"Dancing with the Stars" - Fun Fantasy Speculative Edition

Let's face it, each season the hit ABC television show Dancing With The Stars performs a delicate dance of recruiting well known celebrity faces along with more reliable dance material. These able bodied types, though not necessarily as famous or popular provide some of the actual best dancing moments during the contest. Ex-jocks, figure skating champions and the like come on board to wildly hoof it up against stand-up comedians and soap stars.

This season history is made with Oscar winning actress Cloris Leachman dancing her way into our living rooms. At the impressive age of 82, Ms. Leachman is wowing everyone by even agreeing to attempt out dancing opponents who are one quarter her age. Half the fun of the dancing competition is seeing who will stand out and make their professional dancing trainers and partners proud.

Lately I've wondered out of all the light footed celebrities around, who would be most fun to see in a fantasy edition. These are such high powered and high paid celebrities it's highly unlikely to impossible they'd ever agree to participate in the dance show, so let's speculate for fun fantasy.

John Travolta

As Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever (1977), Danny Zuko in Grease (1978) and then again reprising his struggling dancer role in the Sylvester Stallone directed sequel of Staying Alive (1983), Travolta employed his naturally athletic physique and trained so hard it allowed him to be one of the most dynamic dancers captured on film in history.

More recently in Hairspray (2007), Travolta took to the dance floor again, this time in drag as buxom overprotective Mother Edna Turnblad. Travolta could agree to some advertising profits of the show be donated to charity - perhaps even his own Church of Scientology?

Kevin Bacon

Footloose (1987) remains one of the most feel good movie musicals of the past few decades. It's a musical about dance or about kids loving dance so much their repressive religious townsfolk forbid it, or something like that. Whatever the core message of Footloose is, Kevin Bacon learned some wicked dance moves and his feet were indeed quite loose.

Word is that Zach Efron of High School Musical fame will star as Bacon's character in a remake to be released in 2010 by Paramount Pictures. If Dancing With The Stars wish to capitalize on that, they'd fit in Bacon around the time of the movie's release. If the remake never flies, Bacon could still dance for fun and charity and perhaps donate any profit to his Six Degrees charity.

Jennifer Beals

Flashdance (1983) was an unlikely music video style smash hit movie mixing dance and pop tunes with oodles of modern dancing, including the then new street moves of break dancing. Star Jennifer Beals played Alex, a tough welder by day, exotic club dancer by night and aspiring classic dancer, based loosely on a real person Maureen Marder, from Toronto.

Curiously enough, Beals didn't do most any of her dancing in the film. Her double for nearly all of it was the professional dancer Marine Jahan. Joining up Dancing With The Stars would give Beals some exposure to a new generation, while finally proving once and for all if she could go out there and be a maniac on the dance floor.

Patrick Swayze

Dirty Dancing (1987) saw Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey co-star in a low budget movie which became a major blockbuster - spawning two multi-platinum soundtracks, a sequel and a stage show now headed for Broadway.

In 2008, Swayze was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and the graceful dancer, actor and singer has put up a valiant fight and seems to be prevailing so far. How wonderful it would be to see Swayze come and join the Dancing With The Stars fun. A bonus addition to the cast of course would also be his co-star Jennifer Grey. Baby and Johnny Castle tearing up the dance floor again? Why not? The ratings would go through the roof!