DWTS 16, Week 2 – Power Rankings
Well jazz/jive/quickstep/WTF? night left me with some mixed feelings – some couples really rose to the challenge, while others really showed their weaknesses; I feel like some couples got too caught up in having a “theme”, while others seemed to have meltdowns in rehearsal. And of course – the judges conveniently chastised some couples for things that they seemed to turn a blind eye to in other couples. Let’s get right into it…
1.) Zendaya & Val – As talented as this girl is, I did have my doubts about her fanbase – but after she trended worldwide on Twitter, I’m wondering if she might have the juice to really go all the way this season. My god, those LEGS – if I had legs that gorgeous, I would wear shorts year-round, regardless of the temperature, because they are GORGEOUS. Oddly enough, though they actually seemed to cause a few problems in this dance – like Val said, with legs that long, you have a harder time doing quick movements…and I felt like Zendaya did have a few moments where she really had to haul ass to get her legs where they needed to be, and she did seem to be taking some wide steps to accommodate those long legs. Thankfully, they should only be an asset from here on out, since she has gotten jive out of the way :-) Loved the attitude and sass she had, too – really like this girl, and really like what Val is doing with her. If they can keep it engaging and age-appropriate, they could go far.
2.) Kellie & Derek – As cool as this routine was and as well-executed as it may have been, I’d call it more of a contemporary/jazz fusion than pure jazz. Nothing wrong with that – none of the 3 that did jazz tonight had a “pure” jazz routine – but I saw flexed ankles and more contemporary-type lifts, and in my head I heard my college dance instructor screaming “Point those toes! I don’t want to see any flexed feet, this is jazz 203, not modern 203!!!” Very cool, moody routine, and Kelly is made of rubber, I swear…plus she seems to be handling anything Derek throws at her. But for whatever reason (and this is unrelated to whether it’s jazz or not), I was just left wanting a bit more – maybe it was the music and how there seemed to be this big build up in the beginning, and then it just ended, maybe it was the fierce hand section at the beginning and then the more flowy end, I don’t know…but I don’t really think it was my favorite Derek routine. But Kellie is impressing me, because had I not known better, that could have been Allison Holker dancing that routine…she was that good. Read more..
Read on!
I just don’t know that Ingo & Kym are going to coast through this season like Hines & Kym did. Fanbase-wise? I’m inclined to say that Ingo will benefit somewhat from the “soap vote”, although likely not to the degree Kelly did – since Ingo’s character on GH seems to only be recurring at this point, I don’t know that he’ll have as many of the same impassioned fans that voted for Kelly, also voting for him. We already know Kym is pretty well-loved, so her fanbase should help out somewhat…but I think overall, these two will probably be more on-par with the Cameron Mathison/Edyta partnership, rather than the Kelly/Val one. There are just too many more popular celebs (likely with better dance skills) this season for a soap star to really have a hope and a prayer of making it to the finale, methinks. 
There seems to be several factors working against them – and the one that concerns me the most is the fact that Lisa’s a reality star, and she’s a Real Housewife at that. Considering that TPTB have avoided casting from that franchise like the plague until now, and that the Housewives seem to be some of the more maligned reality tv stars amongst DWTS fans (some DWTS fans reeeeeallllly don’t like Housewives – trust me, I’ve gotten tweets complaining, as if I have any control over casting!), I’m worried that some viewers have already written her off, sight unseen. Then again, I could be completely wrong – since we have no precedent for a Real Housewife on DWTS, how do I know that RHOBH fans won’t tune in and vote in droves for our British lass? 
Besides those two hurdles, I also worry that they’re just too laid back - their rehearsals are neither memorably good nor memorably bad, which could make them blend into the woodwork amongst some of the bigger personalities this season. And we don’t really have any idea what Lisa’s dancing prowess is like, nor do we know what Gleb’s teaching/choreographing prowess is like – they could be really good, they could be really bad, they could just “be”. I’m hoping that we’re in for a pleasant surprise with these two, but my gut’s telling me that they’re probably not going to make it past the first few weeks of the season. 
