Acoustic Week on Dancing With the Stars

Hmm, so this week everyone is dancing on a smaller, circular floor raised several inches off the ground in order to accommodate the acoustic musicians. They’re also giving separate scores for technique and performance. Dances are Argentine tango and rumba.

First up are Kurt and Anna. It’s Kurt’s anniversary. Sweet 🙂 Of course, OF COURSE, they have to make a big deal out of how he’s married and doing a rumba with someone else. It’s like they expect that the show’s audience have never heard of acting, of you know, movies and plays and theater. Is it because so many people watch reality tv these days that they’ve forgotten about drama as an art form. I mean, is that what the show’s producers are assuming? I really don’t get it.

Anyway, I thought Kurt did pretty well with this. His hip action was nowhere near perfect – it wasn’t grounded enough and hence had that kind of superficial, swaying look. But he tried really hard and the fact that he did something with his hips makes him better than most first-timers. And his arms weren’t moving completely properly – not originating from the shoulder but more from the elbow. But performance-wise, I thought he was great. Very romantic! Very leading man-like! I would love to dance a rumba with him.

Brandy and Maks, rumba: They have to have a “romantic dinner” in order for her to get into the mood. She makes fun of him for the unromantic way he presents her with flowers. Gosh, I thought she danced this beautifully. Wow. This was by far her best dance yet. Near perfect rumba. She had the turn-out, her arms were gorgeous. Hip action-wise she could have settled into the hip of her standing leg a little more (as Len said) but really, it was almost perfect. Both performance-wise and technically.

Rick and Cheryl’s Argentine tango: really nice. I felt the same about him as about Kurt. Very romantic, more than passionate. He was more gentlemanly than brothel patron (or whatever you’d call that). But that’s okay with me. The lifts were really beautiful. They made that dance. Ending over the shoulder lift into the dip was difficult.

Kyle and Lacey, rumba: Oh, I really love him! Such a little cutie. Carrie Ann was right when she called him innocent. Well, he had a sexy innocence about him in this. And his technique I thought was pretty good. He had the hip action, he has such rhythm. I’m glad to see him asking in practice what he needs to do with his feet and her telling him he must turn them out more. And it seemed like he really tried, even though he missed sometimes 🙂

Karina and the Situation, Argentine tango: Did she call him “Sitch”? Wow, hard routine for him full of lifts. You could tell how hard he was concentrating on getting each lift right, wasn’t concentrating on the footwork at all. Which makes sense – I’d hate him if he didn’t care about dropping her! And he did the lifts very well, particularly the first, very hard one with the the toss, twist and catch. And the t-lift. I mean, she was using him as a human jungle gym, and he came through for her! I think the judges were too hard on him for the difficulty level of the routine, and too easy on Karina for giving him far too hard a routine.

Florence and Corky, rumba. Oh Corky, I hate that definition of dance: “a vertical expression of a horizontal desire.” It just makes me want to burst out laughing. Cute how they had Corky’s son (Mark) and Florence’s daughter vote on what moves were appropriate or not. Okay, goofiness galore! Why didn’t they do it seriously? The knee shakes at the beginning were samba, the ridiculously fast grapevines around him were cha cha, nothing was the least bit musical (I mean the song was the Beatles’ “Yesterday” for cry eye). Carrie Ann says it shows age is no factor in how sexy and raunchy, etc. you can be. I thought it was raunchy, but cornily raunchy. Not sexy at all! Hard to judge this on technique because it was supposed to be goofy and not proper.I guess I can understand why Corky planned the routine to be that way, but I’m not sure it went over too well. I hope she doesn’t get booted off because of it.

Jennifer and Derek, Argentine tango: Whoa! Awesome! She is definitely the ultimate winner of this show. Definitely. As much as I like some of the guys she just is. That was totally a professional-quality routine. You could not tell she was not a pro at all. The hooks were razor sharp, the musicality was perfect, the lifts were beautiful, professional ballerina-like, that splits slide at the beginning – the line was absolutely perfect. Wow! And I love how she told Derek, “I’m sorry for being so old.” And he told her not to say that, that’s just stupid. And it is. I can’t believe she’s fifty years old with a body like that, with a face like that. With a dance ability like that. She looks like she’s 35 at the oldest. Not even, really. She gives hope to us all 😀

Bristol and Mark, rumba: Well, I feel like, in contrast to Karina with the Situation, Mark is giving her too easy of routines. This was just too basic. Her feet were leaving the ground way too much – she was really raising those knees in the rumba walks. It was like she was trotting. Your toes are supposed to trace the floor in rumba. But when she’s stationary, when she’s rolling her hips or doing cucharachas, she’s very good. She moves really well. The stretch was also lovely; she had really good form on that. I just wish practically the whole thing wouldn’t have been those horse-like rumba walks.

Audrina and Tony, Argentine tango: Well, if I hadn’t seen Jennifer’s I would have thought this was a pretty good Argentine tango. But it just paled in comparison to Jennifer’s. The lifts were nice and she did the footwork properly – didn’t miss a step – but her hooks and just her footwork in general lacked the precision. And her feet weren’t turned out and this dance is the most ballet-like of all ballroom dances. The feet should definitely be at least slightly turned out.

My favorites this week were Jennifer and Brandy. Funny, but I didn’t really notice a difference in the music. Did you guys?