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

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! :)

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!

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