Dancing with the Stars

It's the semi-finals on Dancing with the Stars tonight.  Last week, Mario and Karina Smirnoff were eliminated, leaving only four intrepid teams left: Cristian de la Fuente and Cheryl Burke, Jason Taylor and Edyta Sliwinska, Marissa Jaret Winokur and Tony Dovolani, and Kristi Yamaguchi and Mark Ballas.

The four teams have two routines to perform each, and they were randomly assigned those styles.  Who's excited?  I am!  Stay with me for the whole 92-minute broadcast.  I'll be here with live thoughts, as usual.

Live!  From Hollywood!  This is Dancing with the Stars!

The couples have selected tonight's ballroom and Latin dances at random, and again, no lifts will be allowed.

Jason and Edyta are first.  They have randomly chosen their dances out of a hat: the foxtrot and the paso doble.  They are both excited about it since those were two of their best performances.  In their rehearsal footage, Edyta takes out the pointer and chalkboard and plays the mean schoolmarm.  First up, tonight, is the foxtrot.  It's a really cute routine to Louis and Ella singing "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off."  They do a lot of playful back-and-forth, just like in the song.  Len Goodman loves every part of it.  Bruno and Carrie Ann agree.  And their scores: Carrie Ann and Bruno give 9s, and Len gives a 10, for a 28 out of 30.

Marissa and Tony are up next.  They were at the bottom of the leaderboard last week.  They pick the rumba and the quickstep.  Stacy Keibler stops by their rehearsal to give Marissa some help and to crack jokes about how neither finds Tony attractive.  Their quickstep tonight is really cute and very fluid.  If you compare how she danced at the beginning of Dancing with the Stars, it's really apparent how much more at ease she has become.  But is that enough?  We'll see.  Man, Tony has very, very, very white teeth.  He must have his cosmetic dentist on speed dial.  Bruno likes most of her performance, but notes that she missed a jeté and that is unacceptable at this stage of the game.  Len and Carrie Ann think she did a good job for how difficult the routine was.  And the scores: Carrie Ann and Len give 9s, and Bruno gives an 8, for a 26 out of 30.

The one-armed bandit, Cristian, and his partner Cheryl are next.  They choose the Viennese waltz and the samba.  Uh oh, the samba is the dance that he did when he got injured.  During the week, they take to the streets and campaign for votes, Cristian wearing a sandwich board.  Ugh, they dance the Viennese waltz to a cover of the Dave Matthews Band's "Satellite."  Despite the choice in song, their performance is really great - very romantic and beautiful.  The judges love it too.  The scores: triple 9s for a 27 out of 30.

Finally, to complete the ballroom round are Kristi and Mark.  They choose tango and jive.  They got a perfect 30 the first time they performed the jive, so they have a lot to live up to.  But they have a lot to work on with bringing emotion to the tango, so Mark takes Kristi to a high-level tango class.  They dance the tango first tonight.  Kristi is as good as she always is.  Len thinks that it was too hectic, but Bruno and Carrie Ann rave and rave about the performance.  The scores: Carrie and Bruno give 10s, and Len gives a 9, for a 29 out of 30.

Between the ballroom and Latin rounds, we take a break with footage of Len going around to all the couples to give a master class.  He stops by Jason's studio first to show him some steps in the paso doble.  Next, he shows Kristi two steps for her jive.  Then, he zips over to Cristian to teach him how to properly do a promenade run.  Finally, he visits Marissa to fine-tune her hip movements.

Now, we have to take some time to mention Matt Grant from The Bachelor.  If you're into that sort of thing, you can watch him propose on the season finale tonight.

Jason and Edyta perform their paso doble to begin the Latin round.  This time, it has more traditional paso music, instead of the Monday Night Football theme song.  The beginning is a bit iffy, but he gets into the game and really begins to tear up the floor.  Uh oh, was that an unintentional lift at the end?  Well, Carrie Ann didn't say anything about it, so I must have imagined it.  The judges love how decisively Jason attacked the paso, like a true matador.  And the scores: triple 9s, for a 27 out of 30.  That's 55 out of 60 for the night.

Now, Marissa and Tony dance the rumba.  Now, the rumba has been difficult for everyone this season because it's such a slow dance.  Let's see if Marissa can make it interesting.  Oops, at the end of their performance, their sequins get stuck together.  It wasn't a great performance, kind of boring.  Carrie Ann doesn't like, but Len and Bruno like it.  And the scores: Carrie Ann gives an 8, and Len and Bruno give 9s, for a 26 out of 30.  For the night, they have 52 out of 60.

Cristian and Cheryl have the samba next.  Hopefully, he doesn't hurt his other arm!  I love the samba.  It's one of my favorite styles, and watching Cheryl undulate her hips is just phenomenal.  Cristian is pretty good too.  Len praises Cristian for coming out strong and overcoming his injury.  However, he has to nitpick that he was too flat-footed throughout.  Scores: Carrie Ann and Bruno give 10s, and Len gives a 9, for a 29 out of 30.  That gives them 56 out of 60 for the night.

Kristi and Mark finish the evening with the jive, which I now know definitely is a Latin style.  Aw, cute, they are wearing the same two-tone saddle shoes from the first time they did the jive.  Mark doesn't have the nerd glasses, though - sad.  Wow, this really is Kristi's style.  She's so fast and her turns are perfect.  I like the playful high steps that they do.  Bruno makes some kind of impossible to understand critique, which I take is positive.  Carrie Ann and Len have most positive comments.  And the scores: Carrie Ann and Len give 9s, and Bruno gives a 10, for a 28 out of 30.  They have a 57 out of 60 for the night.

Don't forget to tune in tomorrow for the Dancing with the Stars results show!



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