Dancing with the Stars: Acting the Part

Last night, on "Dancing with the Stars" we learned that next week the remaining couples will each be performing one of four new dances: the salsa, Jitterbug, Hustle and West Coast Swing.

Despite the fact that I'd probably take the Hustle out of there, I'm really looking forward to seeing some new dances on display in the ballroom. Of course, that left this week's dances to contend with.

Unfortunately, we've hit that lull in the season where most of the terrible people are gone, but there are enough left that the real competition hasn't begun. It's also the time, as Carrie Ann constantly reminded everyone, where the judges start looking for sharper performances and technique, despite the fact that it's still a tad early for that since the stars haven't performed any dance more than once.

Although I'm no fan of his dancing, I thought it was ice cold to announce that Rocco would've been the person sent home had there been an elimination last week. So thanks to Misty May Treanor's ruptured Achilles, he's still around.

I would like to say he took advantage of his extra opportunity, but his dancing was as bad during his samba as it's ever been. At least his pink sleeves were poofier than ever. Not even his mom could whip him into shape.

He was even caught in the leaderboard by Cloris, who decided to give a real effort this week and was rewarded by the judges (unlike two weeks ago when they dissed her decent paso doble). Of course, there's no way her tango was really a 22, but she's in her freakin' 80's so I'll let it slide. She and Rocco are in a tie for last place on the two-week leaderboard, so one of them is almost certainly going home. I'm going with Rocco because I can remember almost nothing from his dance other than the sleeves.

By contrast, I finally remembered a Maurice Green performance. The judges slammed his lack of precision, but I found his enjoyable samba my favorite dance of his by far — and only 20% of that had to do with his and Cheryl's afro wigs. On the other hand, Warren took a swan dive after an uninspired samba routine with Kym, whose choreography was lacking in moves from the big man. In fact, Warren most impressive move was that handstand he pulled off in capoeira classes.

While Warren struggled, Cody got sent to the principal's office. Well, the principal came to him via videoconference call. We get it — he's really young and a spaz. What's next? Are they going to have him licking an oversized lollipop while wearing a schoolboy's uniform next week to convey how young he is? Anyway, his tango was solid and controlled, if unspectacular. I was slightly more impressed by Julianne's pants and the song they danced to.

The big breakthrough this week was Lance finally cashing in on his promise, catapulting to second overall in the standings and getting unanimous praise from the judges. Lance and Lacey were finally able to fuse their desire to think outside the box with the judges' desire to have them perform proper ballroom moves in a tango to "Disturbia" as far as I can tell Lance's contributions to the dance included the "Bye Bye Bye" puppet moves at the beginning and the part at the end where he pretended to break Lacey's neck. How helpful!

More fun was Susan and Tony's appearance. I mean, their tango was ok and Susan finally channeled a bit more of the badass personality (even if her dancing remained dainty). I'm talking about Tony's awesome cameo as a bruised guy on crutches on "All My Children." FAN-freakin'-TASTIC. So many questions — how did he get hurt? A motorcycle accident? A ruptured Achilles tendon? It could be anything?

Meanwhile, Toni Braxton's was ok. I like that her partner Alec has her dancing a lot (samba roll!), and I LOVED his backward split through her legs at the end, but she wasn't fluid enough and appeared to bounce WAY too much.

This was especially apparent after you watched Brooke Burke's samba. While Len didn't care for the excessive gimmickry in their performance (he especially had it in for Derek's glasses), the dancing was spot on, as it has all season. Brooke (pictured, right) has dominated the leaderboard every week, so why doesn't she feel like a clear frontrunner. Is it the questionable size of her fan base? (I mean, how many people out there outside of her many kids are voting for her?) I don't know, but it just feels like she should be a stronger favorite to win than she is.

So what'd you think of this episode? Who was the better actor? Tony on "All My Children" or Mark Ballas on "Samantha Who?" Weren't you glad they shelved that "winner, winner, chicken dinner" thing, if just for a week? Finally, who do you have going home?