DWTS 15, Week 4 – Power Rankings
Well, this blasted non-ballroom (save for the mambo, and sorta-kinda the bolero) night played out just about like I thought it would: the hapless judges (aided and abbetted by the perpetually out-to-lunch Paula) kind of copped out on giving any seriously harsh scores, likely for the simple reason that they just didn’t know enough about the dances themselves to actually score properly. The end result was some pretty general overscoring, and perhaps a tiny bit of relative underscoring. But what worries me is that even though the spread may seem pretty big this week, more total points = smaller margins between points…meaning that it’s going to require fewer votes for those at the bottom to catch up with the rest of the pack. And it makes me nervous for another “shock” elimination…but this time, I think it has the potential to be truly shocking. 😯 Let’s get on with it, shall we?
1.) Shawn & Derek – Best routine of the night, without a doubt – great, PROPER mambo choreography, and flawless execution. I think these two may have had the toughest dance to contend with, for the simple reason that mambo has been done on the show before as a regular dance – and it has been done far more than any of the other dances on the list. Add to that the constant pressure of the all-star season? If they had a bit of an off-week, I wouldn’t have blamed them. But luckily, they absolutely KILLED this mambo – great tricks, a good amount of meat & potatoes choreography, and best of all – Shawn pulled off the “sassy” and sexy without a hitch, and looked great doing it. 🙂 Very impressed with how she’s matured since her original season. If I REALLY had to nitpick, I would say that it seemed like Shawn was sliding a little bit when coming out of her turns – very slight bobble, but it made me wonder if the floors tonight were a little slick – and could also be the cause of other snafus tonight. Anyway, I think if they gave that hot mess of a Bollywood number that Gilles crapped out a 39.5, then this should have been a 42. But Len, ever the fuddy-duddy, withheld that last half a point that would have put them at the top of the leaderboard. Oh well – luckily it matters even less this week 😛
2.) Kelly & Val – Like almost all of their other dances this season, this came out far better than I would have anticipated – even if these two were kinda giving me the creeps with all of their brooding in the background all night. 😛 Was it truly “contemporary”? Meh…it had elements of contemporary, and it came far closer to contemporary than Emmitt did to bolero or Bristol did to rock ‘n’ roll. But it was a pretty dance, and I do feel like they injected some emotion into it – which is really how contemporary came to be in the first place: ballet with emotion. Kelly had some nice extensions and seemed to really connect to the dance…and really, Val did too, as much as he may have hated the style they got. And he did get a few brownie points from me for calling Cheryl the b-word on national television, for all to hear 😛 I think they may have gotten a little out-of-synch on the side-by-side sections, and I must confess that I didn’t really understand the purpose of the platform they climbed onto. But overall, a very nice effort for a dance that neither party was particularly jazzed to have…and I’m sure we’ll be hearing buzz about this one for the rest of the week. 😉
3.) Gilles & Peta – What a f#$!ing joke. This was messy, misguided, and quite frankly, looked half-assed to me. I think Peta phoned it in with the choreography after getting frustrated with both the style itself and perhaps her whiny partner, and Gilles just looked like a fool out there, hopping around with his mouth hanging wide open. Oh, and he was off-time too – and I’m pretty sure Nakul Dev Mahajan is highly offended and yelling at his tv somewhere in LA, because the hand gestures (which are quite possibly the most important aspect of Bollywood) were a hot mess. This is the first routine this season that I have absolutely nothing good to say about – and that’s saying something, considering I was even able to slightly shine a turd like Bristol’s quickstep. And wouldn’t you know – the judges gush and gush about how great this was (because they have no clue what they’re talking about, and Paula probably shared her Percocet with them all before the show), and give it the highest score of the night…a mere half-point off from a perfect score. Apparently they need Gilles to stick around for awhile – or maybe they were trying to ensure that he will captain one of next week’s team dances, as the two cumulative highest scorers will get to pick the teams for the team dance tomorrow night. Regardless of the motive – I smell a rat.
4.) Emmitt & Cheryl – Another disgusting example of overscoring – although Emmitt at least looked cool doing this dance 😛 For those of you who were looking for bolero in this – there really wasn’t any. Even the basic bolero steps they did just looked feeble. This was really just a rumba with a lot of lifts – which I’m guessing Cheryl deliberately did, to distract from the fact that neither she nor her partner could bolero their way out of a paper bag. And let’s see, did anyone else count one, two, three, FOUR outside choreographers that Cheryl brought in to help come up with that nonsense? Perhaps I was hallucinating, since some of our readers kept insisting last night that I was confused and that the four outsiders that came in were there to rehearse for the results show performance tomorrow night. Newflash: I don’t bullsh*t, and I know what I’m talking about, asshats. But I digress – I think this MAYBE should have gotten a 24.5, maximum, just due to lack of content – and if I was really being honest, I’d dock off an extra half point for Emmitt remaining relatively stationary for most of it. But luckily for them, I think they’re probably safe this week, given the combination of easy scoring and Emmitt’s fanbase. But I hope he realizes that sooner or later, the judges aren’t going to be as mesmerized by his charm, and they’re going to start pointing out things like lack of content.
5.) Apolo & Karina – I don’t wish it upon ANYONE to fall down or injure themselves while dancing on this show – including Maks, who I felt terrible for back in season 12 when he fell down during he & Kirstie’s rumba. So yeah, I do feel bad for Karina – that fall actually looked painful, and I got the feeling that she felt even more pressure to do well for Apolo since this style wasn’t one she was really good at. I think this routine may have suffered in comparison because so many people were expecting Apolo to just KILL it – myself included. But alas, Apolo was right in pointing out that he really was just good at breakdancing, and wasn’t so experienced in real hip-hop. I think they both made a valiant effort, though – I thought they both looked believable at the beginning, and after the fall, while Apolo may have gotten a little lost in the choreography, he just turned the swag up higher and it helped sell it. I have to wonder if Karina might have actually hurt herself, because she did seem to move kinda small after that fall…as if she was nursing an injury. Overall, I think the scoring was actually pretty generous, but I look at this routine and still think Apolo did more than Bristol, Kirstie, Emmitt, or Gilles. And he did it better! I’m just hoping the combination of the sympathy vote and the Olympic vote can keep these two safe this week – I think they ought to be ok, but stranger things have happened…
6.) Melissa & Tony – I actually thought this was a really good routine, and do agree with Carrie Ann (ack, that tastes bad saying that!) that Tony has really stepped up his choreography this season. It was a cute, lively routine, with a lot of content – and aside from the one bobble that got pointed out, I actually really liked all of the lifts they did. Melissa also had really clean, error-free footwork. But I actually have one rather odd complaint about this routine, and it’s one that I don’t typically have with Tony’s choreography: I wish they had done a bit more in-hold! I felt like the bulk of this routine was open work, with a lift here and there, and only a little bit of stuff in-hold. I wish they had done more of the fun, in-hold footwork we saw in jitterbugs like Cody & Julianne’s. A pretty minor complaint, but I just hope that Tony’s not trying to compensate for playing it so safe all of these years by throwing in far more open work than he’s ever done before. They got a decent score tonight, but with the margins so small (and with people around them with fanbases that are likely much larger), I have to wonder if she might be in danger if Kirstie & Bristol can get the votes (and I think they can), and Sabrina rallies from being in the bottom 3 – I don’t know that Melissa could overtake anyone else in order to stick around. She’s kind of a big question mark for me right now, because her fanbase hasn’t really been tested so far this season, and she’s stuck around longer than I initially thought. I do think she deserves to stay, but I’m curious to see how things shake out this week…
7.) Kirstie & Maks – Was this routine fun? Absolutely – and I probably would have gone with the same strategy that Maks appeared to, if I had Kirstie: throw in as much comedy as possible to conceal the fact that Kirstie is a pretty weak dancer compared to (almost) everyone else this season. But as much fun as I think these two are, I’m getting to the point where the schtick is wearing thin and I want to see more dancing. This Charleston was cute, and Kirstie actually fared better than I thought she would – but there seemed to be a lot of shenanigans going on, and not as much dancing. I was left wanting to see more bouncing, shimmying moves. So she may have the low score this week (and it may appear scary to some), but having that extra score actually makes it easier for her to climb over someone else in order to stay. I think she can definitely overtake Bristol, and possibly Apolo – maybe even Melissa, if she’s not getting the votes. For that reason, I’m tentatively calling her safe this week – but I wouldn’t be super surprised if she ended up in jeopardy, or even the bottom 2.
8.) Bristol & Mark – Zzzzzz. I just can’t even bring myself to really remember a whole lot about this routine…probably because there wasn’t a whole lot of anything in it. This was the prime example of “playing it safe” this week, and there was nothing exciting, innovative, or particularly daring about this routine – just Bristol half-heartedly bobbing around while Mark flailed wildly, perhaps hoping that just a little bit would rub off on Bristol. It wasn’t bad, it wasn’t good – it was just boring. And while I would hope that would cause her to plummet and ultimately get eliminated – I’m not sure that this is the week that it’s going to happen, as much as I would love for it to be. I think Bristol should have been gone two weeks ago, and instead we lost 3 much better dancers in the meantime – and I think losing another will turn this whole all-stars season into a legitimate farce. I would be happy to eat crow if Bristol does go home tomorrow night…but I’m getting the sinking feeling that we’re going to be stuck with her for at least 2 more weeks. I do think she could end up in the bottom 2, though.
9.) Sabrina & Louis – Y’know, two weeks ago, I would have said that Sabrina was one of the “chosen ones” – and now I’m convinced that the judges have decided she’s as expendable as Drew was last week and the week before. I don’t think her disco was horrible – in fact, I think she had far more content than some of the other couples and it was actually fun to watch. Love the lift that she did forward and then back. But the judges did seem unusually nitpicky about this routine – I don’t know that I would necessarily agree that she got “off-time”, but there were a few instances where she just got out-of-synch with Louis – and I think they actually lowballed her a bit, considering that the non-bolero Emmitt did got a 1/2 point more. Sabrina was in the bottom 2 last week – and there’s no one else around that has also been there, and I think we’ve seen so far this season that if you land in the bottom 2 one week, you’ll probably be back there again the following week. I actually feel kinda bad for Sabrina – I think she could have fared a lot better with a different pro, and is maybe being scored more harshly by the judges now for peaking so early. But I think both Bristol & Kirstie have proven that they are getting the votes to overcome her – and I think they’ll do it again. And thus we say goodbye to yet another good dancer that has left us too soon…
I’m feeling really uneasy about tomorrow night, and I’m hoping it ends up being Bristol & Kirstie in the bottom 2 with Bristol going home. But I have a bad feeling that it will be Bristol & Sabrina, with Sabrina going home…with an outside chance of it being Melissa & Bristol, and Bristol going home. What do you guys think? And what is your take on this week?
Totally agree with the raking.
I’m so mad that Gilles got the same score that Shawn, WTF, that bollywood was a hot mess, the faces were terrible and dance even worst, his ego will explode after that. so mad.
Shawn, she is my favorite , I knew she would bring it but this was beyond my expectations , Derek amazing choreo, the stoping in the middle was just genius.
Sigh…pretty much everyone except Apolo, Melissa and Shawn (and possibly Kirstie) was overscored. The Bollywood was a hot mess – slow, out-of-sync, and boring (speaking from watching Bollywood films, as well as the routines on SYTYCD)- I’m shocked it was scored as high as it was. Bristol – not much there. Emmitt was praised for fluidity and lines – I thought the dance was rather static and jerky. Sabrina and Louis were fine…but given the kind of disco I’m used to seeing on SYTYCD, just meh. The contemporary from Val and Kelly was a bit painful to watch at times, but they really connected with the emotion and went for it. So sorry about Apolo’s hip hop – will have to vote lots to keep him safe. Really, really enjoyed Shawn and Derek and Melissa and Tony. I hope they, as well as Apolo and Kelly, stick around.
I’m glad I’m not the only one creeped out by Gilles’ faces during their dance! That was awkward.
I’m worried for Sabrina too. I have a really bad feeling Bristol’s not going anywhere. I’ve sort of gotten used to that. 🙁
Thanks for the rankings again!
For me, Shawn and Derek had the best dance of the night. Kirstie should have at least scored higher than Bristol who didn’t do a whole lot.
Glad I wasn’t the only one who noticed that Gile’s mouth was hanging open throughout the routine. Sabrina looked like a blue Big Bird at the start, but did ok.
Felt absolutely horrible for Karina.
I’m still looking for Bristol to go home, but think she may have the fan base to cover this. Damn
Wow, agree with you!
Also, hated Sabrina’s purple thingy. What was the whole point of it? She’s like the purple monster.
Shawn may have been off balance because of her broken heel. Derek just posted a picture of it. I agree that Gilles was a mess. Not even a hot mess. I just wish he would leave already!
Kirstie was definitely underscored, in my amateur opinion. I do hope she has the votes to overcome this, but I’m not so sure. If history repeats, Sabrina will go, but if not..then I honestly don’t know. I want it to be Bristol, but I don’t see that happening, unfortunately.
