DWTS Carrie Ann Inaba Hopes For A “Balance Between Tradition And Creativity”

Carrie Ann Inaba has written a new blog at Parade. She pretty much nailed it in this blog. Be sure you read in it’s entirety at the link and see if you agree.

Another performance that was right on target as far as content was Lea Thompson and Artem Chigvintsev’s Argentine tango. Sometimes having four judges takes up too much time and we don’t each get to speak our critiques. I didn’t get to comment on this performance and I really would have liked to. As a woman of her age range, I understand a lot of the emotional things she seems to be going through. Lea came out of the gate as the one to beat. She’s a wickedly accurate dancer. She hits every move beautifully and her lines are precise and at times, stunning. She has great musicality and lyricism and she follows through and presents the choreography beautifully with her physical interpretation of Artem’s vision.

Last week, Artem was getting a bit overwhelmed (it’s his first season in the U.S.) and started to push Lea in a direction that didn’t suit her. This week, I believe the choreography was perfectly tuned for her. Well done Artem! The biggest problem in their Argentine tango was Lea’s performance. She came off as a bit emotionally detached from the movements. I don’t know where that fierce cougar that we saw in the first few weeks went. She looks so unhappy and uncertain when she’s out on the dance floor. She’s better than she is feeling at this moment. And the downward spiral that can happen when one loses confidence is a quick and painful one. She needs to trust that she has the moves; all she needs to do is to let herself go in the dance. She has to get lost in the dance and become the dance. This is what Bethany Mota does so well with her partner Derek Hough.

SO TRUE, though I think Lea has had posture problems and confidence issues from the beginning! And I love what she said on Derek and Bethany….

Bethany was the star last night. She has really found new confidence. We saw it in both of her performances. She is a chameleon. She is truly immersed in the dance and Derek does an incredible job of creating a world around her that she can lose herself in. Their pasodoble was the perfect blend of Halloween and traditional ballroom dance. She had incredible shaping and when you watched them, they were able to transport us to another world…a world where Taiko drummers were the soundtrack to the passion of a dark dream.