Thursday, January 21, 2010

Who's the tallest female professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars?


I admit to being intrigued by the thought of Conan O'Brien on Dancing with the Stars.  I don't for a second think he will compete, but it would be a sight to behold!

He is not only 6'4", but a gangly 6'4" reminiscent of Mike Teavee - the boy who was stretched to twice his own height in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory after shrinking himself in the chocolate television room.

But I digress.

I started to think who could be Conan's partner.  They would need to be tall (and very, very patient) so I thought I'd research the heights of the female professionals on the show.  Here's what I found:

Anna Demidova 5'10"
Edyta Sliwinska 5'6"
Kym Johnson 5'6"
Karina Smirnoff 5'5"
Cheryl Burke 5'4"
Julianne Hough 5'4"
Anna Trebunskaya 5'4"
Elena Grinenko  5'4"
Inna Brayer 5'4"
Lacey Schwimmer 5'3"
Chelsie Hightower 5'3"
Ashly DelGrosso 5'3"

(Chelsie is actually 5'2.5" but I rounded up!)

I was surprised that 2/3 of them are 5'4" or 5'3".  I don't know the distribution of female heights of the population in general, but this seems very clustered.  Perhaps dancers need a certain body type and a specific height is a key factor - something to do with center of gravity?

I was also surprised that Lacey was 5'3", I'd always imagined her as six foot!!

There have been a number of tall contestants in the past - Jerry Rive, Clive Drexler, Master P, Penn Jillette and others - and the ladies always seemed to cope very well, so maybe it's not an issue.  A sturdy pair of extra high heels is the answer, or has Anna Demidova got a job for life as long as there are tall celebrities?



3 comments:

  1. I know this is back from January, but oh well. Chelsie actually is 5'5" now. She said in an interview last year (SYTYCDism) that she measured and she grew after SYTYCD.

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  2. Penn Jillette was on and he's 6' 6" tall! Who was his partner?

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  3. I do not remember who PT had for a partner but they do not seem to take height into consideration with the partnering and that has left a few of the men looking like they are dancing with their pre-teen daughters. Rick Scott comes to mind... He had an unfortunate partnership with...Cheryl maybe. The men can deal, and often have to, but it is more difficult for them men if the woman is much more than 6 inches shorter according to a male dancer friend. That is actually the preferred difference for him and a few of his male dancer friends. Some of that 6 inches is made up with the woman's heels too so they would be closer than 6 inches when performing. I really though a few of the pros (or more of them) were taller. Peta is not on this list. I think she is taller.

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