I ranted all over Twitter. *LOL* But seriously, this week makes me firmly believe that the scripting has gotten out of hand. I can really buy most of the miscues by the judges, but, MAN, that Bristol score. We could SEE how shocked Mark was. And then right after they played Carrie Ann telling Sabrina last week that her routine was too ‘safe’. Talk about highlighting the ridiculous.
Bollywood was not great, Bolero sucked and Disco didn’t move me. Hip Hop was entertaining (except for the fall), Charleston was a hoot (and the woman is 62 years old!) and a real smile-bringer, Contemporary was pretty damned amazing considering Kelly was suffering from the flu and a broken toe. I was pretty sure they could bring it.
But really… note this in red, 🙂 … the best dance of the night was Shawn and Derek. As I knew he would, Derek has found the fine line between teenybopper and young woman that Shawn needs to tread. She’s too… America’s sweetheart to be sexy and sultry, but be the hot chick next door? That she can do. And did. I shouted at Len over that last .5, loudly.
I find it to be a bit awkward to watch people cry on tv. I felt bad for Karina (shiver… I never thought I’d say that.) and I just ignored Kelly’s crying by saying “She and Val are having a bonding moment, so we’re just gonna ignore that.” (lol) I do wish that Karina had at least waited until they were off stage to shed the tears, being as it was about APOLO not her. Anyways, I still voted for Kelly.
I’m gonna say it will be Melissa and Sabrina in the bottom, with Sabrina going home.
You know, if Apolo goes home, this will be the 3rd week in a row that one of my favorites has gone home (2 last week). For the sake of anyone else that I happen to remotely like, I may have to quit the show for the rest of the season. *sigh*
You should write for Jay Leno, etc. Super funny. “I actually feel kinda bad for Sabrina – I think she could have fared a lot better with a different pro” I agree.
My love for dancing makes me take this show personally :/ but I basically agree with everything you said here.
Shawn and Derek are just so much fun to watch. I always wondered what Derek’s ceiling was – or even just what he would come up with if he had a younger partner with the kind of athleticism that Shawn does, and they haven’t disappointed me! I can’t wait to see what they do in the future 🙂
Kelly/Val – an amazing pleasant surprise every week. I’ve always thought Val was one of the most talented pros on this show, and my respect for him as an artist and dancer is at a whole new level. I did see that Kelly fell behind for the side-by-side, but it was definitely NOT “beyond her abilities”, as Carrie Ann said (grr), and Bruno was right, contemp has got to be the hardest thing to master. And Kelly pulled it off beautifully, and they told a beautiful story. I hope Burke learned her lesson – you cannot take down Val Chmerkovskiy!!! (And props for him telling it like it is)
Giles/Peta…I’m not digging his attitude at all this season. The pressure of 1, being an all-star, 2, of already being a presumed finalist, is getting to him. This is the first time I’ve ever seen dance have a negative impact on someone’s mental health. Since week 2, I’ve just felt like sooner rather than later, he is going to CRACK. But I digress. I don’t watch SYTYCD often, but this Bollywood number was crap. And just like I predicted, the judges gushed and gushed about it because Gilles and Peta’s crap don’t stink.
Emmitt/Cheryl – and all I could think while watching this was, this bolero is SO F$%KING UGLY!! It looks like she did rumba, with maybe ONE rise and fall, with lifts. All I know is this: bolero does NOT look like that.
Apolo/Karina – I was mortified for Karina (she is basically my idol) just watching that package, and then seeing her fall just broke my heart. Because as if she wasn’t already embarrassed that she wasn’t great at hip hop, she has to add insult to injury. Or adds injury to insult.
Melissa/Tony – easily, this is the best I have ever seen them. I think they should continue in this direction.
Kirstie/Maks – seriously, they just get funnier to watch every time.
Palin/Mark – I’ve had enough of her attitude and Mark looking like he wants to kill himself. Didn’t even watch this dance.
Sabrina/Louis – WHY DID LOUIS PUT HER IN THAT COAT?! Anyway, once that thing was off, I thought Sabrina killed it. It was a great performance, so fun to watch, but I did not understand how lesser dances, with much less content, scored higher.
WHAT ARE THESE JUDGES ON?!
I do believe this is the week that we lose one of the ladies. Apolo should be safe, but I could see them totally putting him in jeopardy.
Sabrina will probably go home. However, Krisite proved she wasnt a voters godess when she landed in the bottom 2 herself.
The least deserving dancers are Bristol, Emmith, and Krisite, who will probably outlast people such as Sabrina and Melissa. =(
#Evaine Good insights re: Shawn. Maybe, in the Marie Osmund mold?
The only routines I really liked were Shawn & Derek’s and Kelly & Val’s. Shawn blew away the competition really though, the precision and the lines and the fun and the choreography combined were miles ahead of everyone else tonight. And I was worried mambo wouldn’t stand out! Thanks for proving me wrong you two.
I love contemporary and I love the effort they made. Kelly’s lines were better than I expected. I enjoy watching them so much and I hope they stick around so we can see more.
The other routines I don’t have much to say about. Sabrina and Melissa were good but just still don’t excite me. I do love the attitude of Melissa and Tony though over Louis’ crap and Sabrina’s annoying intensity and constant worry. Emmitt was ok. And Bristol and Kirstie just shouldn’t be here anymore.
The only other things I have to say are, even without the fall, I was underwhelmed by Apolo & Karina’s routine. I did hope for more wow from them. BUT, he in NO way deserves to leave for an off night and for Karina’s mistake. I don’t blame her at all either, it happens to everyone, I am just saying it wasn’t even his mistake. He has been exceptional all season and deserves to stay and finally get great scores for his great dancing. I would feel so disappointed to not see him do an Argentine Tango or another samba, etc. I think they have so much more in them as a pair. I think the sympathy votes and fanbase should pull through….I hope….I voted for them!
The last thing was….Gilles. I have never been more annoyed this season than when I heard the judges critiques and then the scores. This has nothing to do with the fact that I too think he has become a huge jerk this season. I still always thought he could dance and would say he had an incredible dance if he did. But Courtney, I agree with you 100%…and you watch SYTYCD also right? You mentioned Nakul Dev Mahajan so I figured. I have never seen a more terrible Bollywood dance on a dance show in my life. I would hate to think the general public thinks that is what Bollywood should look like after watching this show and these critiques of it. Geez, the American ice dancers Meryl Davis & Charlie White can do it on ICE 1000 times better than they just did on hard floor. I am starting to see even more where Peta and Gilles aren’t really the best pair. They are a gorgeous pair, but they don’t seem to really mesh well like some of the other couples.
I really would be ok with anyone leaving tomorrow but Shawn, Apolo or Kelly. But I would be more than ok if it was Bristol or Kirstie though. And if it would be Gilles or Sabrina, I would laugh.
BTW, loved Apolo’s comforting Karina after their routine – they have such a great partnership. I think Karina was crying because she felt she let Apolo down; she didn’t want to ruin everything for him or put him in danger of elimination.
@Albert – Oh, God no! Not like Marie at all. Marie was all girly-girly and not really hot at all. I think Shawn has her own mold, really. 🙂
Derek just tweeted a picture of Shawn’s shoe. She bent the heel BEFORE the dance. She is unbelievable. A real pro not just a star anymore! I am so happy for Derek that he has a partner that is so strong and able to match him step for step! Now if Len would just get on board! But, last season, he waited for week 6 to break out the 10 paddle for the VamPaso Doble by Menough!
wow you put this up fast! I agree with you with just about everything…my rankings
1) shawn & derek – Hands down the best dance of the night by a large margin. I was most impressed how the gymnastics in the routine felt fluid and didnt get them out of mambo rhythm one second (they deserved some 12 paddles compared to some of these other scores)
2) kelly & val – For 75 seconds of this routine I was wowed by the emotion, performance, and kelly’s actually dancing and was thinking 10, but unfortunately there was about 15 seconds of reality. they were about a whole second out of sync during that section. but dang kelly great effort
3) melissa & tony – this woman is so clean. I loved the energy and she finally had a little pizazz
4/5) Sabrina & louis – it started off fun, and parts of this routine were so groovy and they were killing it, but there were stretches that just seemed to fall flat and were kind of uninteresting
4/5) Gilles & peta – this was one of my wtf scoring moment also (LOL at this being equal to shawn…smh) I thought Peta looked like she was atleast trying to get the proper technique, but parts of it looked like gilles was struggling. they got through all the steps fine, and I am a sucker for bollywood (so i enjoyed it), but i was distrubed by how much the band slowed the song down
6) Apolo & karina -I feel for karina, but this wasnt my fav even before the fall. I hope she is okay, but because she stood there lost and frozen for quite a few seconds. I will say that apolo killed it after the fall. but this was all around kind of unfortunate
7) kirste & maks – it was funny. I was entertained. some of the Charleston wasnt have bad, but kirstie is going to have to step it up
8) Emmitt & cheryl – this was my other wtf scoring moment tonight. I like emmitt but he was STIFF and this dance was clunky, judges must have been distracted by the smoke on the ground
9) Bristol & mark – I actually thought mark choreographed the perfect routine for bristol. it had the potential to be cute, fun, yet simple. Bristol danced with energy for about 10 seconds and the rest of the the routine it looked like mark was dancing with a mannequin. props to her for getting all the steps right though
Oh Lord, I didn’t look at the picture – I thought she’d broken a bone in her heel! *facepalm* Figured that they all should be getting battle pay!
Still, pretty amazing kid.
I totally forgot Melissa and Tony’s jitterbug which I thoroughly enjoyed! Wow, I hope that’s not indicative of who’s going home, but maybe it is.
Shawn dancing with a broken heel, that it is impressive. Girl was on fire tonight.
Okay, overall I really did enjoy the dances tonight. I think for the entire season now I’m just going to focus on who I want to vote for and the dancing. I’ve lost just about all faith in scoring now.
Shawn & Derek- These two were incredible. Fast, sharp, precise, rhythmical, full of energy, sassy, sexy, all the above. Plus, this was definitely proper mambo choreography. Huge kudos to Derek, being able to make a dance that’s been done so much more often so exciting and brilliant while maintaining the dance itself. These two are turning out to be my favorite couple of DWTS to date. I find myself LOVING their dances more and more each week. Glad they got a score they deserved (of course Len has to be the nut that ruins it).
Kelly & Val- I give these two a LOT of credit: Kelly had a broken toe, she was sick, neither was particularly fond of the style, and contemporary can be pretty darn difficult if all you know is ballroom. This dance had incredible emotion and chemistry, which really made up for some out-of-sync and/or shaky moments. I’m loving these two more and more as the weeks go on. I didn’t quite get the platform either, but I do think they really went for this seriously and did a fantastic job.
Gilles & Peta- Wow…I’ve never seen such bullcrap in my life. Okay, I have, but this was still atrocious. How in the world did this sloppy, half-assed, hot mess of a Bollywood (if you can call it that, lacked content IMO) get the same as a brilliantly executed, full of energy, PROPER mambo? Oh yeah, the judges were wearing their crack colored glasses whilst sipping their wackadoo tea whilst sitting in their swampland in Florida. I just didn’t like this at all. That’s all I’m going to say.
Emmitt & Cheryl- While I really liked the emotion of the dance, I can’t say I was crazy about the other parts of it. I honestly felt like this was the worst dance of the night. I saw little to no bolero- it felt like just a mix of some hip swivels, awkwardly executed lines, lifts, and Cheryl dancing around a stationary Emmitt. The actual things he did that required technique really lacked fluidity. Crazy overscoring, beyond crazy.
Apolo & Karina- Wow, I felt absolutely awful for Karina 🙁 This dance was pretty good I thought until that happened. It really got to both of them and it affected the rest of the dance, though I can’t say I’d blame either of them. It had plenty of swag and I think they pulled it off really well, but I think immense pressure and high expectations is what made these two slip up tonight. I’m hoping they come back strong and get to the top of that leader board.
Melissa & Tony- In my top 4 of the night. Fun, full of energy, well-executed and some awesome lifts. I too think Tony’s stepped it up with his choreography and it’s too he and Melissa’s benefit without a doubt. My main problem with Melissa still is that I feel that everything is a bit dainty and too pretty. While the steps have good energy and are clean and precise, somewhere I just feel there is a slight lack of aggression (not aggression like angry, but conviction and power) in her steps. If she implements that into her fun performances and good technique, I think it could really make her more impactful as a dancer. A little worried about these two, hoping they’re safe.
Kirstie & Maks- I enjoyed this so much. It was hilarious and she and Maks were having a great time. Always a benefit in the Charleston. It also allowed them to get away with quite a lot. There wasn’t a whole lot of actual Charleston steps in this, but it was tons of fun and it fit them as a couple to a tee. However, even the actual Charleston parts were a bit sloppy and heavy. As much as I love these two, it’s time for them and Bristol to go home. But I think we’ll see Kirstie around for next week.
