Dancing with the Stars, The Finale – Who’s Dancing What?
I can’t believe we’re at the finale already! And Thank God, because I’m tired. 🙂 Of course the DWTS Season 11 rumors will start up in earnest on Wednesday, so I won’t get too much of a break. Anyway, finding all three dances is going to be a bit challenging – I have to thank Anna Trebunskaya for just putting it all out there for me on twitter. And I’d like to smack Derek Hough for being so uncommunicative at times (and, well, I think giving him a little smack on the behind would be kinda fun 🙂 ).
Here’s how I understand it goes – on Monday night they dance their judge’s choice dance, which is a dance the judges feel the didn’t excel at the first time around, and the freestyle. Then we vote. Then on Tuesday, all three dance their choice of dance to repeat. Interestingly, all three couples choose Argentine Tango – and if I remember correctly, all three had very different ones. Then Third Place is announced. Then the final two dance again – and I’m not sure how this dance was picked, but Maks uses the words “dance off”.
Evan/Anna
Monday: Viennese Waltz, Freestyle
Tuesday: Argentine Tango, Quickstep for Final 2
I keep wavering on this. A large part of me says that there is no way Evan is going to lose this. Another part of me says that a disaster freestyle could open it up for Nicole. And still another part of me says that the Derek/Nicole team may have more passionate fans than an Evan/Anna combo. The other three times Olympians won this, it was with a Ballas or a Hough – arguably the most popular pros. So, is it ONLY the Olympic thing going on? Or is it the combo of a Hough or Ballas with an Olympian?? For Kristi? She would have won with anyone. The other two? Tough call. And one of the chicks on the Insider pointed out that NONE of the other Olympians that won the show had a Nicole to deal with.
Nicole/Derek
Monday: Rumba, Freestyle
Tuesday: Argentine Tango, ??
I have a feeling that Nicole has gotten a hold of her nerves and that the rumba is going to be a vast improvement over the last one, which wasn’t actually “bad” to begin with. She can conquer it. Freestyle? Well, Derek is the king of creative choreography out of this bunch, but the boy is saying he’s fried. Plus, he’s set their bar so high that anything other than phenomenal (even if the other two have poor showings) will be a disappointment to some. No pressure, Derek. 🙂 But why am I talking about dancing like it matters?? 🙂 If Derek drops Nicole on her head their fans will just stay up even longer voting! Like I’ve said before, I think most people have already decided who they are voting for – and it will probably come down to Nicole versus Evan. Maybe. 🙂
Erin/Maks
Monday: Samba, Freestyle
Tuesday: Argentine Tango, V. Waltz for final 2 (??)
I dunno, I think the Argentine Tango was great, but stacked up against the other two AFTER voting has already happened? I’ll have to go watch all three dances again, but my sense was that after that initial leap, Erin’s was not as difficult, when compared to Nicole and Evan. (ETA: I went back and watched it again, and it was much simpler routine than Nicole’s) And ONLY the judges have a say here. They’re going to compare the footwork of all three and the “wow” factor of that jump has probably already worn off for them. Direct, head to head comparison may not be in their favor, particularly if they aren’t going first. This might have been a strategic error. Samba? Kinda worried about that one too, but we’ll see. Geez, there I go again, talking about the dancing like it matters. 🙂 Anyway, Erin has a bit of a leg up on rehearsal time this week – she’s the only one of the three that hasn’t had to travel for work.
The scoring is going to go one of two ways, I think – everyone gets essentially the same score. By “essentially” I mean no more than one point, maybe two between them. OR, they are going to underscore Erin because they think she is third place – unless of course she under performs then they won’t have to worry about it. This is on Monday. On Tuesday, after the first dance, the judges will essentially rank them based on who they think deserves to win – I predict Nicole/Evan tied at 30, with Erin getting a 28 or 29. I think Evan and Nicole will head to final two and then Evan will likely win (come on, Derek/Nicole fans, prove me wrong!!). Don’t confuse the producers having a favorite with the judges having opinions – I don’t think the producers care one way or the other who wins, but I’m pretty darn sure the judges do, and it will show in how they score the couples. That said – all three couples are doing well, so maybe they don’t care either! But I bet they have it narrowed to Nicole or Evan too. 🙂
Hey Heidi, I read somewhere that Maks said on some video that his and Erin’s 2nd dance on Tuesday is the VW. So I think the couples got to choose a 2nd dance to repeat. I think it’s a little odd to call it a dance-off in that situation, but they aren’t dancing the same dance. I think it’s another repeat. Surprised neither Evan or Erin (even though hers was GREATLY overscored) chose the Paso, but maybe they wanted a dance they could improve their scores on, or maybe Nic & Derek are doing Paso so they didn’t want to be compared to them. Smart move if so!
