calipiano81

Other than Martin, I thought everyone did great! It's going to be a fun competition to watch as the skill-level across the board seems high this season. My favorites of the night were: Kenya/Brandon: Just gorgeous! Both the dance and the couple. Loved the fluidity and groundedness and Kenya had a lot of refinement for Week 1. She reminds me of Laila Ali and I think her Latin will be as strong as her ballroom. Amanda/Alan: Confident and dynamic performance from Amanda! Alan seems to teach technique well and tango is usually a strong dance from him. Iman/Daniella: Of all the male stars, I was most pleasantly surprised by Iman. He showed rhythm, musicality, and looked so comfortable on the dance floor! I thought his technique was decent and Daniella gave him a lot of choreography. There was no way they deserved a 4! It's so egregious, it just gives fuel to the tinfoil theory that the scores and comments are scripted.

You're right. I wasn't aware of their height difference. In that case, I hope Jojo commits to leading and providing a sturdy frame. They placed sixth, I believe.

Whether Jojo dances the "lead" or the "follow," I hope she and Jenna decide their roles early on and commit to them. Personally, I would prefer they didn't switch back and forth and I would like to see Jenna dance the lead since she is the pro. I couldn't fully enjoy Johnny and Britt last season because, a lot of the time, I felt they were dancing the same roles.

My favorite dance of the night was Nelly and Daniella's samba! Love the song, good rhythm, good content, and definitely Nelly's best and most relaxed dance so far. And speaking of Daniella, she reminds me SO much of Karina, both in looks (if Karina were blonde) and superior dance technique.

I am just really happy that they managed to have DWTS back! I also love that they are forced to cut down on a lot of "extras" this season. I still don't understand why Tom had to go, but Tyra doesn't bother me that much, especially since I don't pay much attention to what goes on in the intro and before the dancing starts. At first, I was annoyed that the judges were being rushed just to have Tyra spend time asking the couples questions. However, if you think about it, it's not much different than when Tom used to hurry the couples along to go to the skybox to get their scores and talk to Erin, and Tyra is basically doing both roles now. Plus, since DWTS is admittedly more a popularity contest than a dancing competition, by talking to the couples more, they could be just giving the couples more opportunity to have the audience connect with them. While I still would rather have slightly longer dances and hear more dancing feedback, I get what they are trying to do. Overall, I am liking the female celebrities more than the males, with Kaitlyn and Justina at the top for me. I also have a soft spot for Anne Heche...she is one of only three celebrities that I was familiar with coming into the season...I like her attitude towards learning the dances and her respect for Keo. I feel like Jeannie's dancing is a little wild right now, but she could also be really good.

If the show wants to get NBA players, they would be better off asking guards who are more in the 6'1 - 6'3" range (e.g. Derek Fisher who danced with Sharna) and would be easier for the female pros to partner. The only really tall NBA player to do well on DWTS is Rick Fox, who danced with Cheryl in Season 11.

I was fine with this group of finalists, but I absolutely HATE that the tour has lately become an unspoken factor in determining the winner (probably from S23 onward).

Miscellaneous thoughts on the finalists: I thought Ally's jive was noticeably improved from the first time. Her freestyle was a bit clunky to me, though, specifically with the lifts. Lauren's shoulders were still a little high in the foxtrot, IMO, but I liked the smoothness and flow of the dance. Color me surprised, but I actually thought Gleb created a very nice freestyle for Lauren that suited her perfectly and which she executed confidently. Hannah always looks gorgeous doing ballroom and I liked the changes Alan made to her V Waltz. Like with Gleb, I was again pleasantly surprised with the freestyle Alan came up for Hannah. I thought the music choices were great and it was very well constructed. However, unlike Lauren, I didn't feel like Hannah was as fully connected. I wanted her to dig in and let loose even more. Kel looked in his element the entire night. However, I do have to agree with Len that I would have preferred for them to perform more contrasting dances. It would have left a more lasting impression. As for the results, the only one that was unexpected to me was Lauren coming in 4th.

What if Ally's third time had been last week against Spicer? Would you still have wanted her to go?