Bristol & Mark- Okay, as unmemorable as this was…I actually have to say it wasn’t near as bad as I thought it would be. Bristol actually MOVED out there and seemed to be having at least some fun. However, this still needed way more energy and like I said, it seriously lacked impact. I wish I could say a terrible dance order and unmemorable dance would send her packing guaranteed, but that may not be the case 🙁
Sabrina & Louis- I actually found myself liking this dance. Especially when she ditched that awful feather poof she was wearing. This had tons of fun, had great energy, and had some legit disco. However, she did seemed to get a bit off and overexcited in a couple of spots. In relativity to some other couples, I too think she was lowballed, and I worry that it may be a nail in the coffin for them. I really want her to be safe, but I’m nervous for her 🙁
My top 4 tonight were Shawn & Derek, Apolo & Karina, Melissa & Tony, and Kelly & Val. HM: Sabrina & Louis
Best case scenario for me: Bristol & Kirstie bottom 2 with Bristol going home.
I agree that it will be Sabrina going home Tuesday. If it is anyone else, I will be quite surprised. It is quite unfortunate that this All Star season is this predictable.
Aww… felt so bad for Karina. I think the pros always take it harder than the stars especially if they think it’s their fault. I would blame the mike pack that came loose though. I don’t think they are going home tomorrow though, although I can see them “in jeopardy”.
Going home – Sabrina because bad running order, so-so scores & was bottom 2 last week. 🙁 Why can’t they score Bristol lower?
Wow, this was up fast. The only routines I really enjoyed were Shawn and Derek and Melissa and Tony. The rest were underwhelming. I could have learned Bristol’s choreography, it was so basic. Did not deserve the scores. Others took risks, they openly admitted they didn’t.
I felt bad for Karina, I can’t tell if she slipped on the flying mike or not. The pros don’t want to let their celebs down any season, but especially this season, I think that’s what she was worried about. It’s good they had this accident this week and not a later week, assuming they make it through this week. (I believe they will, but nothing’s certain). Hoping Bristol or Kirstie go, but expecting Sabrina to go.
It was a real treat to see Paula Abdul as guest judge tonight. I think she’s a fantastic dancer and choreographer. I thought she did really well as guest judge and surprisingly gave lower scores on a few occasions
I’m not a fan of Bollywood dances at all, but I’ve got to say, I thoroughly enjoyed Gilles dance mainly because of Gilles’ performance. I was really impressed on how he just immersed himself into the dance. Yes, he might of looked silly, but I liked the fact that he didn’t mind being silly and having fun. I agree with Len saying something about how Gilles fully commit to a dance and the character of it
What can I say about Derek? I wasn’t thrilled about he and Shawn getting the Mambo. It didnt sound like a challenging dance for him to choreograph, but boy, it’s like impossible to underestimate the guy (if you can understand what I’m trying to say). IMO, best dance of the season. I’d like to point out that I haven’t really cared for certain couples doing a bunch of tricks, but when Derek does them, they go seamlessly into the dance. And I have to say, I wasn’t thrilled with the pairing of Shawn and Derek, now I think they’re fabulous together
I’m with Will, the judges’ scoring is so crack-addled this season there’s no point in even discussing it. I’m going to enjoy the dances as best I can, pick one couple, and vote.
Shawn and Derek’s Mambo was amazing. Loved it! But we already know who’s going to get the encore tomorrow – The new mega-star of Bollywood *snort*
I also enjoyed Melissa and Tony’s Jitterbug. They’re having a great time and she’s a nimble dancer.
Bollywood (for lack of a better term) – yuck.
Bolero (if you want to call it that) – boring.
Rock ‘n Roll – can’t say, didn’t watch.
Contemporary – overwrought.
Disco – OK for what it was.
Charleston – enjoyable in a fluff kind of way.
Hip-hop – So sad that Karina kind of psyched herself out because I know she’s capable of pulling it off. My mind tells me she and Apolo will make it through to next week, but my stomach is going to flutter uneasily until I hear “Apolo and Karina, you’re safe” — and I’m afraid they’re going to be in “jeopardy” first.
Of course it should be Bristol and Kirstie in the bottom two, with Bristol going home. Unfortunately, I think it’s going to be Melissa and Sabrina, and I have no idea who is more likely to go home.
Just watched Shawn again, you can clearly see the broken heel, and it was also very clear that was the cause of her little lost of balance in that first turn.
I sometimes wonder if I’m watching a different show than the judges.
I am not a dancer but I can certainly tell the difference between good & average dances. As someone else said I think the judges are on crack.
I totally agree that Derek & Shawn’s mambo was hands above Gilles & Peta (also what was with the mouth-ew).
I believe it should be Kristie & Bristol in the bottom two with Bristol going home but as has already been said that’s not going to happen – so I’m just not sure.
My only hope is that the judges start judging.
Shawn is the most physically capable contestant that’s ever been on the show. Her strength is unbelievable.
How furious must Mark be that his best friend/arch rival got Shawn and he had to screw around with Bristol again?
Interesting that Anna retweeted someone complaining that it wasn’t fair to allow flips or tricks on a DWTS season with a gymnast in it. Do you think any of the other pros feel that way? I know that Louis has resented Derek for being ‘favored’ in terms of partner selection in the past.
Serious question: Is it possible for Derek to outdo his final few routines with Nicole Scherzinger (CLEARLY the strongest dances the show has ever seen) with Shawn Johnson this season? I mean, Nicole was a ringer to a completely unacceptable extent, but Shawn, if she really comes alive… ?
I tend to really enjoy well done Bollywood. So tonight just pissed me off – there was no Bollywood there. And there was no Bolero in Cheryl’s dance….yes, Cheryl’s dance, since she did all the dancing.
Yep, Gabby’s right – Shawn did that whole dance with a broken heel. Derek didn’t know until AFTER they danced that she broke it before they started.
Note to the producers – time for new shoes. Shawn broke a heel and Sabrina broke…two??
Wow, after reading everyone’s comments, I’m kind of in a minority here lol. Ido agree Sabrina’s outfit was atrocious. She can dance but I just can’t get into her nor Emmit’s. I’m really liking Kelly and Val and I had rather low expectations of them.
Steve – I actually think he can. I really can wait for there Argentine Tango and Paso, this are Derek’s strongest dances, and were some of Shawn’s best dances on her season (30,29). Derek is in all time high with choreo right now.
:::sigh::: For the love of GOD!! KIRSTIE WASN’T IN THE BOTTOM TWO LAST WEEK.
How many more times are we going to have to say that??
At first I told myself that I would not comment on all the Gilles bashing taking place all the time since the season started, but tonight’s comments by a few above, including the main recap, are mystifying to me. Gilles and Peta had a very challenging assignment and, given the short time span, I think they did quite well. I think that Gilles does try to immerse himself in the character of each dance. I am not sure why many of his positive attributes are finding such disdain here, verging on outright ridicule.
@Steve, I really think Derek is doing all these tricks and flips early on the season while at the same time honing Shawn’s dancing steps, which I think is really smart of him. Well, he is a genius, duh. I will not be surprised if all of a sudden Shawn does all ballroom routine with zero tricks and she look amazing. And I don’t think she is going to outdo Nicole simply because some ballroom numbers need the sexy hot chemistry to really work (rumba, argentine tango) and I don’t think they have it. But I would love to be surprised!
Because, Kernlady, Gilles is a putz. If he’d stop complaining and whining and making promises and sweeping proclamations and just focus on having fun and learning what Peta is trying to teach him he’d get those terrific dances he wants. I am so disappointed in him this season.
Maria and Derek bollywood samba had much more bollywood content even with all that samba and it was better and Gilles tonight. The hands , the most important thing was a joke.
I am very interested to see Shawn and Derek’s paso. I have always given credit where it was due with Derek re: Paso Doble. He is tied for ‘strongest Paso choreographer/dancer’ in the current stable of male pros. (Even though he did blow the ‘asalto’ in his epic, famous Paso with Chelsie, which was so freakin’ tragic…)
If he can find a way to pull the anger out of Shawn, it could be astonishing. I am not a Derek fan, but I *am* a fan of excellent dancing, and he and Shawn have been giving it to us.
Perhaps, Kernlady, that is why it’s a good thing to read a blog for a while before commenting. People have been very clear on their reasons for disliking Gilles. You don’t have to agree, but STFU on the whining about “bashing”. If you can’t find other things to talk about besides what other people are saying, you’re not welcome here.
After the day we’ve had on this blog, I’m not taking any shit and I’m ESPECIALLY not taking some newbie slinging shit at a blogger without bothering to spend time on the blog. You don’t like what we have to say? LEAVE.
Shawn and Derek actually only did two lifts ( the first and the jump into a split, everything else was in the ground and legal), if was a normal week with no lifts the routine would still be pretty much the same, even the score IMO.
I put this on another thread, but I’m going to put it here as well. I went back and watched APolo & Karina on my DVR (complete with slo-mo). Looks to me like Apolo started to lose his mic pack on his backwards roll, then when he started dancing again, the mic pak swung through his legs. Looked to me like it hit Karina on the ankle at a most inopportune time, and (I think) most likely caused her fall. Score one for the production muppets… 🙁
IMO it’s just too much wishful thinking to believe Kirstie and/or Bristol will be in the bottom 2 tomorrow, which leaves an opening for….Apolo.
ARRRGGH! Definitely not confident that he and Karina will be safe tomorrow. Just from reading around various boards, it seems like a lot of people were turned off by Karina’s ‘meltdown” and not planning to vote for them. I really hope I’m wrong though and that Apolo gets tons of support from voters. Milk those sympathy votes darn it!!
Oh were there were other couples dancing tonight? Don’t remember, too preoccupied with Apolo’s fate at the moment.
Actually I do want to say something about Kelly and Val. Pretty sure these two just went on my **** list after tonight. I absolutely cannot stand the showmance that these two are so obviously trying to create. Thought their behavior all night was just plain creepy and distracting. What a disappointment because I think I would find their chemistry more natural if they didn’t try so freakin’ hard all the time. I actually haven’t minded their dances thus far even if they are being overscored; I just dont’ care for their behavior when they’re not on the dance floor. Blech.
Shawn was good, Giles – overscored, and everyone else was kind of forgettable for me.
@ Steve: what exactly are you talking about when you say “Derek blew the asalto”? I ask because I never heard of that, and it’s definitely not in the Paso syllabus…
@Sally, thanks for the heads up. I’m too distraught to re-watch her and Apolo’s dance again but when I first caught it live I wasn’t sure what exactly happened. I thought it looked like Karina stumbled a little and wasn’t able to rip open her jacket like Apolo did which caused her to psyche herself out for the rest of the dance.
Poor Karina 🙁
I never liked Gilles… as a matter of fact it was amazing when he lost back at season 8!!! and he has been getting on my nerves big time… BIG TIME!!! i don’t know though if he is always like that or are they focusing on it for their twisted network rating reasons…. in all cases.. i don’t want him to win… It is not even a “french” thing… i know they are passionate but this is too much… i have french friends and non of them are that over dramatic
Shawn and Derek looked amazing and she deserves to win but i genetically can’t fully go for the front runner… although as a ballroom dancer Derek Hough is a role model and dancing idol… but i have a thing for the underdog which brings me to Melissa…. I loved her in her season and I love her in this one… although i think her Samba was a bit Frantic last week.. her Jitterbug did it for me big time and thank god she is back!!! i’m waiting for her to get a dramatic dance for her to finally get the chance to display some of the “aggression” that some commenters mentioned that she lacked!!
It is weird, i actually think Melissa and Shawn have the same issue… they are both technically clean and amazing dancers but i’m waiting to see them so more aggressive dances.. like “Tango or Paso” or romantic dances “Rumba” to see if they will hit the character notes
I love Kristie!! i hope she outlasts Bristol and Emmitt because i don’t enjoy them as i much i do her
Sabrina is underscored in my opinion… and not just tonight… last week also… but i see that they have decided to let her go apparently
Kelly is surprisingly better than i expected…. and i know she was getting into the character of the dance today but it was weird… but i can get it….
Apolo… i know most of you guys here love him….. I have nothing against Apolo… I’m rooting for Melissa and I hope that a miracle will catapult her into the finals but if she doesn’t then i’m all for Apolo or Shawn winning… just because they appear to be the nicest and they are both goo dancers
Bristol No comment!… actually no… STOP VOTING!!!! honestly.. please please… the idea of her outlasting Sabrina and Melissa is sickening… she might be a nice person! but her time is up!
@Anna The ‘asalto’ (which is simply Spanish for ‘assault’) is a very traditional moment in campo-style performance paso wherein one of the partners forces a very intense moment of physical contact on the other. It’s not unusual for it to be the female, actually.
