Why I Love "Dancing With the Stars"

I know, I know, it's really tacky; my girlfriends laugh at me. I have proudly never watched an episode of "The Amazing Race" and have only watched one episode of "Survivor" during how many, 6 years or so. But I am terribly, fondly, ridiculously attached to "Dancing With the Stars." I know it has some really cheesy, goofy, clumsy moments, but at heart, it celebrates several things that are very dear to my heart.

Confession: I LOVE to dance! I'm too short, I weigh too much, I'm too "old", but when the music starts up at a party, or at a wedding, I can hardly sit still. And DWTS celebrates dancing--and it celebrates it despite age, body type, musical ability, conventional good looks, and all the things many people seem to crave in a celebrity these days. One of my regrets in life (sorry, honey) is that I didn't marry a man who could whisk me across the floor in a flurry of graceful turns and dips, just like Fred Astaire.

Did anybody expect Steve Wozniack to win DWTS? Of course not--and of course, he went out at the very beginning! Did anybody expect him to be so goofily charming?--I know I didn't. Could anyone predict that Kelly Osbourne would turn out to be so light on her feet--she has rather thick ankles, heavy calves, and short legs, but she worked so hard to become a graceful partner, and succeeded in so many ways.

I LOVE to watch people work hard; I don't think we celebrate it enough. Learning to dance, really dance, the type of ballroom and latin dances that are on DWTS is incredibly tough. It takes a great deal of strength, but it also takes the ability to work over and over to learn routines, steps, transfers of balance, body language, and audience communication. You have to be in good shape to do this stuff, but you also have to be able to think! Maybe this comes naturally to a lot of people, but I believe not. There's a reason all those professionals look so good, and it comes from practice, practice, practice. Think about how many kids gave up piano because they wouldn't practice their scales. Artistry requires plain hard work and repetition, until it becomes so natural that we forget how hard it is to accomplish and only admire the artistic result.

I guess that's why I love this show; despite all the glitz, and silly costumes, and sometimes mindless repartee, at its heart, it celebrates hard work and passion. It recognizes precision and accomplishment, it recognizes that moving from point A to point B to point C is just as important as the end result. The judges praise people when they work hard, and never ridicule them when their hard work is not as successful as it could be. They just encourage them to go back and try again. And when it all falls into place, there is no happier look than the one on the face of a contestant who knows he or she has "nailed it."

And of course, when the orchestra starts to play, I just want to get up and DANCE!