PureDWTS Season 30, Week 7 – Power Rankings

Editor’s Note: The following is a guest author for the Pure Dancing with the Stars Power Rankings.  As Court shared, she’s taking a “hopefully temporary” break from the power rankings and reader Tei offered to step in while she’s enjoying a well deserved break.

General thoughts about Queen night:

I really believe we haven’t had a season with this level of dancing in a while. At this point there is not a bad dancer left. I was sad to see the Miz go. This elimination makes very clear that everything can change weekly. The Miz was consistently in the middle of the pack and at least one of the couples in the bottom had always had a lower score than him (I believe Grease night was the only night he was at the bottom—with Iman—and both were saved). This was the fist time he was the sole bottom scorer. To be honest, I was surprised he did not get the votes over Cody and maybe Suni, but both of those dancers had “emotional weeks” that might have helped them get some votes. Also, I thought this was not his best night. I was not a fan of his foxtrot. The frame was stiff (Derek explained perfectly) and the choreo felt weird. Maybe the tricks?

As I said last week, I don’t think anyone can afford to have an okay dance at this stage or they might get into trouble. Other couples that have avoided being in the bottom after being saved by the judges have come back with strong performances (example: Olivia’s Paso). At this point its on the pros to create impactful dances because clearly, almost everyone is in danger. I do think they should have gotten at least one of Cody’s points in the relay.

Jimmie and Emma: Great dance again. It had this effortless feeling to it. Sometimes the shoulders came up which affected the frame. But in general, great performance. Jimmie is the most consistent of the guys left and he is really becoming a dancer. I was a bit confused by the end, was there a lift? Did the judges mention it? Not sure. The relay was also great. I believe this was the most even relay so I would have given each at least one point. But I don’t think Jimmie needed it. I will keep him at the top since he has everything to take him to the finals: personality, commitment, the hard work is coming through and we see improvement. With the Miz gone, now he is fully owning the title of best male non-dancer contestant.

Iman and Daniella: Love this guy’s commitment! Love the knee pads in the rehearsal package. He really is enjoying this competition and working his butt off. The posture was not great, but he did not miss a step. Needed a bit more upper body shaping for the Paso Doble. However, Iman keeps proving that he is killing it with the votes. He was saved over Jojo who had the second highest score of the night (after the judges made Olivia the top scorer). I’m really bad with math but this must be a ton of votes. I believe this is due to a mix between his personality and Daniella creating performances that stick out among the rest. Not surprised to see the judges so divided in the scores. He is not technically perfect, but he is really performing full out, enjoying it and getting better. The result is always a great performance that stands out. Viewers love this. Same with the relay dance, I would definitely agree with Derek and Carrie Ann. Did he have the best technique? Nope. Was he the most entertaining? By far.

Amanda and Alan: Don’t know what the judges were looking at. For me this jive was fast, fun and they managed to stay in sync. The kicks could have been a bit sharper, but it was definitely not terrible. Around the middle I thought she was losing energy but then she picked up the energy right back up. I though she was a tad underscored when compared to the scores given to Suni, Cody or even Melora. However, she managed to be saved after being quite low in the overall score. The truth is that we don’t know if this means she is getting the votes or if Jojo was simply not getting any votes. I tend to think she is very aligned with the show’s demographics and is probably getting a decent number of votes.

Cody and Cheryl: This dance was an improvement from previous weeks. His bum is still sticking out. Cheryl needs to focus more on that. For me this couple is not very interesting, and I don’t get exited to see them each week. The best way I can describe it is that I don’t see any depth into Cody’s dancing. Is just steps performed fairly okey. I believe their emotional story this week might have resonated with many viewers. Unfortunately, addiction is a disease that affects too many people and families. I moved them up this high because they have avoided the bottom two even after being near the bottom of the leaderboard almost every week and without ever having a very impressive dance. Of the contestants who have never been in the bottom two, this is the only one that has consistently been a lower scorer and has survived on votes.

Jojo and Jenna: I guess that regardless how much this show tries, they keep failing to bring a younger audience. Even when the celebrity has millions of followers in social media. Honestly was shocked to see this couple in the bottom two. I think this dance was brilliant, the choreography by Jenna was incredible. Even the hairography worked. They had great body contact, great footwork and frame. I guess the only problem with Jojo is the age range of her followers. Her visit to the bottom two will probably fire up her followers to help her next week but, can she win without the regular viewers of the show? Not sure. The relay was very good, and I would have given them at least one point. They had the second highest score of the night which means they must not be getting almost any votes. That’s why I put them so low. I really do hope Jojo manages to get some of her million followers to vote since they are one of the most interesting couples to watch each week and I would hate to see them go.

Olivia and Val: She has now managed to be two weeks out of the bottom two. Last week I understood. This week I believe the over-scoring really helped her. Her quickstep was good. Was it better than her Paso last week? I don’t think so. I had a feeling the judges wanted to protect her (a tad obvious in the relay?). She is becoming a beautiful dancer, but this dance was not so much better than Amanda or Melora. There were times were the frame and body contact were impressive. But this was not their best dance. In the relay she really maintained a great frame. However, so did Jojo and Jimmie. I don’t understand why the points weren’t better distributed. I am worried that if the judges do not give her a huge lead with the scores, she might be in trouble next week.

Melora and Artem: Nothing bad with this dance. I agree with the judges though, it was not a 10. I’m not sure if there is much more we can get from this couple. They have never been close to the bottom of the leaderboard; therefore, (unlike Iman and maybe Cody) their vote-getting ability has never been tested. If they end up close to the bottom of the leaderboard next week, I would worry.

Suni and Sasha: How she got through that performance can only be attributed to the athlete in her. Without knowing she was sick, I thought she performed it very well. This week I thought she committed to the performance a bit more than previous weeks. Maybe using the skirt helped her? Avoiding the bottom two after finishing in the bottom is another indicator of how the votes are shifting every week (last week she had higher scores than the Miz but finished in the bottom 2). The health struggles this week could have helped her in the voting department as well. However, unless she has a big breakthrough performance, I don’t think she will be able to avoid a bottom 3 finish next week (with the double elimination).

Would love to hear what you guys think.