Dancing with the Stars – The Season 10 Semifinals!
Let’s get do the dancing!
Erin Andrews and Maksim Chmerkovskiy (56/60) – Their first dance is the Viennese Waltz. They talk about how much time they’ve put in already, so they are pumped for the finals. Maks is excited that he has a chance to win it. Not much happens in this segment, which means they probably didn’t fight playfully. Is the magic gone?
They take each other’s hands tenderly and walk out to the middle of the dance floor. As you’d expect, Erin’s extensions are beautiful. There aren’t a lot of fireworks here, it’s clean and precise and it feels like it should be in a movie. You know, like a fantasy sequence when two characters first meet and each imagines the relationship. Yes, I admit, that would not be a good movie. You know what I mean though. It’s really very nice, and I think people who know a lot about dance are going to be really impressed.
Len, proving my point, says they took a giant step toward the Finals. Bruno loved her fluidity and continuity. Carrie Ann talks about how much she’s grown and how much she adores her. She gets three 9’s for a 27, though Bruno holds up the 10 paddle, and Erin totally freaks out and then has to come back to Earth. Aww. They should just give her the 10 – look how happy it made her!
Before the Latin round, each star talks about their childhood. Erin was insecure because she was tall. She also had a very cute Golden Retriever, so how bad could it have been? There’s footage of her doing some broadcasting work in high school, and astonishingly, they talk about her stalker and the peephole video. I have this really strong reaction to this story – it’s like I feel dirty simply because there are people who actually do that kind of thing. It’s so gross, and you can tell that this is just not something that people come right back from.
Their Latin dance is the paso doble. She goes into the solo early, and it looks great, but it seems like more posing than paso. Once Maks comes back, it’s firmly back in paso territory, though without a cape. I totally love the paso, and this one is a lot of fun. It’s lighter than you usually see, and it looks like Erin is having a blast. Maks actually stumbles on the final pose, but all in all, it’s a good, fun dance.
Bruno calls her “a hot chick with an attitude” and points out Maks’ stumble. Hee. Oh, he also says a bad word that gets them censored. Carrie Ann talks about how Erin is “in her power”. Len doesn’t know what to make of it, because he wants a traditional paso, and didn’t care for the solo. They get a 29, so apparently Len liked it better than he claimed. After they get their scores, Maks takes his shirt off. I feel like that’s his reaction to almost everything in life.
Nicole Scherzinger and Derek Hough (59/60) – I’m still irritated about last week – that perfect score was almost entirely Derek. By the way, I liked Nicole much more at the beginning of the season. And she’s been a little bit of a diva, but I think the real problem is that she is standing between Anna and the Mirrorball, and thus, she must be defeated. Uh oh – Derek has a bad neck during rehearsals – he’s wearing some sort of mini-brace. Oh man, you want to be careful with your neck. It’s a design flaw in the human body – necks have too few bones. (OK, I’m just quoting Sarah Silverman now.) I hope he’s OK. That’s kind of a worrisome part of the body to go out on you.
They’re dancing the Argentine Tango, which is one of the most awesome of all dances. Derek carries Nicole down the stairs as she wraps around his legs. As you’d expect, they’re very good. She really does have fantastic footwork. Probably in deference to his neck, you don’t see the head snaps that you usually do in this dance. It feels like there’s more precision than heat here. And holy crap, they have some awesome lifts. I don’t want them to win, but I really want to see their Freestyle.
Bruno loves it so much that he has to stand up and gesture. He talks crazy. The camera cuts away for several seconds when Tom first calls on Carrie Ann, but the audience is going wild, so something must have happened. I feel so left out. Anyway, it brought her to tears, and she is seriously crying. OK, Nicole is good. But she is not the Goddess of Dance that Carrie Ann gives her credit for being. She’s going more and more over the top every week. Next week, she’ll probably fire Edyta and give Nicole her pro spot. Len looks at the freaks he’s stuck with and makes a reference to his medication. He says it was more delicious than his grandmother’s apple pie. Do they have that in England? Of course she gets a 30. We all saw that coming.
Hey, Nicole was born in Hawaii! I’m pretty sure I knew that. There’s not much they can really say about her childhood. What are they going to say? “Yeah, I’m hot. Made life a breeze, frankly. How did you guys get by?”
They’re doing the Cha-Cha, and Nicole is dressed like, well, Prince. Oh, well it’s actually a Prince song, so it makes thematic sense. So never mind. She starts her solo in a chair, and it’s really good, but it’s also lapdancing. I mean, it’s not a Cha-Cha – she’s doing stripper moves. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s a little far afield of what they should be going for. When Derek enters the scene, things take a little more form, but I can’t help but feel like it’s just got kind of a porny feel to it now. It’s like Len loves to say these days – I’m confused by it.
Carrie Ann of course loves it because she has a total boner for Nicole. Len didn’t think the solo was a Cha-Cha, but that she has to be in the finals. Bruno loves it and talks about her being sexy. That’s kinda his thing. She scores a 29, with Len being the only dissenter, and also the only one who’s not openly propositioning her.