I was pretty happy with all of the couples this week. I thought each couple had at least one good-to-great dance. Even Sean went out on his two best dances, IMO. I thought Joey did a nice job as a guest judge - it's good to see a former contestant actually utilize what he learned about dance from his time with the show. James/Emma Jive: I agree with Bruno that he didn't quite have the pumping leg action (like Lauren and Kate did successfully in their jives the previous week). Sean/Jenna AT: I'm not as hard on Sean as others. His part of the dance was very simple, but I thought he did fine with what he was given and his character was appropriate. Yes, he walks around a lot, but AT can kind of play that off. Hannah/Alan Salsa: I thought she did better in the salsa danceoff last week. She seemed to be back in her head again, but then again it was most likely costume-related. Lauren/Gleb Quickstep: I thought this was solid. Like CAI, I didn't see anything noticeably off, but I agree with Joey that frame could possibly have been tighter. Ally/Sasha Samba: I thought it needed more samba bounce, though that could be due to the song. Kel/Witney Paso: It needed better shaping and broadness of movement, like the judges said. James/Emma Jazz: This dance looked really good on James and he seemed so comfortable doing it. He completely fit in as a boybander. Sean/Jenna Foxtrot: I actually thought it was sweet and it was the most fluidity and gracefulness that Sean has shown in any of his dances. Hannah/Alan Tango: This was probably my favorite dance of the night. Ballroom just suits Hannah so well. Like Bruno said, it was a beautiful blend of intensity, passion, and elegance. Lauren/Gleb Rumba: Lauren had nice fluidity and hip action and looked comfortable and confident in this rumba. Much less posey than some of her previous Latin dances. Over the past 5 seasons or so, for some reason, rumbas have only been assigned sparsely on the show...I am really glad it got back into the regular rotation, because I have liked a lot of the rumbas this season. Kel/Witney V Waltz: Kel has really improved over the course of this season. Nice posture/frame, good rotations, fluidity and extension. Ally/Sasha: This actually looked like jazz to me. And the tricks they threw in were done pretty seamlessly. I agree with Bruno about the dance looking like an homage to Paula Abdul. I normally root for the female celebs because so much more is expected of them, but I think I would prefer a James or Kel win.

They don't HAVE to include samba rolls...Joey just probably personally wanted to see one. The ballroom and Latin dances are supposed to have proper content, but the show has never had specific required elements for any of them (other than staying in hold for ballroom tango and quickstep, but even that gets ignored sometimes).

Since Hannah just did salsa in the dance-off (and a pretty full-on one), I think it would have been better to have her do JIVE and Tango. And since James just had contemporary, I think it would have been better for him to do Jive and FOXTROT.

I think this was the best overall night of dancing of the season so far. (The non-theme weeks are often better than the theme weeks for some reason.) It almost seemed like a barrier was crossed and all of the couples raised their game to a higher level. Even Lauren, who had some mistakes, and Kate, who was a little off, had solid content and technique (loved seeing both of them get their knees up, good leg action, respectable footwork) in their jives. I'm a big fan of the dance-offs they do every year. With two competing couples in the floor, it's not possible to have extra stuff around them, so they have to just dance. I agreed with all the decisions: Kel and Ally could have gone either way; Kate was much improved from her first cha cha;. and Hannah nailed her salsa, which was chock full of difficult choreo, while Gleb went the over-sexed route again with Lauren.

The way they have done it in the past is that the couple who gets immunity also gets 2 points added to their score. However, this season, since the eliminations are taking place the same night (and not the following Monday) as the dancing, getting extra points doesn't matter for the immune couple because they won't be going home no matter what.

Mark had amazing Halloween makeup and costumes and I always loved how into character he got...Zombie Paso, Edward Scissorhands, Dia de los Muertos.

James has had great fluidity from the beginning, so I was expecting him to do well with the V Waltz. I also like that he actually leads Emma in the dances and he's one of the rare male celebs that knows what to do with his hands. "Survivor" is a great song to do a paso doble to. I agree with Len that Karamo needed to make his shaping more exaggerated and to dance bigger, but I really liked the attitude and character Karamo brought ti the dance. I also liked Jenna's choreography. Kate surprised me again. I thought she did a lovely rumba; after her Week 1 cha cha, I was not expecting her to have the hip and leg action that she did. I also thought her fluidity was improved from her V Waltz last week. I think she could of have had at least one '9.'