In Derek and Chelsie’s dance, Chelsie leaps at him while he is balancing on the judges table. In the fourth etapa (the last one) of the asalto, Derek turns away from Chelsie in a way that she obviously wasn’t expecting. (You can see her search for the facial contact she was awaiting before she just goes with it.) The dance just *totally* deflates for about two seconds.
They pick it back up again almost immediately and it was a brilliant, brilliant dance, but it was SO disappointing to me as a Latin ballroom judge to watch Derek break like that. I know that he’s much cleaner and less sexpot-ish in general than most of the other male pros on the show, (some of whom were *notorious* for their crazy sexual behavior on the competitive circuit,) but it was unusual for Chelsie to push the way she did in that moment and I was sad that Derek didn’t rise up to her.
I’ve spoken about this dance with many of my compatriots (we all admired it) and they feel similarly.
@Steve ah, I see what you’re talking about. That is my all-time favorite paso and I always noticed that particular moment, but didn’t think much of it. Kind of out of character for him…
And I also remember you wrote something a little while back about Karina and Louis doing promenade runs in cha cha timing! I agree, they were that good…but where did you see them do this?
Wow! Horrible night of judging. Probably the worst I have seen on this show.
That Bollywood routine was a complete mess. Even giving credit for the difficulty of doing a non-traditional dance, it didn’t deserve higher than something in the 7 range.
Sabrina got screwed. I know some people don’t like her and think she is a bit heavy, but come on. Even her haters have to admit that what happened tonight was silly. No one usually gets called out for small timing and/or sync mistakes on this show yet she was because the show apparently wants awful, more controversial contestants to stay on.
Bristol and Kirstie were really bad. They should have been separated from the rest by a huge margin.
Emm was boring. Overscored as well.
I can’t believe Gilles and Peta’s dance got the same score as Shawn & Derek’s. G&P’s dance was just a mess; Peta looked good, but Gilles looked crazy (and like he needed a bath.)
(And I love, love, love Val for calling Cheryl what she is.)
Mari, I’ve seen that around also and I’m sad. “Fans” turned off by Karina’s crying/sympathy tears/ etc. I do agree she should have held herself together until they were off camera. A lot of the fans thought it was part of the dance…that she was going down for the count so-to-speak- and would get back up in a rumble position. I like that Apolo just kept going, and I’m glad they scored Apolo’s performance.
I know Sabrina fans are pulling an all nighter because they fear Bristol & Kirstie and possibly Apolo’s fans, but many of them thought Helio had a huge fan base.
When I saw Sabrina in that blue feather coat, I thought – Oh they’re gone! But I did enjoy their disco routine.
Shawn & Derek were outstanding. I felt bad for Apolo & Karina, so I hope they’re safe tomorrow night.
Bristol’s dance was so simplistic, even I could have done that and believe me I can’t dance. I would be ecstatic if she goes home tomorrow night.
Derek and Shawn were amazing. Why wasn’t that a perfect 40? Never really understood before why ppl want Derek to play Johnny Castle in the new Dirty Dancing, but after this mambo (a key dance in the movie) I get it!
Glad I wasn’t the only one creeped out by Val and Kelly! It was just too too much. And I feel they were grossly over-scored. I know she was injured, but they were out of sync on their only side-by-side, and her moves were extremely jerky.
Giles and Peter were also grossly over-scored. I do think they were given the hardest dance for sure, and they did a great job considering, but yeah, not clean enough to get that high of a score!
I was bored during Cheryl and Emmitt’s dance. I kinda tuned out.
I guess I didn’t notice a ton of “oops” in Karina and Apollo, maybe I was too busy watching him to notice Karina as well :), but I know I didn’t think it was as great as some of the others. But then I’ve never really thought he was that good this season.
Loved Melissa and Tony. I feel like she is one of the technically best dancer’s this season, and yes, I’m glad someone finally pointed out that Tony has upped his choreography. I think that’s partly why he doesn’t win, he doesn’t push his dancers enough or get creative enough.
Kirstie and Maks were fun, and she did better than I thought she would as well, but its time for them to go. The producers keep showing us how :much time she puts in: and how “hard she works” but its not showing in the final dance.
Bristol definitely danced well this week. It was clean and energetic without being uncomfortably forced. I just loooove how the producers shoved it in our face that the dance was dumbed down for her 🙂 It made everything the judges said pointless. My co-worker keeps saying the show is fixed, and I keep telling her, if it was, then Bristol wouldn’t still be here! People got mad in a regular season, if they keep her around as long in an all-star season, sh** is gonna hit the fan! I think the package tonight proved the producers want her to go home! Can’t explain the scores the judges give tho 😉
I actually like Sabrina and Louis’s disco. I thought it was the perfect choice for her. Just wish she had a different pro to dance with, ooh like what if she and Pam had been reversed and she had been with Tristan instead!! I would have liked to see if he could have kept up with her. Anyways, I think she’s great, and the judges are not giving her enough credit.
#Pricess Heidi, along w/ new shoes they need new lipstick! I’m tired of seeing in on men’s faces/women’s teeth! I think they’re trying to cut costs.
Thanks for reading my pointless/uneducated opinions!
1. Shawn/Derek-Wow! Loved their dance, best of the night.
2. Val/Kelly-Wonderful dance, they have so much chemsitry!
3. Giles/Peta-Dance was good.
4. Melissa/Tony-dance was nice
5. Emmitt/Cheryl-Loved their dance.
6. Sabrina/Louis-Dance was nice
7. Apolo/Karina- Dance was nice, felt sorry for Karina
8. Bristol/Mark-Didn’t like this dance at all
9. Kristie/Maksim
Hoping tomorrow night Bristol or Kirstie will have danced their last dance for this season!!!!
Re: Apolo, I hope that having 2 scores lower than his doesn’t end up screwing him. Seems like voters might assume that he’s safe when he’s potentially in real danger.
I feel bad for Karina and Apolo as well. I usually like the band, but it seemed like poison was too slow, for me that made things a little off from the beginning, but I liked the routine. As for Bristol, she probably won’t go, which annoys me since even Mark said he had to dumb down the routine, meanwhile everyone else is pushing themselves even harder. Oh well
@Anna It’s in the pro performance to ‘Let Me Entertain You’. One of the best they’ve ever done. Louis and Karina (who were the anchor couple in the dance) so some astonishingly fast Samba stuff reset into cha-cha timing. Unreal.
Also, there’s a hilarious moment in the beginning of that dance. When the pros are in a group waiting, the anchor couple will often have a loud hard count going over the band and crowd noise so that people know when to start moving.
In that dance, the camera snaps to a closeup of Louis and Karina right as they’re on beat five of their hard count. So they both have their mouths wide open shouting ‘FIVE’ when they see the camera is in their faces and awkwardly close them while trying to still count for the group. Fantastic. They joked about it in the interviews after that night.
That dance is fantastic for just watching Louis do his thing. He is a whiny, arrogant little chancho but holy hell can he move. Also a great chance for watching Cheryl back when she was still in shape. She’s dynamic in that dance. It’s a shame.
And of course, Edyta (as usual) wearing too little and getting horribly, painfully obviously out of sync with Kym and Julianne.
Shawn & Derek rocked that Mambo! Damn, that choreography was AMAZING! Derek never disappoints! This performance was far and away better than crazy faced Gile’s sloppy Bollywood fiasco and to think my initial reaction to them getting the Mambo was not a good one.-LOL Now this performance could easily be one of my favorite dances ever on the show. So proud of Shawn that move/pause in the middle of the dance was outstanding/genius. They match each other’s moves perfectly. Derek’s choreography is always mind blowing but with her he’s taken it up even a level higher! She is amazing. He knows how to incorporate her gymnastic skills into their routines so smoothly. She’s inspiring him and he’s definitely bringing out her sexy side! BRAVO! Best Mambo ever on DWTS!!
Sorry it took me so long to post…was actually in the bathroom puking over the scores Gilles got…really one what planet does Len think that compared to Shawn and Derek…look I know very little but last years three way dance with Derek, Maria and Henry had some Bollywood in it and it was so much better. Really, he had wobbly arms and shakey movements when I think the Bollywood should have been very precise and you could see the frustration on Peta’s face in practice. The judges scoring Shawn and Derek the same way as them is just plain an insult to Shawn and Derek. Really, I thought there were several couples better than Gilles and Peta.
The Emmit and Cheryl dance was really disappointing. I think Emmitt said it all when he said sometimes you can have too many people giving you advice…I don’t know it just doesn’t seem like the same Emmitt this season.
I was so glad to hear that someone else noticed that Mark practically threw Bristol under the bus with his dumbing down the routine comments and then the judges talk about how great it was. Again, what planet are they on? I just want to say “grow some” to the judges..call a duck a duck and score her the way she deserves to be scored.
And finally Heidi thank you for again saying Kirstie was not in the bottom two, I can’t figure out why that is so hard for people to understand….lol…but it made me laugh.
A few more random thoughts:
1. I would like to see a shift back to doing standard dances. None of this Bollywood, hip-hop nonsense. And no freestyle, team or otherwise, until the finals.
2. I think all of the crazy sets, dances, judging, etc. have a lot to do with them wanting to avoid American Idol’s fate of declining ratings due to predictable outcomes, but please, there must be a better way than the wild path they have chosen.
3. I wish the show would work on educating its audience instead of being just fluff. People are voting out of ignorance. This is a pet peeve of mine because it would be easily fixable.
Let’s use figure skating and its coverage as an example. I know the techniques and rules of figure skating like the back of my hand, but most people don’t know the difference between a lutz and a flip and get glazed eyes when you talk about levels of step sequences. Thing is, despite their ignorance, the TV audience can go away with a feeling of satisfaction because the commentators generally do an OK job of explaining the basic ideas. It doesn’t take a deep knowledge of the art/sport to understand that skater so-and-so got downgrades because his jumps weren’t fully rotated or that two dancers didn’t execute a turn on a pattern as smoothly as they could have.
This show, at the very least, could do a better job of explaining to the audience the fundamentals of each dance, the basic terminology, and so forth. Maybe then the judges would feel more comfortable actually judging. And maybe the audience at home wouldn’t freak out quite so much when real criticism is given.
@Mark It’s a great idea, but the show doesn’t have a narrator or a running voiceover and the judges don’t ever really have time to critique actual steps. It’d have to be pretty post hoc. But I agree that it’d be nice.
Steve,
That is true about the lack of a narrator or commentator. Big difference there.
I don’t think the show would have to go to that extreme though to do better. I am going to disagree slightly with you and suggest that there is in fact already enough time for them to critique properly after the performances. The judges waste a lot of those precious seconds with “woo-hoos” that seem to never end and bickering. I get that it is part of the act, but a little more content would be nice. Maybe one funny line instead of two.
Yeah, yeah, I know. What I am asking for is something that probably wouldn’t help the ratings. Blah.
Holy Flippin’ Cow!!!! I went through an emotional rollercoaster tonight. Happy, Angry, Peeved, and I just loved this night!
Shawn- Wam! Bam! Pow! Dance of the night, easily! I was blown away by the technique, and performance by Shawn. How it didn’t get a perfect score will go down in history as one of the greatest mysteries like the Bermuda Triangle, Jimmy Hoffa and the Spokesmodel Category on Star Search. Derek, my boiiiiii proved why he is King and boy, this is only week 4.
Kelly- I was on the verge of crying with the emotion of the dance (Here is one man card). I usually hate Contemporary Dances, but I don’t know if it was because of Kelly, but I flipping loved this dance. Yet, being fair, yes there was synchronization problems. But a great acting performance and I really am liking Val’s choreography.
Gilles- Eh, could’ve had a V-8
Sabrina- How did we go from “Remember America, YOU Voted her on” to “We don’t care what happens with her”? Sabrina was fantastic. Her smile is so infectious (to me, anyway) and she always gives her 110%. She is a good dancer and I loved her Disco but I just don’t know–hope we don’t lose her but don’t want to lose Kelly just to save Sabrina either.
I would type more but I stink at typing on a phone. Lol.
Thanks for this Court!!
Oh, and just to be clear, my dream does not involve the judges being extremely specific in their criticism, but just a bit more than they currently are doing. Obviously they couldn’t mention every single flaw in detail (and I am not sure that a certain judge would even notice half of them..) but let’s have a bit more than talk about glistening pecs and some extremely general comments about posture or Latin being sexy.
That is my wish.
Derek and Shawn’s mambo was amazing. FANTASTIC choreo, i loved it!
I am so sorry for Karina… I liked the hip hop though, and i don’t think she’s out of her comfort zone with this dance, really. My bottom two: Emmitt and Bristol
I am a newbie although I read often have not ever commented as I was not sure about it that much.
Tonight I would like to leave a comment although I it could get lost in the many comments.
Summary
Shawn is better than her first season.
Apolo doesn’t deserve to go home but neither did Helio for the mishap.
Emmett is worst than his first season.
Gilles is much worst than first season and I agree the dance was a horrible nightmare dance. He should be in the bottom two but for the judges who think he can do no wrong.
