Rrrhumba

Hehe, I remember that. "Julius Caesar was a Roman...pretty cool dude." I think she had her dates way off there as well. Shawn, Nastia and Laurie all share the same agent so that's probably why the older two have been featured. FWIW, there's no way Laurie's parents/chaperones aren't present and wouldn't step in if need be. I do think that sometimes Val may lack a bit of flexibility in approach, he tends to be the serious "teacher," something I noticed in the early weeks was Laurie looking up at him for notes with exactly the same body language as if she were receiving corrections from her gymnastics coach. He is actually a drily funny guy but he struggles when choreographing fun routines. That's when we tend to see "messing about" because I'm not sure he knows how to choreograph joy and humour through the dance in the same way as say an Emma, Lindsay or Mark can. He can do a "bit" but I always get the impression the dance itself is deeply serious for Val - he competed well into his 20s and I think he's had a harder time letting the competition world go than some of the other pros. In his wheelhouse of dark/brooding he does quite well but he's not naturally a comic whereas Laurie is. As much as I think Sasha is the perfect pro for Terra, I still wish they'd given him Laurie. I think she'd be enjoying the process much more with him.

In her autobiography, Shawn spoke to how much a challenge doing the show in S8 was for her. Not only the dancing and performing (and stalker!) aspect but also the fact that because she'd stopped full time gymnastics training, she experienced changes to her body that she had to deal with as well. Top level gymnasts are training 6-8hrs a day, with a huge amount of conditioning involved. Although the dancing is an aerobic workout, it'll be nowhere near the energy expenditure Laurie is used to. The poor girl is trying to do parts of a gymnastics tour, cope with Val's intense teaching style, deal with the inevitable no-longer-training-elite weight gain and she also hasn't had a break all year. Although she's naturally embullient, she's got to be hitting the point of all-out exhaustion. Val is excited because he's got such a talent, but he would be better off to simplify the routines a bit, give Laurie some breathing room and allow her to be herself, not "Val's partner." This is the difference between the way he treated Zendaya vs. most of his other partners, for me. Zendaya came in with a brand of her own that he had to work to, everybody else he just seems to see as an extension of himself.

Mark also choreographed several group numbers for the Utah Vibe kids when they've been on the show. I find a lot of his group choreo has more of a traditional formation feel than a lot of the other pros and especially Mandy Moore, which I personally enjoy. He's also proved with those Vibe dances that you can combine traditional Latin formation with contemporary moves and production value. The one that he and Chelsie did to Sia's "She Wolf" is a case in point.

Well, Lindsay's married so I hope it doesn't go the Kym/Robert route! I'm inclined to agree his run to the finale will depend on the Latin dances but what he's got going for him is that he's arguably a more masculine presence than Carlos, Hayes or Andy so will be getting the "hot guy" votes, the "American hero" votes and the "not a bad dancer" votes. If he was a conservative Christian I'd say he'd have this thing sewn up. There's also a big group of fans who are glad Lindsay has gotten another chance at pro, so he'll be getting the benefit of vote splits where fans of the established pros may be voting for their favourite but throwing Lindsay a vote or two as well. I definitely have Alek as top 6 and I think Andy and one or more of Carlos/Tamar/Alexa will go before him. Nick and Bindi are finals bound I think and I don't know about Hayes - traditionally the young uns haven't fared well with the votes but he's getting the YouTube hits so who knows?

