DWTS Season 10, Week 6 – Who’s Dancing What?
And this week we have the Argentine Tango and the Samba, in addition to a Swing Marathon. Swing? Why? Why Swing? Because none of the pros on this season are experts in it? Wasn’t Lacey the only Swing pro we had? In any case, it should be fun to watch. 🙂 Now, in no particular order…
Pamela/Damian – Argentine Tango: I give up trying to predict what or how Pam will do. 🙂 She surprises me every time. I do think that she really has to up her game this week because she’s hit the bottom two twice, which means the voters are either forgetting about her or they don’t like the sexpot routine. I can tell you, if Derek weren’t on this season, I would be voting for Pam all the way. Anyway – she needs to be sharp and crisp and fierce. She needs a knockout performance or she will be the one knocked out.
Jake/Chelsie – Samba: Looking ahead through the whole list of who’s dancing what (including Pam, above), I would wager that the producers are stacking the decks again – but for who? I think they gave every single pair the dance they would be most likely to have trouble with. Jake doing the Samba. Hmmm…he seems to do okay with stuff that requires hip action, but can he reign in his enthusiasm and give a solid performance? He might be in trouble now that we’re getting down to the nitty gritty.
Chad/Cheryl – Argentine Tango: I smell disaster. I don’t think he was really in danger last week, although I could be wrong, but he really needs to step up his game. Being a football player will only carry you so far, just as being a trainwreck (Kate) will only carry you so far. Frankly, his “thing” with Cheryl is getting pretty old – cut with the coy games and DANCE, dude. In any case, I can’t see Chad pulling off an AT that is sharp enough to get good scores, although they do have him stacked up against Pam and Niecy which could help him.
Nicole/Derek – Samba: Well, I know these two are putting in serious hours, if Derek’s tweets are anything to go by, and Nicole has got the moves for sure. The only thing I worry about is the lack of hype surrounding her. Everything is/was about Kate, Niecy and Jake, and to a lesser extent Erin. She doesn’t have the fanbase of Evan, so she needs to be killer yet again to generate votes on Monday night. Lord knows she’s not getting the publicity. Considering who’s left, she’s probably safe regardless.
Niecy/Louis – Argentine Tango: I’m sorry, but this is another potential disaster and I love Niecy. It seems to me they gave all the less precise, but entertaining, dancers the AT. Are they trying to weed out the lesser dancers?
Erin/Maks – Samba: Hopefully these two have put the silly crap behind them and Erin has retracted her claws enough to do a good Samba. Sorry Erin – really didn’t like you throwing Jake under the bus and I’m not even a Jake fan. I hope that Karma doesn’t come for you this week, because otherwise I think you can likely do a good Samba. Throw Nicole and Evan under the bus if you like (although it would still be tacky), since they are both awesome, but Jake? Sorry, but their gimmick was better than yours. ‘Cept for those dinosaur band aids. 🙂
Evan/Anna – Samba: Hmmmm. He did okay the last time hips were required, but that was the rumba. Can he do it for the Samba? I read on twitter that they just finished their samba today and were starting the Swing. In any case, it won’t matter – he’ll get all the votes he needs, barring disastrous scores. And I do think he’ll end up doing a great dance – he’s a skater and performer, after all. 😉 I do wonder if the lack of sleep will start to get to him. If he would NOT go out with Derek, Mark, Cheryl, Maks, et al on Monday nights, it might help. 🙂
Is it just me, or does it seem they gave the stronger dancers (excepting Jake) the Samba and the weaker dancers the AT? My imagination? Because here’s how it stacks up (in order of score, IMO, highest to lowest):
The Samba:
Nicole
Evan
Erin
Jake
The Argentine Tango:
Pam
Niecy – Chad (Tie)
The people with the AT were all those in jeopardy last week and they got the dance that you can’t fake a lot of – or am I wrong? Am I the only one that thinks those dancing Samba are going to rock the house and those dancing AT…aren’t?? Will Jake blow it? Can Pam up her game with that dance? As for who’s going home….well, I’m going to say Niecy or Pam. As always, I reserve the right to change my mind once I’ve seen the dances. 🙂
Here’s a few little gems I found that I thought I would include this week:
Uh… Swing is a standard for competitve American Rhythm ballroom dancers (others are Cha-Cha, Rumba, Bolero and Mambo). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballroom_dance#Competitive_dancing
Also Swing is a variation of the Jive (danced by competitive International Latin dancers), so all the pros should know Swing. 😛
@Marianya- I find it funny that 4/5 standards for AR ballroom are Cuban dances. It’s cute. Cuban’s sure know how to work it and make some great dances.