I’m for Evan and Anna, Max and Erin are a fun couple, but their dancing isn’t the best, and Nicole and Derek are too good, there’s been no improvement with them.
Princess Heidi, I will do my darndest to prove you wrong. I’m rounding up as many people as I can and I hope Nicole/Derek are the champions! I hope all of their dances (especially the freestyle) rock and I will most definitely vote for Nicole & Derek. And yes, she HAS improved/grown. Compare week 1 and now, she has overcome her nerves and is stepping up to the plate! GO NICOLE & DEREK!
Evan seems like a nice guy, but his dancing doesn’t excite me and I find him dull and monotone. I want Nicole and Derek to win, there is so much pressure on their freestyle to be so amazing. The freestyle literally makes you or breaks you.
And Nicole has improved, that’s why the rumba is going to be good for them, because it will show improvement!
i actually think Evan is improved less than Nicole, what is different now in his dancing now than it was in week 1? Nothing.
Nicole has had to overcome nerves etc. Evan has been performing in front of live audiences dancing/skating on ice forever. This is nothing new to him.
I’m actually wondering why the judges didn’t give Nicole & Derek another shot at the quickstep. Wasn’t that the only dance that they have gotten a 6 for?
I feel like Nicole has grown and it has been amazing to watch her, every week more. It’s sad that it’s almost over 🙁
As for Evan, yes he has grown, but I don’t feel that he has changed a lot. The two things I have noticed: 1) When he smiles during the dance it seems forced & creepy. 2) The choreo from Anna includes a lot more spins and jumping then in the beginning.
Don’t underestimate Evan and Anna fans. Same fans who voted for Kristi and Shawn. Apolo and Julianne were fun but people loved their partnership. Julianne is very popular but it was her first season when she won with Apolo. Kristi and Shawn were poplar enough that they would have won with anyone. I think the Ballas and Hough connection for the other three Olympian wins is not a big factor. Olympians have the same advantages athletes have and they are heroes with a dedicated fan base. Nicole and Derek have a chance though to beat Evan. People like her dances and sometimes more than the other two but wonder if they will vote for Evan or Erin because they just like them more.
Well, Cindy, the only reason they got a 6 was because that was a “len is off his meds” week. 🙂 There was no “improvement” needed, len just didn’t like all the “messing about”.
I don’t really understand this need to show growth – seems like a bogus argument to get votes, to me. I like who I like, growth or no. And I like both Nicole and Evan – but of course all my votes have to go to Nicole. 🙂 That said, I do see growth in Nicole and Cindy is right, her growth is in her performance value, conquering her nerves and her tendency to be her own worst critic. Emotional growth is important too.
Thanks, DJ – I was pretty sure I saw what they were dancing somewhere but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I’ll be surprised if they need that V. Waltz, but you never know.
Heidi, jep, it may be that, but I thought that that would be a better choice, because they get a new song and a new routine. So that they can prove Len wrong. Stil not sure about the rumba, I thought the rumba they did in week 4 was ok, I hope that they can make it WOW! this time and perform the first rumba that doesn’t bore me.
ps: I’ve heard some rumours that Strictly come dancing wants Nicole on the show. Don’t know if she should do that, probably better to not do it.
Natalie was a olympian and by far on e the best dancers last season and was eliminated super early, i blame Alec for bad coreo and been super boring, i do believe that a Hough Ballas helps a lot, Shawn and Kristi had the fan base but they were really shy, imagine they with Alec with has zero personality and boring coreo, Shawn would probably be in big trouble. The same goes to Brooke ,she in genneral was a very quite person, Derek helped her a lot.
But this season is different, i think botj Nicole and Evan can win, it will come down to this last week, they are great dancer and they have great pros.
there is no way Erin will be in the top 2.
and i think Nicole is doing he Jive in the top 2 face off, in two of her interview’s this week she mention the Jive
Jennifer – Exactly, I forgot about Natalie! She was an Olympian! I’ve heard the quote, ”YOUR ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR PRO.” She was voted out early! You see, being an Olympian doesn’t always give you an advantage, it is you are paired with and their choreography and their fanbase as well.
I don’t think Brooke, Shawn or Helio would of won if they wouldn’t of been paired with a Ballas/Hough. Kristi, not sure because she was the overwhelming best dancer that season and she didn’t really have any competition.
It will come down to the freestyle, thats why I’m nervous! Nicole and Derek have got to give everything, their entire being out on that dancefloor, and I hope the choreography is amazing!
Can you give me the interview where Nicole says their doing the Jive? Is it a new Jive, new choreography, or the Jive from week 2?
Jennifer- oh yeah! that’s right! She said that when she was saying that she was ballroom-schizophrenic, right? But there (insider interview) she also mentioned the samba and quickstep, so I doubt it.