Kelly the dance was horible. It was the mix of a domestic violence and a rumba.
Melissa Tony should be ashame he did a repeat of a dance in her first season.
Bristol gosh just gosh.
Sabrina the beginning was terrible.
Kirstie when will the chasing of Maks stop. It has become sick to watch.
The judges sure score badly. No way did Gilles deserve the score they gave him for such a bad designed and danced mess. All Peta knows to do is wiggle her #%($( for votes. Not appealing in the least. Paula did nothing to help the show.
That’s all I wanted to say for now.
just a few thoughts about last night:
Gilles and Peta: how did that get the same score as Shawn and Derek? It had next to nothing to do with Bollywood. The trio samba that Maria, Derek and Henry did last season had more Bollywood than this mess did.
Shawn and Derek: BEST DANCE OF THE NIGHT BY FAR! I was worried that the mambo wouldn’t stand out and had hoped they had gotten contemporary instead. (Derek, Mark, Chelsie and Lacey are probably the only pros that could do that style properly) But so glad I was proved wrong. This was an amazing dance and the tricks felt like part of the dance. Really looking forward to see what Derek can do with her for their Titanic inspired rumba next week.
I’m hoping that it will be Bristol and Kirstie in the bottom two but I doubt it. It will probably be Sabrina going home. (or maybe Melissa)
Giles’ bollywood was ridiculous. It was barely bollywood choreography and he barely did much hand movements…his mouth hanging open in a big O didn’t help either. I was kind of embarrassed when the judges scored it so high; I feel like the show lost some credibility in doing so. Compared to Derek’s bollywood with Maria and the bollywood routines I’ve seen on SYTYCD, that was horrific and they gave it 10s? Ugh. Like I said, embarrassing So, did Apollo’s mic pac fall first and trip up Karina? A shame about the fall, whatever caused it. The other dance that I felt was just ridiculous was Emmitt’s bolero. That was barely a bolero at all! Bolero is one of the American Rhythm dances (which is why Cheryl got Tony to show it to her)…she’s been to too many competitions for her to NEVER have seen it, and it is close enough to some of the latin dances to where she should have been able to pull it off way better. She looked unsure of the most basic of moves, which to me is surprising. I mean, the pros who got non-ballroom/latin dances looked more sure with her footing than she did. And they rave about how great Emmitt looked? All I could think of was, I think they were looking at someone else!! Kirstie was painful to watch, IMO. Bristol did better than I thought she did; at least this season she’s putting forth the effort. Mark always infuriates me the way he totally outdances his partner…he thinks it takes the attention away from their hesitance or difficulty in following the routine, but it really only accents it. I just dont get why other choreographers understand to dance down to where they look more equal but Mark just insists upon going absolutely nuts and making giant faces and getting really huge with all his moves. Makes no sense….This week to me was a total mess. I did enjoy Shawn and Derek’s dance and also Tony and Melissa’s. Kelly and Val did really good considering also. And I liked Sabrina’s disco…but then again, I love disco music because you can do some great hustles to it so I’m slightly biased, lol.
I see I’m in the minority but I loved Gilles’ dance even though I dislike his personality. And even if it wasn’t true Bollywood it certainly was different from regular ballroom dances, it just had a different flair to it.
I don’t think the goal for this week was to come up with authentic dances, that wouldn’t be fair to the pros (which is where Karina faltered). The goal was just to mix things up a bit.
My favorites were Gilles, Shawn and Kelly. Melissa and Sabrina were good too. The rest fell flat for me, for different reasons: I have been over Bristol and Kirstie for a while now. Emmitt isn’t very versatile so I expect to be bored by some of his dances while wowed by others and Apolo fell victim to Karina’s stressing out over choreo. Even without the mistake it wasn’t all that.
I’m guessing Bristol/Emmitt bottom two and hope Bristol goes. If for no other reason then because I like Mark and see no reason to torture him in this manner.
Tomorrow there is a president debate round 2. It sounds like no result show this week.
Sabrina’s purple coat – this might be an explanation:
“Spirit Day: Wear Purple to Raise Awareness of Anti-Gay Bullying, Says GLAAD”
the result show just starts earlier – there’s no recap show first.
I think Mark actually helped Peta out with Bollywood although that certainly wasn’t his intention :).
I have 3 complaints about Gilles&Peta partnering: 1) Gilles being a bit obnoxious off the floor, 2) their lack of chemistry and 3) Peta as a choreographer tends to play it safe in every aspect except athleticism (tricks). Bollywood IMO solved problems 2 and 3 because chemistry doesn’t really play a part in this type of dance and there is also no room for lack of creativity when you are forced to go so far out of the box. Peta rose to the occasion in my eyes.
Last night was the most I’ve watched and I still turned away several times. Thanks for this terrific post and comments to hold me over. The judging, plus Paula on meds (they look pretty fun I gotta say), was unwatchable. That kind of group train wreck belongs at a family get together, not on national TV.
Disco thoughts? Sabrina got the moves and missed the feel. Sure, you can have an up-tempo song. But you smooth the moves so you don’t scare people off. The whole point was to get laid, not work out. And, yeah, Bollywood’s praying that dwts never tries that again.
Let’s hope that this DWTS Couples Choose a Dance Fiasco and the judging by Paula Abdul is never repeated again. Thank You!
Is it just me or did anyone else feel like taking a cold shower after watching Kelly and Val’s dance. I know contemporary isn’t a sexy dance or anything, but still. Also, I wonder what Mark would think if the final three were Shawn, Sabrina and Bristol. I know that probably wouldn’t happen, but it could make for an interesting final.
I actually think that Val and Kelly tried a bit too hard to smolder last night.
And I’ve figured out how to express my only complaint with Shawn’s dancing. Don’t get me wrong, she’s great and I think she deserves to be in the finals. But I always have a feeling watching her do these crazy tricks and the sheer power of movement, that I should be more exited by the dance then I end up being. I end up thinking to myself: what is wrong with you, why are not going crazy over those crazy moves? 😀
Maybe it’s just me but I don’t connect emotionally to her dancing.
I hope they use this SYTYCD with a twist night next season. I like seeing all these dances. Loved Shawn and Derek. How many of the pros have been trained in other dance styles? Is it just Mark, Derek, and Chelsie?
from most of the blogs i have read…LA Times, usa today…they all thought Peta’s choreo and that dance was not up to standards. I honestly just can’t stand Gilles- he has lost touch with reality…everything he says just sound wrong. It is so hard to root for him and honestly i don’t know who is wearing more makeup at this point…him or Peta…its getting creepy!!!!
Has DWTS ever had a special Bollywood performance on the Tuesday night show? That would be really cool to see. I always like this style on SYTYCD.
I want to start by saying Val and Kelly were amazing! It brought tears to my eyes. I’ve always liked Val, but now, he’s up there with Derek, Maks and Tristan. These two are such a wonderful pair to watch. They were one of the best dances of the night. Kirstie and Maks were entertaining. The end was a little strange for me, but I enjoyed it. What can be said of Derek anymore? He is so good at what he does. He can take any type of dance and turn it into something wonderful to see. He and Shawn were the best of the night. He is going to missed. I didn’t like Gilles and Peta at all. And the tears in his eyes when he got his scores were just too much. No way did he deserve that score. At this point, I would rather watch Jaleel dance again. Gilles is phony and desperate, but he’ll be back next week. Emmitt was another mess. I just don’t get what people see in him. And Courtney is right. Cheryl brought in 4 choreographers to help her. They may have been there for some rehearsal, but their main purpose was to help her and it didn’t work. Emmitt just stood there a lot and of course, the lifts were added to distract from the fact that the dance wasn’t good. Sabrina and Louis? Didn’t like it either. I liked Melissa and Tony. It’s nice to see Tony with a smile on his face. The dance was fun to watch. Bristol and Mark were boring. She said in her video she wanted to play its safe and they did. If she had given herself a chance and listened to Mark, they probably would have been able to do something good. She deserves to be in the bottom two, but it won’t happen. We will lose another dancer that is way better than her and deserves to stay. I truly believe people are voting for her just to screw everything up and that will, as Courtney said, make the season a farce. I’m thinking the bottom 2 could be Kirstie, Bristol, Gilles or Melissa. I’m hoping for Bristol and Gilles and then it’s a toss up of who I want gone more.
If by chance Louis and Sabrina are eliminated tonight. What will he do, blame Derek and Shawn?
Do I really have to watch that awful bollywood routine again tonight in the encore. Shawn deserved the encore, but since she had last week, give the encore to Kelly.
LucyBT, if you don’t like it, GO AWAY. I’m not about to sit here and be lectured by some newbie that clearly didn’t bother to get a lay of the land before jumping in. Disagree with us if you like, but you don’t get to judge us or our opinions.
Steve, must you always preface your comments about Derek with, “I am not a Derek fan”?? It’s pretty obvious! We get it!
Mark, as PH practically screamed yesterday, “Sabrina in not heavy!”
I totally agree with the rankings! Thank you, C. Shawn’s dance was my favourite of all dances so far this season. Gilles’ was a joke, as was the scoring! Kelly is quite the actress when she can display such sexual tension with Val (throughout the show) when she has the flu and a broken toe. Can you say, “Overdone showmance”???
I am worried for Apolo, but hope it’s either Bristol, Kirstie or Sabrina going home.
I loved Shawn and Derek’s dance. It was the best of the night and I watched it several times already again. Very cool! I felt very sorry for Karina. She obviously takes the competition very seriously and knows how hard Apolo is working. They are my favorites despite this blip and I gave them most of my votes except I had to vote for Shawn and Derek too. I also loved Val and Kelly. I think the posing they were doing during the show was meant to be funny and it made me laugh. I think they did a great job. These are still my top three. Melissa also did a great job and is really trying hard. Giles Bollywood was not good and was overscored. Also all the stars tried to improve and add more difficult choreography except for Bristol who just couldn’t handle it. Even Mark said in their practice package that if he dumbed it down any more there wouldn’t be anything left to do. So I think she should go for lack of effort although it won’t happen.
What I don’t understand is if why if this is an “All Star” season which features the “best of the best” then why is Bristol even there. I feel bad for Mark seeing as he has a few of his previous partners there(one of which he won with) and he gets stuck with Bristol who can’t dance to save her life.
One thing I forgot to mention previously, I have to give credit where credit is due, and applaud Bristol for saying no to the bunny costumes, not that what she did was much better, but geez mark. I mean the gorrilla costumes went over so well, let’s go with bunnies this time! That was the only good decision Bristol made!!
Me I’m just waiting for the cheese this week. So much to choose from. They disco line of Karina and Melissa behind Louis and Sabrina. The O face of Giles. The get a room pose of Val and Kelly. And yes I’m shipping Val. Kelly? Who knows what she thinks of her partner but Val’s in LUUV.
I also wish some of theses ladies would stop comparing themselves to Shawn, she’s an Olympic gold medalist, there’s more than likely no trick u can do that is better, esp if it’s a cartwheel, flip, whatever! Just do the best u can do and don’t worry about the rest. I would however like to point out to Bristol that Kirstie who is 40 years older than her did do a cartwheel, perfectly no, but she did it. I must say Paula surprisingly gave very good advice to Bristol
Just watched OTRC interviews. Love George’s interviews. Some thoughts:
-For those who were wondering, Kelly & Val did have reasons for their poses and faces etc. leading up to their performance
-Love Derek & Shawn’s partnership. They have a great attitude about the season. And love Derek’s attention to detail, he mentions working with the band a lot this week to get all of the stops and dynamics right in the piece
-Gilles intensity (and the fact that it is obvious he is not just doing the show for entertaining the fans, like he claimed) is mentioned by George….haha
-Louis comment about Sabrina having choreography much more difficult than anyone else was….surprise….annoying. Have you been watching Shawn? Melissa? I think they have beaten you guys on difficulty many weeks.
-Love Melissa & Tony’s partnership even more than their actual dances!
-Love Apolo & Karina. Hope to see much more of them this season
I thought kissing isn’t allowed in Bollywood!
I like Emmitt and his dancing. IMO, he’s quite good.
I think many are just looking for reasons to dislike him or tend not to like football players on the show in general.
Derek and Shawn deserved a clear 2 point lead and Len is a jerk for holding back and not giving them a historic 40, because it was well deserved. Kelly and Val were my second fave and Kudos to Tony and yes he is bringing better choreography because he wasn’t paired with a dud this season and I’m happy for him considering this is his last season. Apolo and Karina will recover from this and be neck and neck contenders with Derek and Shawn for the mirror ball trophy. I still hope to see Mark put out of his misery and I hope another better dancer isn’t sacrificed for the Palin girl. I adore Kirstie but their dance did look sloppy, and when Maks pushed her, it looked like he was trying to muscle an overfull wheelbarrow. Derek had an edge as a Mambo champion and many pros were way out of their element, so we’ll have to wait and see who goes home tonight, and what they bring next week. Oh, and when the stage is thigh deep in smoke I assume they’re hiding poor footwork and weak choreography. Just a few of my opinions.
