DWTS All-Star Season 15 Week 4 (Read 499 times)

[DancingDays]

During last week's results show, each couple chose a new dance for another couple (some of the choices were non-ballroom dances, and some were rarely seen/never seen ballroom dances). This could be an interesting night of Dancing with the Staaaaaarrrrrrsssssss.

Oh, and we have a special extra judge tonight – Paula Abdul!!! I expect a lot of silly clapping and too-high scores.

Let's get to it!!


Kirstie and Maks (CHARLESTON) – Their routine was totally silly and it fit them to a T. In case you didn't know, the Charleston was the big dance of the 20s. During prohibition, they would dance this in the secret bars (speakeasies) where they drank the night away. It was quite a scandalous time. This routine wasn't all that scandalous (unless you count Maks motorboating Kirstie somewhere in there) but it was still entertaining. Tough one to score, though. Let's see how they do. MY SCORE: 8 JUDGES SCORE: 7.5, 7.5, 7.5, 7.5 = 30





Bristol and Mark (ROCK N ROLL) - **insert snarl** Bristol says she doesn't want to be the joke this week. Too late honey. You've been the joke since Pam left. Mark mentioned in the rehearsal package that Bristol is scared and keeps making him dumb down the choreography. Boy, you can sure tell. She's using little to no effort and it totally shows. Mark was smart to use elements of other dances (like Jive, Lindy Hop, Jitterbug) but it was all just so basic. And at this stage basic = boring. MY SCORE: 5 JUDGES SCORE: 8, 8, 8, 8 = 32 <--- The judges are smoking crack.





Sabrina and Louis (DISCO) – Louis says he wants to stay true to the real 70s Disco, as if he was actually there. Wait. How old IS he? Nooooo. He's not old enough to have actually been at Studio 54, right??? Anywho, this routine was FRIGGIN AWESOME!!!!! Everything about it was just right. Sabrina didn't over dance (for once) and the choreography was spot on. Well done!!! VERY well done!!! MY SCORE: 9.5 JUDGES SCORE: 9, 9, 8.5, 9 = 35.5





Emmitt and Cheryl (BOLERO) – Bolero is a tricky dance. It's considered the American bastard child of the Rumba and the Waltz. Rumba, because of the similar timing and mood (fast fast slooooooow). Waltz, because it has similar rise and fall. Unfortunately, Cheryl doesn't know Bolero from Ballet and (to my trained eye) obviously has no idea what she's doing. HER technique was terrible and I'm, quite frankly, embarrassed for her. I won't harp too much on Emmitt since it's not his fault his teacher doesn't know what she's teaching. Even though they got help, they obviously didn't get enough. MY SCORE: 8 JUDGES SCORE: 9, 9, 9, 9 = 36 Ironically, Tony competes in the American Style of ballroom, which includes both Bolero and Mambo, so he would've killed in this one.







Gilles and Peta (BOLLYWOOD) – If you've watched So You Think You Can Dance, you've probably seen Bollywood before. It's incredibly hard and has NOTHING to do with Ballroom. How will Peta cope? Bless their little hearts, they tried. We know from SYTYCD that the hand position is VERY important and I'm pretty sure that little nugget of information was overlooked. Peta did bring in a guest choreographer (smart!!) and they did the best with what they had. Peta looked fantastic, but Gilles was totally out of his depth. To be fair, though, Ballroom is a LOT easier to hide mistakes and lack of skill with talent. Bollywood requires SKILL. It still wasn't a bad effort, and they certainly tried their hardest. A big “A” for effort. MY SCORE: 9 JUDGES SCORE: 10, 9.5, 10, 10 = 39.5 PS. Gilles' vest/chest was very yummy.





Melissa and Tony (JITTERBUG) – It's kind of unfortunate that they had to follow the Bollywood routine, but this was still a good number. The tricks were well executed (except for the one that obviously screwed up) and there were a good number of actual dance steps in the mix. Since Jitterbug is an actual Ballroom dance, I'm not suuuuuper impressed with this, but they did do well. It just didn't blow me away. MY SCORE: 8 JUDGES SCORE: 9, 9, 9.5, 9.5 = 37





Shawn and Derek (MAMBO) – A little background: Mambo is nearly identical to Salsa, but the timing is slightly different. Mambo (like Bolero) is another one of those pesky American Style dances. It's really not all that spectacular (IMO) and I'm pretty sure Derek is going to throw in a large number of annoying tricks. We'll see. [Pause to watch routine] Ok. If this were a SALSA routine, I'd give them 10s across the board. But it's MAMBO. Sorry to poop on the parade, but Derek choreographed that whole thing off time. Which reminds me – you may remember Mambo from “Dirty Dancing.” Johnny was very clear that you break on the 2, not the 1. I guess Derek hasn't seen “Dirty Dancing.” Ooops. Other than that, it was a super fun, jam packed, well-danced routine. One point deduction for the timing issue, but otherwise perfection. MY SCORE: 9 JUDGES SCORE: 10, 9.5, 10, 10 = 39.5





