Pure Derek Hough

Derek Hough Partnered with Jennifer Grey, Movie Actress & Star of Dirty Dancing

Miscellaneous Trivia

Week 1
• Derek and Jennifer danced a moving and beautifully acted Viennese Waltz to “These Arms of Mine”, which was the same song that was playing before Johnny and Baby made love for the first time in the movie, Dirty Dancing.

FUN Derek FACT:  Multi-talented Derek has been trained not only in Latin and ballroom dancing, but  jazz and tap as well. He choreographs, he draws, he is an accomplished painter, and he plays the drums, the piano, and the guitar. See The Biography of a Song and Dance Man
Week 2
• Despite receiving the highest scores of the night for their dance, the audience booed the judges for what they considered to be an underscored jive. News media inaccurately reported that the booing was for Sarah Palin, a guest in the audience.

FUN Derek FACT:  Derek has Rock n’ Roll in his blood. His paternal grandfather, Bob Hough, was a well-know and extremely popular Rock n’ Roll DJ for over 40 years in north Idaho, known as “Bubblehead Bob”. He was also responsible for bringing Elvis Presley to Spokane, Washington. (Scroll to “The Voice of North Idaho”)
Week 3
• Derek and Jennifer earned the score of 24 for the 3rd week in a row.
• The theme this week was “Story Week” and Derek’s dance told the story of his crush on his 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Fox.
• Derek was praised for his complicated samba choreography, but a mis-step at the beginning of the dance caused the score to be lower than it otherwise might have been.

FUN Derek FACT: At the tender age of 20, Derek played the lead role of Ren McCormick in the original London cast of Footloose: The Musical on the West End. The production played to packed houses, earning Derek a prestigious nomination: the Stuart Phillips London Newcomer of the Year. For his first professional nomination, Derek came in 2nd out of 6 nominees.
Week 4
• Derek and Jennifer finally earned a score other than “24″. , returning them to the top of the leaderboard.
• Their Argentine tango earned them their first 9′s and………the first 10′s of the season for any couple.
• The judges’ praise was effusive: CAI-The precision was incredible. L-Excellent technique. B-Primetime delight. Fantastic.
• Derek’s tango scores in 7 seasons  have been his highest dance scores, not including his freestyle scores.
• Derek and Jennifer re-danced the tango, with a slightly different beginning, for the Result’s Show ENCORE. Tom commented that it was even better the second time around, if that were possible.

FUN Derek FACT: Did you know that Derek is afraid of clowns? This phobia is not as uncommon as you would think. Fear of clowns, known as coulrophobia, is one of the Top Ten most common fears.
Week 5
• For TV Theme Week, Derek and Jennifer danced the Foxtrot to Frank Sinatra’s Love and Marriage song, the theme song for Married With Children.
• This week’s dance was overshadowed by a producer edit that included a minor tiff between the couple.
• Derek and Jennifer found themselves in jeopardy for the first time this season.

FUN Derek FACT: While living in London, Derek attended the Italia Conti Academy, Britain’s oldest and most prestigious theatre arts training school. One of the Academy’s amateur productions was Jesus Christ Superstar in 2004. Derek played the lead role of Jesus. His nemesis was none other than his friend and ‘brother’ Mark Ballas, who played Judas.
Week 6
• It was a rough week for Team Jenougher (Baby Derek, Grough), with Derek & Jennifer falling to 5th place.
• The score of 20 for their Pasodoble was only the second time Derek has ever received a score lower than a 21 for any dance. Prior to this week, Derek’s Pasos had an average of 27.6.
• His Futuristic Paso from Season 9 won 6th place in DWTS’s Top Ten Dances, with his 50′s Paso from Season 10 winning 4th place.
• Though coming in 2nd in the Rock n’ Roll marathon, this is the first time Derek did not actually win.

FUN Derek FACT: Derek was born on May 17, 1985, making him a Taurus Sun Sign, an Aries Rising Sign, and an Aries Moon Sign in western astrology. In Chinese astrology, he’s an OX. Is it a coincidence that he named his guitar OX too?  His birth hour is a Tiger; his birth month is a Snake. In western numerology, he is a 9 Life Path (Not surprisingly, his Life Path number belongs to one of the creative series of numbers 3-6-9, as opposed to the cerebral or business series of numbers).
Week 7
• Derek continues to be the only pro who has taken all of his multiple partners to week 7 in the competition.
• Derek and Jennifer returned to the top of the Leaderboard with an awesome tango, which was the recreation of the tango done by Drew Lachey and Cheryl Burke in Season 4.
• Apolo Anton Ohno (from Season 4) was one of the captains for the cha cha team dance. The first person he chose to be on his team was Derek (Jennifer’s name was mentioned after Derek’s.)

FUN Derek FACT:  At the age of 5, Derek discovered that dancing was a “babe magnet”. With umbrella in hand, and 8 little girls dancing around him, he danced to Gene Kelly’s Singing in the Rain. And now at 25 years of age, it can safely be said that Derek is still magnetizing those little girls (and some big girls too.)
Week 8
• For the second week in a row, Derek and Jennifer landed at the top of the Leaderboard, but tied with one other couple once again.
• Derek and Jennifer earned the season’s first perfect score of 30 for their hot, sexy  “Insta-Dance” rumba.
• This was the first 30 Derek has earned for any of his rumbas, and one of only three rumbas to earn a 30 in the history of Dancing With the Stars (US).  The others were Joey Lawrence/Edyta Sliwinska and Mel B/Maks.
• Since season 5, Derek has earned 8 other 30′s. One for his cha-cha (S-5), Foxtrot (S-7), V. Waltz (S-7), Freestyle (S-7), 50′s Paso (S-10), Argentine Tango 2x (S-10), and Jive (S-10). (Thanks, Dee!)
• Derek and Jennifer performed an awesome, entertaining Quickstep, in which Derek did a few tap moves taught to him by Jennifer’s father, dance and entertainment legend, Joel Grey. Bruno said it was like watching a vintage Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers classic Quickstep.
• Dance Center had a fun spoof on Derek and Jennifer this week.

