Ty Murray danced into the hearts of America last night as wife, Jewel, looked on. Originally scheduled as a contestant, after three grueling weeks of practice, Jewel suffered a stress fracture in one leg and a stress reaction in the other and was forced to withdraw from the competition.
Ty and partner Chelsie Hightower performed the Cha Cha as their first dance, and I for one, thought they pulled it off. Obviously uncomfortable with the whole experience (especially the hand movements) during rehearsal, Ty said that “It’s just like bull riding, you’re never quite ready, then it’s your turn.” While the judges were a bit harsh and the team scored only 14 points, most of the scores were on the low side, something to be expected the first night out. The pair began and ended their dance number quite well, but lost each other in the middle, which definitely affected their score.
Bruno, who was doing his best imitation of Simon Cowel last night, asked Ty of his performance "What am I grabbing? Is it the bull? Is it the cow?" He stated that it looked more like an army drill than a dance, earning him a few boos from the crowd in the process.
Ty was disappointed. In his blog, he says that he and Chelsie did really well in the rehearsal and was embarrassed that nerves hit him in the performance. “I put a lot of work into it and Chelsie put a lot of work into and I was trying not to let her down. Then you have 20 million people watching me do something way out of my element and it's a heck of a lot tougher than it looks like sitting on the couch--I know that.”
He promised to practice hard and is looking forward to next week, where they will be doing the Swing. “The thing about messing up tonight and getting bad marks from the judges is that it leaves us a lot of room for improvement next week.” Murray is a perfectionist and an extremely competitive person. Undoubtedly he will practice as if his life depends on it and now that the first dance is over, will be much more relaxed for the second.
Jewel will be the musical performer for next week’s show. Having viewed the pictures of she and her partner dancing prior to her injury, I am really sorry that she had to withdraw. She looked lovely and the photos made her appear very graceful. I think she would have been really good.
Until next time….
Linda Peterson
