Kudos to Maks for a)dancing on a pretty substantial injury and b) for not talking back at the judges as in the past,notice he's taken to looking into the distance when CA talks and I don't blame him,Len was the only judge who didn't let their personal dislike intrude for my money,but hey ho Maks is learning control.


To the dances

Team Paso- Good choice of music,a rarity for the producers this week I felt there could have been better matching on a lot of the dances this week.Melissa too floppy. Oooo nice use of bare chests at least these men have something worth looking at(take note Derek!)Loved the cape work although William was out of time a tadge.

Team Tango- Too theatrical beginning for me.Didn'rt like the damn stupid hats.Maria cocked up a bit in her section but otherwise looked really good.Jaleels stance not great.Katherines body could have been a little sharper..too soft but a good dance

On the whole thought the team dances were pretty much equal

Jaleel VW- maybe in trouble this week.He's much better at latin,felt his posture was lacking,back to the shoulders issue. But Kym always does a good job at showing off her celeb rather than herself.

Maria Paso- Loved the dress.She is still very stiff and I can't think the twirly round by the wrists move will do her injury list any good.Probably her best dance but not a 30.Good music matching ,a Paso virtually all in hold though.Hated the vampire theme

Donald VW-Petas dress was yuk.Better stance than normal ,still shoulders did keep going but did rather enjoy it

Roshon AT- Lady Gaga really..so thats classical is it? Just because its played in a classical way does not make it so.Chelsies dress not an AT oneRoshon should be stopped from trying to do sexy ever.Didn't look much of anything really

William VW-Opening move looked awkward.Stiff in shoulders.Cheryl likes that head turning move in her dances as she trots it out every year. Ok not great

Melissa AT- Dress looked like nighty(not the worst this season though..or even tonight.looking at Katherines and Petas). Not an AT song would imagine bloody difficult to choreograph to. Melissa looks stiff.Wow at that opening lift. Melissa doesn't extend her leg well.Music maketh the dance and I felt this was a right royal shafting on that score.Rather a lot of lifts but I think this may be due to Maks injury and him favouring his foot a little. May have been better to get Val to do the dance for him this week but perhaps he felt this could be the last week and he wanted to go out properly.

Katherine Rumba-Ok what has Mark come as?Mind you he has a better chest than Derek..not hard. Didn't like the music choice again..so manybetter choices for a rumba I feel. Definitely not a raunchy rumba(don't think K could do raunchy but in anycase am happy to see someone ignore the judges constant need for raunch)Nice bends from K.Struck me more as a lyrical dance than a rumba,K could do with a little more flexibility but very nice...hated K's costume too.

On the whole think its between Melissa,Jaleel and Roshon for bottom 2,if Melissa is in it she is going home,if Jaleel and Roshon,Roshon would be going home. Wonder if Maria is getting the votes as much as I liked her paso it was overmarked for what it was are they keeping her safe?

http://www.wetpaint.com/dancing-with...-perfect-score

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/...hird-place-tie

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/entert...rt=newestfirst

http://theclicker.today.msnbc.msn.co...gs-judges?liteVery interesting

Classical Week

I think DwtS over-does the theme weeks, but classical week is a great theme! I love having the orchestra and the classical singers - it should have been Fan.Tastic....so why were some of the music and dance match-ups so completely awful?! What's with Lady GaGa?!!! It neither fitted the dance or the theme! Insane! Maks and Melissa, Marriage of Figaro. It must be.....an Argentine Tango. Err, well, of course! Nuttier than a nutty thing from Nutsville .

Maria - I really loved this paso, and the music - hallelujah!! - was totally appropriate for a duelling vampire paso. Her dress, hair etc were gorgeous. 'Tis a pity they couldn't resist adding that extra layer of the teeth - they were a total distraction. (These themes should be an inspiration or jumping-off point for the choreo/design etc - I wish they weren't so literal sometimes!) I thought Maria inhabited the dance for once. Perhaps it was the teeth that prevented her grinning inappropriately through the whole thing, but she had great expression and intensity. I liked it, but not perfection.

Katherine - odd music for a rumba and even odder that Mark would cast himself as Spartacus and K as a Greek goddess to dance to a piece of baroque chamber music. If he wanted to prance about in 'oldie worldy' costumes, he could have nicked Peta and Donald's outfits. Inexplicable . That said (costumes aside), he worked the choreo to the music really well. Katherine made some lovely shapes, but it was a tad cold. Completely tired of the imperative for raunch in the rumba. Pipe down, Bruno!! Thought their scores about right.

