle Times gal said: "Edyta Nudity Scale: Everything was topsy-turvy this week, with Lil' Kim apparently borrowing one of Edyta's trademark bikini-with-floaty-thing outfits, and Edyta wearing — has hell frozen over? — a COAT. She did fling the thing off, but was still pretty much covered up.")

But wow. It's just crazy to think that when you put the guys in charge, they went with relatively modest, covered up gals. I was so impressed. Beautiful girls, beautiful dresses, beautiful dances. Sequined outfits don't have to be accented with belly buttons to be stunning.

(In case you're wondering, Lawrence and Edyta went home this week. But I don't think it was because of the dress.)

2 comments:

jeff said...

No, it wasn't because of the dress; Lawrence went home because he did everything he could to get people not to vote for him.

A few years ago, when Julianne was new on the show, because she's Mormon my mom felt obligated to defend her costumes as modest when they clearly weren't. It was funny.

Though she also isn't super-modest, I'd say Chelsie (also LDS) is generally more modest in dress than the other ladies, and more modest than when she was on So You Think You Can Dance last year.

angelalois said...

Ooooh I didn't know Chelsie was Mormon!! Thanks for the juicy info! But um, NO, none of the girls are modest. And your mom is mistaken if she thinks that.