My Thoughts on the DWTS Finale

DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU LIVE IN AFRICA AND HAVE NOT SEEN THE DANCING WITH THE STARS FINALE YET! You know who you are. ;)

First off, I'd just like to say "suck it" to all the people out there who have been bashing poor Shawn Johnson all season long. I've read numerous comments calling her "a thick munchkin", "stumpy" and even "fat." You've GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!! This kid is solid muscle! She could pretty much break your spine with her thighs if she wanted to. Aside from that, her technique in the ballroom dances has been phenomenal. She may not look as graceful as Gilles and Melissa, but I think a lot of that is because she is shorter. It's harder to make short limbs look long and flowy. Also, with all the precision that comes with her lifetime of gymnastics training, it makes complete sense that she would bring that to her dancing. Personally, I thought she was a far superior dancer to Melissa. Melissa is more naturally graceful, but she did every dance like a ballerina. While ballet is a good base when it comes to ballroom training, ballroom dance isn't much like ballet. I know, I'm a ballroom dancer. You have to be grounded into the floor. Your movement in the latin dances especially needs to come from your hips. Melissa had beautiful arms and legs, but was up way too much on her toes, and had little to no hip action when dancing latin. Granted, if she was told "shake your butt" she could do it, but that "perfect" sambaa had no hip action in any of the basic steps where it should have been. Her shoulders moved, but that's a bad thing.

Shawn's hip action and basic feel of the dances was superior. She was grounded, she used her hips, she was sharper and had a better feel for the rhythm. It made me angry, seeing all the people bashing her online while singing the praises of Melissa. Clearly these were people who knew nothing about ballroom dance beyond what the judges said. As a person, Melissa was likeable, but something about the comments I read online made me really dislike her as a dancer. She's a beautiful dancer, yes, but she is not the second coming to the ballroom world. The support for her and disdain for Shawn made me crazy. It's nothing personal against Melissa, she seems like a sweet girl. But Shawn was better.

Still, because of all the comments I read online, I was sure that Shawn would take third place at best. Melissa seemed to have a lot more fans. Apparently, it only seemed that way. I guess her fans are just a lot louder than most, and have too much free time on their hands. They use that time to write inane comments on every article and blog posted about DWTS. I wonder how many of their comments I'll have to delete after this blog is posted? Don't bother, kids. It's over. The better woman won. And if I may be so bold - HA!

I was, however, shocked that Shawn beat out Gilles. I can't argue that she was a better dancer than he was. I loved her, and was rooting for her because she was the underdog. Compared to every other dancer in the competition, she was superior. But Gilles has an insane amount of natural talent. He blew me away every week. It seems totally fitting that he was only one percentage point behind Shawn in votes. Well, fitting that they were only a percentage point apart. I just thought he would come out on top.

This is not to say that I'm angry, disappointed, or even confused. Shawn was incredible. She got my votes. I'm thrilled that she won. I was just suprised, that's all.

I've read 3 or 4 opinion pieces on the finale since I finished watching it, and I'm amazed how many furious people there are. There are multitudes of people (or so it seems - maybe more poor losers with way too much time on their hands?) who are swearing never to watch the show again because Gilles lost. Seriously, folks. Take a chill pill. It's a show. And it's not like Ty (bless his heart) won. He was adorable and I loved him to death, but the man was not a dancer. If he had won, some anger would be understandable. Still pointless, but understandable. However, that's not what happened. An excellent dancer won the show. In my mind, Gilles was maybe a hair better, but Shawn was in no way undeserving. And she rocked hard over the past couple of weeks. She deserved to be neck-in-neck with Gilles. Just because your favorite dancer lost, doesn't mean you have to throw a temper tantrum, kids. Seriously, there are more important things in life.

And it's not like losing to Shawn is going to be the end of the world for Gilles. I can only imagine what kind of opportunities have arisen for him, thanks to this exposure (no pun intended). He's proven that he's a talented performer, and has increased his fan base by leaps and bounds. Not only that, he's a dancer now. One more thing to add to the resume. He'll be fine. I expect we'll see a lot more of him in the future.

What it really boils down to, for me, is this: Great job, Shawn. You earned it. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. They're just jealous. They wish they could be cool like you. :)