Dancing with the Stars

Last week on Dancing with the Stars, the celebrity dancers and their professional partners upped their game and performed one ballroom plus one Latin routine.  The extra rehearsal time required to learn both routines took their toll on everyone, especially Cristian de la Fuente who suffered a ruptured tendon in his arm in the middle of his second performance.  Fortunately for him and his partner Cheryl Burke, the voters liked his routine enough to keep him around for at least another week of competition.

There are still five teams remaining on Dancing with the Stars, and things are sure to get even more interesting.  Will Kristi Yamaguchi regain the judges' favor after being relegated to second place?  You better watch the performances tonight to find out.  Keep refreshing your browser; I'll be here with live thoughts throughout the entire broadcast.

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Tonight, for the first time ever, the teams will be allowed to do one lift per routine.  I'm psyched about this.  It'll really separate the good from the best.

Kristi Yamaguchi and Mark Ballas have the quickstep and the samba this week.  Kristi is really anxious to do a lift, but Mark tells her that a lift would not be in the character of a samba.  But they perform the quickstep first, and she's got a lift for this one.  The lift was a really simple one at the very end of the routine.  He picks her up and sits her on his shoulder.  All the judges love the routine, but I was actually underwhelmed.  It just seemed low-energy compared to what we've seen from her in the past.  And the scores: Carrie Ann gives a 9, and the two men give 10s, for a 29 out of 30.

Mario and Karina Smirnoff are the second couple have the jive and Viennese waltz tonight.  He and Karina practice their lifts in the pool.  Their first performance is the Viennese waltz.  They do a beautiful lift, and it was a good performance overall.  Haha!  Carrie Ann makes a faux pas.  She says that he was "nice and stiff, just the way I liked it."  Len says that normally, Mario's dancing reminds him of Britney Spears getting out of a car - not very elegant and you see things you don't want to see.  Ha!  But tonight, Len has nothing but good things to say.  And the scores: triple 9s for a 27.

Next up, Marissa Jaret Winokur and Tony Dovolani have the foxtrot and the mambo tonight.  I am so impressed with her foxtrot.  She has improved so much.  There is just something so confident about the way she dances that I love, especially compared to where she started out the season.  There is even a really cute, twirly lift.  Brava!  Bruno nitpicks about the style of the foxtrot (he wants more gliding, less stomping) but the other two judges really love the routine.  Carrie Ann gives a 9, and Len and Bruno give 8s, for a 25 out of 30.

Jason Taylor and Edyta Sliwinska leaped into the lead last week with a great paso doble.  They have the tango and the samba tonight, and they are really going all-out with the lifts.  To get him in a silly mood for the samba, she dresses him in a ridiculous outfit and wig and escorts him into the spray tan booth.  Aww.  They perform the tango first.  I really like the tango because there is also such a nice, playful interplay between the footwork of the man and the woman, and they did it wonderfully.  Naturally, they have a fabulous lift at the end.  Len nitpicks that their routine was more of an Argentine tango rather than a ballroom tango.  Bruno interjects and reminds him that the tango originated in Argentina.  Bruno goes onto to rave and spout praises like "Stunning!"  Carrie Ann agrees with Bruno.  The scores: Carrie Ann and Bruno give 10s, and Bruno gives a 9, for a 29 out of 30.  Tied for Kristi.

Cristian de la Fuente and Cheryl Burke perform next to complete the ballroom round.  He went to the doctor after his injury last week.  He has a ruptured tendon that requires surgery, but his surgeon says that they can hold off on the surgery for two or three weeks, as long as he doesn't put any pressure on it.  Cristian is still determined to dance and do lifts, so it'll be interesting to see how he does in the tango and mambo tonight.
But first, they do the tango.  They manage a pretty impressive lift considering that he only has one good arm, but eh, color me bored.  I'm not seeing anything spectacular, and I felt that it was too tame and safe.  However, the judges completely disagree with me.  They rave about it, and then award him with a 10 (Carrie Ann) and two 9s (Len and Bruno) for a 28 out of 30.  Hey now!  I'm not sure he earned all those points, just like I wasn't so sure he deserved his low score of 21 last week when he got injured.  Something is screwy here.

And that concludes the ballroom round.  Now for some hot Latin action.

Kristi and Mark dance the samba.  Kristi has this crazy feathery headdress,  Naturally, Kristi is great, but she does look a bit awkward with some of her torso-shaking action.  Carrie Ann starts off the critique with some consternation.  She agrees with me that she had some awkwardness.  The rest of the judges agree that there was something missing.  Ruh roh, Kristi!  The scores: Carrie Ann gives an 8, and Len and Bruno give 9s, for a 26 out of 30, and a 55 overall.

Mario and Karina have the jive.  Wait, is the jive a Latin dance?  I didn't think so.  Mario is really in his element for these fast, hoppy styles.  It's a fun routine, overall.  Len starts out with a squinchy face (TM Tom Bergeron), and comments on his sloppy footwork.  Bruno's and Carrie Ann's comments are only slightly more positive.  And the scores: two 9s (Carrie and Bruno) and an 8 (Len) for a 26 for the dance, and a 53 overall.

Marissa and Tony perform the mambo.  Wow, Marissa's footwork is really fast and impressive, and the choreo is really fun and funky.  Very in character for the mambo.  And she does like 20 spins in a squat position in a row.  I think Marissa is by far the most entertaining performer of the evening.  Len criticizes Marissa for not being raunchy enough.  And the scores: Carrie Ann and Len give 8s, and Bruno gives a 9, for a 25 out of 30, and 50 for the entire evening.

Jason and Edyta have the samba.  They do a really huge lift at the end in which Jason holds Edyta completely upside down and spins around.  It wasn't a great dance, however, and the judges are uniformly critical of it.  The scores: 8s from Carrie Ann and Bruno, and a 7 from Len.  That's a 23 out of 30, and a 52 for the evening.

And for the final performance of the night, Cristian and Cheryl dance the mambo.  Funny.  Cristian wears a sparkly arm brace on his arm!  That's stylish and functional.  The judges rave about the performance, and it looks like Cristian is poised to take the lead tonight!  And the scores: 10s from Carrie Ann and Bruno and a 9 from Len.  29 out of 30, and 57 for the night.  They have taken the lead!



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