Here's the rundown: After season 5 ended, Sabrina Bryan and her fellow Cheetah Girls performed at the taping of "Kristi Yamaguchi: Friends & Family" at the US Airways Center in Phoenix. Sabrina brought dance partner/boyfriend Mark Ballas to the taping. At that point, Sabrina asked Kristi to volunteer for DWTS. She said yes. Aftter the taping, Sabrina and Mark continued on the DWTS Tour until late January when Sabrina had to fly to India to film the third Cheetah Girls movie. Back in the States, Mark and fellow DWTS amigo Derek Hough performed in small venues after several tour dates as the band Almost Amy. Filming for the third Cheetah Girls movie ended recently and just last week...Surprise! Sabrina was in the audience with fellow Cheetah Girl Adrienne Bailon cheering on Kristi and Mark. The only thing left in ths chain of people and events is Kristi's husband, Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Bret Hedican. Unfortunately, he may not come to L.A. because the Carolina Hurricanes are currently playoff-bound and he's responsible for looking after two daughters, Keara and Emma. Don't worry, folks. He's got every DWTS episode this season TiVo'ed back home in Raleigh on WTVD, Raleigh's ABC11. And that's what "The Sabrina Bryan Effect" is. Coincidence? Definitely. Deja vu? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide for yourself.

Honestly, I feel it is because of her ice-skating abilities. One has to have grace and athletic ability to perform those skating routines. I don't know abt Kristi but some of the ice-skaters from years passed took ballet to learn the graceful moves. Kristi did say the only difference between ice-skating and ballroom dancing is the amount of footwork she must do. So in essence she learns quickly how to move ones arms and how to hold her head while dancing. She did the same thing as an ice-skater.

A boxer like Floyd Merriweather had an advantage too since boxers have to learn to be light on their feet. He had the advantage of feet movement.

Honestly, I feel it is because of her ice-skating abilities. One has to have grace and athletic ability to perform those skating routines. I don't know abt Kristi but some of the ice-skaters from years passed took ballet to learn the graceful moves. Kristi did say the only difference between ice-skating and ballroom dancing is the amount of footwork she must do. So in essence she learns quickly how to move ones arms and how to hold her head while dancing. She did the same thing as an ice-skater.

A boxer like Floyd Merriweather had an advantage too since boxers have to learn to be light on their feet. He had the advantage of feet movement.


I agree totally. I'd never watched DWTS until this season (won by Kristi)...my wife had watched a season or two before, and when I heard that Kristi was going to be on it, I thought i'd check it out.

My wife and I knew right off the bat that Kristi was going to win the competition, if the voters had any brains (I'm sure everyone knew that). None of the other people on the show had anything like the dance training that Kristi would have had during her competitive figure-skating days.

The only question was, how would Kristi do under the "pressure" ? But my thinking was, "compared to winning an Olympic Gold Medal in an individual sport such as figure skating, DWTS is nothing!"

And I'm sure Kristi took all kinds of dance lessons during her figure skating career in order to learn footwork and improve her agility.