Nov 14, 2007

Lighten Up and Dance With the Stars


I'm a firm believer in "lightening up" therapy. And I must say, Helio Castroneves in his bright yellow suit and black and white spats dancing with partner Julianne Hough for a perfect 30 for their quick step this week on "Dancing With the Stars", had me totally de-lighted!

I've just thought he was such fun from the very beginning and I can't help but want to root for him as he gets back on track and heads for the finish line of the Semi-Finals competition.

I did a little research on Helio (whose name in Greek means 'sun') and discovered that he was only two hours away from a big Indy 500 race, when a casual conversation with Apolo Anton Ohno steered him onto a totally different course.

Apparently, as they congratulated each other on their respective 'wins', Helio asked Anton if he'd had fun on Dancing. 'Oh, man, it was a lot of hard work, but it was great.' And then he said, "Why don't you do it?"

This was at 8:30 in the morning on May 28. The race was set to start at noon. Castroneves turned to Ohno and said, "Can I talk to you later? I'm about to race 500 miles."

As it turned out, Castroneves did not repeat his 2001 and 2002 wins. But he did follow through on his conversation with Ohno and immediately said "yes" when the Dancing producers came calling.

It was simply the luck of the draw that he ended up with Julianne as his partner, however. But when Castroneves first saw her, he says, he thought, "Whoa, I got the champion!" And then he thought, "Hold on, that's a lot of pressure. If I don't win, it won't be her fault."

Well, you know I love Marie and her incredible spunk, 48 years old, 8 children, in a divorce, and then the death of her father, last week. So, I was glad she's still in the race. She may not be the best dancer, by any means, but she sure is a great entertainer!

I'm no longer a closet Dancing With the Stars devotee. I just love it that my 90 year old mother-in-law and I have something in common that we love to talk about and besides, high energy and fun dancing music is great to sew by.

Hmm, I'm looking for that perfect piece of race car yellow, and hey...maybe I'll take a look at Marie's fabric line, as well ;)

5 comments:

dot said...

This is my first year to watch. I am watching just because of Helio. He is so much fun, just exudes(SP?) energy and fun. I hope wins. I was only going to watch until he got kicked off and guess what I am still watching. I will admit I have even voted. After Sabrina was eliminated I wanted to see how the voting worked so I did. I voted mostly for Helio but did vote for a few more. I am sorry but I think Marie has to go. She is to boring and old for me. I am older than her and admire her guts but she has got to go. I was surprised she was not elimanated last night, it is all about the fan vote.

Anonymous said...

I just found your blog this week and love it. I will visit often. I agree with you about Marie. I have been voting for her and Jane Seymour because they're middle aged like me. However, I think she will be eliminated next week. The remaining dancers are so much better than all of the other dancers who participated this season and deserve to be in the finals. I don't think Cameron should have been in the semifinals and I'm glad he was eliminated. I tried to vote for Helio Monday but could not get through so I am sure he got the most votes. He has been getting better each week and was dynamite on Monday. He has captured my heart. I am glad Sabrina was eliminated. She is the best dancer in this season but is so conceited that I never voted for her. I love Dancing with the Stars and it is the topic at the water cooler at my job.

Anonymous said...

I just found your blog this week and love it. I will visit often. I agree with you about Marie. I have been voting for her and Jane Seymour because they're middle aged like me. However, I think she will be eliminated next week. The remaining dancers are so much better than all of the other dancers who participated this season and deserve to be in the finals. I don't think Cameron should have been in the semifinals and I'm glad he was eliminated. I tried to vote for Helio Monday but could not get through so I am sure he got the most votes. He has been getting better each week and was dynamite on Monday. He has captured my heart. I am glad Sabrina was eliminated. She is the best dancer in this season but is so conceited that I never voted for her. I love Dancing with the Stars and it is the topic at the water cooler at my job.

Nellie's Needles said...

That little fast guy with the sunshine smile has been my favorite from the first dance. Yeah, Helio!

jenclair said...

I love that you and your mother-in-law can enjoy discussing the show!