I don’t even have the strength to type out my rankings like I usually do, I’m so sick. I’ll just say this:
Loved: Melissa, Shawn, Apolo (poor Karina 🙁 )
Liked: Gilles (I don’t know why, but I enjoyed the dance. I was watching Peta the whole time though), Sabrina, Kelly
Bored: Kirstie, Bristol, Emmitt.
I hope Melissa makes it through tonight. I’m very scared for Sabrina.
This is Tony’s last season????
Joy: as far as I know it’s Derek who is doing his last season not Tony.
Derek isn’t a Mambo champion either – that was Fabian who was a pro back in season 6.
Very interesting week and if somone hasn’t already started a petition to get Paula there once every season as a judge I would be shocked. She is tougher tan she was before.
1)Shawn and Derek: PERFECTION.
2)Gilles and Peta: Hate to say it but I loved it.
3)Kirstie and Maks: Underscored. I honestly loved it.
4) Melissa and Tony: Loved it.
5)Kelly and Val: Loved it
Now here come the ones I have stuff to critisize about:
6) Emmit and Cheryl: It was good but I wasn’t blown away by it.
7)Apolo and Karina: It was good but the only thing I remembered from it this morning was the fall. never a good sign.
8)Sabrina and louis: I disliked it a lot. Too cheesey.
9) Bristol and Mark: Where was this Bristol before? The happy one who is having fun. Alas. too late for her becuase its time she goes.
#1) Gilles….Disneyworld called and wants Aladdin back at the theme park.
#2) I have to rewatch Apolo’s dance, but from what I remember, I thought it was overall pretty flat (except when he started adding more swag into it).
#3) Lest we forget that Kirstie is old enough to be everyone’s mother, including EMMITT?!?!? For 61 years young, I think she does pretty darn good. Is she olympian standard – no, but fun to watch nonetheless.
#4) I think instead of guilty pleasures week, they should have had every couple do the dance they picked for someone else. THAT would have been funny. Bristol doing Bollywood, Emmitt doing Contemporary haha
#5) LOVED Kelly & Val. Yes slightly out of sync, but overall I thought was so powerful. And love it when she says “you’ll get your passion”. BTW, did I hear that she was sick all week?
#6) Len says “Gilles, I know nothing about Bollywood, but I know what I like…” OOOOKKKKK…..then remind me again why you 4 ding dongs are judging on dances you know nothing about?!?!?
PS – sorry if this posted more than once. I keep getting an internal error when I submit so not sure if it is going through or not 😉
My first time watching the show this season and WOW. The level of dancing is so high! I missed Kirstie’s, but saw Bristol’s and was pleasantly surprised. I was thinking, she’s improved! She’s not that bad! And then I saw everyone else.
I loved Shawn and Derek. She is muscular, but so sassy and graceful. That is what Hope Solo was missing. She was powerful, but not pretty to watch like Shawn. Loved the routine!
I like Melissa. She is so light on her feet.
I thought Apolo was doing much better than Karina during the dance, even before the flub. He is so effing charismatic.
I liked Kelly and Val, though they were creepy throughout the show and it was kind of off-putting. But I enjoyed the dance and the emotion they threw out there.
The others were entertaining, but these were the highlights for me.
Laura, your opinion is just as valuable as anyone else’s and not pointless. Some often forget that it’s a TV SHOW…not a real ballroom competition.
Someone out there was getting disturbed by Kelly and Val and I touched on this earlier but I’ll say it again. I don’t know if they were trying to build on the showmance angle or if they were just trying to get into the character of the dance – but either way, I will agree they went way too far with it. What felt so natural last week, this week seems forced, over the top and not a little creepy. But, it was one night, it was an attempt at contemporary (a routine that looked pretty similar to one on SYTYCD) and we’ll just wait and see if they dial it back a notch (or TEN) next week. I hope so, cuz they were grossing me out last night.
Hehe…whatever helps you sleep at night, KDC.
Wowie wow wow. Last night was kinda cray. lol
Kirstie & Maks: I love the Charleston, and looking back, I think this is the one dance Kirstie was perfect for in terms of the character and the mood of the dance. Yeah, they played up the comedy thing once again, but at least in this dance it wasn’t out of place. I thought they were lowballed just a little, but not by a lot. She didn’t have a good bounce that I’ve seen in some of the UK Charlestons. But I thought she did a good job considering, and will most likely be safe(???).
Bristol & Mark: Yeah, there wasn’t much special about this one. Mark said it himself, the routine was so dumbed down that there wasn’t much to make Bristol stand out. And the judges were most likely scoring her on her own personal scale instead of where the competition is today. She most likely deserved more 7.5s, but with the judges saying “Oh it was your best dance yet!” I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I don’t know why she has so much staying power, but I see her safe… Again.
Sabrina & Louis: I think Sabrina danced very well last night actually. There certainly wasn’t anything bad about the routine. Despite the recycled song, I thought she and Louis came up with a fun routine that embodied the Disco almost perfectly. Although I am seeing that Drew Lachey factor coming in to effect with Sabrina now, like Court said above.
Emmit & Cheryl: Once again, I find myself loving Emmitt, but refusing to vote for him because of Cheryl. He barely moved around that floor, and what he did seemed small to me. Cheryl knew that a good 95% of the audience didn’t know what the bolero was, so she knew she could get away with what she and Emmitt did last night. I was underwhelmed by this performance.
Gilles & Peta: Firs things first, Gilles looked like a fool making all the faces he made during that routine. I was like “Dude…shut your mouth. You look like a fish.” And Len even came out and said “I know nothing about Bollywood.” So of course, the scores had to be inflated because of that lack of knowledge? My mom said it was good, and I was just agreeing with her because I think that’s what she wanted to hear. I hated this routine and I still strongly dislike Gilles.
Melissa & Tony: So, my bias started kicking during this portion of the show because all my favorites were back to back to back. 🙂 Anyway, Melissa & Tony make me so happy when I see them dance. I don’t think you can get a more natural, perfect pairing than these two. I loved her Jitterbug, and the little bobble made me cringe because the dance was just so good. I think this was the first week where I didn’t see her hit things as softly as Court says she does. I hope she’s safe. I’d love to see her and Shawn on the same team (And I would say that’s a strong possibility considering how they are always talking to each other on Twitter).
Shawn & Derek: Two words: KILLED. IT. That Mambo was fast and furious! Loved the lifts, love the dance, loved the song, the outfits were awesome. Everything about this routine was, in my humble opinion, was perfection. She should have had a 40 because that dance was just 2938420293 times better than Gilles will ever dance.
Apolo & Karina: God bless this woman. That is the second time she’s fallen flat on her but on national television. 🙁 She was so upset, it made me upset. From what I can remember, the routine was really good! I think Apolo got lowballed once again. Granted, I think he did get distracted from Karina’s fall. But then again, who wouldn’t? This couple definitely has the sympathy vote this week, and if they aren’t back next week, then all hope is lost.
Kelly & Val: This was such an emotionally charged dance. Kelly was doing what she does best: acting. I don’t know enough about contemporary to say that this wasn’t a contemporary routine, but I liked it. I didn’t get the stairs either, and she did have a few mistakes, which may or may not be due to the fact that she’s got a foot injury. Which brings me to my next point: she was nursing her foot after the routine pretty good, so it makes me wonder how bad this broken toe deal is. I don’t see her withdrawing from the competition because Evan in Season 10 had two broken toes and still danced. So I don’t think this will put her out of the running, but it’s definitely something to take into consideration.
Um, Mark and Steve…boys? It’s a TV show. A reality show. I think you might have gone somewhat crazy with comparisons to actual competitions and your desires along those lines. Just say no.
I think you always need to remember Samantha. People bitched and moaned about her, wanted her gone, wanted someone new…and we got Brooke. Seriously – change can be good. But most often on this show it’s been a disaster.
Kelly and Val are my third favorite couple, and I did like the dance a little, contemporary is my favorite dance style, I used to dance modern and jazz, so It is really hard for me to enjoy a routine with so many technical flaws. But their behavior during the show was just weird, specially when Tom tried to interview Kelly, it was rude IMO. They are still my third favorite couple and I hope they make to the finale with Shawn and Apolo.
“Hehe…whatever helps you sleep at night, KDC.”
Actually, a good pillow usually does the trick, hee! 😀
I’m not pointing a finger at anyone here specifically, it’s just a vibe that I’m picking up in reading different blogs. I know that Donald Driver was well liked here, but some places wailed about he was another football player taking the trophy. That feeling is out there.
I do like Emmitt’s dancing. I think he’s good and with this season becoming somewhat bizarre, his calm demeanor is appreciated. I’m not worried about him spazzing out. Same with Apolo. It’s nice to watch them and not they’re working hard, but not twisted into emotional knots like others. *cough-GILLES-cough*
But hey, all I’m looking for is entertainment. I don’t know the first thing about dancing. I don’t dance, not at bit, and I don’t know any of the rules really. Just look good and entertain me. I’m a cheap date. 😀
Er, Tony has had quite a few partners that were not “duds” and he just never stepped it up before. This season he knows he has to. But he needs to quit focusing on Shawn and work on *Melissa’s* strengths.
Agree with Heidi. Tony has had a few “duds” but he has had many great partners too.
The only pro to never really have a decent chance of winning is Jonathan.
I would love to see him back on the show (at the very least to dance with Anna)
I wish I had read the posts above before I voted because I would have thrown even more votes Apolo’s and Karina’s way. Before this week I split my votes evenly between Shawn and Apolo. This week I gave probably ten percent more to Apolo because of what happened last night. I thought that the sympathy vote would help him out ultimately, but now it looks like there might not be much a sympathy vote factor.
BTW, I thought Derek and Shawn’s “lifts” were the best-executed of any that I have seen on DWTS. I am not of a fan of lifts in routines because I find that they generally involve too much set-up time, which interferes with the flow of the dance. However, as someone mentioned above, the flow into and out of those “lifts” was seamless. Also, the use of the handstand move towards the end of the dance to allow the dance to breathe was brilliant.
The only thing I have left to say about Apolo is what a waste of good genes.
I’m thrilled for Derek and Shawn and heartbroken for Karina and Apolo. I hope they pull through tonight both because they’re my favorites and for Karina.
Kelly and Val do absolutely nothing for me. Well, actually they did turn my stomach a time or two last night.
My prediction tonight is that Sabrina will leave.
I think we will see Apolo and Sabrina in the bottom two, with Sabrina going home. I don’t see Kirstie or Bristol in the bottom two. I think they both have several weeks to go. I am not a Bristol fan, but it is because of her mom. I try not to take it out on her, but I do. The girl can’t dance and she is not entertaining. Kirstie is my all time favorite. I don’t care that she’s not the best dancer. She is entertaining and fun to watch. I don’t care about the dancing skills from any of them. I only watch the show when Kirstie is on. I watch TV to be entertained and she does that.
Is anyone else yearning for the original DWTS that we all know and love? While watching last night I realized just how much I miss having one or two celebrities that let me share in their journey(s) on the show. Can’t wait until we get back to business or dancing…. as usual.
@Lisa – I will be surprised if Apolo is actually in the bottom 2… NOT surprised if he is placed in Jeoopardy though.
Like I said last week, Gilles and Sabrina in the bottom two. Louis and Gilles would have meltdowns and the one going home would explode. It would be fun to see.
A note on those claiming they’re not voting for Apolo because of Karina’s “breakdown”…
…just because they’re screaming the loudest, doesn’t make them the majority. And remember: the “internet fan” is not the majority. Those taking the time to post on internet boards about who they’re voting for and why and how many hundreds of votes they’re giving to so-and-so are NOT the average viewer. The average viewer is the middle-aged woman who watches the show semi-religiously, probably only votes a handful of times by phone, and doesn’t really get on the internet to get the behind-the-scenes scoop. I would say the average viewer is still probably tossing quite a few votes to the Olympians, and possibly Kirstie, too. Knock on wood, I think Apolo will be fine tonight. Maybe in Jeopardy, but I’d be shocked if he was actually in the bottom 2. I gave him all my votes to be safe – but I would have done that anyway, even if Karina hadn’t fallen, because I love his tree-trunk legs 😛 Oh…and the boy has an ass like the pistons on a Ferrari. And pecs that I would gladly eat dinner off of. And a set of guns that would make Charleton Heston proud. Yes, I do wax poetic over that man’s physique…and that filthy, delicious lip-biting thing he does. 😛
I wish the show would go back to just dancing. If I wanted to see all this flips and jumps, I would watch So You Think You Can Dance. It’s becoming the same dances. Except for a couple of the dances last night, most were NOT the actual dance. That Mambo had no Mambo. The Bollywood…WTH!!! Bolero, really!?!?!
*these
Wow, this night turned out a bit differently than I expected it to. Some couples didn’t do as well as I thought they would and others really exceeded my expectations.
