H-Town's own dance man

Mark Ballas opens up on the naive miracle of Bristol Palin & his John Mayer ways

But he has never gotten as much attention as he did this season with BristolPalin as his partner.
Photo by Chris Pizzello/AP
Balas is cool and collected.
Mark Ballas is a fixture on "Dancing with the Stars."
Photo by Adam Larkey/ABC

Mark Ballas, the two-time mirrored ball trophy winner on the ABC hit showDancing with the Stars, joins the cast of Burn the Floor, presented by Broadway Across America Tuesday through Sunday at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. Ballas, a Houston native, will be paired with So You Think You Can Dance Season 7 ballroom legend and Burn the Floor veteran Giselle Peacock.

Houston will finally get to see Ballas strut his steamy stuff with a pro in this ever popular ballroom extravaganza. After guiding Kristi Yamaguchi and Shawn Johnson to the winner's circle, Ballas took on total ballroom newbie Bristol Palin in the latest DWTS season, taking his young charge all the way to the finals.

Ballas can not only burn the floor, he's also not too shabby on the guitar. He's just released his first solo CD, HurtLoveBox. Born into ballroom royalty, Ballas is the son of undefeated ballroom champions Corky and Shirley Ballas and grandson of Weed Eater inventor George Ballas.

He chatted with CultureMap about his Houston return and of course Palin.

CultureMap: I've seen Burn the Floor on Broadway, it's like ballroom on steroids. I'll be excited to see you dance with someone who matches your impressive skills. Tell us about your experience with the show.

Mark Ballas: I learned it two days. These are true professionals and it's been such a fun experience. It's Latin and other ballroom styles, thrilling and really amazing to watch. If you are a fan of Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance, you are going to love the show.

If you are not already a dance fan, that's fine too, but dance lovers are really going to appreciate the show. I can't wait to do this show in Houston, my hometown. My grandparents will be in the audience, along with many family members. I hope I have represented Houston well on DWTS. But it's going to be so cool to get to dance in Houston. Sure, it's been a little hectic to go from the finals to learning a whole show. I just have to focus and go with it.

CM: Let's talk Bristol. She was your most unskilled partner thus far. Alaska isn't exactly a hotbed of dance. How did she compare to your other partners?

MB: You can't compare her to other partners. You can't even compare her to other contestants on the show this season, many of whom had dance training. It was so fun to mold someone from scratch, they become your creation. I have to keep them sane through the process, too.

I had to do that with Shawn Johnson. She had never danced with a partner before, but then again, she was an athlete. With Bristol, it was truly starting from the beginning. On the first day, she couldn't even walk in high heels. She was so naive and vulnerable.

It was amazing to take her as far as I did. I am extremely proud of her achievement. No individual has traveled as far as she did. If you watch what she accomplished from the start to the finish, you can see that she traveled an amazing journey.

Really, it was a miracle how well she did. Just awesome.

CM: How did you navigate the Palin spin machine, the Mama Grizzly and the controversy over making the finals?

MB: It was not an election. The show is not politics. Bristol is not Sarah Palin. You can't help who your mother is. I had to channel that stuff out.

As for making the finals, the complaining blows my mind. People have been complaining that the contestants have too much dance training. They finally got what they asked for, because Bristol had zero training and she was in that studio sometimes 11 hours a day.

The purpose of the show is for people to come home from a hard day of work and tune in to be inspired. It's joyous and positive. I think people truly enjoyed Bristol's journey.

CM: The last time we spoke, you were about to start your music career. You sound a little like a young James Taylor but hold the drug habit, very singer songwriterish, kind of Texas-y too, and not at all what I expected from a sexy ballroom dancer. What's happening in your musical life?

MB: Wow, thank you for comparing me to James Taylor. I think of myself along the lines of John Mayer or Maroon Five. I have a new album coming out this month, HurtLoveBox, that I am really proud of. I played all the guitars and the vocals. My music is not like the pop stuff you hear on the radio, it's about real life issues.

I will be going on tour soon, and hope we can stop in Texas.

CM: What don't we know about you and where can we get this album?

MB: That I have been playing guitar as long as I have been dancing. You can get HurtLoveBox at Walmart and online.

Mark Ballas leads Bristol Palin in a tango

Get a taste of Burn the Floor

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Movie Review

Daniel Craig shines in Queer, an unapologetic tale of love and loss

Photo courtesy of A24

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer.

As recently as the late 2010s, if a movie was made about an LGBTQ+ character, it was more than likely about their coming out experience. Romance, if it existed, was typically chaste, and actual sex was almost completely out of the question. Things have changed dramatically in the 2020s, to the point that a major movie star has no issue starring in a film called Queer.

Based on the 1985 novella by William S. Burroughs, the film features William Lee (Daniel Craig), whom everyone calls just Lee, a writer living in 1950s-era Mexico City who spends most of his time haunting local bars with friends like fellow writer Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman) and hitting on younger men. His early interactions in the film seem to indicate that Lee has a bad reputation within the local gay community, as multiple people avoid him or give him odd looks.

Lee senses an opportunity when he encounters a newcomer, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Despite some awkward interactions, the two of them start spending time together, although Lee has much more invested in the relationship than Eugene does. Their hit-and-miss bond continues until Lee, who’s starting to get into drugs in addition to the booze, convinces Eugene to accompany him on a trip to South America.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes (making their second straight film together after Challengers), early on the film seems to be mostly about the divide between an older person who’s grown comfortable in his ways and a younger person who’s living a relatively carefree life. The introduction of drugs into the plot changes things, though, with Lee searching out more ways to open his eyes to what the world has to offer.

Guadagnino and his team use some interesting visual storytelling techniques to introduce ideas that may not be present in the actual script. The most successful, demonstrated in multiple scenes, is the superimposition of movements by Lee over what’s actually taking place in the scene. The subtle overlay gives the audience insight into Lee’s true feelings, showing what he can’t or won’t say out loud.

Music also plays a big part in how the plot is perceived, with the use of anachronistic songs from Nirvana and Prince serving to heighten certain moments. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is not as in-your-face as the one they did for Challengers, but it complements the film well, especially when the plot starts to get trippy in its final half hour.

Craig, who appears sweaty and disheveled for much of the film, is about as far from the suaveness of James Bond as you can get in this role. He takes multiple risks with his performance and almost all of them pay off. Starkey’s character is subdued by comparison, but still comes off well. Schwartzman and Lesley Manville are given showy roles, with both using altered appearances that make them nearly unrecognizable to deliver memorable performances.

Queer is not as accessible as Challengers was storytelling-wise, but the fact that it tells a story about gay men living their lives as they see fit with no interference or questions shows how far the film world has come in a short period of time. It also continues Guadagnino’s streak of making audacious films in a way that few other filmmakers are willing or able to approach.

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Queer is now playing in theaters.

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