Dancing

Dancing with the Stars – Another Mirror Ball for Apolo Anton Ohno?

It doesn’t matter if he’s competing in the Olympics or on Dancing With the Stars, Apolo Anton Ohno shows us what Commitment, Focus and Perseverance look like!

Last week 23 million people watched Dancing with the Stars and saw Apolo Anton Ohno and his partner Karina Smirnoff dance the Viennese Waltz to a tender Rascal Flats song about a woman battling cancer who only feels safe in the arms of the man she loves.

“He holds her close and for a moment she’s not scared,” says Apolo before the performance. “I am going to have to get to a place where I can show emotions I’ve never shown before.”

Jane Seymour: A Connection That Transcends Time

By Marsala

Jane Seymour - Up Close and Personal with Marsala Rypka Royal Wedding Mania has gripped America and ardent fans are anxious for newsy details about anything and everything that has to do with the historic day when Prince William takes Kate as his Princess Bride this coming Friday April 29, 2011.

Jane Seymour, the official British correspondent for Entertainment Tonight, has been happy to oblige – reporting on speculation about the wedding gown designer, the chic custom-made hats for the ladies attending the wedding, the royal carriage ride from Westminster Abbey, the kiss on the balcony at Buckingham Palace, the wedding ring forged from Welsh gold, the tiara, and on and on.

Seeing Jane in London so often this past week reminds me of the interview I did with her in 2007 about six weeks before she appeared on Dancing with the Stars We had a special connection at the time that we spoke. We were two daughters commiserating about the health of our ailing parents. My father who had bladder cancer died ten days after that interview, and Jane’s mom, who had recently suffered a stroke, passed away while Jane was on DWTS about ten weeks later. In my mind there will always be a heartfelt connection that links Jane Seymour to the last few precious days I had with my dad.

In My Next Life I’m Coming Back As Shirley MacLaine

By Marsala

Oprah is counting down the last few weeks of her show and I’m sure the Harpo team has been going through an intense selection process, mulling, deliberating, and debating each possible guest.

So it said a lot when Shirley MacLaine came on last week and Oprah called her “one of my greatest teachers.”

I’m certainly not in Oprah’s league, but I’ve also had the pleasure of interviewing Shirley MacLaine, whose birthday happens to be today, April 24, 2011. Ironically it’s also Easter Sunday, the day Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and Shirley MacLaine is a big believer in reincarnation and life after death.

At 77 years old she has not only had many past lives, but she has enjoyed many incarnations in this lifetime as an award-winning actress, dancer, honorary mascot of the Rat Pack, best-selling author, political activist, metaphysical student and teacher, and let’s not forget Warren Beatty’s older sister.

Priscilla Presley: Always Evolving

By Marsala

We may know things about peoples’ lives, but that doesn’t mean we know what’s in their hearts or understand the journey they’ve been on. That is true for all of us, but especially celebrities who are the subject of so much hearsay and gossip. That’s why it’s important to remember that speculation isn’t fact and rumors aren’t the truth and both can be destructive.

Take Priscilla Presley for instance. The public knows her as the only wife of Elvis Presley, the “King of Rock and Roll” and the mother of their only child, Lisa Marie Presley, who was once married to Michael Jackson. But what else do we really know about her?

Sinatra and Sammy Remembered!

By Marsala

On December 11, 2010, the night before what would have been Frank Sinatra’s 95^th birthday, I was at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas for the premier of SINATRA: Dance With Me, a show conceived, choreographed and directed by the renowned classical, jazz and contemporary dancer and choreographer, Twyla Tharp, who I interviewed in January 2008.

SINATRA: Dance With Me follows four couples who fall in and out of love at a night club. The show, which has no dialogue, blends the original master recordings of Frank Sinatra with a 17-piece orchestra and performances by 14 of the world’s most talented dancers who weave romance and seduction into classic standards like Fly Me to the Moon, That’s Life, and My Way.

As I sat transfixed by the artists’ fluid movements and Sinatra’s famous phrasing, the Ghost of Christmas Past brought me back to another time when Las Vegas was still a small, mob-style glamour-town rather than a sophisticated, cosmopolitan city.

I Could Have Danced All Night

By Marsala

From the moment I started watching Dancing with the Stars, I imagined what it would be like to gracefully waltz across the floor, do a sultry Tango or be the matador’s object of desire in the racy Paso Doble.

I’d always wondered if someone like me with two left feet and no rhythm could learn to dance other than in her dreams. I clung to my lame excuses until I interviewed Jerry Rice who told me how stepping out of his comfort zone and trading his football cleats for ballroom dance shoes was one of the best things he’d ever done.

Season after season I watched DWTS and I was thrilled when I also had the chance to interview Apolo Anton Ohno, Jane Seymour, Gilles Marini and Priscilla Presley for Luxury Las Vegas Magazine.

When each of them told me what a life-changing experience Dancing with the Stars had been for them, I knew it was time to discard my self-limiting beliefs that I was too old, too out of shape, too inhibited and too klutzy. I was ready to give in to total abandon and embrace this new adventure.

I knew that like anything in life, there were different levels of professionalism. I knew that if I was going to undertake this artful pursuit, I wanted to learn from the best in Las Vegas. I wanted to find my own Derek Hough, Mark Ballas or Maksim Chmerkovskiy.