Sunday, December 21, 2008

Toni Braxton Shines at Dancing with the Stars tour


Toni Braxton is back. The 6 time Grammy Award winner shined with the cast of the Dancing with the Stars tour in San Jose, CA December 19th. 

The tour features celebrity dancers Lance Bass, Toni Braxton, Maurice Greene, and Marlee Matlin.  Professional dancers Mark Ballas, Cheryl Burke, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Derek Hough, Kym Johnson, Alec Mazo, Fabian Sanchez, Lacey Schwimmer, Edyta Sliwinkska, and Karina Sminoff and company dancers. Season 6 winner Kristi Yamaguchi made a special appearance dancing two numbers. The first routine Jive she did on the show as well as her freestyle number. Host Tom Bergeron and Samantha Harris welcomed the audiences via the three enormous video screens. Then, the entire Dancing with the Stars tour cast strutted on stage to thunderous applause. After the first number, Lance Bass took the microphone and set the tone for the evening in terms of emcee duties. 

Toni Braxton and her partner, Alec Mazo, dazzled with their Cha Cha Cha to Santana’s "Smooth". Afterward she emceed and entertained Mazo's family in the audience and even signed a special autograph for Alec's mom and dad. Braxton and Mazo entertained the  thousands with Dancing with the Stars moves seen in living rooms of all that were now live and in person including their sexy Rumba to Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me". 

The stage mirrored the Dancing with the Stars set audiences adore on TV. A black dance floor greeted Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Cheryl Burke, Derek Hough and the six other professional dancers, who proved to also be the stars of the night. 

Watching professional dance is nothing less than a gift. Seeing it performed at its highest level is beyond human. The Dancing with the Stars professionals on the 2008 tour are flawless. Led by Maksim, Burke, Derek Hough, Edtya Sliwinska, Kym Johnson, Lacey Schwimmer and Karina Smirnoff, their crisp execution of choreography challenging, engaging and jaw dropping. 



Edtya, in particular of the professionals, shines with her beautiful smile and sexy legs. She and husband Alec Mazo danced to Toni Braxton's number one hit "Breathe Again" sung by Toni Braxton. Afterward they disappeared and Toni ventured off into the audience to serenade some special male audience members. (Watch video here).

Toni Braxton performed her number one hit and the 2nd biggest single from a female artist ever, "Un-Break My Heart." Midway through the song the entire cast joined in and provided one of Dancing with the Stars tour's most unforgettable moments. Here Toni Braxton showcased some of her strongest vocals in a while as the entire cast helped pump up the audience during the dance section of the song. (Watch video here). 

Each Dancing with the Stars pair danced together and after completing their greatest set, grabbed the microphone and gabbed with the crowd. Especially effective in this capacity was Lance Bass, Toni Braxton, dancers Cheryl Burke and Maksim, as well as Maurice Greene and Marlee Matlin. 

The live band from the show sits beneath the stage the dancers command. Performing current hits including Jennifer Hudson's "Spotlight" and Beyonce’s "Single Ladies", the Dancing with the Stars tour is current on so many levels. It was only yesterday that these dancers were performing for millions on ABC each week. 

Costuming is another facet of the Dancing with the Stars experience that has made the ABC show an enormous hit over seven seasons. The Dancing with the Stars tour does not disappoint in that capacity either.

The set ended with the entire cast including the celebrity and company dancers dancing to ABBA's "Dancing Queen."

Both fans of the show and fans of all the stars will be pleasantly surprised by how amazing this show is. 

You can catch the Dancing with the Stars tour at a city near you. Purchase tickets for the Dancing with the Stars tour now! 

6 comments:

A Lost Soul said...

You sure you were not there with Tom and Samantha hosting the show? :-) Thanks for the write up. I am eager to see Toni on the 27th and glad to know what to expect. So did you get closer seats like you wanted? I am still planning on taking your advice.

Tonisloverboy said...

Haha. You're so silly. I actually ended up missing the venue I was scheduled to attend due to an emergency. I freaked out because ticketmaster was not budging. Toni's camp reached out to me and extended some free tickets (table seats and guest passes) for me to attend the next show 4 1/2 hours away in San Jose, CA. So I really lucked out. Thanks Toni and camp!

A Lost Soul said...

I really don't like you anymore and I think I need to stop following your blog. :-) Are you kidding me? You got table seats and passes!!!! I would pry more but I think it might just upset me more. Really glad you got to see the show and get some photos and video to share. Still may boycott your blog for 2 minutes...lol.

Tonisloverboy said...

Nooo don't boycott this blog! Lol. Yeah actually it was a really messy situation and I just wanted to die and Toni saved the day. Are you on facebook? I posted the note and many pictures of the concert there. The note goes into detail everything that went wrong before it all went so right.

Anonymous said...

I saw the show in Tampa and while Toni was fabulous with her dancing she did not appear to be really singing the songs. I am hearing impaired and read lips and was watching her on the screen and her mouth was not in sync with the words of the song.

Tonisloverboy said...

Thanks for commenting. That's strange. But to clear up that... She actually does really sing the songs because they sound a bit different each night especially Breathe Again. Glad you enjoyed her dancing and again thanks for commenting.