PureDWTS Season 18, Week 6 – What’s Left to Dance?

So we’re at the halfway point in the competition – 5 more weeks to go, and there’s still 8 couples left…seems like a lot, but I guess numerically it makes sense.  We’ve got party anthem night this coming Monday, Latin night the following Monday, and then who knows.  Will the guest judges cease once we hit week 8? Will the themes cease? When’s the team dance? What other funky sh*t are they gonna throw our way between now and the finale? 😛

I don’t have ALL of the answers, but I’ll try and paint the clearest picture I can of the remainder of the season.  Here’s the list of what the remaining couples have left to dance in the coming weeks – I’ve already removed their party anthem week dances, so consider this the remaining dances for Latin week onward. I’ve added a bit of my own commentary as well.  And because I’m nice, I did it both a list format AND a handy-dandy chart. 🙂 I have a question mark by the Viennese waltz (see why below) and I honestly doubt we’ll see anyone else doing the swing this season, but I went ahead and included it since we did see it from two couples already.

remainingdances

 Meryl & Maks – remaining regular dances: rumba, paso doble, jive, waltz, quickstep, Viennese waltz; “other” dances: contemporary, jazz, salsa

Kinda interesting how Meryl & Maks have basically done two of everything: two Latin dances, two ballroom dances, and two “other” dances – probably the most evenly divided-up of all the couples, and gives them the greatest variety of dances left to do heading into the second half of the competition. I don’t see her necessarily struggling technically with any of the dances she has left – but I do think some of the relentless shippers have built up their rumba so much in their heads that they’re going to be disappointed if they do anything short of making out on the dance floor. I also think Maks’ skills as a choreographer might make some of these styles questionable – I’m highly skeptical of how he’ll do with contemporary & jazz.  I’m also wondering if he’ll be able to resist the urge to waste time in their quickstep – that seems to be one dance where he seems to love throwing in long sections of running up and down the stairs or fiddling with props.

Charlie & Sharna – remaining regular dances: samba, paso doble, waltz, foxtrot,  quickstep, Viennese waltz; “other” dances: salsa, Argentine tango, swing

Charlie’s only burned through one ballroom dance so far, and I think he has the potential to really kill it with the ones he has left – if Sharna can choreograph some impactful routines.  Kinda glad he got rumba out of the way already, since he seems a tad uncomfortable with the really lovey-dovey dances; I think he’ll probably handle Argentine tango better, because it has such a strong technique component and it moves faster.  But I’m fully expecting rumba to crop up again for him as his “redemption dance”.  I’m hoping he can really summon some rage (does this kid even have an angry bone in his body? 😛 ) for the paso doble, as that’s one dance that I see going completely against character for him.

James & Peta – remaining dances: cha-cha, samba, rumba, paso doble, waltz, Viennese waltz; “other” dances: jazz, Argentine tango, swing

Unlike a lot of the others, who have burned through almost all of their Latin dances, James has actually gotten all but one (maybe two) of the ballroom dances out of the way, and still has 4 Latin dances to work with – and considering he handled his salsa & jive pretty damn well, he could potentially ace the Latin dances he has left and really build some momentum headed into the finale.  I’m hoping Peta learned her lesson with the judges during switch week, and is able to choreograph a really by-the-book rumba for James;  maybe getting hosed during a week when nobody actually got sent home was a blessing in disguise for James.  I’m thinking his Argentine tango has the potential to make jaws drop – he’s proven he can handle complex choreography and can commit fully to the mood of each dance.

Amy & Derek – remaining regular dances: samba, rumba, paso doble, tango, foxtrot, quickstep, Viennese waltz; “other” dances: Argentine tango, jazz

I love Amy to bits, but YIKES – I worry that they got the majority of the dances that were going to be easier for her out of the way early, and now she’s stuck with the stuff that may prove pretty difficult on prostheses.  She’s probably going to struggle with tango,  since she can’t really pivot; I think quickstep & Viennese waltz could cause problems since they involve crossing one ankle over the other at some point; rumba will probably cause problems due to the hip action; she might actually be able to do samba decently, since she is actually able to bend her knees and has a strong core from which she can get the bounce, but pivoting steps like samba runs may be out of the question.  Argentine tango? I’m having nightmares of her getting her feet tangled up during one of the sequences of footwork.  I’m hoping Derek has got some serious tricks up his sleeve, because I think Amy’s going to really need them in the coming weeks.

