A three-way tie for first place, between three male celebrities dancing quickstep. And in general, the quicksteps were scored much better than the jives. I think jive may just be too hard of a dance to throw at anyone in week 2.
I’ve always thought the same of the quickstep.
I’m really glad they no longer eliminate someone week 1 – it seems more civil to give people at least two chances. Some do a better job at taking advantage of that than others, of course.
Mike and Lacey are gone. I’m not surprised. He wasn’t a very good dancer, and his personality grated on a lot of peoples nerves. Some of his attempts at jokes were just strange.
I dunno, the departing star’s final comment, about “the Mt. Rushmore of bad dancers,” made me laugh.
Mark Ballas’ music video features Chelsea Kane as the love interest. Steamy stuff for a Disney star. Chelsea did a good job in the role. I like her acting better than Mark’s singing. His voice is to breathy and weak for my taste.
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20476945,00.html
That’s one way to break the ice with your dwts partner. 
Whoever combined story week and five Rumba’s made a very bad call. The Rumba is all about romance and sensuality. How in the heck can you fit some heart warming story about a guys mom into the Rumba? We ended with boring Rumbas that wouldn’t get kids at a chaperoned junior high school dance in trouble. Maybe next week the guys can Rumba with their sisters? You couldn’t get any less sensuality.
I do like story week when they aren’t assigned the Rumba. Some of the stories did pull at my heart. I enjoyed Petra’s dance the best. The waltz fit the song really well. Ralph did a great job too. He still needs a lot of work on swinging those arms. There’s no fluidity there at all. Sugar Ray…OMG <shakes head> it’s getting embarrassing. It’s sad seeing someone work so hard and still not succeed.
Hines is improving every week. He may be a good bet for the finals. I’ve been very surprised with Hines. Kim is doing a great job with him.
I felt a little bad for the judges. It’s tough giving criticism when these dances had such tear jerking stories behind them. How do you tell Chris the dance dedicated to his mom wasn’t very good? The judges were tap dancing around their criticism tonight. Len did have that one blunt moment when everyone gasped. But, that’s Len for you.
I said this over on Television Without Pity, and I’ll say it again here:
It did seem like too many rumbas tonight, but I think that was just a side effect of letting people choose their own music. If people are going to use a song that’s emotionally meaningful to them, there’s a good chance it’s going to be a contemporary ballad, and those are almost all rumbas. There is just no way to turn “Let it Be” or “I’ll Be There” into a waltz. You might be able to make it a foxtrot, but none of these people are anywhere near good enough to pull off a ballad-y foxtrot, especially this early in the season. If they’re going to do foxtrot, it has to be perky.
Has anyone heard anything about Maks’ injury? I would be very sad if he had to pull out this season - I love him and Kirstie together. I was afraid he might be an ass about her weight, but he’s been just the opposite, getting the absolute best dancing out of her that I think she’s capable of.
Hope Maks is ok. This article has several screen shots. Third pic from the top shows Kirstie leaning heavily on Maks just before the leg gives out. Kirstie’s balance was way off. Maks had way too much weight bearing down on him.
Further down is a pic of Chelsea. I thought that costume was too extreme for a family show. Usually dance costumes have flesh tone fabric. Chelsea was nearly nekkid out there. It seemed odd as she’s standing there talking with the judges.
I only watched a few performances so far, but I feel compelled to start getting into the discussion, so…
Story night? In week 3? I can only assume that the producers either desperately want to give someone the heave-ho, or else they were afraid interest was flagging and went to the gimmick round early.
In either case, I think Wendy Williams is toast. Let’s face it, overweight + punk = death. She also got a 15 tonight, and while the audience can carry an inferior contestant, they need a reason. Somehow, I don’t see Vote For The Worst laying down their lives for her.
Other than her, though, this looks like a fairly strong female contingent. In fact, don’t be surprised if the women dominate this season. Kane and Wilkinson look as good as anyone has this season, and even the gritty Alley has held up surprisingly well. The guys haven’t been terrible, but I’m seriously underwhelmed by them this season. Most of them are just too old, too stiff, or too banged up to do anything impressive. Jericho has look surprisingly game, but let’s be honest, rasslin’ fans ain’t up for this fancy-pantsy pretty-boy prancin’.
This is shaping up to be an interesting season. Doing away with ringers and hopeless cases appears to have been the right call. Now if only they’d do away with that outrageous e-mail vote nonsense, this show would be perfect. 
Nope, they need the email vote because I don’t vote by phone.
Good week, overall – but I agree with DKW – WTF are they doing story week in week 3 for? Way too early.
Yeah, though Maks insisted it was his fault, it looked to me like Kirstie whammed into him harder than he was ready for. Good recovery though. And like ENugent, I am surprised and delighted that those two have actually hit (sic) it off – I thought that was going to be a nonstop battle, but they seem to really like and respect each other.
Why does ABC feel it necessary to start with the gimmicks so early in the season? I thought the ratings of the show were top notch - 2nd most popular show on TV or something like that? I’m frankly not interested in the stars’ personal lives enough to care, and telling a story via dance is beyond most real choreographers, let alone the folks involved here. Conveying a mood, sure, but telling a story is a whole nother thing. Hell, if you took away the music from most ballets, you’d be hard put to figure out what the story was, and ballet is quite a bit more expressive than ballroom.
