Julia here! Unfortunately, I had to take some time off from writing for this blog due to school and health issues (Don’t worry, nothing major!) but today I will be sharing my thoughts on Hayes Grier and Emma Slater’s partnership, as requested by my twitter followers!
I don’t think a lot of the older demographic of Dancing With the Stars viewership knew who Hayes was before he did the show, but the social media crowd certainly did. Hayes was the second social media-based celebrity to compete on the show, and the first one who found fame on the platform Vine. From what I’ve seen, being a teenage boy on Vine seems to have negative implications, mainly due to insensitive jokes and comments from certain users. I remember back in the summer when he was first rumoured and soon after confirmed to have signed on to do DWTS a lot of people were upset because of this negative aura surrounding the Vine community, which I didn’t find fair, as the reasons people had against Hayes doing the show didn’t seem to stem from anything he did, but from comments and actions of his brother, Nash (which I won’t get into here).
I personally didn’t find it fair that Hayes had so many people rooting for him to fail because of things he didn’t even do, but that’s the way it was. I was actually very happy he was doing the show because it meant Emma got to stay on as a pro! (For those who don’t know, she almost got demoted to troupe for Season 21 due to a lack of male celebrities willing to be on the show, and then her pro spot almost went to Lindsay Arnold once Hayes signed on. Ultimately, Emma was chosen to be his partner, but Lindsay wound up getting to be with Alek Skarlatos so they both won in the end!) I was also happy that not only did Emma get to be paired with someone younger than 40 this time around, she was actually the older person in the partnership! I didn’t really have expectations for his dancing itself; I just predicted he’d last at least a few weeks and that the DWTS producers made sure he was mature enough to do the show (they’d done so with all of the teenage contestants up to that point so I wasn’t too worried about it here).
While the first week was a little awkward to watch, what with the weird sexual vibe to the package, we soon got to see them enjoying working together. One of the first dances that made them really stick out to me was their Week 2 Quickstep.
I was surprised to learn that Hayes was actually a very shy person, but I based on his dances alone certainly I wouldn’t have been able to tell! I really liked the dynamic between Hayes and Emma. They just seemed very laid back and like they were having fun working together. I especially liked that they seemed genuinely interested in learning from each other. Since Emma grew up in England and Hayes is a social media star, they got to learn about different terms and practices they may have been previously unfamiliar with. The differences between them could have very easily been a weakness for them as a pair, as this sort of thing has been for couples in the past, but they used it to create a special and unique vibe of their own.
I was very sad to see them leave in Week 7, finishing in eighth place. I personally would have liked to see them stick around on the show longer, because they brought a much-appreciated down-to-earth vibe to Season 21. But most importantly, I was so happy to see how close they have remained even after the show, as Hayes seems to have done so with several other DWTS people, and Emma has done so with all her partners, as she said on twitter today.
I just think that is awesome that a pair so many people thought would turn out to be terrible ended up being an amazing partnership. Special shout-out to Emma for always putting her partners first and building real, genuine connections with them I know my heart will be broken tomorrow in the more-than-likely case that she is not announced as a pro. I will probably always feel that hole in my heart just a little but whenever I see the pairing pictures for this season and she is not there. But it’s great to see her positive, kind, grateful spirit shine through. Here’s to a lifelong friendship between Hayes and Emma!
Do you have any thoughts on Hayes and Emma? Let me know! See you soon for more DWTS fun!
And now I present to you one of my favorite dances of Team Slayes!
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