FUN Derek FACT: Far past the midnight hour, more like 4:00 in the morning, Derek was born in a hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. While his mom was in labor, a nurse turned on the TV set, and there was Billy Idol singing and screaming “more, more, more” (from the song Rebel Yell).  Words from the song are: Last night a little dancer came dancin’ to my door. Last night a little angel came pumping cross the floor. Now you understand why Derek was born to be a dancer/entertainer. Coincidentally, Derek danced to the song Rebel Yell on the DWTS tour in 2009. Do you think he remembers hearing the song when trying to exit the womb?
Week 9
• Yeah!!!!!!!! Derek and Jennifer made it through to the finals.
• In seven seasons on the show, this is the 3rd time Derek has made it to the finals. The last two times, he won the prized Mirrorball Trophy. (By the way, he has made it to the semi-finals with 5 of his 7 partners.)
• This week, Derek and Jennifer returned to the top of the Leaderboard with two perfect 30 scores for their sexy, energetic cha cha and their smooth, flowing, romantic waltz.
• This is the 1st time that Derek has earned two 30′s with any of his partners before week 10.
• This was the 6th time in 9 weeks in which Derek and Jennifer topped the Leaderboard, and the 4th time that they did not share this honor with any other couple.
• Derek won the Design-A-Dance with fellow pro, Cheryl Burke! This is the 3rd time out of four competitions that Derek has won. Their performance to a rock n’ roll concept, envisioned by a viewer, was sooooo cute.

FUN Derek FACT: Derek has been referred to as “an elasticated blond bombshell whose limbs seem to be treble-jointed and whose control and execution of moves at high speed is a wonder…” For which of his performances does this quote apply?
1- His leading, star performance in Footloose: The Musical on the West End in 2006.
2- His 13 performances, 5 back-to-back while on the 2008 DWTS Winter tour.
3- His incredibly energetic performance of the Jive with Nicole Scherzinger in the finale of Season 10, spring 2010.
The answer to this question, can be found: Here
Week 10
• After combining the viewer votes with the judges’ scores for 4 dances, Derek and Jennifer were proclaimed the winners of Season 11.
• Derek joins Cheryl Burke and Julianne Hough as the only pros with back-to-back wins, but….he is the only pro to have a hat trick, three wins!
• On the 1st night, Derek and Jen danced a splendid and beautifully choreographed pasodoble as their redemption dance, most definitely redeeming themselves from the 20 they earned for their previous paso in week 6.
• Their crowd-pleasing freestyle was inspired by the watermelon scene from Dirty Dancing. (Is Jennifer really 50 years old?)
• On the 2nd night, Jennifer informed the audience that she had ruptured a disc in her spine from performing the freestyle, however, a nerve block, placed in her spine, allowed her to complete the season’s 2 remaining dances, earning herself and Derek the mirrorball trophy.
• Derek and Jennifer chose, as their favorite dance, their opening night  Viennese Waltz to These Arms of Mine, from Dirty Dancing. (See Week 1)
• Their insta-dance was a cha-cha, performed in tandem with the two other finalist couples.
• Combined with last week’s scores, Derek and Jennifer earned a record setting 6 back-to-back 30′s. Previously, the most 30′s earned by any pro and his celebrity partner have been five, but the most back-to-back 30′s have been 3 (Mark and Kristi in Season 6).
• Jennifer’s season average with Derek is only .5 of a percent less (27.2) than that with Nicole (27.7), and .1 of a percent higher than that with Brooke (27.1).
• And that’s a wrap on this season, the most controversial season since the Season 1 Dance-off debacle!

FINAL FUN Derek FACT:  Our three-time champ has now partnered with 7 celebrities since arriving on the scenes of DWTS. Prior to DWTS, he had won championships in Amateur (under 21) Latin Dance with four major partners. At the age of 13, he partnered with Leanne Noble (1998-1999), followed by Heidi Clark at 15 (2000-2002, then Aneta Piotrowski at 17 (2002-2004), and finally Rosa Filippello at 19 (2004-2005). His competitions with these partners, allowed him to travel the globe, journeying to 3 different continents. What a world traveler he has been! He competed in: NORTH AMERICA: the United States, ASIA: Japan, and multiple countries in EUROPE: Czechoslovakia, Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, and Russia. Of course, he’s also been to the continent of AFRICA: Tanzania………..but that’s another story.

And the winners are…………………..!

Weekly Scores

Week-By-Week Partner Comparisons

Dance Score Comparisons

Group Dance Comparisons

* Derek was out sick with the flu. Maksim Chmerkovskiy replaced him.”
** Era Pasodobles: Joanna – Futuristic, Nicole – 50′s.
*** Season 9 – Mambo, Season 10 – Swing
****Average is skewed due to one more judge’s score for the tango in Season 11.