There's not really the appetite anymore in the media for blanket DWTS coverage. Remember when Ellen used to have one couple on every week? I've noticed for a few seasons now that only the stars (and pros) with the big personal publicists get any kind of buzz. And the train wrecks like Zolciak. Bindi is on every magazine cover in Australia, where the show doesn't even air ffs! It's all just a PR machine and her mama could rival Kris Jenner in wanting to have her kid front and center. I'm inclined to give Terri half a pass as ostensibly it's to build "conservation awareness" or whatever, but it still seems incredibly exploitative. Eh. I'll admit I'm biased against Bindi as to me she's always (even before dwts) been a little bit off. I apologise if this comes across badly and I don't mean to offend anybody but she's always reminded me of one of those homeschooled kids that are just a bit too precocious and into their causes/interests. It's cute for a bit but becomes grating quickly and you get the sense they don't really know how to relate when it's not about them. It's been toned down for DWTS but I grew up in Oz and had to suffer the commercials for her "kid fit" videos etc. She was like The Wiggles on uppers. I was a teenager at the time, so maybe that influences why I think of her as just annoying. Her partner doesn't help either - I literally googled Derek's name, each of his partner's names and "injured" and it came up with hits for practically every season. I'm not inclined to give Derek's partners injury sympathy anymore as it's a card played literally every year. He's either pushing too hard and injuring them or he's using it for votes.

It seems like a lot of the couples got screwed with song clearance this week. Apparently Mark and Alexa were supposed to do a Flintstones theme charleston. I would assume that given Flintstones is Hanna-Barbera like the Jetsons, that they got switched around the same time asBindi and Derek. The fact they did so well with the new style probably speaks to the different approaches to choreo - Mark said on Afterbuzz that he keeps a notebook with all his ideas. Given he's a huge Breaking Bad fan he's probably been kicking the concept around for a while. Derek choreographs on the fly, so with less time he wasn't able to produce something that was as fully formed.

Everything is a major challenge that Derek miraculously overcomes. i'm beginning to think both he and his sister have major victim complexes. Any who... This dance was BAD. Bindi's frame was all over the place and she has seen Mark's mugging and raised him some lip syncing to go along with it. The cutesy ending made me want to throw up in my mouth a little. It'll be interesting to see who she gets in the switch, that's for sure. I hope they'll make me like her better. And I'm not a perve but I hope they put her in a costume that supports her 'girls' a bit better, some of that looked painful!

My father had a stroke and Drs later found a hole in his heart. There's no definitive link (many people are walking around with a hole in the heart just fine) but he did opt to have it fixed. It was a day in hospital (not even overnight), the procedure itself only took about an hour. It was definitely painful for a few days and he absolutely wasn't in dancing shape - I seem to recall that they went In through the groin! So the heart thing doesn't seem strange to me. EKG's etc are fairly standard and 'procedure' might just equal 'test.' If Kim's been telling the truth though, there's no way she's dancing tonight. Guess we'll find out soon...

Well... You could hardly call Bindi's 'waltz' a waltz really, could you? Given that there was very little discernible waltz content in there, it's more likely that she'll actually get to do 2 'contemporaries'over the course of the season. I'm sure with Derek there's little difference between a foxtrot and a quickstep either. If in doubt, he'll grap her in a vice like hold, faff about with some props (a table setting, or if things are really going badly the full living room suite), pump in some smoke so no one can see her feet and Bob's your uncle! 10! Best choreographer ever! I actually think the producers differentiate by "slow dance" or "fast dance" and that's the most thought they put into any assignments. For a dance show, the folks at the helm seem completely uneducated about the art form. The pros are often given a dance and then told to choreograph it to a song in the wrong time signature, for example.

I'm not a fan of the Hough's at all but their story is interesting. Apparently Shirley and Corky would often go to Utah to teach at Center Stage. Derek was an eager beaver that slipped into their classes despite being too young (in his book he said he would wait outside to greet Shirley, bring her gifts etc, literally apple for the teacher stuff). Then the Hough parents separated, the kids were split up (Derek and one sister with the Dad, Julianne with the Mom) and apparently Derek went off the rails. The next time the Ballases came back to teach, they noticed Derek's absence and made enquiries. That's when he wound up going to England, it was a way of escaping the fallout of the breakdown of his family - Corky and Shirley offered to take him for 3 months training. Towards the end of the spell, he decided he wanted to stay and convinced his parents to let him. Julianne wound up over there after Mark's partner grew too tall for him. Derek suggested his sister, who apparently had already relocated to Florida at one stage for a dance partner (despite being all of 9/10yrs old). Obviously the closeness between Derek and Shirley relative to Julianne also has much to do with the fact that Derek stayed in London after the breakdown of the Ballas marriage. As I understand it, C&S split in 2002/2003, Julianne moved back to the U.S. that summer and then later on in the same year was when Mark's uncle committed suicide. As I rationalise it, that sequence of events would be more than enough to explain Derek's closeness to and protectiveness of Shirley... Crazy life for sure.

