Dancing with the Stars

Dancing with the Stars season 7 is only days away. When the show premieres on September 22, we'll get to see firsthand how the 13 new celebrities, led by their adept professional partners, have taken to their new avocation of ballroom dancing. Until then, however, we really only have some rehearsal photos and our prior knowledge of the contestants to rely in order to make our preliminary assessments.

Last week, I took a look at the team made up of Cloris Leachman and Corky Ballas, the oldest team in the competition. Today, I look at the youngest team, Cody Linley and Julianne Hough.

Cody Linley

Pros:
At not quite 19 years of age, Cody Linley of Hannah Montana fame is the youngest celebrity to enter the ballroom competition in the history of Dancing with the Stars. Younger competitors often have an advantage in endeavors as physical as ballroom dancing. They tend to have more energy and recover faster from intense workouts, so we might see him giving a lot more effort than the old fogies he's competing against.

Cons:
Cody Linley may be young and spry, but he's also still an adolescent. My fear with him is that he hasn't quite grown into himself yet. He might still be at the awkward stage, especially if he's given a really romantic and sexy style to perform. It's really hard to tell what's going on in these pictures, but I sense that he might also be one of those dancers who over-thinks all his moves and doesn't loosen up enough. Of course, we'll have to wait and see.


Julianne Hough

Continuing into this season, Julianne Hough remains the youngest pro on Dancing with the Stars. (Newcomer and So You Think You Can Dance alumna Lacey Schwimmer is young as well, but older than Julianne by 20 days.) Last season, Julianne was with Adam Carolla, who, by all intents and purposes, is a dirty old man. It'll be a nice change to see Julianne as the older woman this season. She's always been a take-charge kind of dance teacher, but I wonder if her dynamic with Cody will be different than that with her other partners. I'm sure she'll have a great time bossing Cody around, perhaps making teaching a little bit easier for her. In any case, she reliably produces very fun and interesting choreography, and she will be a pleasure to watch this season.

Julianne has lucked out with two amazing partners, Apolo Anton Ohno and Helio Castroneves. If she wins again this season with Cody, she'll further secure her place as the winningest Dancing with the Stars professional, a title I'm sure she really wants to keep as her own.

Read more pre-season analyses:
Maurice Greene and Cheryl Burke
Ted McGinley and Inna Brayer
Kim Kardashian and Mark Ballas
Jeffrey Ross and Edyta Sliwinska
Warren Sapp and Kym Johnson
Brooke Burke and Derek Hough
Toni Braxton and Alec Mazo
Cloris Leachman and Corky Ballas
Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer
Rocco DiSpirito and Karina Smirnoff
Susan Lucci and Tony Dovolani
Misty May-Treanor and Maksim Chmerkovskiy





-Debbie Chang, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Images courtesy of ABC)