Donald - I loved this VW (Ferrero Rocher outfits excepted!). I'm starting to love Pets'a choreo and it was just so good to see some VW in hold. (There's way too much arm flailing instead of dancing in DwtS VWs, IMHO!). His frame was pretty good, although he's incapable of stretching his neck/head up and out (or whatever the correct term is). Scores seemed right to me.

William - hmmm. This was one of those 'flailing' VWs that I dislike, so I find it hard to judge. Too much flummery and flouncing, but he did flounce and float quite elegantly. Not my cup of tea, so I would have marked it lower, but perhaps that's Cheryl's fault, not his. I think Cheryl is choreographing to distract from rather than display him to best advantage. I don't know if she's right to or not.

Roshon - this was forgettable (other than the weirdness of the music-costume-theme-dance combo). I think he was fine in it, but I can't really remember.

Jaleel - another floaty one. TBH, I can't remember. Fine, I think.

Melissa - Oh, dear. . I love Maks, but hated this. I don't envy him the task in working with that music for an AT and I understand they've had a difficult week, but this was awful. Melissa's legs were so ungainly and there was a horrible lift (where she ends up with both legs round his waist) that should never be seen. Maks has choreographed some fab ATs (I loved the one he did with Joanna Krupa) but this, and last season's, are not amongst them. The judges could have been kinder in the way they gave their critiques, but I agreed with the sentiments, unfortunately.

It's frustrating not to see the whole clips. I feel the training footage would have been revealing this week and is a big factor with the team dances (because seeing how they work as a team influences how I feel about the outcome). I thought both team dances were excellent. I'd need to watch again to work out which I preferred.

Well said,the music choices were beyond bonkers in most cases.

Loved Maks AT's with Joanna(shame about the slip) Brandy and Erin but Hope and Melissa just haven't been up to the job.

Also hate flaily VW's perhaps because they are limited by steps the pros just try and make it more entertaing that way but it just looks wrong.

Still thinking Donald and Katherine are safe bets for the final also thinking Maria more likely now.

Also think that although Melissas scores and critques have actually been pretty accurate the overmarking of other couples have made it seem more unfair and biased behaviour of the judges

Hi Allison . I didn't see much of the season with Brandy - I must go and look up their AT. I agree, the one with Erin was terrific.

You're right about the overmarking of some - it comes across as a slap in the face to others when they get 'fair' marks. I do think the standard is incredible, though. Melissa might be the weakest - though I really don't 'get it' with Roshon, tbh - and she is very, very good. In another year, I would think she would have at least a shot at the final.

I'm not clear about the popularity element in the voting, so, based on dancing (and overall appeal to me ), I would like to see Katherine and Donald in the final. Maria would be a good bet, but she's really erratic. She has the Derek factor though, so I reckon she could make it. I'm clearly missing out on something when it comes to William, but I guess he's in with a shot. I don't imagine Jaleel is popular enough. But then I know nussing.

Thanks for the links

Maria and Derek, great choreo, think they copied the vampire theme from Harry and Aliona. Perhaps he was earwigging this forum when I said his choreo hasn't been wow this season. Certainly upped their game this week.

Thought Kath and Mark did a haughty rumba lol, distracted by the hairdo, and outfit not their best, but good poses, again didn't flow as well as expected and Kath didn't show much emotion.

Loving the orchestra and Vittoria and Jackie.

Jaleel and Kym always suspicious of footwork when the smoke machine goes into overdrive His performance was a bit meh,

Roshon valiant effort, his build seems to suit the tango for once, didn't get Chelsie's outfit for the tango looked wrong and Lady Gaga why? Chelsie did the dancing while Roshon posed a bit.

Team Tango, thought Roshon shone there, and the choreo looked more compex, overall liked it better than the paso.

Team Paso, think Donald was the best of the three, although still hunches over in parts. William was stompy and didn't look like he spent much time learning routine. Melissa tried her best but looked like she was having trouble keeping up.

Enjoyed Donald and Peta's VW, his posture was better in this.

William and Cheryl, quite surprised, what he danced was an improvement, she had got him placing his hands, but his arms looked stiff. Cheryl always seems to overdance to cover his flaws,

Melissa and Maks - saved the worst 'til last oh gawd, awkward lifts, another funny choice of costume for Melissa, bit of a car crash routine. Shame really coz she was trying hard, but didn't pull it off.

http://uk.eonline.com/news/watch_wit..._should/312744

http://content.usatoday.com/communit...1#.T5_FF6tAYko

http://www.hollywood.com/news/Dancin...mstel/25836543

http://www.ontheredcarpet.com/video

http://xfinity.comcast.net/blogs/tv/...lassic-couple/

Thank you for posting these


I don't know, Lili. It's something your read a fair bit on the forums - 'Strictly's pros are all World Champs' etc (which isn't remotely true). Anton and Erin, for example, are exquisite ballroom dancers, but Erin's Latin is no better than adequate and Anton's is embarassing! You'd be hard pressed to argue any dancer on either show was of the calibre or had the credentials of Karina, so I think it's snobbery, on the whole. I do think the shows have a different take on the dancing and DwtS prioritises entertaining (showy??!!) dancing over technical polish....

