Why is anyone surprised by this? There’s plenty of people who go on Dancing with the Stars who can’t dance. Gerrard Gosens is a very inspiring man. He’s run marathons, flies an ultralight and plans to climb Mount Everest, all things most of us have no hope of achieving.
This is a man who in spite of his visual impairment, is used to being good at things, and is obviously extraordinarily competitive and is accustomed to positive feedback and public adulation.
But he can’t dance to save himself. I saw him on Sunday night on Dancing with the Stars, and as McKenney pointed out, Gosens has no rhythm, hunches his shoulders, and doesn’t exactly look like he’s cutting up the dance floor.
As McKenney said: “to be honest, you are not a great dancer ... and I have to judge the dance, and not an audience of 1.6 million.”
One of the judges also told Layne Beachley, after her routine resembled a truckie auditioning for the Pussycat Dolls, that for a dancer she makes an excellent surfer.
Gosens has complained McKenney offered no positives and was sending a “terrible” message to other people with physical impairments, especially his daughter Taylor, who is blind from the same degenerative condition as her dad.
“I have passion and desire to improve as a dancer,” Gosens said. “But maybe Todd doesn’t believe that because there was absolutely no sense of hope for me.”
Since when have prime time reality television/light entertainment programs been about self-improvement and and passion? There’s two elements to Dancing with the Stars, popularity and ability. Gosens has obviously go the first one in spades, thanks to his can-do approach. He’s seriously lacking in the second.
Much has been made of the “world first” of having a blind contestant on the program. But anyone who thinks Chanel Seven is doing it as some kind of public service to the visually impaired is fooling themselves.
Gosens is no wallflower, he’s on the speaking circuit, is a Paralympian and is the recipient of many awards and accolades. He would have known Seven was exploiting him and decided exploit them in return.
He still can’t dance.
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