I think that’s because Cheryl has a celebrity that can do it. If your celebrity can’t do the proper steps, for whatever reason, it’s the pro’s job to hide that as much as possible. Derrick has a bad back and Maria has stress fractures - so doing kicks isn’t going to look very good. The solution is to do the little no-impact snakey thing with your foot instead.
Also, the entire “DRAMA” of Derrick being blocked and being supported by Maria seemed very made-for-TV. Nothing interested in a couple of hard working dancers who get along - so they came up with something.
Last night was a costume fail - even by DWTS standards.
Those culottes that Cheryl was wearing made a lot of that tango (especially the final pose) look weird. Donald’s shirt in the first dance had some bizarre collar thing going on, so it made his shoulders look constantly shrugged, even when he was standing still, waiting for his scores. Katherine’s salsa/genie costume made her look really odd. It’s the semi-finals, there were only 8 costumes, they should have been better.
Other than that, Mark went back to overdancing his partner and making faces again. I’m guessing that Maria’s jive without kicks was because of the broken bones in her feet, and was an inventive compromise, but the scores should have been appropriately lowered, and nothing really wowed me.
This appears to be the most evenly matched Final Four I can remember, and at this point I can see a case for any one of them to win. I have no freakin’ clue who might get cut tonight, but gut feeling is that either Katherine or Maria is the most vulnerable.
Agreed on the funky costuming and erratic judging; the only one whose opinion I trust is Len, but even there he seems to make odd, arbitrary choices. I’ve always disclaimed any deep knowledge of ballroom steps but even I could see that Maria/Derek’s second dance bore little relation to a jive (I liked it for all that, but still). Len crapped all over the Bollywood bit last week, why not this one? Who knows?
I love the folks who are like “It’s not a dance competition, it’s a popularity contest!” until THEIR favorites aren’t getting the attention they should, hehe.
[SPOILER]Glad Maria left on a high note. Can’t get better than perfect tens on her last week. She’s always been a weak technical dancer. Louis mentioned in his blog that Derek has compensated by giving her very simple, crowd pleasing choreography.
Roshon left on a similar high note. That’s how I like seeing people leave dwts. That way they have a reward for all the hard work they put in.
That’s one reason why I’m so glad Katherine gets another week. It would have been horrible having her injury and Salsa as the last memory of dwts. Now, she can hopefully do well next week and leave with good memories.
How did everyone feel about the Design a Dance? I was very disappointed. It looked like a bad dwts Freestyle with one sloppy lift after another. There was very little dancing. Chelsie wasted more time flipping her hair then she did dance steps. Is that hair flip supposed to be modern dance or sexy? I find it just silly. It confirms for me that Chelsie isn’t a good choreographer and I’m learning Tristan isn’t either.
Maybe I’m harsh. But, we’ve seen such excellent dances in this seasons results show. I expected Design a Dance to be just as good as Anna and Jonathan’s dance a few weeks ago. Louis did an excellent results show dance with Cheryl this season. DAD wasn’t even close to that quality.
I would have been truly shocked if Katherine had gone home. I gave her all of my votes just because of the injury, and I bet a lot of other people did, too. I bet she ran away with the vote this week.
Well, throwing together a couple of likable pros doesn’t necessarily make them a team. They said they never danced together before and it showed. Even the pros need shorthand when it comes to dancing together.
New costume designers this year.. and while I think some of the costumes have been strong, such as the men’s cuts on their tuxedos, I think there are some unusual designs on the women and they don’t always work.
Well there’s more steps than flicka kicks in Jive, and I strained to find one balll change, one twizzle, something…Derek knew it wasn’t enough, the public doesn’t like being duped by the judges scores, that just angers them to vote elsewhere, instead of realistically looking at the situation and judging what they see.
I also think while Cheryl’s routines at times can look simple, she actually is teaching the basics which isn’t as flashy but is appreciated by dancers, if not the general public.
Next week there are only 3 dances in the finals. I appreciate that they’re going back to what they did earlier seasons so the teams can really concentrate on providing some quality dancing.
My guess it’s the final unlearned dance and a freestyle for votes on the Monday
And it will only be 2 teams dancing in the finale if they make it through. I’m guessing it’s their Favorite dance of the season reprised which usually winds up being 30.
I’d kind of like to see a season of people who came in third, fourth, fifth, sixth – were very entertaining/popular and did pretty damn well, but were not actually going to win.
These would include: George Hamilton, Ty Murray, Kelly Osborne, Brandy, Ralph Machio, David Arquette.
Would they be paired with their original partners? Or mixed up?
If the former:
Anna & Evan Lysacek
Chelsea & Ty Murray (who probably still can’t dance, but was such a great guy)
Cheryl & Gilles Marino or Christian de la Fuente
Derek & Lil Kim
Edyta (who isn’t coming back) & Joey Lawrence
Jonathan & Marie Osmond
Julianne (who isn’t coming back and I really didn’t like the Rock of Ages excerpt) & Apolo Ohno
Karina & JR Martinez
Kym & Donnie Osmond
Lacey & Kyle Massey
Louis & Kelly Osbourne
Maks & Mel B
Peta & Donald Draper
Tony & Stacy Kiebler
I’d prefer they not bring back any previous champions. Also, I’d like to see them with different partners than they had before. I’d love to see Stacy Keibler paired with Derek.
Incredible dancing in the first night of the finale. Every dance tonight was really good.
Mark showcased Katherine’s technical skill brilliantly in the Freestyle. They had moves from nearly all the dances done on dwts, plus lots of lifts & tricks. She deserved those perfect scores.
However, Donald and Peta have the wow factor in performance. Donald is a good dancer, and he’s an excellent performer. They really stole the Welsh Wigglers thunder tonight with the freestyle.