Donyelle + Ivan = Something Interesting...

HOLD ON!! Not really thinking of them as a couple .... but, a person on the fox boards noticed something cute and I'd like to share it. Ivanatic (Naudette) posted:

I live in Canada and I have been rewatching all the episodes (like 8 times a week), and I've come to notice something that I've never noticed before.

Ivan follows Donyelle around like a little puppy dog.

At the end of each episode they play the theme song, and everyone kind of dances around while the credits roll. I always take special notice to this because you can kind see who is friends with whom by who they are dancing with. I’ve noticed in the last 4 episodes that Ivan and Donyelle have always been dancing together.

Top 20: The music plays at first Ivan is dancing by himself and Donny is dancing with Benji, then Ivan interferes and attempts to Salsa dance with Donny for the rest of the song.

Top 18: Ivan is in his little hip hop camouflage gear, Donyelles in her Cuchi Cuchi dress. As soon as the music starts playing to cue them to dance, Benji whom Donyelle is standing besides, runs off to find heidi to do some Mambo lifts, leaving Donyelle alone. Ivan runs over to her faster than you can say 'obvious much?'. They dance for the rest of the time together.

Top 16: This one is hilarious. As soon as the music starts Ivan makes his way over to Donyelle. She dances with him for a couple seconds, and then kind of runs off to find some other people to dance with. Ivan follows her! She’s dancing away and he is shadowing her every move right behind her. She actually goes all the to the other side of the stage, Ivan trailing behind her the whole time. She tries to dance with Ryan (correct me if I’m wrong on this one, it could’ve been another dancer cant remember) but Ivan just interferes, so the three of them kind of dance together. I thought this was hilarious, if anyone has a clip you have to watch it.

Top 14: Not quite sure what happens at the beginning since it was they were out of cameras view for the first 5 or so seconds. The camera then pans over the other side and... what do you know! Ivan is getting his flirt on with Donyelle, smacking her butt and trying to dance with her. They dance side by side for the rest of the time until the show ends.

Lmao, has anyone else noticed this? I think its hilarious. Ill keep you updated on the episodes to come too see if he still follows her around still. Canadians, watch for it as well when it reruns. You'll see what im talking about. ;)

I find this sooooo cute!

~Suzuki

Donny Videos!!

Here are some places where you can find videos of Donyelle:

~A short video where she's filming the crowd with her camera!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuyWaZOX0Q8

~Donyelle, Jamyz, Martha, Ryan, and Benji dancing & singing Happy B-Day to someone.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...eoid=1359251613

~A video Donyelle posted herself is on her myspace NOW!!!!

http://www.myspace.com/iamdonyellejones

Enjoy the videos!

Donyelle's an Awesome Teacher!!!

Hey people, I'm back (again,again)! Here's a blog from a girl who attended Donyelle's dance class. It's really great! She wrote:

This past weekend, Donyelle was teaching at the CanDance convention at the Palais Des Arts in Hull, Quebec. This is only a two minute drive from Ottawa unless you are me and have a tendency to easily miss roads and get lost.

After much personal debate and struggle, I decided to just go. I knew that I would be the only fan there, and that was my biggest hesitation, but I kept telling myself that the chance of having Donyelle in Ottawa again was pretty much slim to none, and I'd regret it more if I did not go. After all, Ottawa is my hometown (not Hull which I got lost in twice).

I was right about being the only fan observing. The class was set up so that there was a big stage in the room with lighing and loud music. I really liked this set-up because it elevated her from the group of at least 70-100 14 year old girls and a couple of guys, so I could see her all of the time.

She comes out with completely new hair, and I did not really recognize her at first. She got it completely straightened and we no longer see the little bangs. It looked amazing. She's amazing.

When she talked, at first, I immediately knew that this was her life passion. I would not have had to have seen the show to know that this girl is in love with dance. Before they began the choreography, she told them to remember three things. One, that they just go AFTER it. Secondly, they should learn at least one thing from the whole experience. Third, FOCUS.

Once she got through this, she started the first few counts of the choreography. This is where I am going to falter because I cannot explain dance. She would count it at first, and then she started to use the technique of chanting the song lyrics to show when you should be doing a certain move. Once she was happy with the first bit of choreography, they played "Blindfold Me" by Kelis. There were some musical problems throughout the routine and she spent a lot of time by the stereo annoyed that it wasn't really working. At one point, she mentioned something about the music not working, and we got to hear the famous Donyelle laugh! SOOO CUTE!!

What was the most entertaining, for me, while she was doing the steps was that she would count/talk out the lyrics "when he wanna he blindfold me then I get sexy on. I get sexy on." I am seriously not kidding here, and I heard Donyelle half sing/talk that SOO many times through the choreography. It amused me to no end.