I fully believe that the Emmy win was politicized through for the Hough's so that the show can add the tag in front of 'head judge' Julianne's name. Ugh. They can both disappear. So sick of seeing Derek's soulless cookie cutter choreography and it makes it worse that he's paired with Bindi, who's already getting some tabloid press in Australia for being a diva behind the scenes. Apparently there have been wardrobe tantrums already. I have a feeling that at least half the people in this cast will overstay their welcome. I'm rooting for Alek.

I'm going to chime in even though so far I've only seen the freestyles on YouTube. Based solely on freestyle, I would have to vote for Noah. Sharna's choreo was stunning and although I really don't like some of the pandering that's gone on this season, I don't feel there was any in those scores - Noah actually did dance and well. There have been plenty of footballers who've taken the same route this far into the competition. Rumer's was a good Argentine tango. For me it just underscored Val's frailties as a choreographer, she's so good and she deserved so much better than that. For what it's worth, she did dance it well but it could have been done any other week in the competition. It just wasn't special enough for me. Alison and Riker's freestyle just came across as a bad reinterpretation of the scene from one of the Step Up movies where Moose and Camille dance to what sounded like the same remix of that song. I know most of the show's demo would have never seen that movie but it turned me off. I also found the troupe distracting and slightly superfluous.

Okay, I am starting the campaign for Sasha and Sasha - Cohen, the Olympic figure skater. She's pretty tiny. She'd be up there in terms of ringerdom but she is exquisite and I'd love to see a ringer with someone other than Val or Derek.

I think the most connection I've seen from Nastia was when she was hugging on Mark and Willow after the team dance. Being in LA the whole week this week should help her be a bit looser, especially with prankster Sasha training her. I missed Anna too. I don't always agree with her but I appreciate her insights and that she's not afraid to speak her mind. Darvina went to performing arts school with Mark and Derek - I would assume her training is more in the realm of jazz/musical theatre, I don't think she's ballroom trained.

Hmm... Looks like Derek is ensuring that he'll still come out smelling like roses no matter what happens. Boy is the son of a politician after all.

