Mario.
I thought the same thing.
Too bad, though, that they didn’t pick his Paso Doble with Julianne as one of the top 10. It was one of my favorites. They showed glimpses of it when Helio was saying that watching their dance caused him to want to be on Dancing with the Stars.
I just wanted to make a comment about Edyta and Cheryl. After watching Cheryl last night with several different stars I realized that she dances in such a way to highlight her partner and doesn’t overdo it with her moves to show off or make the dance look better. Edyta on the other hand is always doing amazing moves that completely dwarf her partner to say nothing of her non-existent costumes. Even Bruno’s comments were about how beautiful Edyta looked. The eye just automatically follows her and the partner gets lost in her razzle dazzle.
It’s true about them, but I don’t think you can lose Jason, between his size and his beautiful lines.
I keep thinking with him and Christian that if I were either of their wives, I’d be jealous as hell of their doing all these incredibly sexy moves with these beautiful women. Then they show the wives in the audience, and they’re both more beautiful than the pro dancers are, at least in the face. Can’t really see the figure when they’re sitting or even giving a standing O (as Bergeron would say).
So who’s going to make it to the finals?
Jason and Kristi are good for the finals. Christian and Marissa are both getting votes as much on likeability/spunkiness as much as ability at this point. I can’t predict between those two who will make it to the third spot – will Christian’s sympathy bye be good for another week?
I’ll tell you, Twicky, until recently I would have agreed Kristi and Jason had a lock on the finals. Now I’m not so sure, because the audience’s voting (and hell, the judges’ scores) have been so unpredictable. And of course, we have no way of knowing who was the other member of the bottom two this week.
It pisses me off a little, because it seems to me that Kristi is so head and shoulders above not only every other contestant this season, but every other contestant I’ve ever seen, and yet here the judges are giving her eights and putting her at risk! They’re comparing her to what they expect of her, rather than to the other contestants, it seems to me. Granted, she’s a ringer, but if they’re going to bring her on the show at all, they ought to mark her fairly.
But then there’s something of a tradition of the best dancer getting 2nd place - Mario Lopez or Joey Lawrence, Mel B, and even Joey Fatone is arguable. I didn’t know about the show the first two seasons, so I have no idea about them, but that extremely tall blonde chick who looks quite a bit like Kym from Australia looked pretty darned good to me last night.
In the very first season, John O’Hurley (who placed second) was definitely a better dancer than Kelly Monaco.
Perhaps the judges are deliberately being hard on Kristi to garner some sympathy votes for her. People tend to vote for the underdog, so as you say, she’s a ringer perhaps voters resented her and prefer to vote for the true amateurs.
The dance of hers they showed last night was just plain bad. I’m happy to see that the caliber of “star” has increased somewhat.
In fairness to Kelly, the first season was only half as long as the current ones. So she didn’t have nearly as much time to improve. The pros also had not really worked out how to teach in this format yet.
Charlotte Jorgenson (who happens to have been my coach when I was still competing), who only appeared in Season 1, did a great job of teaching John O’Hurley to dance, not just to follow routines. There was real, genuine lead-follow going on, especially in all of his standard dances. But she had six weeks before the show started to train him, while now I think they get two. So she actually taught him lead-follow and basic ballroom skills for most of that time, instead of spending six weeks working on the first two routines like the other pros. He wasn’t the best performer in the first week or two, but he was the only one who had been given the tools to learn the future dances quickly and competently. I think the other pros have picked this up somewhat, although it’s much harder to do now with the shorter run-up to the first show. They also have figured out how to “borrow” steps and techniques from the earlier performances more to help the celebrities build on what they already know. The Dance Center segment that showed Jason Taylor doing the same lunge line over and over and over again was funny, but you could have done the same thing with one step or another for almost any celebrity from any of the past two or three seasons.
I think this is going to be the end of the road for Marissa. She’s delightful, but she just doesn’t belong in the finals with the other three.
I’m amazed at how much Cristian has improved. He used to be so stiff - no movement from the waist down.
Marissa irritates me, still, but I love her relationship with Tony. I noticed her mis-step in the quickstep. Even with that dress it was hard to miss.
Kristi looked all business. She’s good, but I think she puts on the fake emotion. I understand that’s the point, but it still looks put-on to me.
