The lowest score anybody received on last night’s episode of “Dancing with the Stars” was a 24. (That’d be Pamela Anderson’s Viennese waltz and Team Madonna’s tally.)What I’m trying to say is that this episode was the best all-around — in terms of (gasp!) dancing — the show has produced in a long time.
Let’s dive right into an episode that featured the season’s first perfect 30, Lady GaGa vs. Madonna, and a scary snake necklace.
Erin Andrews and Maks: Will there ever be a rehearsal package where these two DON’T argue? This week’s disagreement — to de-pants or not to de-pants, was the question for Maks — seemed particularly staged, which made it more annoying. (As annoyed as I was, I didn’t petulantly lie down on my living room floor in protest.) It all turned out to be especially irritating when Maks’ de-pantsing simply involved him losing the square black trousers for a pair of blindingly salmon pair of pants.
There WAS dancing too. In fact, other than losing her way at the very beginning of the routine, Erin was excellent during her nimble, entertaining quickstep, which earned them a 27.
Chad Ochocinco and Cheryl: A refreshed-looking Tony Dovolani — he looks so much happier since escaping the clutches of Dementor Kate Gosselin — stopped by to help Chad with his Viennese waltz. It’s SO much more helpful for a lead to learn a dance from another lead, as opposed to learning it from a follow, since all the follow is basically doing is trying to fool people into thinking the man in leading.
The tutorial seemed to pay off for Chad, who displayed some solid lines during the waltz and, thankfully, kept the clunkiness to a minimum. Now, I wish they’d keep the tired showmance to a minimum. (If they were always going to mention the necklace Chad got Cheryl, she should’ve worn the thing frontways from the beginning!)
Nicole Scherzinger and Derek: More faux-drama during rehearsal (this time, it was Derek forgetting to compliment Nicole because she’s SO good).
In fact, let’s talk about how good she is. Yes, her Viennese waltz was predictably lovely, terrific and spot-on (I especially liked the spinning move at the end), but is she REALLY, as Carrie Ann claimed, “by far the best dancer” they’ve ever had on this show? I mean, Nicole is obviously great technically, but is she even better than Mya from just last season? Is she better than Krisi Yamaguchi, Gilles Marini, Mario Lopez or even Stacy Keibler? That’s obviously up for debate, but I’ll just say that Nicole does tend to forget her face at times when she’s performing. I also think saying she’s the best dancer “by far” is ridiculous.
Pamela Anderson and Damian: Same s---, different week. Pamela once again nailed the character during her lilac-y Viennese waltz, but wasn’t exactly able to break out technically, which is why I’m feeling like she might be in danger of going home tonight. I DID think Damian’s teaching aid (tying Pam to him hip-to-hip) seemed like an effective way to drill that aspect of the dance into Pam’s head. (And she seemed to particularly enjoy it.)
Niecy Nash and Louis: I’m sure lots of other stuff (probably about food) happened in their rehearsal package, but all I remember was thinking “Aww” when it was revealed that Louis and Kelly Osbourne — his partner from last season — still text each other.
On to the dance, which was Niecy’s best performance to date. I wasn’t expecting much from her quickstep because her footwork had been crap to date, but Niecy was impressively and shockingly light on her feet throughout. I just wonder if she’ll be around next week to (potentially) surprise me again.
Evan Lysacek and Anna (pictured, right): Evan was coming off his lowest score of the season. Instead of pouting to his pro and acting all defiant, he shut his mouth, listened to Anna and delivered one of the best performances I have EVER seen on this show.
The technique was on point, the routine had its spectacular moments (that spinning/split aerial was insane), but, most importantly, it was HOT! The reason it all worked was because Evan finally took my advice (yes, I’m taking credit for this), left the figure skating movements at home and danced like a MAN. Bravissimo!
Team GaGa: Honestly, Team GaGa pretty much won the Cha Cha Challenge as soon as Chad, Pamela and Nicole saucily walked to the middle of the dance floor, were met by their pros, and the women ripped off their pleather raincoats. Well done.
On top of that, their synchronized group work was nearly impeccable. As for the solos, Nicole was excellent (though more fast and furious than hot), Chad was surprisingly good (even better than during his waltz, I might say), and Pamela forgot a few steps and was completely out of gas (just like she was out of gas during the swing marathon last week). Still, my favorite part was Cheryl almost falling on the ground following the team’s celebratory cheer at the end of their routine. Also, performing to “Telephone” (“Cause I’ll be dancing”) proved to be a pretty distinct advantage.
Team Madonna: On the other hand, if I had to pick a Madonna song to cha cha cha to, I don’t think “Holiday” would be in my top 25.
Either way, Team Madonna gave it their dorky best, with Niecy and Erin writhing around Evan as he pretended to enjoy it. Niecy’s solo was decent, Erin’s was a big improvement from her week 1 cha cha cha, but Evan reverted back into figure skating mode for his spotlight moment. Most alarmingly, the men didn’t rip the women’s clothes off until the very end, which we all know is the real reason they got less points than Team GaGa.
So what’d you think of this episode? Did Brooke Burke’s snake necklace creep anyone else out? (Like Indiana Jones, I HATE snakes.) Finally, who do you think is going home? (I’ve got Niecy and Pamela in the bottom 2, with Niecy going home.)
No comments:
Post a Comment