Okay, I've managed to finally watch all of this week's dances with the exception of Suzanne's, as I knew she was toast so didn't bother. Riker: Really tried to watch this one with an open mind, as I LOVE Yulia Zagoruychenko and Max Kozhevnikov's "Pirates" paso and knew this could never measure up (YouTube it, it's awesome). However, I still didn't like it. I don't find any light and shade in Allison's choreography at all. Everything is still too frenetic and although in Riker this season she's got a partner that can keep up, he is capable of something much more refined. Her frame is not good at all and that also ruins it somewhat for me. Rumer: her performance quality is there and there was samba content but I wonder if she wasn't fully confident in herself this week. She barely attempted the batucadas at the end, for example. I also agree her top line wasn't quite fluid enough and I thought she struggled with some of the hip action. I also think Val didn't check any of his movements, which meant Rumer suffered a bit in comparison. I wasn't quite sure why the troupe needed to show up at the end but at this point I figure they all must have a "minutes per show" quota worked into their contracts... Nastia: This one was weird. I didn't like the "straight from the movie" feel of the choreography but didn't mind the lip syncing, until it got to the end. I would have preferred if it had ended before the proposal, as I thought that was a time waster that didn't add anything. Some of the direction/camera work was a bit dodgy, maybe that's Derek not being at camera blocking and therefore not able to micro manage the process? I don't know, it all seemed a little half-baked. I still don't really feel Nastia either - she should be able to give something more as for the last few years she's also been an NBC commentator so has slightly more strings to her bow than just being an ex-elite gymnast. Willow: I spied a little repeat choreography from Mark's waltz with Chelsea Kane! It was a little hard to read as a foxtrot but apparently it got changed from Viennese waltz so maybe Mark successfully argued that it wasn't a waltz time signature but had already done some of the choreo so left it in? I'm not sure what Carrie Ann was going on about, although Willow can clean up her footwork a bit, it was generally good and I definitely didn't see any stumbles. Her top line can clean up a bit as well but she did enough to convince that she shouldn't have any issues with the quickstep or Viennese Waltz. I'm sure the show is encouraging Mark to go there with the production and choreography but the fact that he commits so whole-heartedly brings it to life. Credit to Willow as well for buying in. I'm a little afraid though that the quality of what "mad scientist" Mark has produced so far (and the fact people are talking about it) will make it difficult for them to strip back now. I think the show will continue to want the bombastic numbers from them. Hopefully once they go to 2 dances a week there will be room for balance. Noah: Has the perfect partner in Sharna. That pep talk was amazing. Although clearly he couldn't do a textbook foxtrot, I thought what he did do was fine. This season is interesting to me as although there's a clear top four in terms of dance ability, there are three potential spoilers in Noah, Robert and Patti. Robert: Bless Kym and her classy standard choreography. i thought this was one dance where the troupe actually saved the day as it may have been even more of a train wreck if they hadn't been there to distract. Robert keeps going though and sells the crap out of it, he definitely seems to follow the principle of "fake it til you make it." I don't buy into the showmance stuff and wasn't particularly impressed with Kym in the footage I saw of the DWTS tour but having her back this season has reminded me of what a good choreographer, mentor and partner she is. Chris: The exact opposite of Robert and Kym. Leaving aside the costuming (ew), I thought their height difference really showed. Chris is also so flat footed and in his head it's almost painful. I also wonder about Witney's standard ballroom experience - when compared to Kym's lovely shapes, her choreography fell short. Patti: Reminded me of a charismatic older woman paired with the ballroom dance instructor on a cruise. Sweet, simple and classy but also very careful and contained. It's shown another side of Artem but perhaps it's because there is no pressure to create as Patti can only handle the most basic choreography and she doesn't need a gimmick to sell it. Suzanne: didn't watch the dance and she wasn't ever my favourite so not really fussed that she's gone. I was too young for Three's Company but can still hum the Step by Step theme so would totally be on the Patrick Duffy train if the show could get him!

I agree and I think it's as much on Derek as it is Nastia. To a certain extent, I had the same complaint when he partnered Shawn Johnson. Just because someone CAN physically do it all, doesn't mean you throw the kitchen sink at them. It's all "wow! Cool tricks! Great technique!" but little soul. When he does put forth "soul" to me sometimes it feels a little too contrived. Like Bethany's dance (rumba? Contemporary?) last season with the anti-bullying message. At the end of the day the heart of it was spelled out for the viewer through the production elements such as the text projected onto the stage, rather than through the movement and emotion/connection of the dancers themselves. I actually think Derek himself, as amazing a dancer as he is, may struggle to show his true self publicly. Try as I might I've just never "got" anything from him - it seems like he's a person who projects what he thinks people want to see, rather than who he actually is. This can't help someone in Nastia's position as I get the impression she's very much the same way.

FWIW, Mark's "Irish jig" was actually genuine flamenco steps. Some interesting arm styling going on but hey, it's Mark. I'd actually really like to see that dance again without the whole theme going on, it was fairly pure in terms of the choreography. I suspect if Derek or Val had done it (with their usual dark and intense styling/production), it would have got raves, whether or not Rumer or Nastia had danced it better than Willow did. This is an interesting season: so far nobody's out and out crowd favourite but nobody's noticeably the dead weight either. Even Patti and Suzanne are bringing it as best they can. The judges are actually going to have a lot of say in who goes home.

