Dancing with the Stars

It's the penultimate week of Dancing with the Stars season 6!  The four remaining teams have gather together on the dance floor to strut their stuff and to prove to audiences at home that each of them needs to come back for the final dance-off next week.

Tonight, the teams perform one round of ballroom and one round of Latin, each selected by the luck of the draw.  Read on to see how each performance turned out.

Kristi Yamaguchi and Mark Ballas - 57
Tango.  Kristi and Mark worked very hard to improve on their tango this week, and it definitely showed.  Mark took Kristi to a high-level tango class taught by a world champion, and there, Kristi learned the finer points of posture and some ways to add drama to her tango.  The judges raved and rewarded her with near-perfect scores.  Scores: 10+9+10=29.

Jive.  The first time they danced the jive, Kristi and Mark earned a perfect 30.  This time wasn't quite as perfect - Carrie Ann and Len commented on Kristi losing sync with Mark at times.  But it was an entertaining number nonetheless.  It was a cute touch that they wore their two-toned saddle shoes tonight, just like in their first jive.  Scores: 9+9+10=28.


Cristian de la Fuente and Cheryl Burke - 56
Viennese waltz.  I enjoyed Cristian and Cheryl's Viennese waltz tremendously tonight.  It was beautiful and graceful and elegant, full of romance and pretty turns.  Scores: 9+9+9=27.

Samba.  The samba was the style that felled Cristian, causing him to rupture a tendon in his arm.  But tonight's samba was nothing but excellent.  You could hardly tell that Cristian was injured (unlike last week, in which I thought he had artificially inflated scores).  Scores: 10+9+10=29.


Jason Taylor and Edyta Sliwinska - 55
Foxtrot.  Jason really surprises you when he busts out with a playful, elegant little piece like his foxtrot tonight.  He's such a huge, towering guy, so when he veritably skims the floor, it's quite a sight to behold.  He and Edyta performed a super-cute foxtrot to Louis and Ella singing "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," that was just picture perfect.  Scores: 9+10+9=28.

Paso doble.  Another of Jason's strengths is posture and masculinity, which is perfectly suited to the paso doble.  Edyta choreographed a traditional paso for him tonight that was chock-full of difficult technical moves.  Scores: 9+9+9=27.


Marissa Jaret Winokur and Tony Dovolani - 52
Quickstep.  Marissa's quickstep was definitely a great performance that she should feel very proud of.  However, Bruno nitpicked that Marissa missed a jeté in the middle of the routine - unacceptable according to him, but still good enough to merit an 8.  Scores: 9+9+8=26.

Rumba.  Carrie Ann thought that at this stage of the competition, Marissa should have stepped up her game even more than she did in the rumba.  I agree that it was a rather tame performance.  However, both Len and Bruno had nothing but good things to say.  Len conceded that the rumba, being a slower dance, doesn't have the wow factor that some other styles have.  And Bruno really felt that Marissa upped her sex appeal in this dance.  Scores: 8+9+9=26.



-Debbie Chang, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of ABC)