Mar 1st, 2008
“Your Mama Don’t Dance”…but Your (Gay) Daddy Do.
The Lifetime Network has poached Ian Ziering from his success on “Dancing with the Stars” and added their own “twist” for a new dance competition. (There’s always a twist, isn’t there?)
The premise of the show, “Your Mama Don’t Dance” is ten professional dancers having their Fame-like shot at proving their talent to the world, only to find out that their dance partner is their very-non-dancing parent of the opposite gender.
Celia Merendi is dancing with her father, Silvano Merendi, who raised her as an openly gay man. A matter-of-fact mention of her mother explains that her mother is bipolar and was unable to care for Celia. Their official bio mentions that she was also raised by her father’s partner who died recently, but that information has not yet been mentioned on the show.
Related videos of this very sweet family (A 15-second commercial starts each of these links, like it or not):
Celia’s casting audition and interview in which Celia refers to her father as “fabulous,” and her dad calls himself “the best damn father” Celia could have.
Behind-the-scenes interview with Celia.
They are vulnerable to getting voted off this week based on how “America” votes, but I’m hoping “America” will want to see more of them.