Dancesportinfo.net keeps records of competitions. Riker and Rydel danced Junior Latin together in 2006.

Mark's always spoken with a weird British/American accent. He's been hanging out with Emma a lot lately and mentioned on the livestream that he and Willow's camera person is British too. Mark can be a poser when he wants to be but the accent is probably a proximity thing rather than an affectation. I missed tonight's show so will catch up via YouTube. I love that this board is almost devoid of the raving Stan's prevalent on some other sites - so much easier to get a balanced synopsis.

"Out of all the gymnasts" Nastia is definitely the most trained 'dancer.' Shawn and Aly were both known as power gymnasts. For non-gymnastics fans: in 2007/2008 the Shawn & Nastia rivalry was a big deal. Both girls went professional as teenagers and raced each other for endorsement deals and sponsors $. Nastia's USP was that she was more artistic and graceful, she had dance training and was quick to publicise in her comeback that she had worked on her floor routine with Travis Wall. Many gym fans expressed disappointment when Shawn got DWTS in 2008 and not Nastia but the general conclusion was that Nastia may have been too much of a ringer. Now, Nastia can't have it both ways. You can't claim to have never danced when previously you've tried to play up your associations with award winning choreographers and implied you're the better gymnast because of your "dance" ability. Nastia isn't the ringiest ringer to have rung on this show, but she is definitely a few rungs above Shawn, and definitely Aly, who I'd only classify as slightly above average.

No way is Val 6ft. He's the same height or even slightly shorter than Derek, who's only ever claimed to be 5'10". There was a lot of criticism that season that Zendaya was in tennis shoes a lot... The tallest male pros now are Tony and Keo. With regards Derek, my biggest problem is that when asked about an upcoming season, most of the other pros will publicly state that they would love to do the show and "if the show wants me back, I will be." This also used to be Derek's line. Now it's "I wanted to come back so the show moved heaven and earth to make it happen for me." It's completely disrespectful to his fellow pros and gives the impression that he really does think he's bigger than the show. I also read his book (really to see if he addressed Julianne's claims about London and how she was "abused" there. He didn't). He really does seem to believe he's something special. I personally can see that he's a great dancer and can strike on some cool choreo/production moments but personally I've found both Val and Mark's choreography to be more memorable and interesting in the last few years. Mark in particular would have to be very unlucky if he misses out on an Emmy nod for his work with Sadie last season.

I agree Katha. Willow impressed me with her maturity - if the show hadn't publicized her age I would probably have pegged her for a few years older. I thought she did fine, she needs to spot her turns a bit better but she had reasonable musicality and if she sticks around should improve. They're definitely not going easy on her though, apparently she has Argentine tango next week. In regards to Mark's weight -he started on the show as a just-turned 21 year old. He's now coming up 29. Age will do that to ya although I think some of it also may be costuming - he's tending to wear a lot a buttoned up, tucked in shirts these days.

Nastia's gym is one of the few that still has a ballet teacher. For reference, both Shawn and Aly's "dance" in their gymnastics days was choreographed by their coaches and not a specialist instructor. Nastia's last gymnastics routines were choreographed by Travis Wall... Tbh, I can't see her having natural Latin rhythm but she's light and lithe so Derek will be able to manipulate her body into some interesting shapes and hide any shortcomings that way. It's also been rumored that she's competitive to the point of being cut-throat and an attention seeker to boot. She and Derek should get along well. Mark seems to have fallen into the Tristan trap of doing so well with a certain kind of partner that tptb will now only pair him with them. For Tristan it was "here's someone even older and/or more infirm!" For Mark "she's even younger and/or more Christian!" At least Emma has managed to break the cycle although Redfoo might be a challenge in a different way...

I hadn't seen this but was just thinking the other day that DWTS has done well to keep it's nose clean (no pun intended), given it's longevity and the stress/workload it puts on it's dancers. I wouldn't be surprised if most of the cast have at least experimented with recreational drugs. There were definitely a few rumours about Val's appearance in some of Witney's birthday photos, dude looked out of it.