Season 1
12 episodes
45 min. per episode
Where to watch
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An aspiring dancer battles self-doubt and competition, discovering strength and friendship while transforming body and spirit through rhythm.
Episodes
Host Marissa Jaret Winokur goes behind the scenes in the search for the twelve contestants who will compete in the inaugural season of the show. The top thirty applicants, who provide a bit of their background and their reasons for wanting to appear on the show, are brought to Hollywood for the final audition to narrow it down to the top twelve. Head choreographer Lisa Ligon goes through a dance routine with each to assess basic dance skills. Marissa introduces the three judges for the season and explains the scoring for the show, before she announces the twelve finalists chosen by choreographer Lisa, judge Lisa Ann Walter and physician Rob Huizenga.
The twelve contestants arrive at the house where they will live for the duration of the competition. They are immediately faced with healthy foods versus junk foods in the house, which reflects what they face in real life. The contestants meet their support team, including their individual choreographer/dance partner. For their inaugural dance, each contestant is free to choose whatever dance style to perform, but each is to incorporate his/her signature move. In random order, the first ten contestants to perform for the judges are those with the highest weight loss scores. The bottom two contestants in terms of weight loss dance last and are provided their dance scores last. Before Danny announces his score for the last contestant which will determine who goes home, he offers words of encouragement to whoever is the first contestant to leave the show.
With Amanda being the first contestant eliminated after the first dance and weigh-in, the remaining eleven contestants head into disco week. Most are apprehensive about this dance style, which they deem outside of their comfort zone. One person who demonstrates that discomfort and frustration is Alicia, the emotions of the week which she takes out on some furniture and the junk food cabinet in the house. For some, their fears about the dance hold true as reflected by their scores and judges' comments. Others, however, surprise both themselves and the judges by putting on an impressive performance. One contestant who has an extra hurdle is Tara, who was cleared by Dr. Huizenga just prior to the dance night, to perform as she incurred a knee injury earlier in the week. As the bottom two contestants stand in front of the judges, Lisa Ann offers her words of encouragement to the one who is safe and the person eventually eliminated.
With Warren being eliminated after the latest dance and weigh-in, there are ten contestant remaining. The theme for this week scares many of the contestants for several reasons. That theme is stripper pole. Many fear the overt sexual connotation and exposure associated with stripping. Others fear the flexibility and upper body strength required to do the pole dancing. At Crunch Gym in West Hollywood, they are all instructed on the basic moves in pole dancing. The judges' critiques focus in on the key areas of sexiness, and the use or lack of use of the pole itself. The eliminated contestant is the one who didn't believe in his/her own sexiness and who lacked movement on the pole.
With Karla being eliminated after the latest dance and weigh-in, there are nine contestants remaining, they who head into Latin week. Many are scared about the dance style because they know the demanding and exacting technical aspects of the dance. However, some feel that their Latin ethnic backgrounds will help in the dance. At the beginning of the week, Marissa provides them with news that disturbs most: it will be a double elimination week. A few see the double elimination as news which will spur them on to work even harder. Some who have not had the greatest weight loss to date focus more on their calorie consumption. Two of the contestants face additional challenges. The first is Shayla, who suffered a sprained ankle in rehearsals during the week. She vows to dance through the pain on performance night. The second is Mara, who has had an on-going battle of wills with her professional dance partner, Paul.
A group of overweight people are entered into a weight loss/dance competition. Housed together for the duration of their time in the competition, the contestants are provided with a general fitness trainer, a nutritionist, a physician, and a costume supervisor. Each is also provided a professional dance partner/choreographer, with who he/she performs a series of dance routines in front of a panel of dance experts, who score the routines on a scale of 1 to 10. Each week, the averaged dance score for each contestant is added to his/her weight loss score (the percentage of weight loss for that week). The person with the lowest overall score for the week is eliminated from the competition until there is one contestant left standing, who is named Dance Your Ass Off champion.