Mark Pic

The weebly site is still down...GRRRR. So, I'll just post over here for now and move it over later.

I thought this was a good pic of Mark...surprising the paparazzi managed to get a good pic. lol

Media from the Emmys

Mark is in this one, talking about his hair (he plans to keep it for this season of DWTS...yay! I really like it) and DWTS. From ET:


Uploaded by Heidi (PureDerekHough): Derek, Chelsie, and Mark talking about DWTS rumors. From Entertainment Tonight on August 23, 2010:


Also, uploaded by Heidi...Mark appears right at the end and the video stops before Mark speaks. :( I'll see if I can find a full version of this video in the future: From E!News:


If you all see anything more out there, just let me know. I looked everywhere and I didn't see anything else.

DWTS Mark Ballas T-Shirt Design Contest

Dancing with the Stars Fever has begun! The pros will learn if they have been selected for season 11 sometime between today and August 30th.  The new cast will be announced on August 30th.  Sometime after that, we will learn who Mark's partner is.  As soon as we learn who the partner is, this contest begins. I will post more info about exact dates as soon as we have more information.

But, to get you ready for the contest and thinking about it, here is some basic information for it. Please note that the exact rules may change before the beginning of the contest.

________________________________________________________________________________

Bewitching Ballas has teamed up with @Babettessugar on Twitter to bring you a fun t-shirt designing contest!

The idea is to design a t-shirt for Mark Ballas and his Season 11 dance partner.  The t-shirt should be focused on the TEAM...not just Mark.  So, no Team Mark Ballas shirts. We want to include the lady too! ;)  Hopefully they will come up with a team name quickly, so we can include that one the t-shirts. :)

The contest will begin immediately after we find out who Mark's Season 11 partner is. How long the contest lasts will depend on how much time we have until the season premiere.  Hopefully, we will have a good two weeks to accept entries and then a couple of days to vote on the winner. Voting will be blind. In other words, the artist's name will not be included with the photos of the tee-shirt designs during the voting period. We will announce the winner's name at the end of the contest.

Everyone will be able to vote for their favorite design and then the winning design will be printed and the tee-shirts will be sent to Mark and his partner so they may wear them. We will also offer the design online, for purchase by the fans, so we all can promote them!

The Rules:

1. The design must be created in black on a white background. It allows for cheaper printing and printing on many colored tees. :)
2. Designs need to be fairly simple. Don't get too complicated because that hikes up the cost...and we want everyone to be able to afford to buy a tee! :)
3. The design should only be on one side of the t-shirt. You may decide what side to put the design on (please let us know when you submit your entry)
4. Designs may be drawn on a computer or on paper and then scanned. You will submit a photo of your design to us by email.
5. You may design up to three (3) separate designs. Only one design will win the contest.
   

Stay tuned for more details! :)

Forgot one! ;)

Oh, whoops, forgot this pic. Mark posted this from the flight home from Wisconsin.

Sleepy Marky:

photo copyright Mark Ballas, 2010

More photos from EM:HE

Mark has posted some twitpics from Extreme Makeover :)

Mark and Anna:

Again :)

Mark and Tony...broke out the photo booth again. hehe

photos copyright Mark Ballas, 2010

Mark Ballas at Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Not sure if I found everything...let me know if you've seen something out there I've missed. :D

Mark flew to Wisconsin on Sunday (August 15, 2010) to help with the demolition on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Chelsie, Anna, Derek, and Tony were also present.

Ty Pennington posted many pictures on his Twitter account:

 

 photos copyright Ty Pennington, 2010

Mark posted this photo of him and Anna at the airport...flew all night:

photo copyright Mark Ballas, 2010

PostCrescent has a bunch of pics:

photos copyright Anthony Wahl, 2010

Tweeter @SassyMonkey719 posted this pic of Mark and Derek:

photo copyright Niki (@SassyMonkey719), 2010

Video of the demolition. You can actually see Mark's arms in the crowd...but I included it mostly for the dance. This is their 'demolition' dance. lol


EMHE posted this behind the scenes video. Lots of Marky in this one :)


If I come across anything else, I'll add it! :)

Mark Ballas T-Shirt Contest #markballas

@Babettessugar and @BewitchBallas are working together to bring you a new contest!  When we find out who Mark's DWTS partner is for season 11, we will launch a contest for dance team t-shirt designs.  The winning design (from your votes!) will be sent to Mark and his partner! So get your creativity revved up. :) More details coming soon!