And when did Erin bash Jake? Is it online, and if so, where? I wanna see that. That’s kind of low of her. The story and choreography was better. But for me, I tend to like Chelsie’s choreo, work/teaching ethic, and attitude more than almost every other pro.
@Jason… Yeah I know what you mean. The International Latin dances are Jive, Cha-Cha, Rumba, Jive and Paso Doble.
The difference between the two versions of Cha Cha and Rumba is when the knee is bent, leg placement during the four count… and the speed between American and International… >.< At least between American Smooth (Waltz, Viennese, Foxtrot and Tango) and International Standard (Waltz, Viennese, Foxtrot, Tango and Quickstep) the difference is easier to spot... in American you're able to dance out of hold, while International you're expected to stay in hold throughout the dance.
Well, it’s out of the ordinary for DWTS and there are better dances they could do for a marathon.
That tongue sticking out icon always strikes me as rather rude when rudeness wasn’t called for. As is the “uh”. Strikes me as superior or condescending. I generally don’t have a problem with being rude or superior or condescending, when someone else is being rude. Didn’t think it was called for in this case.
I wasn’t sticking out my tongue though… there’s the =D where it’s a big grin that I use. and typically when I stick out my tongue it isn’t out of rudeness it’s because I’m being playful or joking or teasing… I apologize if it offended you in someway.
Yeah, the Erin thing is online in several places. She didn’t so much bash him as say, “Gee, I guess all I have to do to get a good score is take off my pants”. She said that or something similar in a pretty snotty tone in at least two interviews – there’s a link around here somewhere. Then Maks said something equally…interesting…in an interview with E! Watch With Kristin, calling Jake “desperate”. http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b177153_dancing_duel_maksim_calls_pantsless.html
This is not the interview I was referring to, but it has a lot of questionable material in it. Stuff that if anyone else had said it they would have been hung from the rafters. Much of it strikes me the wrong way, but the tone on this one is slightly more jokey than the other one http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/video?id=7396475§ion=on_the_red_carpet You have to watch the whole interview for the full effect. I thought the crack about twitter was rather mean as well. And I don’t even care for Jake – but they’re making me sympathize. It’s also hypocritical in the extreme that Erin is bitching about Gimmicks when Maks spent how many bars dancing in a slower speed holding a menu. Please.
I just never know how to take the posts that have that in it – I’m not sure what the tone is. If that’s not how you intended it, cool.
It’s really kind of a head-scratcher for me that Jake has become Erin & Maks’ whipping boy – echoing Heidi’s sentiments, why wouldn’t they have gone after someone who was beating them by leaps & bounds (Nicole & Derek, Evan & Anna), rather than someone who only beat them by a few points – and I don’t think anyone is really touting Jake as a superior dancer to Erin, either. Unless they legitimately see Jake as a threat to their 3rd place domination, and they don’t see themselves measuring up to the top 2, they need to lay off him – it’s just getting tacky at this point, and they are running the risk of losing votes if they keep up this petty jabbing.
