Dancing with the Stars

What a disappointing final performance show! The heightened anticipation leading up to finale week on Dancing with the Stars was probably enough to make any of us disappointed, even if last night's performance show had not been a big let down. But the one interesting thing that happened is that all three celebrity performers faltered last night, making the outcome of tonight's final results show a little bit more difficult to predict.

After mulling overnight over the two rounds of dancing last night, I have revised my prediction of what will transpire in tonight's season finale. I had stated originally that Marie Osmond was going to take home the mirror ball trophy, riding on the wave of her adoring fans all the way to the top. Considering that her brother Donny is campaigning for her nonstop, this is still a distinct possibility. But last night, it was more apparent than ever that Marie is out of her league compared to Melanie Brown and Helio Castroneves. Based on the three performances in the freestyle round, I believe that Marie will be eliminated first, followed by Helio, and Mel B will win the competition.

The first time I watched Marie and Jonathan Roberts' freestyle, I was really impressed with the creative theme and her shoutout to her doll-maker peeps. I am partial to strange routines in which dancers pretend to be other things. Do you remember Wade Robson's fox dance that Sabra and Lacey performed on last summer's So You Think You Can Dance performance finale? The judges categorically panned the routine, but I absolutely loved the creative energy that it had. Same with Marie and Jonathan's doll dance last night. The costumes were great, the music selection kicked it old school and the energy was infectious. However, after carefully scrutinizing her routine, you'll notice that her steps are sloppy and her range is lacking. It might have been impressive at a high school variety show, but if she wants to become the next Dancing with the Stars champion, she has to exhibit a higher level of skill and technique. Moreover, BuddyTV reader margarete made the excellent point: "Marie's samba, coming right after Mel's cha cha, showed that she is definitely the weakest dancer technically."





Now, let's take a look at Helio's routine. Helio and Julianne Hough definitely had the best choreography of the all the freestyle dances. It was fun, energetic and ambitious. I probably would have given them a solid nine for it if I were a judge. But if you look carefully, Helio's lines are not as clean as they can be and his footwork is sloppy. I was initially very impressed with the cool tricks like the double cartwheel, but even there, his legs aren't straight. Details like these should matter tremendously.





Finally, there is Scary Spice. I watched and rewatched her and Maksim Chmerkovskiy's freestyle all day today and came to the same conclusion that BuddyTV forum moderator and recapper extraordinaire ladytex01 came to, which is that their disjointed and unpretty performance was more of a problem with the choreography rather than Mel's dance abilities. She has excellent form in the air while Maks is tossing her around, and her footwork is very precise. To my eye, she is clearly the best dancer among the three and deserves to win tonight.





Tune in tonight at 9pm to find out if I'm right. As usual, I'll be providing live thoughts throughout the Dancing with the Stars finale.



-Debbie Chang, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of ABC)