Celebrity showdown ups the terpsichorean ante

SIGUION-REYNA. Total package.

The last time we wrote about “Celebrity Dance Battle,” we dished out more raspberries than raves, because the dance tilt’s standards were unacceptably low and lazy.

Happily, the latest quarterly section of the stellar competition that’s just been concluded  has upped the ante in terms of the contestants’ abilities and a noticeably higher “degree of difficulty” in their routines—so, there’s real reason to celebrate!

How wonderful to see that not all local stars try to get by on as few rehearsals as possible, and parlay mere effort for actual high achievement!

The last batch of stellar contenders included Ciara Sotto, Wilma Doesnt and Rafa Siguion-Reyna. They came up with competition numbers that were generally more difficult than the previous batch of stars and/or starlets had deigned to essay—again, hooray for that!

Ciara, who’s had a lot of dance training, set the notch high with her energetic number. Wilma isn’t “really” a dancer, but she was no pushover, either, and the combination of dance and comedy she came up with bemused both viewers and judges.

Pleasant surprise

As for Rafa, he was the tilt’s  most pleasant surprise, because he combined good looks, dancing ability, showmanship and energy to come up with a number that was thoroughly fetching and winning.

The only fly in the show’s ointment was Edgar Allan Guzman’s announcement that he was bowing out of the competition. Why he had decided to do so wasn’t all that clear—variously, he intimated that he didn’t have enough time to rehearse his new dance number, the competition was too stiff, he wasn’t all that confident about doing well, etc.

Whatever the real reason was, he didn’t win any sympathy points from viewers. Yes, he was “just being honest” about it, but viewers simply don’t like quitters.

In any case, of the three competition numbers we watched, it was Rafa’s that delighted us the most. Come elimination time, however, the “bottom two” duos, Rafa and Wilma’s, were asked to perform another number using the same music—and Rafa’s team was obviously not as prepared and ambitious as Wilma’s, so it  came up with the less impressive version.

As a result, it was Rafa who was voted out of the tilt—a real shocker of an ending. (Ciara ended up as the quarterly finals’  big winner.)

We trust that Rafa won’t let this bump in the road suck the wind out of his sails, but will continue to make a name for himself on TV and in musical theater. He’s clearly a standout who should be encouraged to go the distance—because, with the “total package” he has going for him, that could be very far.