Today's instalment of our "Spotlight" series is all about singer and reality star Erika Jayne!
Erika Jayne was born in at Atlanta circa 1971. She started training for the spotlight from a young age, attending a performing arts high school and moving to New York at 18, and Los Angeles a few years later. Erika appeared in several film and television projects in the 1990's, and released her first single, "Roller Coaster", in 2007, which soon became a top dance club hit. A couple years later, she released her debut album, Pretty Mess, which led to her own record label: "Pretty Mess Records".
In the years that have followed, Erika has released several more songs that went on to become dance chart hits, along with music videos to accompany some of them. (WARNING: THE FOLLOWING VIDEO CONTAINS ADULT LANGUAGE.)
In 2015, Erika received an LGBT Ally Award for "News Ally Entertainer of the Year for her support of the LGBT+ community. That same year, she began appearing on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills along with her husband, Thomas Girardi, to whom she has been married since 1999.
Erika has been paired with Gleb Savchenko for this season of Dancing With the Stars. Gleb is a Russian-born professional dancer and has competed as a pro on five seasons across four versions of the show around the world; one in Australia, one in Russia, one in the United Kingdom, and two in the United States.
Some highlights of Gleb's appearances on various versions of DWTS include:
@TheBentleyNinja: I’ve never really been drawn into watching any of those Real Housewives shows, mainly because it’s something that I wouldn’t find appealing, and I think the entire basis is odd (I mean, how can you call someone a housewife when they don’t even have to lift a finger?). I guess the show just isn’t for me; I don’t really get it. But to each their own.
Erika is a personality I think I can respect, though. She seems to not care about what other people think, and she does what she wants despite any possible judgement from others. She also appears to have quite a fun personality, but besides that, she hasn’t made much of an impression on me as compared to the rest of the cast.
And who would have guessed it? The sexually suggestive model has Gleb as her partner. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s kind of predictable. Gleb is once again going to be one half of a visually appealing couple, and while that’s great and all, I hope we see more of Erika’s personality shown to us through their video packages apart from her good looks.
It seems like this couple can end up going either way. America will either love them if they get a good edit, or America will end up more interested in some other couples if they don’t get a chance to see more of them. I have a feeling that Erika will be an okay dancer at first, and if she lasts awhile, I think she have a steady progression in refinement of her dancing skills to prove herself worthy of the Mirror Ball Trophy. But we’ll have to see about that.
@dwtsdreams: I didn't know who Erika was before the show but I am surprisingly excited for this partnership! Erika has surprised me so much already this season. After watching her soundbites and promo video she seems to have a great rhythm and pretty solid dance background. She is flexible, can retain choreography easily, has great rhythm, and can perform! She is one of the underrated dancers this season and she is going to blow people’s expectations out of the water.
I am not surprised that Erika got Gleb. He is branded as the sexy underwear model of DWTS. He is sometime paired with the “suggestive” women who the show can label as a “hot partnership filled with chemistry”. I am curious to see how DWTS brands their partnership, as how they categorize them will be a huge factor in voting numbers!
Last season, Gleb totally exceeded my exceptions and made him one of my favorite male pros. He is a great choreographer, comes up with cool creative concepts for his dances, knows how to motivate his partner, and tries not to push them too hard.
I am very excited to see how this partnership pans out!
@juliadelbel: Erika seemed to be pretty much me a non-event to me at first due to her seemingly quiet nature, but as it turns out she could very well be a contender for the Mirrorball Trophy! I didn't realize she had quite the performing career outside of Housewives, or that she even trained in dance with So You Think You Can Dance Season 9 champ Chehon! (And no, she is not a professional, but she does seem to be pretty darn good! :P) Now, she hasn't done ballroom before, but I think her experience in dance and other performance avenues will help her to be a fairly quick learner. Also, she actually seems to have quite the vibrant personality! (Apparently she was ill for soundbites and possibly the cast announcement.)
I think Gleb is a great partner for Erika, but I hope they don't push the sex angle on the two of them too much like they did when Gleb was with Jana last season. I'm not against sexy dancing, but I want to see more than one side to their partnership! And that leads me to my biggest concern for Erika: how the audience will perceive her. I worry that it may be far too easy for the producers to frame and edit her as "the sexual one" and not much else (I know that's not the case in reality, but many viewers may not) and I don't think enough of the audience would take to that for her to make it to the end. It's not nice when celebrities are forced into "boxes", so hopefully DWTS will allow Erika to show various sides of her personality and performance abilities.
TOMORROW: It may be our last Pre-Season Spotlight of DWTS 24, but our star of the day will be the FIRST Major League Baseball player to ever compete on the show!
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