Jason was really good, too. I like that he and Cristian are buddies. People always say “I’ve made friends for life”, but I think in this case they really have.
StG
Thought Christian was the best of the night. Looked comfortable, fluid and just really having fun. Love those hips.
Wasn’t feeling the sexiness in Kristi’s tango, footwork good though. The quickstep was stiff and her knees weren’t coming up high enough. The difference was glaring when dancing next to Mark. Technically she is doing tougher routines, but the connection between her and Mark and with the audience is lacking.
Marissa has become a joy to watch. She has improved so much and her excitement on the dance floor shines brighter than any of the others. Her fan base is growing I think so she might just make it to the finals.
Jason. I feel as if I’m the only viewer here who is not impressed with Jason. He is very posey, almost a caricature at times. Don’t see the connection between he and Edyta or with the audience. It’s like he’s dancing for himself. His movements aren’t fluid or natual looking. If Edyta wasn’t his partner I don’t think he’d have made it this far.
Finals prediction: Jason, Christian, Marissa.
It would be a huge upset if Kristi didn’t make it to the finals. But if she doesn’t have a fan base, then anything is possible.
Every once in a while Edyta has a sudden and bizarre (for her) burst of good taste, and that dress she wore for the foxtrot last night was truly beautiful! Oh, and the dance was good too.
Sorry, guys, but for me the technical wins over the more subjective emotional. Kristi all the way, I hope.
I honestly believe that if Marissa were slim, she would be in the running, not because of any predjudice against the overweight, but because she just doesn’t look as good doing exactly the same thing as the others. Also, although she’s evidently very fit (I wouldn’t hold up for a week in training, and I’m not as nearly heavy as she is), it’s got to be much harder to do the same thing carrying around fifty or so extra pounds. So I agree with **twickster ** - she’s going down this week.
That leaves Jason and Christian as runners up.
I thought Jason’s foxtrot was by far the best dance of the night. It was absolutely spot-on technically, with really impressive foot action for someone who’s been dancing such a short time. And I thought it was very fluid. I was worried from the beginning that Edyta was going to torpedo him, because he’s clearly better at standard than latin and I didn’t think she had much understanding of how to develop that, but she’s doing a better job with him than I expected. It’s too bad he’s way too tall for Anna, though, because I think we would have seen some even more incredible performances if she were working on him.
Kristi does have a fan base, I think – I’ve been watching her skate for 20 years or more, and have always liked her a lot. What’s interesting is that as a skater, she is very much able to communicate feeling through movement – but in dance, not at all. Lack of chemistry with her partner, perhaps?
The problem with Marissa isn’t just her weight – she was also the only person to make a significant mistake last night. That one series of steps – I don’t know a damn thing about the technical end of thing, and I said “oops” when she missed it.
Like some (but not all) of you, I find jason just wonderful to watch – so elegant! He’s the first partner Edyta’s had that she hasn’t totally overwhelmed.
And I agree that Christian truly has improved tremendously – it’s not just a sympathy vote for the arm at this point, I think he legitimately belongs in the final three.
(Wasn’t it cool seeing Emmit Smith in the audience last night?)
My only problem with Jason & Edyta’s foxtrot was the singers (they screwed up the song. It’s the easiest song in the world - you pronounce the words differently, hence the joke. And the singer didn’t get it. AAAAAH). Other than that, it was beautiful.
I don’t know if it was the power of suggestion from the “Len” segment, but I was looking for more hip action in Marissa’s rumba than I thought I saw.
I liked Kristi’s tango more than the jive.
Christian feels like it takes him a few moments to warm up before he finally gets there. There’s a weird expression and his body doesn’t quite seem to be working right and then a flash “oh, that’s right. I’m dancing” and then it starts to pull together.
Part of our opinions probably depends on the actual dance performed. For example, my favorite dance in ballroom is the foxtrot, so as long as it’s reasonably well performed, I’m going to like it better than an equally well performed, say, tango. In Latin, I like the rumba the best, and I’ve thought Marissa’s two rumbas were terrific - very sensual without being raunchy.
What about the rest of you folks?
Jason looks particularly good in foxtrot & waltz, because he glides really well. Not a technical analysis, but that’s how it looks to me. In the paso doble, where he doesn’t get to glide, I thought he looked awkward.
Favorite ballroom: quickstep, foxtrot.
Favorite Latin: samba, jive.