...but then, in recent years, SCD has pursued gimmicks and fluff relentlessly

It's my (completely inexpert ) opinion that, regardless of the credentials of the pros, DwtS gets the average-poor contestents to a better standard than Strictly, but SCD moves the good contestants to a higher level - at least technically.

Overall, the celebs on DwtS seem to be easier with the showmanship and performance elements, but less comfortable demonstrating technique. (Some of the men really seem to resist attempting the correct posture and seem to be scared of being too (what they consider) feminine). I don't think those things are down to any lack in teaching or technique from the pros in either show, though. I reckon it's just cultural . What do you think?

Interesting that Maks said Maria,Katherine and William had all said to him that they'd been screwed by the judges,could just be being polite of course

Can't agree this week about him being screwed by judges, it was a woeful dance for whatever reason, injury etc. However he dresses it up, him going to Argentina to see different styles of dance and his choreo not fitting their ideal. Unfortunately if he was inspired by going to Argentina he didn't get his routine right. If his choreo and dance were mind blowingly good and then he got poor scores and picked on, then I would agree with him. Coming across as poor me this week.

I think it would have been a better routine with better music,better costumes and someone other than Melissa and it may be a culmination of weeks were they have been unfairly treated in comparison to the others...as I said before I actually think their scores have been pretty accurate just others have not.I don't think any pro is going to turn round and say yup I cocked that routine up royally in terms of my vision though..

I think he was over ambitious,Melissa just isn't the dancer to achieve a complex routine,its fairly obvious that these judges don't consider the level of difficulty and he would have been better off sticking to a safe routine or(and you can imagine how I hate to say this) taking a leaf out of Dereks book and keeping all Melissas dances in close hold and drawing attention to himself rather than her.

Erin's latin is worse than some of the celebs, Anton not much better.

Wonder when Tristan auditioned for SCD, coz if they chose Jared over him, that came back to bite them on the bum. As you say he has had the last laugh. Think he would have been great on SCD. I too would love him to get a really good dancer, to see what he can do. DWTS hope you are listening.

I can't understand how Len especially glosses over poor posture particularly with the men on DWTS, a lot of them seem to get away with it on a regular basis.

BIB other than that it was fab

lol added a bit more as I thought of it,but I do think the routine may have worked done by someone like Mel B or Brandy.(The music choice in particular was so awful,I don't think anyone could have made an AT fit to that)

It may have been good with Mel or Brandy, the lifts for Melissa looked very inelegant, did her no favours, and her legs were wider than Nancy D's at one point

Windy ha.

http://windycitizensports.wordpress....-get-i-dig-it/

Louis' blog,still think he should be a judge

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertai...omment-3465821

http://www.glamour.com/entertainment...s-of-dram.html

Dance Junkies, Tristan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvu3bUhGyTw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZVEVKKYB_A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8RcZ...1&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHhzcPdi_oQ

just finished watching the show.

Thought the team dances were great, but team tango edged it for me.

ha ha I spotted the "aliona choreography" in Derek and Maria's paso. I thought she looked stunning in her outfit. Great dance and worthy of 10's.

Cant make my mind up about Katherine and Marks rumba not helped by strange choice of costumes, probably not enough hips from Katherine and looked more "posey" than actual dancing.

Every week, I'm warming more to William * and not just for the obvious reasons* loved his VW, and the fluidity he has with Cheryl.

Hope Roshon is not in danger, I love his dancing as well, but the AT was not his dance.

Melissa is now the weakest dancer for me, so I hope she is the one who goes.

Longer versions of last night.

http://www.youtube.com/user/dancingwts09

Thanks for the links everyone

http://windycitizensports.wordpress....ie-last-night/

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/danc...ances-16251379

Ouch! (I need to go and find videos of cute kittens or frolicking lambs to clear that image )


I'm not really feeling the William-love from his dancing (or maybe it's the way Cheryl's playing it ), but I did warm to him when Bruno was critiquing him and mentioned his mother - he seemed genuinely moved .


Oooh, goody - cup of tea time!