Chad Ochocinco and Cheryl Burke (52/60) – Chad survived the bottom two last week, but he was still well behind the others. Cheryl is really picky in rehearsal, and Chad’s starting to get frustrated. I might be wrong, but it sounds like Cheryl make kind of a snotty comment about Derek’s “advanced partner”. “That’s not what the show’s about” she says, and well, she’s kind of right. Still, I want my DWTS crew to be a happy family! Get along!
Their first dance is the Waltz. Man, it’s the Semifinals and Chad still has weird arms. Once again, there are too many sections where his own role in the dance is minimal – like he’s just getting from pose to pose. It’s good, but if you compare it to any other partner Cheryl has had at this stage, he just isn’t all the way there. There’s something very tentative about it.
Carrie Ann says he nailed it. Len says it was fantastic. Bruno says that tonight, he’s a star. They liked that much better than I did. But, you know, they’re actual experts so they’re likely right. They get three 9’s for a 27. Wow – I think that might be his best score yet.
Chad talks about growing up in a rough neighborhood, and God help me, all I can think of is Tracy Jordan on last week’s 30 Rock. “I saw one baby give another baby a tattoo. They were both really drunk…. Our basketball hoop was a ribcage! A ribcage!” Yeah, I am the worst person alive. Chad’s kids show up, and he loves them.
Their Samba opens with him alone, but it’s really just him crossing the floor. Cheryl tears open his shirt, and damn, dude is built. Also? Those are a lot of tattoos. And their Samba is good, other than his aforementioned arms, but it should absolutely be blowing us away at this point. It seems a little by-the-numbers for me. Now, the Samba is one of those dances that I can’t quite nail down in terms of what it’s supposed to look like, but his solo looks to me more like club dancing than Latin dancing.
Len wonders why everybody takes their shirt off for the Samba. Len says he did a great job on a really tough dance. Bruno says he’ll never take his clothes off again. Too late for those of us who saw him on The Soup. He says that Chad got it right. Carrie Ann says his technique hasn’t matured like the others, but he has great charisma. Tom points out Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Rick Fox (best known as Jackson Vahue on Oz. Or for basketball, I guess.) in the audience. He gets a 25, which is the lowest single score of the night.
Evan Lysacek and Anna Trebunskaya (59/60) – You know what? I freaking loved their future Cha-Cha last week. That was awesome. Anna stressed the importance of not getting lost in thinking about technique. We see iPhone video of Evan’s adorable nephew, and Anna says they’re going to concentrate on making him happy. Fingers crossed!
Their ballroom dance is the Foxtrot. He starts out at the judge’s table, holding a photograph of Anna. I can see where you’d want to keep something like that. He stats out by himself, springing backwards and striking a pose. Then Anna comes out, and it’s really bouncy, and Evan’s got a big goofy grin on his face. It looks a little spontaneous actually, with the two of them bounding around and making huge arm motions. At one point, Evan sort of looks like Steve Martin doing his old stand-up act. It’s the most emotion we’ve ever seen from Evan, and it’s really kind of cute.
Len loves that he saw a fun side of Evan, in addition to his artistry and musicality. Bruno can’t believe how happy Evan looks. He talks about Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, which makes him seem one hundred years old. Carrie Ann says she finally felt a connection to Evan and thanks him for listening to her. They get a 29! Yay! Hold on, I’m going to go vote. Back in a minute.
Time for Evan’s waltz down memory lane. He was a tiny little skating boy. There’s not a lot of drama – he decided early on that he wanted to skate, and then he got really good at it. But, you know, not like everybody has to have a stint in prison for their bio.
They’re dancing the paso doble, and obviously the combination of Anna and the paso means this could possibly be my favorite thing on the show. Oh man, they have two spooky trees on the stage! This is kind of awesome. They’re attacking the paso with really aggressive movements and these great jumps – some of the poses are really overextended, but instead of looking wrong, they look a little creepy. It fits the setting. And for the solo… Oh. Hell. Yes. Evan is doing cape work! He’s incorporating some figure skating movements, but figure skating is not really the opposite of the paso. Anna comes back and it’s dazzling. Bold movements, insane footwork, Evan jumping higher than people should be able to jump. I love it. Donny Osmond does too!
Bruno calls it the best innovation in the paso doble this season, and then compliment’s Evan’s balls. Or possibly his bulls. Carrie Ann loved his “guttural, powerful” movements, and I think that’s what I was trying to get at. It isn’t the way he usually moves – it came from someplace else. Len says it’s hard for a male star to dominate the pro like they need to for the paso, but Evan pulled it off. It’s a perfect 30, and I’m freaking out.
That was a really good night! I love it when the show is this much fun, and that paso was amazing. I know I’m biased, but that was super cool, right? Oh, you know it was.
Myndi will be with you tomorrow night for the 100th elimination. I’ve got my fingers crossed for Team Evan, and I’ll see you back here next Monday for the Finals, provided I’m not still crying after the Lost finale. Even then, I’ll recap through the tears!