Fanvid: Mark Ballas & Kristi Yamaguchi

From 2008...but I can't help myself. It's so cute! A little tribute video for Mark and Kristi, set to the song "Popular" from the musical "Wicked": (by lunaleecreations)

Mark Ballas Retro Videos: 2008 DWTS Tour

Here are a few videos from the 2008 DWTS tour from RockOnDance (Corky):

Mark Ballas as Nerd Man...hehehe love this! :D


Mark and Derek:


Mark and Derek again...same dance, different performance:

Who is returning for DWTS Season 11?

I noticed people are already starting to ask about DWTS and if dancers are coming back.  (I wonder how annoying it gets for the dancers to have to answer that question over and over?)  ;)

Here's the deal - the dancers do not find out if they are returning until just before the season starts. Usually about 4 weeks before. Since the season doesn't start until September 20, 2010, I wouldn't expect any of the dancers to know if they are returning until the middle or end of August. Last summer (for season 9), it was mid-august before the dancers knew.  For season 10, they found out even later...only 3 weeks before the season started.

It all depends on the casting. The casting department has the difficult job of choosing a cast of celebrities each season that will:

• be interesting to watch
• reach out to as many viewer groups as possible
• will pair well with a pro dancer from the pool of pros at DWTS
• will work well as a whole cast

They go about doing this in a number of ways. There are many celebrities that request to be on the show - either they are big fans and want to give it a go, or it is a career move (get their face in the media again). Either way, these celebrities are considered for each season.  The casting department also reaches out to celebrities that they think would work well on the show and would enjoy doing the show.  And, finally, it's becoming more common for ABC to pimp their other shows by putting personalities on DWTS (i.e.: the Bachelor, Jake Pavelka).  I'm not fond of this last practice, but whatevs. Not much we can do about it.

There is a lot involved in getting an entire cast together each season and it can take a long time to nail it down. Sometimes contracts don't get signed until the very last minute.  This is why we don't know the celebrity list until the last minute. And this is also why the dancers don't know if they will be returning until the last minute. It's not really about ABC trying to be all sneaky - yeah they want to keep the locked down celebrities a secret so the big reveal of the whole cast is interesting - but the honest truth is that they just don't know what the final cast list is until just before it's announced.

In the first few seasons of DWTS, the producers did not tell the pro dancers who they were paired with before they met - it was a complete surprise to both the celebrity and the pro.  But, as I understand it, there were a few embarrassing moments when the pro didn't know who the celebrity was and had to ask "uhm, who are you?" Whoops. ;) So, they started telling the pros who they are paired with the day before they meet, so the pro will absolutely know who their celebrity is. :)

So, be patient. :) The dancers WANT to come back, but they honestly won't know if they get chosen as a pro for any given season until right before the season starts. Give it another month and we'll know. :) And, even if they don't get selected as a pro coach, they will probably still show up in the pro dance numbers on Tuesdays. :)

And that reminds me of another topic of confusion for some: It's not just about how popular the pro is, it also has to do with what celebrities sign on for the season.  Mark Ballas is 5'8", which means he can't dance with a gal who is taller than 5'6"-ish. And that might be pushing it. He looks better dancing with shorter gals. :) Also, he's a young gun, so they are gonna try to pair him with someone who is in their 30's or younger. Not only does it look a bit odd for a 24 year old guy to be dancing with a 50 year old...it's also entirely possible that Mark's peer group (fans near his age) wouldn't even know who the woman is....that's not good for voting. ;)  They also need to think about personalities.  The celebrity and the pro will be spending HUGE amounts of time together.  They need to get along.  It's not an exact science, but I think the casting department does a good job of pairing up personalities on the show.  Celebrities can request a certain pro as their partner, but it isn't a given that they will get that pro....the casting peeps know what will work and what won't.

{deleted the descriptions of his partners (body type, personality, age) and discussion of Sabrina b/c it was misunderstood and upsetting to some folks. I never wanted to hurt anyone. So, I'll just remove it. Sorry guys. love you all!}

Mark is a very sweet guy - he's passionate and very driven, but he's very dorky and enjoys being silly. The casting department tends to pair him with sweet ladies who have a silly personality as well or who are shy and need the type of guy who is encouraging and warm.