So to heck with the stories. As dances: Wendy’s got to go. She’s really the only one left who is just not good at all. I never thought I’d say this, but she’s like Bristol Palin without the talent. Bristol was overly precise and hesitant too, but at least her technique was pretty darned good - she was a solid middle-of-the-pack dancer. Wendy has her flaws without her virtues.
Chelsea is a solid little dancer and, I think, a real contender if Mark can keep his ego out of his choreography. I think the judges under-mark her compared to several of the others. Since it’s pretty apparent they grade on a curve, it looks as if they’ve got her handicapped pretty high. Chris and Petra both did very well; I had them picked the first week for early elimination, but they’re both showing improvement. Romeo seems to have gotten a fair amount of his testosterone out of his system (maybe he was fixed? :D), and is also improving. Sugar Ray is better than he was, but I doubt he’s ever going to be good. Kendra is still a toss-up; the judges thought she was pretty good last night, but I thought she was a bit clumsy or awkward at times.
Kirstie and Maks’ fall last night was really unfortunate, and Maks looked like he was pretty badly hurt. I personally don’t care much for him, but he’s been wonderful with Kirstie, and I hope he recovers quickly and well. And, on an almost totally unrelated note, I liked the ukelele Over the Rainbow the first time I heard it, on Scrubs. Now I’m sick to death of it. On the other hand, nobody (with the possible exception of Liza Minelli, who doesn’t perform it) is ever going to sing it like Judy Garland, so I can understand their not trying.
Ralph needs to tighten up. He has one of, if not the, best native dance abilities this season, but the judges want him to bring it under control, and he needs to listen. But on a side note, I love a man who is still head-over-heels with his wife after twenty-four years.
But the real delight of the evening was Hines’ samba. A well done samba is just plain fun to watch, and Hines and Kym did a terrific job while appearing to be really enjoying themselves, which is the key. And while I did my best to ignore the “stories,” you gotta love a 35 year old man who does an unabashed and joyful paean to his mom.
When a Kirstie Alley falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
A mighty oak fell on Maks last night.
I really didn’t like “story night.” It came too early in the season and there wasn’t any fun in it. Even the dances I liked, I just kind of liked.
Wendy Williams just isn’t good. She doesn’t seem to connect to anything.
Mark really needs to learn that it isn’t about him. There were at least two not short sections where the spotlight was on him while Chelsea just stood there - and unlike other stars who do that occasionally with bad partners, Chelsea seems like she can dance! His choreography is really bothering me this season.
Chris Jericho is really likable. And the poses were nice.
I don’t even remember Romeo’s dance. He bores me.
I’m really surprised how well Hines did with samba in week three. It worked really well.
Petra’s waltz was really pretty.
Sugar Ray looked kind of ok some of the time, but his posture and lines didn’t work at all for the paso.
Kirstie… I’m a fat woman who is trying to learn how to tango, and that’s my nightmare. I’m terrified of falling on someone and taking them out. I’m very impressed with her being able to get up and pull it back together. (And Maks too. He was obviously in pain. But her performance instincts kicked in as well).
Ralph is very sweet, but his hands are like he’s still doing the karate kid. They really bother me.
It was nice of Chelsea to throw some royalty $ her ex’s way.
And Chelsea’s costume revealed that she is built like a stick. When she tries to put her hands on her hips, she can’t find and them and winds up with hands on her stomach instead.
I don’t watch DWTS but they replayed the injury all over the morning shows today. I feel bad for Kirstie, for someone who has struggled with their weight to have what looks like you falling on top of a dancer and breaking him has to be incredibly mortifying.
God, I hadn’t even thought of it that way. And it’s not like it’s some stick kid like Derek or Mark (who are both probably strong enough to take out most guys in a fight, but look so slim that they could snap like a twig in a strong wind); it was Maks, who is a pretty solid guy in his own right.
And, yes, jsc1953, I noticed the same thing. Chelsea just has no hips at all. For real life, that’s fine; I’ll bet she’s a wonderful clothes horse. But when wearing a bikini-style costume, not the best figure to have. I noticed that Petra had the same problem last week with her jive costume. Don’t get me wrong. For most purposes, I would love to have that figure! But women with that kind of figure should probably stick to clothes that give the impression of hips rather than baring the entire torso.
It’s surprising that we don’t have couples tripping and falling every week. Especially since they only have a few days to learn a new dance style. That says a lot about how good a job these pros are doing.
I recall an interview where Len mentioned they weren’t sure Strictly Come Dancing could work. At the time it seemed impossible to train someone in only a few days to perform competently enough for a live tv performance. But, somehow they made it work. They found experienced pros that could literally teach anyone to dance in only a few days.
Well, that was an elimination I’m real happy with. Seriously, what the fuck was with that godawful accent?
I liked that elimination. Nothing annoys me more with this show than picking the wrong dancer to leave the show just because of their popularity. I like Sugar Ray, but he really needs to step it up now. I also like that there is no obvious front runner that will run away with the show. There are 5 or so who could shape up to the top.
WendySeemed a bit frustrated with the show. I think she was relieved.