Greater involvement sought from dance tilt contestants

DAVID. Unexpected but well-deserved victory

We’re glad that TV5 is telecasting “Celebrity Dance Battle” on Saturdays, because the dance tilt format is currently underrepresented on the boob tube. However, when we caught the show last week, we were left with more questions and quibbles than actual enjoyment of the competition program, hosted by Lucy Torres-Gomez.

What seems to be the problem? Uh, make that plural: Lucy herself proves to once more be a lovely, charming but rather lethargic program host.

If you watch other dance tilts staged on US or British TV, their energy and excitement levels fairly tingle and bristle, starting with the urgent, colorful way that the shows’ hosts “sell” their promise to thrill. On TV5’s “Celebrity Dance Battle,” we just get “lovely host,” period.

Similarly, Lucy’s co-hosts, athletes and now dancers Daniel and Anthony Semerad (yes, they’re twins), look great and are very eager to please, but they don’t exactly set the joint on fire, either, with their newbie attempts at dancing or their also fledgling co-hosting skills.

Sure, new talents should be given time to learn the ropes and smooth out the awkwardness in their performances, but do they have to do all of that learning on-cam, at our expense? Rather, they should have practiced in private for months, or as long as needed, before foisting themselves on televiewers.

The show fared better with some of its celebrity contestants and their nonstar partners. The big surprise last Saturday was basketball star, Gary David, who performed a rather challenging routine with his partner-choreographer.

She was really tiny, so he kept hoisting her up over his head with flair and panache, firming up the strongly positive impression they made on the tilts’s jurors, led by the estimable Douglas Nierras, who is famous for not suffering incompetents and amateurs.

Aside from being an astute dance master, Douglas has the added gift of being able to phrase his comments in memorably quotable terms. So, all told, he turned out to be the show’s most consistently admirable asset.

As for the other dancing stars featured in last week’s competition, Valerie Concepcion and Priscilla Meirelles, they were both truly lithe and beautiful to watch as they “sold” their moves, but the dance routines they undertook were rather safe and even stolid.

Clearly, the tilt’s celebrity contestants aren’t rehearsing long and hard enough to get themselves in genuine competition form, so greater involvement and commitment in this important regard are sorely needed.

For the record, Priscilla edged Valerie out by executing her dance’s poses and lunges with greater flair and brio. Thus, she’s moving closer to the season finals along with Gary, and we hope that they will “rehearse to death” so that they can come up with “killer” routines for the final “battle.”

Viewers’ turn to ask questions

At a recent media forum, we turned the tables on members of the audience and encouraged them to ask questions and share what they wanted their favorite stars to know or do. The most interesting question: Do commercials and celebrity product endorsements really result in increased sales?

Advertising people answer in the categorical positive, citing sales figures that show advertisers’ income increasing markedly and sometimes even exponentially right after a particularly attractive or persuasive advertising campaign has been launched.

Incidentally, commercials’ impact on children is a particularly potent plus factor, which is why many spots are aimed at enticing children to nag their parents to buy a new product—or else!

As for those celebrity endorsers, they get paid millions for their services, and some of them are worth every peso, because “reflected star value” does have a persuasive effect on potential buyers.

Another provocative question: How can no-longer-active stars make a successful comeback? First, they have to offer more than what they used to at their prime. If they’re much older, they should stop trying to recapture lost youth and glory by giving today’s viewers something else, something new.

How to find a good comeback showcase? If no big teleserye is available, the next best thing is a well-chosen indie movie, with a really challenging role for the comebacking actor. An amazing performance can make even an “old” and “cold” star hot again, so the choice of script and director is key.

What do fans and buffs want to say to their star of choice? Tessie Tomas is urged to revive her career as stand-up comedian and satirist, even if only on an occasional basis. We chime in with the added suggestion that Tessie also give acting in Filipino theater or musical theater productions a go.

A fan of Aga Muhlach urges him to lose “even more” weight, so that he can eventually go back to acting in the movies. Again, we second the motion, and also hope that other “prosperous-looking” stars like Janice de Belen and Sharon Cuneta will similarly bite the bullet—and resolutely fight their respective Battle of the Bulge!