Two months from today! Wish it were tomorrow! ;) But, DWTS Season 11 will be here soon enough...I'll just have to be patient. :) 

ABC's Dancing with the Stars homepage: http://abc.go.com/shows/dancing-with-the-stars 

Retro videos: Mark & Sabrina interviews

A playlist of a few Mark & Sabrina interviews from Season 5 of DWTS:



Uploaded by classicTeamSabrina :)

Round-up post :)

It's about that time for a little spring cleaning post. Here are the links & info posted on the twitter feed that haven't made it to the blog yet:

Check out the info after the cut:

Kristi & Mark - Foxtrot & Mambo

Since Mark and Kristi are performing their Mambo and Foxtrot tonight at Kristi's event, I figured it wouldn't hurt to revisit the original performances. ;)

Foxtrot, Season 6, Week 1 (score: 9, 9, 9):


Mambo, Season 6, Week 2 (score: 9, 9, 9):

Mark's first performance on DWTS

Marky's very first performance on the DWTS stage - the season 5 opening pro dance. Up front and center! :)

My mom, YouTube, & Team Shark (oh, and Marky too)

I introduced my mother to YouTube yesterday. I got her a new phone (the Palm Pixi) and it has a YouTube app. I showed her and she immediately said "OMG, I can watch Mark and Shawn dance on my phone??" Seriously, she's a hugeTeam Shark fan. HUGE. :)

Ok, so am I. ;)


Anyhoo, after watching a few Team Shark dances and a few Shawn gymnastics videos, I showed her the videos of Cheryl and Mark dancing for Cheryl's Philippine Disaster Fundraiser and she really enjoyed them. The charity event was back on December 20th, 2009 at the Cheryl Burke Dance Studio in San Francisco. They danced Mark and Shawn's Cha Cha from season 8 and Cheryl and Gilles' Tango from season 8. They learned the dances in only a half hour, if I remember right. :) Cheryl looks gorgeous (love the dresses) and Mark looks handsome (oh, and watch out ladies....bare chest! .... on Mark, not Cheryl. Because that would be a whole different kind of show.....)  I've posted the videos previously - if you would like to watch them again (highly recommended) you can see the post here: http://bewitchingballas.blogspot.com/2010/02/dance-for-cause-with-cheryl-burke.html

I'll add this video to the mix....a little behind the scenes video from the charity event. Cheryl and Mark taught a little bit at the fundraiser too. :)


The point of this post? Well, it's because 1) it's so cute to see my mom excited about Shark. She thinks they should get married. LOL and 2) watching the previously mentioned videos led mom and I to watch more videos and I came across this rehearsal video of the pros from season 9. I remember this one....Marky gets a little upset in this video. Angry!Marky. Me no likey. Me likey Happy!Marky. Yes. :D


But, aside from the brief second of Angry!Marky, this is a really cool video. I LOVE behind the scenes stuff for anything. I love to see how things work. How things are done. I love DVDs that give you hours of 'making of' footage. So fascinating. :) So, this one gave us a lot of footage of the pros rehearsing, which we don't get to see often on DWTS. They never show a rehearsal package before pro dances. *sadface*

Mark & Melissa - Sept 14, 2009

Another oldie post ;)

Melissa Joan Hart and Mark attended a little Farewell & Good Luck party in Connecticut before season 9 of DWTS. Picapp has some photos from the event...here are a few. Be sure to check out the rest of the gallery at the website!

The party took place at the Tokeneke Club on September 14, 2009 in Darien, Connecticut.  Looks like it was a lovely party. :)

Photos copyright Christopher Capozziello/Getty Images

:D now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go laugh my bootie off at Craig Ferguson. ;) More Marky stuff tomorrow!

Finale Cha Cha - Shannen and Mark

Dancing the Cha Cha in the Finale. Way too short!

New photos :)

Mark and his cousin Sal spent the day together yesterday (May 26, 2010) - and visited the same diner twice in one day. These boys need a good woman to cook them some meals! LOL

Morning:

photo copyright Mark Ballas, 2010

Evening:

photo copyright Mark Ballas, 2010

Ok, this pic is actually of Lacey....but Mark is in the background! It counts right? ;) From the Big Bluff Launch red carpet, May 24, 2010:

photo copyright Christopher Hall, E! Entertainment, 2010

A couple backstage pics from the finale of DWTS, Season 10 (May 25, 2010), from YukiSNYC:

Mark and Kristi:

photo copyright Yuki Saegusa, 2010

Mark's feet:

photo copyright Yuki Saegusa, 2010

Also, some Red Carpet photos of Mark and others at Edyta's Bday bash, May 24, 2010: http://www.filmmagic.com/ItemListing.aspx?cgl=434437&evntI=0 Posted to twitter by Bewitching Ballas at 12:01 AM May 28th

photos from ABC.com - Finale

Season 10, week 10, results night "FINALE"

photos copyright ABC, 2010

Mark congratulating Derek - The Insider

The Insider with the couples after the Finale. Mark shows up to congratulate Derek at about :48