More Interviews After Dance Night On DWTS Season 18 Week 2

And we have a few more new interviews with the cast of Dancing With The Stars. First, here they are with Extra….

That’s Your Reality also interviewed Tony Dovolani about last night’s dance and who he’d like to dance with for the Switch up dance (No please… not Amy! If he gets her, I will cry!).

Though he prefers to stick with current partner NeNe Leakes, Tony says that if he had to choose someone else, he’d pick Paralympian Amy Purdy. “I think she’s very inspiring,” he said. “I do a lot of work with Wounded Warriors down in San Diego for charity. For me, I have a special connection to that.” Amy is currently paired with Derek Hough, and earned a 24 for her Jive last night.

Tony and NeNe also danced the Jive and things turned tense after some feedback offered by judge Carrie Ann Inaba. When she said NeNe needed to spread her arms out more, Tony immediately disagreed. “I’m normally very welcoming of criticism. I listen to it and I apply it. I just didn’t think her criticism matched what we were doing, because that’s not Jive. I taught NeNe to not put her arms out,” he told us. “My knowledge of dance sometimes gets the best of me. I’ve been doing this since I was three years old, I’ve won world titles, I judge world championships. I should have a strong opinion of what I teach! I taught my kids to stand up for what they believe and if I didn’t say something, I would have taught them nothing.”

More at That’s Your Reality.

Today also talked with some of the couples.

“You could see on all of our faces that we were just as shocked as everyone in the room was that there was a double-elimination,” dance pro Sharna Burgess, who is paired with Olympic gold medal-winner Charlie White, told TODAY. “And halfway through the show one couple was gone. That was crazy.”

Even crazier? That one couple, long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad and new pro Henry Byalikov, got the boot just before being asked to perform their routine. Talk about a cruel cut.

Of course, stay or go, the order of the dances came as a surprise to all.

“It plays mind games with you,” said James Maslow’s partner Peta Murgatroyd. “You have to get your celeb in game mode. We used to know we’d be up eighth in the show, for example. We’d have time to prepare. Now, you don’t know. It’s more stressful.”

The stars felt the same.

Glamour also interviewed them all backstage. Be sure to go to this link to read and some fun pictures. Below is a take from the link….

Speaking of Peta, the blond bombshell was sporting a new look last night. “I took out my extensions,” she told me. “I was just so sick of them and couldn’t wash my hair properly. I cut my hair into a bob and then tucked a little bit underneath as well. I’m actually going to shorten it a bit more.”

Derek Hough was in the best mood ever backstage (and who can blame him? He and partner Amy Purdy are stunning the audience each week), but Purdy is still shocked she’s even here. “When I first started walking on my prosthetics, I never in a million years thought I’d be doing what I’m doing [now]. I still don’t know how I’m doing it.”

The funniest couple to interview without a doubt is Meryl Davis and Maksim Chmerkovskiy, mainly because the roles are so reversed. The way Maks talks, it’s as if Meryl is the pro and Maks is the celeb. “She’s amazing, she’s fun, and she’s so smart. I’ll be exhausted, and she wants to do everything again! She has endless energy!” Meryl hilariously chimed in, “He’s doing a great job!”

Maks went a step further to explain why he’s so in awe of Meryl. “I’m a graceful whale. I feel like a whale doing dolphin tricks. Like, I can’t even fit in here! How do you have me doing flips and all that?!”

People also talked with Charlie backstage about his girlfriend and the support she gives him. So cute!

Part of what keeps the low-key courtship such a success amid seemingly endless chatter that Davis and White are dating is Belbin’s history as a former ice dancer, herself.

“She gets it,” White told PEOPLE backstage on Monday, shortly after learning he’d advanced to another week in the competition. “She won the silver medal in 2006 with her partner Ben Agosto, and people were always like, ‘Are you guys dating?’ It’s just something you get as dancers. [Her understanding] makes my life so much easier.”

Carrie Ann Inaba has also written a new blog at Parade. She defends her critique for Nene in this take…

A lot of people have been asking about what Tony said. So I will address his comments here and clarify more about NeNe‘s performance. Tony was upset because he felt I didn’t understand that he made a choice to do small arm movements for his partner as part of the choreography. And I understand completely what it means to make a stylistic choice of making smaller arm movements. Sometimes it’s a wonderful choice! However, even small arm movements need to be executed with full energy and must be connected to the rest of the movements. My constructive criticism for NeNe (who’s a really fun performer and has a LOT of potential) is that she has to make the movement hers. When you learn to dance, at first you copy the movements. They sometimes can look and feel awkward on your body and then you practice them and after a while they become your own movements. We use the mirror in rehearsals so we can accurately gauge what the audience sees (what is in the mirror) and what we feel. And a great dancer makes both good. That is how you make the dance your own. It is my opinion that NeNe still hasn’t gotten to the point where she has made the movements her own or found her connection to the movements. And the way to do that is to put more energy into the movements. If we examine her arm movements, they are still too small for her frame and her energy. Her arm movements felt stifled and disconnected from herself and the energy she has been putting into the performance. There is no problem with small arm movements. Stylistically speaking however, there is a problem when there is an imbalance and awkwardness. She’s got INCREDIBLE energy. It’s infectious, it’s loud and proud and beautiful! But the movements are not at the same level as her energy. Especially her arms. But I am encouraging her because I think when she makes this breakthrough, it’s going to be GREAT. She’s right on the edge… I feel it coming! Go NeNe! And go Tony for standing up for his partner! I love that kind of loyalty!

Lastly, the Access Hollywood interviews are starting to be released. You can watch them at this link. Below is James and Peta….

Ok, that is all for now! I think? Be sure to go to the links above to read much more. ~Vogue