Danica & Val – remaining regular dances: rumba, paso doble, waltz, tango, Viennese waltz; “other” dances: salsa, jazz, Argentine tango, swing

Danica is one big puzzle to me – I don’t think she technically struggles with any of the dances (she’s conveniently overcome her arm problem), but at the same time I don’t feel like she really masters any of the dances like Meryl & Charlie, either.  I think she may hit a snag with the rumba as she seems to obsess over dance steps, and rumba is one dance where you have to let go a bit and just let the emotion take over.  I don’t really  have a whole lot else to say about Danica – she’s not the best for me, but not the worst; and she’s not really leaving a very lasting impression on me, either way.  Bad? 🙁

Candace & Mark – remaining regular dances: paso doble, waltz, tango, foxtrot, Viennese waltz; “other” dances: salsa, jazz, Argentine tango, swing

Thankfully, she’s gotten most of the Latin out of the way – she really only has paso doble & salsa left to contend with.  I think she’ll handle the ballroom better than the Latin, but I still worry that the judges are just gonna nitpick her to death like they did with her quickstep, because they’ve decided she’s disposable.  Will be interested to see if they let her do jazz at some point – with the season half over and the theme weeks winding down, I’m wondering if we’ll begin to see less jazz & contemporary.  I think she & Mark would knock the jazz out of the park – so if she does get to do it (maybe as a trio dance?) I think it has the potential to be a comeback for her.

NeNe & Tony – remaining dances: samba, paso doble, waltz, tango, quickstep, Viennese waltz; “other” dances: contemporary, Argentine tango, swing

Well NeNe’s burned through all but two of the Latin dances , and she has only managed to check one hardcore ballroom dance off the list…seems like there’s not a whole lot of flashy dances left for her to really sell.  And I’m not sure that samba & paso doble are going to be ones that she can really “wing it” with – samba’s heavy on the technique, and paso doble is heavy on the aggression.  IF she survives this week – and that’s a big IF – it looks like it’s gonna be a pretty bumpy road for her from here on out.

Drew & Cheryl remaining dances: samba, rumba, paso doble, foxtrot, Viennese waltz; “other” dances: salsa, contemporary, jazz, Argentine tango, swing

I’m afraid things don’t look particularly easy for Drew, either – the dreaded samba is in the mix, as well as the nitpicky-on-technique rumba.  He only has one or two ballroom dances left, and oddly enough, he’s the only contestant left that hasn’t done at least one “extra” dance – he’s the only that has only done real competition dances so far.  Can’t decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing – did I read somewhere that Cheryl’s not really fond of contemporary and/or jazz?

Other random thoughts…

Where the hell are the paso doble & the Viennese waltz??? Since paso doble has been included in every season since season 1, I highly doubt they’ve scrapped it as one of the regular dances this season – I’m guessing that the theme weeks thus far just have not really been conducive to the aggressive feel of the paso (think personal story week, Disney week, and party anthems week). We’ll probably have a pretty paso doble-heavy Latin week – for some couples, it’s one of only two Latin dances they even have left to do.  Now as for the Viennese waltz – we may or may not see it this season.  The fact that we haven’t seen a single one yet (while we have seen two standard waltzes) makes me wonder if they decided to cut this season down to just waltz, or maybe have the couples do only one type of waltz through the course of the season (either waltz OR Viennese waltz – not both).  They’ve done it in previous seasons – there’s been seasons with only the waltz, seasons with only the Viennese waltz, seasons where the couples did both, and seasons where they only did one or the other. Guess we’ll just have to wait & see what kind of season this is – I personally prefer the Viennese waltz, because I find it more exciting to watch, but obviously I’m not the one in charge (despite what some fringe fans seem to think)…

What about the team dances? I’m hearing week 7, which is Latin week – which means that the team dances will most likely be Latin dances (my money’s on either both teams doing cha-cha, or one team doing cha-cha and the other doing paso doble), and one team will have 3 couples while the other has 4.  They’ll most likely get picked immediately after Monday night’s show, and then go straight to rehearsal.  If they follow the scheme of previous seasons, then the two contestants with the highest cumulative score will serve as the team captains – as it stands right now, that’s Meryl (134 total points) and Charlie (131 total points) – but the scores they get Monday night could change that (I doubt it will, but the possibility is there).  They’ve also done a coin toss and allowed the winner to either get first pick on the song or the team members, but that could change this season, too.  I could go into great detail on all the things that could happen – but that’s best left to a “Team Dance Speculation” post coming up over the weekend 😉

Are we going to see the trio dance again? Haven’t heard anything official, but I would assume so – it’s been too popular in the past 4 seasons to NOT do it.  I’m guessing week 8, and as always, it will be either a Latin dance or jazz.  I’m guessing they will still be able to pick from either a current troupe member (Sasha, Artem, Lindsay, or Jenna) or an eliminated pro from this season (Henry, Karina, Emma, Witney, or whichever pros are eliminated in weeks 6 & 7) as their third trio member.  No, I have no reason to believe that Tristan/Chelsie/Anna/Gleb/etc. will be available as choices for the trios…and yes, there are fans that still think it’s a legit possibility. 😯

Anything else coming up? Again, no official word, but I would expect to see the supersized freestyles again (cause they sure seem to love supersizing!) and either an instant dance and/or 24-hour dance challenge during finale week.

So what do you guys hope to see in the coming weeks? Who do you think has the right dances left to succeed this season – and who is screwed? And if you haven’t already, be sure to vote in Vogue’s new poll here! 🙂