As for the swing marathon – I actually agree with both Mariyana & Heidi. I’m a big fan of the American Rhythm style (and not just because my bf is a rhythm pro 😉 ), which is more specifically the “east coast style” – unslotted, triple-step patterns, with a ” rock step”. Basically like a slowed-down, slightly more grounded jive – I would say it’s decently easy for any pro familiar with jive to come up with a decent routine. However, they’ve been pretty ambiguous about this swing marathon thus far – is it specifically east-coast style? Or are they allowing other types from the swing family as well – west coast? Lindy? Charleston? Are there lifts allowed? It definitely makes me wonder why they chose swing as the marathon dance – I can think of no other reason other than the fact that maybe it was just another “new dance” they could add to the list. Any of the pros from this season would have an advantage in the swing style (assuming it’s east coast, although most pros do have at least a passing knowledge of west coast as well), it would have been Tony, since it was actually a dance he competed in. So Heidi’s hypothesis of not having any pros with a clear “edge” could have some truth to it – even if Tony was still in the competition at this point, I daresay his amount of skill with swing would have been largely negated by Kate’s lack thereof. Then again, maybe it was picked as the dance for the marathon because the pros could borrow elements from jive, Lindy, etc. that they were familiar with, which also could have leveled the playing field. Who knows…I just hope it’s not a complete hot mess. I was not really a fan of the mambo marathon last season :-/
I apologize in advance for typos, both of these comments were typed on my iPhone & autocorrect kinda tajes liberties with some of my goofs 😉
As for who has advantages or disadvantages this week – I think Chad has an advantage and will prolly annoy the crap outta me this week. The Argentine tango will likely only serve to magnify the slick, seductive, I’m-too-sexy-for-my-dance-shoes image he seems to have of himself. I can already picture it in my head – Chad in a cliche pinstripe suit, rocking a fedora like he did in his cha-cha, manhandling Cheryl like a Latin lothario like he did in the rumba. And I’m sure he’ll continue to ride on the showmance train, which the voters seem to eat right up, while I’m just sick of it. Niecy might have a TINY advantage in that she seems to fare a little bit better with the more ballroom-type dances, and if Pam can turn up the sex & connect with Damian the same way she did with the rumba, the AT (sorry, too lazy to type the whole thing on my phone) could be advantageous for her as well. The samba was probably a wise choice for Nicole & Derek and Evan & Anna, considering they’ve already done the standard tango recently and a subsequent one may have been a bit of overkill – that, and Evan seems to still be struggling a bit with chemistry with Anna, so the samba will likely be a welcome reprieve from emotionally-charged dances. However, I think Jake & Chelsie and Erin & Maks could be in a little bit of trouble with the samba – Jake because he’s still kinda awkward in the Latin dances, and Erin because it’s yet another dance where she can’t really play off of her showmance with Maks. I know people are just clamoring to see those two rumba and see their “great chemistry”, but really, after that marginal tango and a good-but-short romantic connection in the waltz, I’m not so sure they have what it takes to really scortch in the more passionate dances.
[…] Many thanks to Heidi for breaking down who is dancing what in tomorrow’s show… […]
I love swing as the choice of dance step. Mostly because that’s how swing is often danced socially. I’ve seen it many times where it’s like a break dancing circle and people swing dance in the middle of the circle. A lot of fun to watch and do. We’ll see what they end up doing with it tonight.
I also wonder if they’ll have someone demo the swing tonight. The best choice for that would be Lacey’s brother, Benji (Heidi’s least favorite dancer). That’s his natural dance and his dad is the king of swing or something like that.
Courtney,
The way you describe Ochocinco is exactly why I love him. He completely makes me laugh. He does the same thing on the football field as he talks about the cornerbacks that will cover him. It’s hilarious and would be out of character if he didn’t do it.
P.S. I love the picture of him and Cheryl too. Nice.
i’m reaally choked about erin and maks’s reaction about pantless jake, that was so low of them!! at least jake wasn’t boring and didn’t cheat like maks did! and who the hell maks is to tell about desperation!!! shut up!! maks was my number 2 fav pro, but with this low action i can only say that i lost my respect for him! Erin may suffer from her comments! at the beggening she was like the dark horse to me and i really liked her, but now i would love to see her in the bottom two, and we’ll see what Sir Maks will do as a “desperate move to get numbers”!! grrrrrr
i looooooove watching niecy, a kinda start likng chad, and Pam is my Second favorite, i really wish she gets far in the competition!!
Derek and nicole always looking gooooood 😀
i can’t wait for tonight performance it’s gonna be hot! (i hoooooope Erin will suck in the samba with her monkey arms! hihihihih it’s mean i know)
Wow, i didn’t realize there were two Katies :). So I’ll change mine a bit…sorry other Katie, Erin was the best dance of the night for me by far. Geez didn’t think she said anything out of place anyways, everyone knows what card Jake was playing and it will wind up getting him nowhere in the end….he can’t dance like the top 3.