Live blogging is underway for this week’s Dancing with the Stars. This week it’s mambo and quick step and a man and a woman will be eliminated tomorrow night so this is a critical evening.
Here are tonight’s dances in the order they were performed:
- Steve & Anna: The rehearsal footage was great with Anna’s mom. That was funny. It was a good mambo and he looked comfortable with the choreography. I though he got a few breaks in there, he was down on one knee for a few seconds where Anna danced and then he had another moment where he was sorta standing there while she moved. He did act the dance well, but it could’ve had a little more content. And the judges got him on technical merits, which I might have translated into lack of content.
- Cristian & Cheryl: Ouch. The first half of the quick step was painful for me. That looked like some messed up footwork to me. It was very muddled in the first part. I also thought that he couldn’t decide what he was doing with his head most of the time. It was like he couldn’t decide where to put it. The judges mention the speed of the dance, and maybe that’s why I thought some of the footwork look muddled. I did like his overall energy though and commitment to the performance. I was definitely looking for something sharper from Cristian.
- Monica & Jonathan: Jonathan was looking hot, hot, hot in that vest! Wow! I was tuned into that from the moment they came down the stairs at the top of the show. As for their mambo, she looked so uncomfortable trying to shake the hips and look sexy. She’s right, she has a hard time with the facial expressions. It was a difficult 90 seconds for her. I don’t think she’s going to work her way out of the bottom of the scoring.
- Penn & Kym: The rehearsal footage was great with Penn destroying the dance studio and sawing Kym in half. I liked their quick step better that Cristian’s. It had better choreography and he seemed more comfortable doing it. He had some missteps… but it looked good, the posture was good and the performance/entertainment aspect of the dance was good.
- Priscilla & Louis: The mambo this week sold me that she’s a serious competitor. She seemed so much more comfortable with this dance than she did last week. I know the judges felt she “performed” the dance well last week, but I did not think so (and still don’t having seen clips since then). Tonight she nailed it far better though. So far she has the dance of the evening for me.
- Shannon & Derek: Loved it! Such great choreography from Derek and she performed it so well. She was light on her feet. No missteps that I could see right off. She nailed the character of the dance. Fantastic! Now this is the dance of the night. It looks like the second half of the show is going to better than the first.
- Jason & Edyta: Another wow! Jason was so fluid in that dance. I always expect the athletes to do well, but for just week two he is doing amazing. Even better is that he is looking so at ease in the dance and he’s performing well too, which is not always the easiest part for athletes (Monica, for example). Plus there’s already such good chemistry between these Jason and Edyta… I see a long life on this show for them.
- Marissa & Tony: Yay! My favorite… she was so distressing in the rehearsal footage… it made me sad. She beat up on herself so hard. But she performed great tonight with the quickstep. I couldn’t see anything that looked wrong (although there were times that the camera wasn’t showing her feet). The judges did get her on some footwork, and I’m glad they pointed out she improved over last week because it was. She already has all my votes for the night, go Marissa!
- Adam & Julianne: His mambo was better than his foxtrot, but he’s still very difficult to watch because the moves are so blocky. Penn, who is bigger than Adam, looks more fluid than Adam. The judges liked his performance aspect (the fact that Len called it brilliant is disturbing), but that didn’t work for me either. I think Adam has to go for the male side of the elimination.
- Marlee & Fabian: I liked the rehearsal footage because we got a sample of what she might of heard in last week’s performance, plus we watched them figure out how to communicate since they can’t look at each other during the quick step. Fantastic! I think I saw a couple missetps at the mid point, put she was right on with that. Good choreography and good overall performance (Bruno is right with the way she lights up the stage). Nice to see the 8s across the board.
- Kristi & Mark: Kristi is incredible. I think the judges, especially Len, will call out Mark on the hip-hop factor (and they didn’t… surprising), but this was a great mambo. It was great fun to watch, they looked like they were having a great time. Can they do better than the 9s of last week? Nope… but all 9s again (and I think it’s good they aren’t awarding 10s in week 2). With one dance to go, this one takes over as the dance of the night for me.
- Mario & Karina: Footwork was good… choreography was good… was that a lift or two (guess not, Carrie Anne didn’t call them out on it)? It was solid, high energy. I’m not sure he’ll eclipse Jason’s scores, but it was a good way to end the evening. It was good to see a couple of solid quicksteps in this second hour.
Summary: The second half of the show was far better than the first with Priscilla, Jason, Shannon, Marissa, Marlee, Kristi and Mario looking great. Best dances of the evening belong to Jason for the men and Kristi for the women. In terms of best in the dance styles, I liked Shannon’s quick step the best and Kristi’s mambo the best. For elimination, I’m looking for Adam and Monica (and that pains me because it means no more Jonathan) to go home.
Tomorrow after the results show is complete, I log in with comments on the results show and the elimination.
Results Show Update: Got half of the predictions with Monica going home and it was Penn leaving for the men instead of Adam. The results show was pretty good overall. I liked Cameron’s bit from New York (far better than Jimmy Kimmel bits). The Jonas Brothers take on “Take On Me” was good. The Macy’s Stars of the Dance bit was okay, better than most of last season’s attempts at that. Next week’s result show should be excellent with Kylie Minogue performing (yay!).