Cindy but she mention the jive in the interview for Lacey from E! too,but who knows
Jennifer- but in the E! interview she also mentioned the samba and I don’t think that they would do that dance again for judges’ scores. But if it’s the jive, it would be a good choice, only then they would have done the jive 3 times (actually 4 with the Ellen thing)
Karla- They were saying that every Olympic gold winner in the finale has won (it started in another comment thingy). If they have crappy choreo, they wouldn’t make it into the finals.
i’m really getting nervous about tmrw night!! it’s soooooooooo tied btwn theese three, especially Nic and Evan! for the first time, i have to say that i’m scared about Derek’s freestyle, the guy has done some great and memorables routines on the season and set the bar pretty much high for him self! i just hope that he’ll deliver us another great routiiine just like he did with the 50’s paso (i was scared about that one too but he waw us like he does all the time!!)!! fingers crossed!
i think Erin’s chances are minor to Nic’s an Evans!
Hope Nicole and Derek win, coz i reaaly think that they’ve put everthing to entertain us, from the rehearsal clip to the judging they pure joy and fun to watch! i just love them and i can’t believe that the season is almost over!! 🙁
yeah i forgot, of course the Ballas/ factor helps in both the voting and the quality of entertainement espacially for the final!! do u remember last season’s final without any of them!! i just SUUUUUCKED!! horrible!! so i’m happy that Derek is in it, and i praaaaaaaay so he’ll win it!!! GOOOOOOOOO DEREEEEEEEEK and no matter what he does he still the best Dancer and Choreographer!!!!
I won’t be surprised if I can’t sleep tonight and tomorrow night. I really don’t like the time difference, I have to watch the performances the next day. I’m wondering or someone has twitter and can do some live tweeting, because last week I woke up at 3 am (in the Netherlands) and I didn’t know how the performances went, so I couldn’t sleep anymore. That day I was broken at school, yeah, my teachers enjoyed that, ahem…
yeah another thing, the order of the dancing is pretty impotant too, i hope Nic and Derek will get to dance eithr first or last, not in the middle!! first would be better (so the judges will know who’s the reaaaaaaaaaal Champ!!!) GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO D and Nic!!!!!
I think that they will go first, because they haven’t been first once this season. But yeah, who knows…
Cindy – I stay up to watch the show live at 1:00am on a live stream. I live in the uk.
Katie – I completely agree, Nicole and Derek have to go 1st or last! 2nd sucks! I think the order may be: Nicole – Evan – Erin.
This is what I want to happen: Nicole and Derek go 1st or last and come out with something so mindblowingly amazing, that the other two freestyles look mediocre in comparison. But it’s a big ask, even from Derek!
Karla- where do you watch it then? I don’t think that I can watch it, because the full eps on abc.com are only for US, UK and I think Australia. But no matter what, my mom would kick my *ss if I was still up at 2 am to watch a tvshow and if I do watch, she will shoot me, because I have to go to school 😛 Twitter is much easier for me, because I have an iPod Touch, so I can tweet in bed. I’m not allowed to have my laptop in my room. BS right?
Cindy – There is a live stream at channelsurfing.com and go down the list and on Monday’s it will have ‘dancing with the stars at 8’ on the abc feed.
i also download it on torrent the next day in hd.
i was thinking, why they choose samba for erin to re-do, that was her first great dance of the season, one of her best dances, i dare to say her best latin
Jennifer – exactly? what is going on there?
Jennifer- I think because Len was really pissed that Maks distracted everyone by taking his shirt off and now he wants to show the world that Erin can pull off the dance without Maks taking his shirt off.
Karla- Thanks!
Karla- I think that you meant channelsurfing.net right?
Don’t worry – just vote. 🙂 That’s all anyone can do.
As for Natalie – being an Olympian in general has never been a shoe-in. Maurice Greene was an Olympian too. Where it becomes HUGE is if you are an Olympian in a sport that extremely popular with women, because women vote on DWTS. The two most popular Olympic sports for women? Gee, I believe that would be figure skating and gymnastics. 🙂 I’m not a huge sports fan – didn’t have a clue who Natalie or Maurice were – but I sure knew Kristi, Shawn and Evan, even without watching Kristi or Shawn’s Olympics.
Cindy – yeah
Heidi – I didn’t know who Kristi was before DWTS, I knew Shawn from the Olympics, I knew Evan from the Olympics, but didn’t know either of them before that.
I’m a Nicole fan, but I totally disagree with people who’re saying Evan hasn’t improved. I would have agreed with all of those comments before the semifinals, but he was amazing. In his first dance, he was actually smiling sincerely, as opposed to those nervous performance smiles (someone described them earlier as “creepy”), and he finally let go & had fun!!! Then in the paso, he finally showed some passion and masculine fire for a change. I’d NEVER seen that in him in any of his other dances. Now granted, those aren’t technical improvements, but still, those are HUGE performance improvements.