Kirstie and Maks: Fun and energetic and you have to give Maks credit for always dressing the part. When she popped out of the cake at the beginning, I definitely rolled my eyes, but the rest of the routine was fun. However, I think going first may have been the kiss of death for them. She could go home tonight.
Bristol and Mark: The best thing I can say about Bristol is that I liked her outfit this week. My three-year-old could have done more dancing that she did. But I think she will be around for a couple more weeks. Waaaaaay overscored.
Sabrina and Louis: Meh. Is it me, or did it look like Sabrina was having trouble walking/dancing in her heels tonight? And that girl needs to wear a little more up top or she is in danger of a wardrobe malfunction.
Emmitt and Cheryl: I don’t know anything about Bolero, but I liked this dance. I wasn’t sure if this couple could pull off the romantic chemistry, but they seemed to do a good job.
Giles & Peta: (aka the Drama Queens) Another dance I don’t know much about. It looked very sloppy to me, but I did like the beginning before the lights came up. Another couple that was overscored. Wish they were on their home with Bristol already!
Melissa & Tony: Fun but seemed to lack energy. I’m interested to see how long Melissa’s fan base is going to keep her around because she is definitely proving herself to be a contender this season.
Apolo & Karina: Disappointed by this, but I was also expecting something else I think. Both of them looked kind of scared to begin with and after Karina fell, it took a while to get back in the groove of things. Not a bad dance, just not my favorite and not as good as I was expecting.
Shawn & Derek: Aaaamazing! Loved Derek playing the drums! Shawn looked super-sexy in her dress and they hit each move perfectly!
Kelly & Val: This was beautifully danced, but I thought it was a bit overscored. Even though this couple is one of my favorites, I have trouble seeing Kelly get any better at her dancing, which could be a problem if she wants to make it to the end of the competition.
Courtney,
do I detect a little “50 shades of grey” in you? I haven’t noticed Apolo’s lip biting thing. I will have to watch for it.
The only reason I can’t get behind Bristol is not because of politics, but because she really doesn’t care. She makes no attempt to step it up, but feels entitled. It’s sad that Mark has to be saddled with it. And quite honestly, I voted for Kirstie over Bristol is because (to me at least) it felt like she TRIED.
As for Kelly and Val, I thought it was a great dance. Really beautiful. I just didn’t like the name calling. Regardless of how you feel, it’s still a family show and a bit out of line. The other choices were Broadway, Charleston and I think Rock and Roll. His two decades of ballroom would have meant the same if he got any of those.
If Kirstie and Bristol end up in the final bottom 2 tonight, I hope it’s Bristol who will go. Kirstie at least seems to care and want to try to give the best performance her 63 year old body can muster. And she was entertaining. There’s only so much a 63 year old body that was never athletic can do, so I can’t fault her. She’s representing for the “oldish” women. On the other hand, Bristol Palin is 1/3 Kirstie’s age and she doesn’t really seem to want to push herself anymore – she seems content with the fact that the judges have been telling her that she’s stepped it up since her prior season. Maybe she thinks that and her mom’s fan base will be enough to get her to the finals – it did before when she wasn’t even trying, so I can’t say she’s completely wrong if that’s what she thinks.
I enjoyed Derek/Shawn’s performance and Val/Kelly’s performances the best. I don’t think Derek and Shawn were overscored, in that they did get to perform a ballroom dance that Derek at least has done before and knows how to choreograph – his learning curve wasn’t as big as that of some of the other pros and celeb dancers. I do think Gilles and Peta were overscored, even considering they probably had the hardest dance and biggest learning curve to overcome – maybe the judges took that into consideration with the scoring – if so, IMO they gave it too much consideration. I’m not bothered by Gilles’ behavior – yes, he’s a bit intense and obviously had an ego the size of Texas, but to each his own. As long as he keeps working hard and produces relatively good dances, more power to him and his fan base.
Val and Kelly also had a steep learning curve and I found them thoroughly entertaining. Yes, they had to get docked some marks for being out of sync in some of the side-by-side dancing, but I don’t think they were overscored considering their challenge of this very difficult non-ballroom dance.
All in all, it wasn’t a bad night (better in some spots than others), but I still keep splitting my time between DWTS and The Voice. I think DWTS is still beating The Voice in the ratings, though.
The Bollywood dance was pathetic. I have seen Bollywood that was not Bollywood. Yes i Know how hard bollywood is. I’ve tried it . I sucked ass. Carrie ans Aladdin was the only thing right in her comment . I mean that looked like it came off a Disney on Stage show. Thogh they may have fared better with a more traditional bollywood song. Or maybe tried watching a few Bollywood clips. Failing to grasp the technical style is one thing. but even performance wise it fell flat.
ENd of RANT
oh and Ps
Here are a few of my favourite bollywood movie clips.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5-kspAuN1k&feature=colike
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zIFKyM8Pjg&feature=colike
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT0V_vcd_ME&feature=colike
Holy crap, Court #119, stop that. Now I need a cold shower.
Lisa #123, the lip biting is delicious. Check it out in their Week 3 “Fever” foxtrot.
Here is what i don’t get…. Technically last week’s double elimination’s bottom two WENT HOME! so i assume Sabrina was third from bottom.. and Kristie may have been fourth from the bottom!!! or not! depending on how honest the show is in putting certain couples in jeopardy
#Courtney,
After those comments about Apolo, I think I may need a cigarette and I don’t smoke-LOL
I can see you singing that song “Shoop” by Salt-N-Pepa!-LOL
You go girl!!
I know this isn’t the most popular opinion but I hope its Kirstie. Just doesn’t seem like it will be though. I love Mark so that’s why I don’t want Bristol to go but again that seems likely. I have come to really like Peta as a pro, but something about Giles bothers me… and I wasn’t a fan of the dance or score. Although I liked Peta got rewarded for her challenge. I felt extremely bad for Karina last night but think they got a pity score. Will be interesting to see who goes home. Hoping its not Melissa but I think her or Bristol have the greatest chance going.
Omar, When they say “the bottom two” they mean “the bottom two”. Other than that, all bets are off. “Jeopardy” is a device purely designed to create drama.
Watching Bristol on the season she did I will say I enjoy her a lot more. She doesn’t seem “scared”as much. :/ I dunno.
My favorite dance of the night was Shawn and Derek. That deserved a 40!
Kelly and Val’s chemistry is awesome. They had the most difficult style of dance to perform and deserved all 9.5. Third best for me would be Maks and Kirstie. She deserves to stay another week or two.
My bottom 2 prediction would be Bristol and Sabrina or Melissa. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Emmitt was there too.
I should totally write a filthy drugstore romance novel about Apolo’s tree-trunk thighs. 😉
@Courtney – Can I preorder a copy right now?
I loved Shawn and Derek’s dance, and also Kelly and Val’s. I wasn’t turned off by Kelly and Val’s actions during the night as I fully took them to be getting into character. You don’t turn on those kind of emotions at the start of the music. And I don’t believe they plan to continue those actions week to week. In fact, I bet by this evening they are back to “normal” Val and Kelly.
To me, the rest of the dances were either poorly executed, underwhelming, and/or forgettable.
I’ll even sign it for you, Sandy. 😉
Wow, Kirstie actually worked hard on her more difficult dance and Bristol got higher scores and higher praise for walking through her take it easy dance. I’m at a loss. Of course Bristol won’t go home tomorrow. She’ll probably make it to the finals. Argh.
Did Bristol’s comment about Carrie Ann making a ghetto comment the first week cause political backlash to make Carrie Ann go overboard sine then? Ever since, Carrie Ann is sickingly sucking up to the Palins which seems so political. We had hoped DTWS had gotten away from allowing politics on the dance floor. The strategy each week is so apparent and will cause us to stop watching the show ever again.
Courtney, I want a copy too! There will be a chapter on his guns, won’t there? (She said hopefully…)
Joshua, WTF are you talking about? Regardless, I highly doubt CAI is “sucking up to the Palins” for political reasons.
And Lurker, I may dedicate a chapter to each part of his anatomy. But I may need to do some further research into certain other parts that we have yet to see…;-)
Fun to see, Cindy, but unlikely to happen. Too many votes needed for Gilles to end up in the bottom. 🙂
@Cecilia, “You don’t turn on those kind of emotions at the start of the music.”
Have to disagree. Kelly is an actress, she’s had years of experience turning on those emotions when the director on the GH set yells “action”. However, even if it takes a few minutes of quiet preparation to get there, it definitely doesn’t take 50 minutes.
I fully expect them to be back to “normal” for tonight’s show. Thank goodness.
Courtney – need a research assistant there girlfriend? Always willing to assist in such a worthy endeavor…
With all due respect to everyones opinion, some of you are really tough on these stars. They are not pros nor are they people like on sytycd with a strong love for the dance and aspiring to be pros. I just dont expect them to be as good as the folks on sytycd and think its unreasonable to expect them to do even close to as good on dances like contemporary or bollywood.
Bolero,mambo,charleston,jitterbug – reasonable. R&R and hiphop – not sure. Bollywood, contemporary – not so reasonable.
Pitting someone up with bollywood or contemporary vs mambo is unfair imho but that’s tv for you.
That being said I thought they all gave a great effort -even bollywood.
Derek and Shawn – awesome routine & choreo -fantastic and easily the most entertaining of the night though not very far from other latin dances like rumba or salsa.
Bristol & Mark
I have nothing against Bristol but dont believe she really belonged on the show to begin with but oh well.
Its my gut feeling that she didnt expect to still be here (this season & maybe original as well) after the first or second week & therefore never really had her heart in it. Maybe them giving her 8s will keep her from getting so many sympathy votes and she will go home tonight.
Kirstie & Maks -entertaining but still not all star quality dancing
Apolo & Karina – Very respectable job though i would have rather seen more up to date hiphop personally. Maybe that would have been too difficult.
Melissa & Tony – Another great job. She might be forgotten since that dance is so close to jive.
Sabrina & Louis – She wasnt even alive in the 70s so ill cut here some slackon the outfit. Im not a fan of disco really but i think a warmer color like orange or red would have been much better. The dancing was really good overall and imho up there close with Melissa, and Shawn.
Emmit & Cheryl
I dont remember seeing but maybe one bolero basic. Come on Cheryl! I know it needed to be really flashy and difficult (hence the lifts) but keep some essence of the dance!!! Bolero is a beautiful and elegant dance right up there with waltz and not as difficult as other competing dances imho. However, I have to admit that guys (like myself btw) tend to be bit stiff (at first at least) and latin dances like this really amplify that so I can kinda understand what her thinking might have been here.
BTW- this dance is very fun to dance- probably more than watching. It has been many moons since ive danced br and latin but i miss it. Wish lessons werent so expensive.
Kelly & Val- great job for such a tough dance. Lots of emotion & pretty respectable dancing. These two are obviously falling for each other and that was tougher to hide with an emotional dance like that. I may be way off base here but I think they may need to rein it in or some folks could be put off by that …they still need all the votes they can get every week.
Enjoyed you guys/girls comments. Very Sorry about being so long winded. My first post here. I will try hard to keep it briefer next time.
You know why I disliked the Bollywood number? I’m no pro; far, far from it but here’s the thing for me. I thought Peta did great, embodied the spirit and fun of the dance, but Gilles… his hands were wonky – I don’t know that they were wrong, they just didn’t look like all the other Bollywoods I’ve seen over the past couple of years. His steps didn’t seem as bouncy and fun as they should have been. And his whole attitude was off for the dance. Bollywood, I think, is about fun and joy and carefree and teasing, but he didn’t have that at all. He was making funny faces and his whole air was… weighted. I think the choreo was perfectly fine, but he didn’t execute it well. In my opinion. 🙂
Cd, if you really want to do us a favor “next time” – don’t comment on how other people are tough on the stars. That’s not really acceptable around here, particularly from first timers.
He can’t be bouncy and fun, Evaine – he no longer has it in him. He wants to win so badly that I don’t think he has an ounce of joy for just plain dancing. For that reason, I think Kirstie is three times the dancer he is and don’t even get me started on the differences between him and Shawn, Melissa or Apolo.
I agree with you, Heidi. It’s a shame. I’m so disappointed. The first part of his and Peta’s OTRC interview, he seemed like the old Gilles, then there he went, talking about having the perfect scores, when he wins the trophy and all that stuff. And, yeah, he’s French and expresses himself differently at times… well, I live in Quebec, lots of French folk here and trust me, it’s not a “lost in translation” situation.
Anyway… *tossing glitter* He’s not going to win and that’s that. 🙂
*eye roll* I love how everyone says we’re too HARD on the dancers and “shoudn’t be negative about anyone” when we write for a BLOG. A work of opinion. HA! Well in my opinion, Gilles’s Bollywood sucked. I made no mention of how it looked in comparison to something on SYTYCD, and I think it was sloppy and half-assed in general. Gilles’ no pro – but he has done this before, and knows what hard work it takes to get good results. And yet he still went on a little trip to Miami this week, instead of staying behind and practicing. I’m not about to coddle him and go easy on my critique due to the extraordinarily delicate sensibilities of a few newbs who think they’re somehow doing us a favor by telling us to handle everyone with kid gloves. How boring and disingenous would that be?