There is nothing wrong, but DWTS history has shown that there are certain types of contestants the show's main demographic (older, white, conservative females in the south and midwest) will likely vote for. And unfortunately, contestants like Bobby Bones and Sean Spicer fit the bill. (On the opposite end, you see the effects of a younger voting audience on a show like So You Think You Can Dance, where the ballroom contestants are much more likely than contemporary and hip hop contestants to end up in the bottom.) Of the remaining contestants this season, Lauren, Hannah, James, and Kate seem to be demographic-appealing, so hopefully the winner will come out of this group.

The celebrities on DWTS have their ballroom dances watered down much more than the professional contestants on SYTYCD. There is no comparison with the quality of dancing when comparing SYTYCD to DWTS. I wasn't actually comparing the quality of dancing of the two shows. I was saying that the two shows fill in for me what the other one lacks. I enjoy jazz and contemporary on SYTYCD, but not so much on DWTS because most of the pros are not utilizing real jazz and contemporary technique and movements. Conversely, ballroom is my favorite style of dance to watch, but I don't always get satisfaction from watching SYTYCD ballroom routines because they are often comprised of a lot of non-ballroom stuff and tricks. In this regard, I prefer DWTS because even though they are being danced by non-dancers, the dances tend to have more proper ballroom content.

I am a SYTYCD watcher too, but they often water down the ballroom dances (just like DWTS waters down contemporary/jazz), even though they have ballroom specialists choreographing them. So I need both shows to fulfill my complete dance fix :)

Len has actually said the exact same comment before to Mya (all the way back in Season 9!) for her perfect-scoring salsa.

When watching this show, I am someone who gets excited watching good, proper content executed well. I don't really need all the bells and whistles and flashy moves (even though I can enjoy those as well). Which is why I enjoyed this week so much more than Disney week. I think Pasha's doing really well as a pro. However, I noticed he puts angular gestures in his choreography from time to time that are meant to go with certain accents in the music, but can feel a little jarring to me, especially in a fluid dance like the V Waltz. Still liking him and Kate though. My one concern is that she's burning through all the ballroom dances and will have to contend with mostly Latin now. I know Len has judged too many seasons to keep track, but Mark Ballas often put the fleckrl in his Viennese Waltzes and Len pointed it out back then too. I said last week that James was starting to get a little bland for me...his samba finally gave me the little spice that I was hoping to see. Nice technique from James and great routine by Emma. I especially liked that she did the samba roll with both arms extended out (whereas for some reason, most of the pros on this show choreograph the roll with the female's right arm tucked in). I thought the first half of Kel's quickstep was excellent, but started to fizzle slightly in the second half. I'm not so sure it was Witney's dress slip that caused it. Still a good dance. I thought the judges were spot on about Hannah's samba action and her needing to get into the floor more. Ally has been a solid dancer, but I personally might have saved Sailor. IMO, she has been getting better and better each week and Val has been doing good work with her.

It doesn't bother me when eliminees cry because it means they care and were invested in the competition. Also, disappointment can sometimes still hit hard even if you are prepared.

It does help a little bit, because if Sean ever ends up being even the second-lowest in scores+votes, the judges can save the better dancer. Whereas in the old format, as long as he beat 1 other person, he would always be able to stay.

This season, the bottom 2 are the true bottom 2. It needs to be since the judges are picking who to save.

I usually like Disney night, but I was left feeling so "meh" this time around. I think it's partly because they reused so many songs and I kept comparing the couples to previous routines that I remember and liked...like Riker/Allison's Pirates of the Caribbean Paso, Paige/Mark's Toy Story Quickstep, Candace/Mark's "Under the Sea" Samba, even Cody/Witney's "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" Samba. I don't know why this show continues to try and include contemporary and jazz when most of the pros don't know how to properly choreograph them. What audience are they trying to attract with these pseudo-routines? Ally's "contemporary" was just a bunch of reaching and Sasha picking her up to spin her around, Kate's "jazz" was a mish-mash of partner dances with a big chunk of time-wasting in the middle, and Kel had a crowd-pleasing performance with his "jazz," but even that was predominantly hip hop. James is doing well and he does get into character, but for some reason, I am finding him very bland. He has good fluidity, but I'd like to see more sharpness and "snap" in his dancing to make it more dynamic...it could be something about Emma's choreography that her routines for him just don't pop for me. Also, I have heard people say James is a very funny guy, but so far, the personality he has presented on the show seems rather low-key to me.