And I think Nicole has improved too, but her improvements have been more subtle. I think it’ll take that rhumba to see how much she’s really improved confidence-wise.
Anyway, I think it’s really close between them. Even though I’ve been a Nicole fan all along, I wouldn’t be unhappy with Evan winning if he dances like he did in the semi-finals. Heck, I think all three dancers in the finals are worthy of being there, and I don’t think that’s always been true on DWTS.
I didn’t know who Kristi was before DWTS,(2)
me too, it is so funny that people say that she is the biggest ringer ever as far as fanbase and i’ve never heard of her before the show ,nobody in my family knew her either, but i Knew Shawn and Evan.
But Heidi i’m pretty sure that Alec lacking coreo and zero personatily helped Natalie go home early.
Beth and others – I’m kind of concerned about the amount of Nicole fans on here who are kind of in the middle and okay about Evan winning. Go and look at the abc forum for evan, his fans are not in the middle about nicole winning, for damn sure. We have to give our everything to vote tomorrow.
Jeniffer, I absolutely agree that Alec’s lack of personality contributed to Natalie’s early exit.
Karla – don’t worry about Nicole and Derek fans, they will be voting like crazy if twitter is anything to go by. Perhaps the Derek/Nicole fans you see here and elsewhere are just better sports and more gracious than the Evan fans on the ABC boards. Those boards are largely filled with wacked out trolls to begin with. 🙂 It’s not a few people on a message board who will decide this – it’s the viewers at large, which make up a larger percentage of the votes anyway. Heck, most of the people on abc are posting under three different names to make their opinions sound more valid. It happens here from time to time too.
Hey Heidi,
I say Nicole & Derek for the win they have been amazing to watch this season! They brought such joy and excitement to the dancefloor. I anticipated their every routine! These two were perfectly matched. Some of the best dancing I’ve ever seen on DWTS! Team HoughZinger has made my Monday’s exciting!
Regarding Nicole’s 1st Rumba, I believe she was nervous because they were being scored for technique and performance, though I thought it was quite beautiful. Nicole sees the mistakes that she made and works harder than ever to correct them. I have a feeling their Rumba will be very sexy & their Freestyle – Remarkable!
I wish them the best for the Finals and will be voting as much as I can for this team. Wow, I’m going to miss watching them dance! She is definitely his best partner ever!
DZING for the Win!!!
Heidi – Very good points made! 🙂
Has anyone else ever noticed that Argentine tango is a dance that generally gets pretty good scores, or at least fares well with the judges? I can’t recall an Argentine tango routine where the judges said at the end “Wow, that was terrible.” (Feel free to correct me – I’m just going off of memory rather than empirical research ;-)) If I recall, even the lowest scorer, The Woz (he got a 12), got favorable critiques from the judges – I think they even said it was one of his better dances. I’m just wondering if that’s why all three of the finalists chose the AT as their repeat dance – it seems like the great equalizer, the one dance that there wasn’t a whole lot of disparity in scoring between the three of them.
Not quite sure how I feel about the rest of the dances…Evan’s Viennese was just kind of a non-event for me choreography-wise, so I’m not sure there’s a whole lot he can do to really show improvement – kinda surprised they didn’t choose his samba instead. Erin could clean up her samba a bit (especially the runs), but wasn’t Len more concerned with Maks stripping choreo than he was with Erin’s technique? I just don’t remember the judges really giving her a hard time about her execution, but I guess they do see room for improvement. I would have chosen her tango instead. There’s obviously room for improvement in Nicole’s rumba…I’m just more worried that she’s gonna clean up only the technique and kinda neglect the chemistry part. That was what truly bothered me the last time – she danced it like she was dancing with her brother or something. No heat.
Oh, I think the scores will change on the AT, if they use the same choreography – just compare the technical difficulty between the three dances. If they don’t score Erin lower than Evan and Nicole, then I’ll be ticked off. The only impressive thing about their AT was that jump. It was a great dance for when it was executed and considering who was doing it, but now we’re in the finale and Nicole and Evan had the better (and more difficult) dances. I think that should be taken into consideration.
As for the judges choices – I do wonder if they are stacking the odds against Nicole, but she had a lot more heat in her AT so I’m thinking we’ll see improvement there in her Rumba as well – it seems like she’s been a lot more relaxed recently. Erin’s samba? Well, I think he probably had more problems than just the shirt removal, but he was fixated on that. They are supposed to do new choreography, so we’ll see – Maks says “traditional”. I wonder if he will disguise her legs so cleverly again? Evan’s V Waltz – again, new choreography and new music, so there could be a huge difference, depending on Anna.
Freestyles weren’t as great as other seasons, Erin’s was the best I thought, they had a theme rather than just “watch us stand side by side and dance” like a normal dance like the other two did. Didn’t think Nicole’s was that great, but the judges all fawned over her, eh, lol, what’d everyone else think?