The really interesting thing about Donyelle is that she has so much wisdom when it comes to dance and auditioning. She really knows what you have to do to succeed, and she'd be hard on this particular class because she knew that they'd be going through this process soon. She talked about making a connection to who you're auditiong for. Throughout one sequence, she watched one girl do the choreography, and the girl never looked at Donyelle. She kept her eyes down the whole time, and Dony completely called her out. She said (paraphrased), "Hey you, ya I'm talking to you, you never looked at me. I was watching you through that whole thing, and you never once looked at me. When you're auditioning you have to make eye contact. If you don't, they won't hire you because they'll think that you're putting a wall between yourself and them, and they want to see you. You may be nervous, but look up and make eye contact. You may be thinking AHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA inside, but you have to look confident." It was so hilarious when she screamed liked that. She doesn't come off, at first, as that crazy so it really shocked everyone.

She also talked about going after the choreography. It's one thing to just memorize all the steps and just dance it without any emotion or feeling. You can't do that. You need to focus more on really just dancing with your heart. Even if you're a mess and you only get a few counts right, a choreographer may be thinking "ya she's a mess, but I can fix that mess" instead of choosing the person who got everything right, but really had no passion behind the movements. That is why she encourages them to go AFTER it. Have fun with it. It's not about perfection. It's about dancing with heart and soul.

She is truly adorable in person. At one point, I forget the context, but she was talking about the "craziness" of it all. She also kept messing up her own choreography, and would say "don't do that!" At one point, she was saying that she was retarded today for adding in that move. She later did it again, so she was like "I must be so excited about this move or something.. don't do it!" It was beyond adorable.

Near the end, she gave the class a bit of a lecture. She told them that when a choreographer or a teacher is talking, you listen. You don't practise the moves or perfect anything. Your full attention needs to be on the person talking. Of course, as she's attempting to drive this point in people's heads, five girls in front of me were doing the steps and ignoring her. I was really not impressed, but they didn't seem to care. She was right though because if you're not paying attention, you may miss something very important. Like I said, she was being harder on the seniors because she knew they'd be auditioning soon, and she wanted them to be prepared. I really liked that about her. Donyelle does not bull shit. She tells it how it is and, to me, that's what makes her an amazing teacher.

My impression of her changed drastically after watching this class. I always saw tidbits of Donyelle from the show and the tour, but I've never witnessed a full hour where the spotlight was completely on her. When people say she doesn't talk a lot, that's really not the case. She actually talks a lot and is a very confident teacher. She was teaching the class one of her personal favourite audition pieces, I believe. She looked amazing doing it. That girl seriously has the best natural movement I have ever seen. She really is an inspiring person, and she doesn't present herself in a way where "I know all, and you all must follow me", but she really does have so much wisdom and heart when it comes to dance, and you see it. You see it in every step she does, when she talks about it, etc. You just get the feeling that she truly is doing what she's meant to be doing, and I am so happy she did not quit. She's not only an amazing dancer, but she's an amazing teacher. If I could, I would take her class!

This is getting so long, but I want to give you everyone all the Donyelle gossip since that has been lacking. After the class, people went on stage to get a picture with her and meet her. This is where I was again debating with myself whether I would go or not, and I even walked out of the room, but I knew I would be an idiot if I just left without at least attempting to meet her, so I went back in and waited for the stage to clear off a bit because I wanted the ones who paid a lot of money to dance with her to get the opportunity to meet her before I did. I finally walked on the stage, and I was just an incoherent mess. I think it had to do with not eating all day and the fact that I was on a stage with DONYELLE (and no metal between us this time), so I was nervous. I think I said something to the effect that I wasn't a dancer, but I came to the class to see her. I went to the tour in Toronto, and heard she was coming here, so I thought I'd check it out. I then said that I really didn't dance, but what they did was cool. She seemed really touched that I went just to see her teach (or maybe she was freaked out), and then she proceeded to tell me that I should have joined in or something, but I obviously couldn't then. She was like "take some classes". I'm still laughing at that because I know I will never be a great dancer no matter how much I love watching dance and doing my few signature moves. I can't remember really what she said because I was an incoherent fool, but I think she thanked me. She may have hugged me, but I don't remember. I know that when I asked someone to take a picture of us, we were standing side by side in the usual picture pose, and then she put her arm around mine, and I was thinking (oh crap what do I do now?), so I kinda hugged her back. I won't lie. It was a little awkward, but I love her anyway. They had to clear everyone out, so I did not get much of a chance to talk to her, but I got a cute picture out of it, and I got to see Donyelle in a whole new light which made me even more inspired by her and love her even more.

Curious about Donny's new hair?? Here's the picture!

~Suzuki

Donyelle Jones Pictures and Drawings!!!

FYI: Collected from her myspace. :D

I'm happy to see Donyelle smiling like this!

EDIT: For some reason, there's trouble seeing the photos ... but, if you click on them, they'll show up... weird ...

Isn't this one really really good?





I LOVE Benjelle fanart ... we have such good artists in the Benjelle Family!



Yay, Donny!