TV Review: Dance Your Ass Off

Who says big people can’t dance? This Monday night Oxygen will premiere their new original unscripted series Dance Your Ass Off, which follows twelve overweight contestants as they attempt to lose weight by dancing.

The premise of the series combines your typical TV dance competition (think Dancing with the stars without the stars) and a weight loss competition much like The Biggest Loser. The contestants have trainers, dance instructors, their own costume designers and even a doctor around to help make sure the contestants’ medical issues are tended to and they’re getting healthy (and not hurting themselves in the process).

In the pilot episode, we’re introduced to the contestants and given a little bit of information about their backgrounds and their motivations. Their ages range from 23 to 43 and while some are single, others are married with kids. For most of them, weight has always been a problem but there are some contestants who were thin when they were younger and would like to get back to that place, physically.

The contestants are set up with a professional dance partner who works with them on their routine. The routine is only half the battle though. After each contestant performs, they’re weighed in and the score given to them by the judges is combined with the percentage of body weight lost. The contestant with the lowest combined score is eliminated.

If you’re looking for a series with amazing dancing, this isn’t it. The contestants can certainly dance but they’re hardly professional dancers and the routines aren't anything spectacular. Then again, this is coming from someone who’s blown away by some of the routines she’s seen on Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance. As far as great dancing goes, it’s kind of hard to go from regularly watching that show to Dance Your Ass Off and not see a drastic difference in this series. While some of the contestants have more skills on the dance floor than others, this isn’t a professional dance competition. The just-ok dancing has less to do with the contestants’ weight as it does their inexperience and I’m thinking that given the potential in some of the contestants, we’ll see a lot of improvements there as the series goes on. As far as I can tell though, this series has less to do with dancing as it does in seeing the contestants’ hard work pay off on the scale. What stands out more than anything is the enthusiasm and motivation of the contestants. They want to succeed. They’re willing to work for it and they’re not afraid to put themselves out there and have fun. It is for this reason above anything else that Dance Your Ass Off is a worth-watching new series.

CLICK HERE for video clips and contestant photos.



Dance Your Ass Off - Series Premiere
Starring: Marissa Janet Winokur (host), danny Teeson, Mayte Garcia and Lisa Ann Walter (judges)
Premieres: Monday, June 29 at 10:00 p.m., ET on Oxygen

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