I not usually the conspiracy theorist, but I think they are giving Gilles the same treatment they gave William last season.
They so badly want him to go far and go nuts over anything they do and overscoring them so much so that when it comes down to it, the overscoring will backfire like it did with William and his 3rd place finish.
For instance, if the final 4 is Shawn, Kelly, Apolo, and Gilles, I can easily see a bottom 2 of Kelly and Gilles with Gilles “shockingly” being eliminated.
@Matt – I’ve got a post coming in about half an hour that brings to light a curious thing I noticed today when contemplating the team dances. May add a bit of creedence to your Gilles pimping theory.
SORRY!!! At the time I honestly didnt think i was crossing any lines expressing that opinion. However, I realize now that it is not my blog nor my place to tell people what they they are being anything. As I respect everyone here I will refrain from doing that in future posts.
While im here – my deepest apologies to Cheryl for that comment. Although i do wish there had been more bolero essence in it, I do still think she is a great dancer/teacher and was making the best of a difficult situation. Sorry!!
Although I’m happy for Valentin that he’s gotten past week 3 and I did enjoy he and Kelly’s dance, the showmance as it’s been referred to is a little over done at this point for me personally. However, I get it in the sense it may have peeked interest in them and allowed Kelly to excel more than anyone thought but calling Cheryl a bitch on national television really pissed me off and I don’t even like Cheryl. To have Valentin talk about what a gentlemen he is and that’s how he was raised comes off as bs when he stooped to the level he did by calling a woman a bitch on national tv. Completely my opinion. It just put me off to him completely. A real gentlemen would apologize. She could be one but you don’t need to get in the gutter and name call. I think he’s very talented. I’m just disappointed. And let’s not forget that he gave them the Bolero which Cheryl didn’t know either. Ugh, whatever. As my father always said, a real gentleman treats a woman with respect, whether she respects herself or not.
Okay I got that off my chest.
I hope it’s Sabrina or Bristol going home tonight. I thought Karina did really well considering the mishap and I hope they’re safe.
@Ashley – For what it’s worth, Val actually did apologize to Cheryl after last night’s show – I guess she was crying after she heard it. But of course, we won’t get to see that footage. I guess I’m now on the fence about the whole thing – I do think Cheryl can be a real cold, heartless b*tch sometimes, and part of me kinda applauds Val for having the cojones to say it. But part of me also thinks Val really hurt Cheryl by saying it, as she thought they were friends; plus the whole object of having the couples pick each other’s dances was to screw each other over…and Cheryl was just responding in kind after Val stuck them with bolero.
Hey Courtney – It’s worth a lot that he apologized to her and it stinks that they won’t show it. If they don’t I would hope he would post it somewhere whether it’s his twitter page or something because it was completely unnecessary to do that to her with not just millions of people watching but her mother, family and friends. And listen, like I said I don’t like her at all but it’s far too easy to stoop to the lowest level like he did and over what, a tv dance show. Not cool. I’m glad he apologized to her and I hope TPTB show something about it if even to give Valentin credit for doing the right thing after bringing her to tears. Hopefully he’ll think next time before doing that again to another woman in the future.
Hope it’s a good show tonight!
Val is much like his brother, an occasionally very charming pompous ass. Calling Cheryl a bitch for her choice wouldn’t bother me if the two of them had been so close in friendship for Cheryl to know it had not been said in an ill mannered way. But if she got upset over it then that certainly wasn’t the case.
I’m actually surprised that bolero and mambo were not already part of the standard dances on dwts. With quickstep being included i would have thought bolero would be an obivous choice as well as mambo.
I hope they put them in the regular season. They could possibly add hip/hop, bollywood and contemporary to the semi and/or finales.
I’m glad to see some people calling out Val for calling Cheryl a bitch. I think it’s unprofessional. I’m really liking Val this season but he diasplayed this sour grapes attitude. Very cruel to say that on national tv when all she did was chose a dance for him, as everyone else did for each other. She ultimately did him a favor with that choice. Any good choreographer (Derek) would have embraced the challenge
On calling friends a bitch: I will joke around with my girlfriends and we’ll call each other a bitch, but I don’t feel it’s okay for a man to call woman that, jokingly or affectionately. But, it’s hilarious when men do that to each other though!
Well, to be fair, I’m fairly certain Cheryl probably called Val a “son of a bitch” a few times during Bolero rehearsals, but the producers chose not to show it. I think the only one that doesnt’ have a potty mouth around DWTS is Chelsie, to be honest.
@Evaine
So she called him her son? :lol
#161 “Well, to be fair, I’m fairly certain Cheryl probably called Val a “son of a bitch” a few times during Bolero rehearsals, but the producers chose not to show it.
Could be Evaine, but for me two wrongs don’t make a right and in the end I don’t think it’s okay for a man to call a woman a bitch. I may be old school but I am what I am.
And yes, sweet Miss Chelsie is probably the only one you would never hear utter a vulgar word. She’s such a doll. I’m glad she’s not the one that gave Valentin contemporary. 🙂
Courtney Cheryl is often a cold heartless $)%**$ who in my opinion only thinks of Cheryl’s happiness. Val should not however lower himself to Cheryl’s level he should have rose above her being a $#%)%)) As far as Cheryl crying…. boo hoo she can put on her big girl clothes and grow up…. everyone doesn’t revolve around Cheryl.
Chelsie is sweet and kind but look where it gets her with the PTB. Bad casting and sent home early. DWTS makes B)$*%&)#$*) by making the pros think they need to be less than professional to stay on the show. The dirtier the better must be their ‘headliner’.
All for now until new article.
All right, I will admit I have a personal bias towards Val and also that I am not a Cheryl fan at all, but the way some people are getting pissed off at Val for calling her a bitch is exactly why TPTB decided to show it on TV. Go back and look at that moment when he said it – Val doesn’t turn and shout it to the cameras or look at someone and say it, he hides behind Kelly and murmurs it, which shows that was supposed to be a PRIVATE moment. Val is not that type of person at all – and incidentally, neither is Maks. The both of them really are gentlemen.
I’m just gonna repeat what I say every season when someone complains about a “bad edit” in their rehearsal footage: if you don’t want it to end up on tv, don’t say it/do it. The pros know this by now. They know they’re at the mercy of the editors – so if they say or do something that makes them look bad, it’s on them. I don’t believe for one second that Val considered that moment “private”; the pros lose all privacy privileges the minute they set foot in that rehearsal studio.
Oh please,
I like Valentine, less than I did yesterday, but that doesn’t mean you can exhibit any behavior you feel like and it’s a write-off because if someone likes you than anything you do or say is excusable. All of the pros and celebs have been in Hollywood and on DWTS long enough to know that NOTHING you say is private because they all have microphones on them! And does that mean if he said it in private that under the lame, tv show circumstances that it makes it okay, No, IMO. Valentine picked a dance for Cheryl that she didn’t know and she did the same. It’s a tv show, big deal. No need to call a woman a bitch. If Val isn’t that type of person, and everyone makes mistakes, then don’t act like that type of person and think you don’t have to own up to it. You can’t keep saying you’re a gentleman and don’t have the behavior to back it up. Sorry, but that gets on my last nerve when anyone behaves one way and says they’re not that way. You want to be considered a gentleman, act like it.
I’m no Cheryl fan, but Val’s calling her a bitch was totally uncalled for. More than that, which happened spur of the moment, later they showed him bad-mouthing her again while at lunch. When he should have calmed down by then. I’d have more respect for his reported apology if it was only the spur of the moment behavior he needed to apologize for, but the second time was not. And it was also the tone of voice in which his said both comments. Really nasty, there was no mistaking he really meant it. Totally classless. After all, the point of the whole process was hampering your opponents, and he had no qualms about screwing her with his pick. The brothers always seem to think it’s OK for them to do or say anything they want about others and they’re supposed to just take it, but god forbid anyone return their behavior back to them.
Sunflower and Ashley, just out of curiosity do you feel it’s OK for a woman to call a man who’s made her angry a “bastard” or a “son of a bitch”?
@Cidra
No, I don’t. If it were Cheryl calling Valentine either of those in the tone he called her bitch on national television, I’d be saying the same thing. Unnecessary, unwarranted and inappropriate. To do that over picking a dance on a tv show was over-the-top, for me.
@Cidra. Although I don’t want to overstate my opinions, I will answer your question. I don’t think bastard or son of a bitch is as loaded as the word bitch. Asshole, on the other hand, is. I wouldn’t call a male friend or colleague of mine that, unless they deserve it ;). The same goes for men calling a woman a bitch.
But really, its about the context, the person and situation. In keeping my comments short, I totally agree to what Ashley said in her response to you
I do think Cheryl is a bitch sometimes, but even if I agree with it and I don’t completely fault Val for saying it in a whisper, I do feel bad for her in that context because it would hurt my feelings too, coming from a friend and seeing it broadcast on national television.
Yeahhhh Courtney! The pros know exactly how to malnipulate the cameras to say what they want said, Val did that for his own purposes, for all those Cheryl haters and bitch haters to vote for him and Kelly. Did it work well I am thinking yes, how will his team dancing go this week…. I would lay money that Cheryl gets her digs into Val.
I agree if they don’t want it shown, don’t do it. That is why they are called the professionals.
As for Maks and Val gentle of what? The night bar crowd? When I think of the Chmerkovskiy brothers I don’t think gentlemen!
Cheryl harvests what she seeds!
yep, Val could have text Kelly to tell her Cheryl is a bitch for picking that particular dance for them. He has Kelly’s phone number I am sure of it if not they could always DM on twitter, there were other ways to get around the name calling of Cheryl to Kelly.
I am in no way taking up for Cheryl for I agree Cheryl is one of those but Val did that for votes and NO other reason.
oK I’ll wait on the next article. This horse has been let out of the gate already.
I’m having a really tough time with this season, and I was so pumped before it began. There are moments when I see eye-to-eye with posters. There are other times when I realize that some of the people posting make up the demographic that dominates these reality shows. I’m not a middle-aged soccer mom, so everything that Kirstie and Kelly do is not going to inspire and transform me. The whole “connection” thing that Kelly/Val have is nauseating. Their Paso was pretty amazing last week, but their recent performance was not that impressive. So many people are falling in love with them because they’ve become inspired by someone older who can dance well.
Speaking of being mesmerized, I know a lot of people talk about Kirstie and Bristol having huge fan bases, but why am I not seeing anything written about the drooling over football players? I get it that Emmitt is like a teddy bear, but Cheryl danced around him as a cover-up. His performance had no fluidity, and I could practically see him counting out “first step, second step, now I have to lift her up, next up is this…” He is the most over-scored contestant.
Shawn has a major advantage because the show is trying too hard to be “bigger and better than ever.” Each week is a “this is the best performance in the history of DWTS” horror. I don’t believe they should allow lifts and all of these ridiculous tricks so often because Shawn is a gymnast and can perform these difficult lifts and jumps so easily. It’s starting to feel like a gymnastics competition. Her dance was really great, and so was her technique. It’s not her fault, but I’m not happy with the direction the show seems to be going in.
If the judges are supposed to be more critical, as stated earlier, then what is the deal with the high scores? I get that Gilles receives a lot of love from the judges, and many think that he’s egotistical this season. I see some of that in him being way too serious, but I think that Kelly is so condescending and self-absorbed…just watch the way she treated Brooke in that interview. Most older women will pick apart the young girls, but will avoid Kelly’s infatuation with the intellect she thinks she possesses. I also think that Apolo, who middle-aged ladies also adore for being an All-American gold medalist, has a huge ego and believes he is the best dancer there. He’s not all that supportive of the other cast members and is too cool for school. After that fall, the judges praised him highly for getting back up, but if you watch what he did afterwards, you can see that he was distracted and fell apart, both on the performance side and the technical side. The scores they received were way too high, although I felt badly for what happened to her.
I’d rather see Helio and Drew back opposed to a lot of the contestants still on. I don’t see this group as being the “best of the best.” Unfortunately, Sabrina might only have a few weeks left. I think Shawn and Gilles join Sabrina in having the best quality in technique, although that Bollywood routine of his this week was flawed (use of hands and movement.) Len didn’t bother to do his research on Bollywood dancing because he’s above Indian culture. Don’t even get me started on Carrie Ann’s (and later Tom’s) ALADDIN comment. Aladdin is not even an Indian character!
I’m disappointed in this season, mainly due to the terrible choices the producers have made. What a shame. Stop trying so hard…
Ashley and Sunflower, thanks for answering my question. I appreciate it. Double-standards really trouble me, and I wondered if that’s where you were coming from, but I see from your answers to my question that your positions on the whole “b*tch* thing are coming from other values.