Apolo and Karina (HIP HOP) – Oh dear. This is like a bad 90s video. The fall was just unfortunate and I won't punish for that, I doubt the judges will either. And perhaps I'm too used to the Hip Hops on SYTYCD that this routine was just, well, it wasn't good. Karina was so far out of her element that it was painful, bless her heart. But since this is ultimately a Ballroom competition (or so we like to tell ourselves) I won't knock them too hard simply because this wasn't my cup of tea. MY SCORE: 8 JUDGES SCORE: 8.5, 9, 8.5, 8.5 = 34.5






Kelly and Val (CONTEMPORARY) – Look at them being all sexy together. Yeah, they are totally doing it. I doubt Kelly's THAT good an actress. Again, this one is hard to judge, because we've all seen those AH-MAZ-ING contemporaries on SYTYCD. On it's own, this was a decent routine. It didn't feel Ballroom-y and I credit Val for that. If he choreographed this all on his own, kudos man! Kelly obviously does not have a dance background (which really shows in her lack of pointed toes, awkward turns, etc) but within the scope of this competition is was pretty darn good. I'm not gonna hate on her. Oh, and she did the whole thing with a broken toe. MY SCORE: 9 JUDGES SCORE: 9, 9.5, 9.5, 9.5 = 37.5









My Leader Board.................................Judges Leaderboard
Sabrina.........9.5........................................Gilles..........39.5
Gilles............9...........................................Shawn........39.5
Shawn...........9...........................................Kelly..........37.5
Kelly.............9...........................................Melissa.......37
Melissa.........8...........................................Emmitt........36
Emmitt.........8...........................................Sabrina........35.5
Apolo...........8...........................................Apolo..........34.5
Kirstie..........8...........................................Bristol..........32
Bristol..........5...........................................Kirstie..........30



So what'd YOU think?

[MrsM]

I don't watch SYTYCD so I don't have that to compare against. I loved Gilles routine, but I am biased because he is smoking hot. Lol. I wasn't impressed with Melissa and Tony because it seems like all we see them do is a jitterbug or lindy hop or something along those lines. It wasn't anything new. I thought Val and Kelly were surprisingly good. Shawn and Derek were good but I am tired of them already. Bristol just needs to go. Kirstie was fun to watch and so was Maks Poor Apolo, that routine was just a hot mess. Karina really needed to put herself aside and focus on the choreography, not her limitations as a dancer and a teacher. I think that really held them back.

[rockfordfosgate]

Kirstie. Maks was too covered up! It was fun and entertaining though.
Bristol. Yeah, the dumbing down of the routine is even obvious to a non-dancer like me. She needs to go.
Sabrina. My favorite dance of the night. If they had gone Saturday Night Fever, yeah, it would be been 'been there, done that a gazillion times over'.
Emmitt. I just couldn't get into this one.
Gilles. The open vest. The dance was definitely entertaining. I liked it. And I liked Gilles' chest.
Melissa. They did really well except for the bobble on the one lift.
Shawn. Lots of tricks and stuff. I enjoyed it.
Apolo. Oh man, it was bad. It was too much costume-wise but I think they were trying to appeal to Paula and to 'Fly Girl' Carrie-Ann. They coped pretty well with the mess-up in the middle, but it did take the momentum out of the dance.
Kelly. It's hard to judge against the other dances, but I did have a slightly delayed reaction to it. I think it's cause I know part of Kelly's backstory from her time on Dirty Soap, but I cried for her after the dance. Just that level of trusting someone with your emotions after her past heartbreaks, the intensity she carried into that dance. (And yeah, her and Val are soooo doin' it. LOL!)

[DancingDays]

Balance has been restored to the ballroom. Bristol has FINALLY been eliminated.

[MrsM]

Thank you sweet baby jesus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rockfordfosgate]

I'm dancing a jig since we did get a glimpse of Tristan tonight and Bristol is gone (plus she wasn't even picked during that whole 'pick your team' thing...hahaha!)

[MrsM]

How embarrassing is that for them?!? Lol.

[sportsgirl]

Tristan...yummm!

[MrsM]

He was the only thing that made that song bearable. My eyes were happy, my ears, not so much.

[DancingDays]

I always watch something else for the first half hour of the show and then come back and FF the boring parts and commercials. Works great!! I watched Tristan and Kym with the sound off and FF'd the parts when they weren't dancing. Who thought it was a good idea to have Donny Osmond and Susan Boyle sing??? And such an awful song at that!!! UGH.

[MrsM]

It made me feel like I was watching some little miss beauty pageant. Lol.

[MrsM]

Kind of sad. Anna and Jonathan are getting a divorce.

www.people.com/people/article/0,,20640000,00.html

[DancingDays]

Oh, that's really sad. They always seemed so happy. I wonder if one of them cheated.

[MrsM]

I guess that is why it is so sad is that they always did seem happy. But I guess if you think about it lately she hasn't posted pics of her and Jonathan at all and she used to. It says they are going to remain friends and dance partners. I wonder if that is really true.

[DancingDays]

My only dance partner was my husband and I can't imagine being divorced and having to remain that intimate with him. Best wishes for them both.