It's Latin Night in the ballroom. Ricky Martin is in the house. He sings. He judges. My friend Travis calls this the week of tiny costumes, and it looks like it's certainly true as far as the pros are concerned. I apologize for the tardiness of my post. I was trapped for 36 hours with a bunch of teenagers, but that's a story for another time. ;)
The news on Monday night starts with the information that Danica actually broke a rib over the weekend, but she is still in the competition. They begin the preliminary results. The first couple safe is Danica & Val. James & Peta are in jeopardy. Amy & Derek are safe, and they are dancing first.
Amy and Derek will be dancing the Rumba. The song is a sensual arrangement of "Light my Fire." Such a beautiful song. I like this dance. It doesn't have the problem the judges have mentioned with other couples. It has continuous motion while dramatizing the difference of slow and quick movements. It provides a sensuous feeling that matches the music. I would give in a 9. Len actually praised it, which doesn't happen very much with Rumba and Len. The judges scores are 36/40.
James and Peta dance Samba. Well, I can say that it was sexy, but I'm not sure that it was Samba. They were concerned about making it look "filthy," to quote Bruno, but that is not what I associate with Samba. It's supposed to be a party dance, a sensual and sexy yes, but not this. If you want sex on the dance floor, Lambada's your dance. However that is a choreography issue with Peta, and I don't like to have the contestants punished for an error by a pro. It was well danced. James did a good job, so I'll have to give this a 9. Bruno, Carrie Ann, and Ricky liked it. Len had some critique for it, but he wasn't as harsh as I expected. Total judges scores 35/40.
Next up are Danica, with a broken rib, and Val dancing the Salsa. I thought it wasn't as crisp as I would like with a good Salsa. However, she was moving her hips. Last week I talked about her face not looking sexy enough, and there is great improvement there over last week. To tell you the truth, I prefer this Salsa over many of the examples I've seen on this show. It looks more authentic. I would give it an 8. None of the judges really liked it. They are looking for stylistic things in the Salsa that I find to be misogynistic. Maybe, I'm all wrong about the Salsa, but I don't care for styles that appear demeaning to women. Taste is subjective. Total judges scores 30/40.
More preliminary results: Candace & Mark are safe. Charlie & Sharna are in jeopardy. Meryl & Maks are safe, so that means that NeNe & Tony are in jeopardy.
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| Stunning pose, NeNe! |
NeNe and Tony will be dancing Argentine Tango. Meanwhile, the show is doing a tweet contest to see whether Tony will be dancing with his shirt on or off. It looks like this is news to Tony. In addition, since this is not live in the Mountain or Pacific time zones, those viewers can't vote on it. I would vote for shirt on only because I imagine dancing Argentine tango without a shirt for a guy would be quite difficult. After the commercial break and rehearsal footage, the results are in. Shocker, he's dancing with his shirt off.
As a side note, I have to say that I really do not like the direction that Dancing with the Stars is taking in their desperation. I understand they want the show to continue. There's lots of people's livelihood that are on the line. They've made a lot of changes in the personnel and tone of the show this season, and if this is what the show has to become in order to be successful, I'm not interested.
Back to dancing. This is the strangest Argentine Tango that I recall seeing . Naturally, the music is not Argentine tango music. It's more like a swing/hustle or disco music. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether this is a Tango or a Disco routine. Unfortunately the dancing wasn't particularly sharp, which is required of both for Tango and Disco . The Tango parts look more like Foxtrot. I have liked NeNe a lot throughout this competition, but I didn't really care for this dance. I would score a 7 or 8 for this. Total judges scores 31/40.
Now, Charlie and Sharna will dance Paso Doble. It's probably the ballroom dance I know the least about, but I have to say that that was a very powerful and passionate with beautiful lines. Charlie had great character expression. Totally committed. I loved it. I would give it 10s. From the judges' comments, I think it's going to be a little bit lower. I missed the judges' scores. I think it was 36/40.
Candace and Mark dance Argentine Tango. Very sharp and well-executed. Candice has made a turn, and she is in control. She is sexy. She's handling very complicated choreography. It looks beautiful. I would give her a 9. I would say this is her best dance so far. The judges total scores 35/40.
The last couple to dance to be Meryl and Maks with the Salsa. It's quite athletic, but it has some of those things that I object to as a woman. (See my commentary on Danica above.) In addition, I'm not really seeing that much hip action in this, and I'm noticing some aspects that the judges really criticized in the Salsa earlier with Danica. It almost has a hip hop feel to it more than a Salsa Latin dance. Complicated choreography. I've got some problems with the dancing. I would give it a 9. Naturally the judges love it. Total judges scores are 39/40.
Next, we have the team dances and Meryl and Charlie are team captains because both of them have the combined highest scores. So, they are dancing in competition against each other. Charlie's team is team Vida, and there they are the only team dancing live. Amy injured something in her back after the routine, so she can't dance in the team dance. Therefore, they will be using the dress rehearsal footage for purposes of judging.
Dancing Latin freestyle, here come NeNe, James, and Charlie on this team. They come out in turquoise costumes. I like a lot of it, but we did have some issues with synchronization between the different couples. Judges' scores 35. That score will be added to each of the individual couples.
Team Loca will go with the rehearsal footage for scoring purposes. They were dancing to the song "La Vida Loca," and I've got to say they blew it out of the water. And it was the dress rehearsal footage. Man, if it was that good for dress rehearsal, I can only imagine what it would have been like if they could have danced that live. Sharp, crisp, synchronized, fabulous choreography. That was fantastic. Len mentioned that dress rehearsal may have been easier since they weren't dancing for a live international audience. The total judges scores 39/40. This total gets added to Danica, Amy, Meryl, and Candace's scores.
Final results: Charlie & Sharna are safe. James & Peta are safe, so NeNe & Tony are going home. She did such a good job in this competition. I was so pleased to see her and have an opportunity to watch her dance. It was such fun.
See you next week!
P.S. Since I was late, I was able to use pictures from this week!
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