It is Motown/R&B night tonight on Dance War. As usual, the two competing teams on Dance War, Team Bruno and Team Carrie Ann, open the hour with a big group dance. After their swinging, rocking, twirling number, Drew Lachey brings out captains Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba who recap their week of rehearsals.
Lacey, Charity, Kelsey, Phillip, Tony and Zack, otherwise known as Team Bruno, perform “Think,” and Bruno has put Lacey in the spotlight by making her his personal Aretha Franklin. She’s a talented singer, but she’s no Aretha. After the performance, Carrie Ann’s critiques are that there isn’t a lot of balance in the talent-level of the group, but Bruno begs to differ.
For Team Carrie Ann’s first performance of the night, Qis, Bradley, Chris, Elizabeth, Allysa and Mariel perform “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone.” The fog machine is working overtime, causing a bit of distraction for me, but their performance is amazing. There’s a great interlude in the middle of the song in which the group clog dances in unison. Well, I’m not sure that it’s really clog dancing, but that’s what it looks like anyway. Forgive me, most of my dance knowledge comes from watching reality TV, plus taking three years of ballet, so my grasp of the proper vocabulary leaves much to be desired.
Next Team Bruno performs “Caught Up.” It’s clearer than ever that Team Bruno’s strength is the quality of the dancing, and not their singing expertise. They dance very impressively, each using a cane for a prop, but their singing is quite pitchy (TM Randy Jackson). After their routine, Bruno says that they were slick and stylin’ but his voice isn’t as exuberant and bubbly as it normally is. He knows his team isn’t up to par.
Team Carrie Ann gives their rendition of “Upside Down” next. Mariel’s voice continues to blow me away every time she opens her mouth, but this song shows that she needs to do some work in blending the tone of her voice better with the other singers. On the whole, they perform well, and even do some impressive lifts in their dancing, but Carrie Ann isn’t hugely happy with them.
Finally, Drew Lachey announces the results of last week’s Dance War vote. The winning team can stay together for another week, but the losing team must immediately lose a member. Fortunately for Team Carrie Ann, it is Bruno who must make a cut tonight. He must choose four performers whom he wants to keep; the remaining two must sing for their lives at the end of the episode. He chooses Lacey, Phillip, Tony and Zack to be safe. This means that Kelsey and Charity will have one last chance to prove themselves.
Kelsey and Charity sing “Don’t Leave Me This Way” for their last chance to prove to themselves to Bruno. It’s not a convincing performance, though, and I’m not sure that I would want either on my team if this is indicative of her potential. In the end, Bruno picks Kelsey to continue on to next week. Charity tearfully blows kisses to everyone as she says good-bye.
Phone lines are open for one hour following this episode of Dance War. Call 1-866-559-WAR-1 to vote for Team Bruno. Call 1-866-559-WAR-2 to vote for Team Carrie Ann. Me? I’ll be voting for Team Carrie Ann again.
-Debbie Chang, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
