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This week was set up to be either a distinct favorite or a disaster since two of my favorite dances were up tonight: the paso doble and the Viennese waltz. It turned into an evening of waltzes with so many performances that moved me. Unfortunately, the pasos were mostly less than impressive–hopefully when the dance cycles up again in a couple weeks we’ll see some better ones.
Here’s my take of Monday night’s dances, in order of performance:
- Kristi & Mark: Near perfection right out of the gate with their paso doble. It was technically great and Mark delivered some great choreography. However, I felt that Kristi still wasn’t delivering fully on the emotion and drama. It was a surprise to see 10s from Carrie Anne and Bruno, although they thought she’d stepped up the drama.
- Priscilla & Louis: The first of the amazing waltzes. Priscilla is growing on me every single week. This was just beautiful and fluid. I was stunned at the low scores with the 7s from Bruno and Carrie Anne for the lift. The dance overall deserved better than that (especially given what happened later with the scoring). I loved her hair down too… I thought it softened her often harsh looking face.
- Adam & Julianne: No, No, No! A unicycle! Oh my. And when he was on his for the paso it was clunky. I’m very disappointed he ended up with some of the same 7s that Priscilla had. Glad he managed to end up at the bottom of the judge scoreboard though.
- Marlee & Fabian: Another fantastic waltz. Carrie Anne wept and so did I. It is constantly amazing how Marlee moves so well to music she can’t here. The choreography was beautiful and completely moving.
- Mario & Karina: I can’t remember another dancer that has so polarized the judges. If you look at the scoring, usually the three of them are within a point of each other. This is the second week in a row that Len is low, Carrie Anne is middle and Bruno is high for these two. I thought this paso was great. It had the choreography, the passion and the drama.
- Jason & Edyta: Carrie Anne and I wept yet again with this flowing waltz. It was so beautiful, sexy, sensual. Definitely their best dance to date. I do have an issue with the scoring though. Bruno and Carrie Anne both noted Jason’s stumble and still gave him 10s. A 10 is a perfect score, that means perfection… not a stumble you can opt to ignore. This is especially true when you knock points off for a lift earlier like they did for Priscilla.
- Cristian & Cheryl: I felt like this paso showed off Cheryl more than Cristian. I did think the choreography was good looking and the costumes did help sell the dance, but it just did make Cristian stand out (although he did look really great showing off his chest).
- Shannon & Derek: Well, this waltz didn’t move Carrie Anne, but it did move me. These two were gorgeous together, everything flowed and the way they swept across the floor was heavenly. I was surprised to hear about Derek’s injury too and glad to see that he seems to be healing just fine (hooray for Jonathan for stepping in yet again).
- Marissa & Tony: A fantastic bounce back! Her paso was solid. Tony gave her good choreography that she did very well. Great to see her out of the bottom of the scoring and doing the kind of work that she’s capable of. I’m glad she got to stick it out.
Best dances: For the waltz, I have to give it a three way tie… to all the ones that moved me so much tonight: Marlee & Fabian, Shannon & Derek and Jason & Edyta. For the paso it was Mario because he had more passion in his dance than Kristi did. For who is going home: Please, let’s get rid of Adam. He’s really the clunker in this group.
Results show update: Hooray! No more Adam! I can’t believe that Priscilla was in the bottom two with him. That’s a disappointment. Interesting that this is the second week in a row that the encore dance has featured the ousted couple. I have to say I was awful to have to relive Adam’s paso over some of the more stunning dances last night. The kids tonight were very cool. It will be fun to see more kids perform over the next few weeks.
