Dancing With the Stars Week 8

  

  It was a night of pairs and trios on week 8 of Dancing With the Stars, and the contestants were ready to rumble!  The energy the guest dancers brought to their trios helped each couple step up their game tonight.  Last week, we said goodbye to Jaleel White as he was eliminated from the competition.  Tonight’s stars face a double elimination this week; be still my beating heart!

     Joining me are my favorites gals bringing you their take on the performances in the ballroom.  Author Tracie Banister, blogger Michelle Bell, and my little peanut pie Gracie.  Due to DVR technical difficulties, Gracie did not have the opportunity to watch the entire lineup of performances.  However, her looksee into the first 28 minutes of the show will keep the conversation colorful.  Let’s roll!

Standout Performance of the week:  

Michelle: William and Cheryl's foxtrot was definitely my favorite and I think they deserved the 30 that they received.  Cheryl is such an amazing choreographer for most dances and the foxtrot is one that she does well with. Their costumes, the song, and the smooth dancing...all perfect.

For the trio dances, I really enjoyed almost all of them, but I think the best was Donald, Peta, and Karina.  Donald takes risks and he is the one that keeps improving more and more each week.  Don't count him out as the possible winner of it all.

Tracie: No question - it was the trio jive that Donald Driver did with Peta and Karina.  The joint was jumpin' with that number and Donald killed it!  I just loved everything about his performance.  He was so relaxed, his musicality was fantastic, and he kept up with those two amazing female pros who were dancing their butts off!  I have already re-watched that Jive three (ha!) times on You Tube this morning.  That Jive was THE dance of the season for me.  So much fun!

Jen: William and Cheryl earned that 30!  Classy, brilliant; bellissimo! 

Topping any of the duo performances was Donald and Peta’s trio!  Joined by Karina, I felt that sparkly Elvis had entered the building!  Amazing timing, brilliantly choreographed; kudos!

Gracie: Maria really made me smile today because she made me forget all about her vampire issues last week.  She was like a dainty flower that spins in the wind.

Mom’s note: Aww……..

This Was Definitely Not Your Dance - Worst Performance:

Michelle: While the judges loved Maria and Derek's dance, I found nothing about it that pulled me in. But it was, unfortunately, Melissa and Maks that had the worst dance of the week.  Maks was clearly frustrated with Melissa this week and was visibly unhappy with the way the dance went and the fact that they showed the rehearsal footage that they did. (Maks has a fiery temper, it doesn't even faze me when he goes nutballs on someone anymore.)  The dance started out with some stumbling errors and at that point, Maks appeared to shut down. 


For the trio, the worst thing Roshon and Chelsie could do was bring Sasha in to dance with them.  It showcased how talented HE was and how well he and Chelsie danced together, leaving Roshon hanging out there as the weakest link.

Tracie: Oh, geez, I don't know.  It's hard to bag on anyone at this late stage of the game.  But if I'm honest, I wasn't crazy about the trio Bollywood number with Derek, Henry, and Maria.  I'm actually a big fan of Bollywood musicals and could boogie down to "Jai Ho" all day long, but that was supposed to be a SAMBA, Derek!  And Len was right about there being very little Samba flavor or technique in that dance.  I didn't think that Maria danced that well with two partners, either.  The whole routine gets a big "Whatever" from me.

Jen: You know, I think the remaining contestants have all fought hard to remain in the competition and came to play tonight.  Tonight it was a matter of whose dance I did not connect with.  While lovely and dreamy a dancer as always, I did not connect tonight with Katherine and Mark’s performance.  Katherine shines as a dancer, and the routine did not woo me.  I would have loved to see her challenged with tough moves.   

The Tina Sparkle Award for best use of sequins and spandex:

Michelle: Shallow moment...I loved Maks and his nerd glasses! Okay, now that is out of the way...I think that Katherine looked like a sweet princess in her lovely pastel and lace dress tonight.  The upswept hairdo was very flattering for her.  In the trio dances, I absolutely loved Cheryl's purple and black dress.  Very sexy and Spanish, the perfect dress for the Paso.

Tracie: I was seriously in love with Cheryl's Paso Doble dress.  Body-hugging purple lace with black fringe?  How could any woman go wrong with that combo?  It was sexy and perfectly suited to a Latin dance.  Cheryl's slicked back chignon with the purple flower tucked behind her ear was aces, as well.  I'd also like to give a shout-out to Brooke, who looked gorgeous from head to toe last night!  That beautifully fitted peach gown (with no boobage for a change!) and her straight, softly swept to the side hairstyle were the epitome of understated elegance.  Brava! 

Jen: Remember when I complained about William not being naked nearly enough?  There is nothing like a tuxedo to make me swoon.  William was dashing!  Married with Cheryl’s lovely gown, hands down the loveliest costumes of the night. 

Gracie: When I saw Katherine walk down those stairs when they said her name, I just felt like she was Cinderella walking down the stairs to dance at the ball.  Do you think Katherine has mean stepsisters in her real life?  How could anyone be mean to her?

This just in . . . the wardrobe department hates you!

Michelle: I LOVE Sheldon Cooper in a plaid suit on The Big Bang Theory.  On Roshon, not so much. It was a very silly look for him that I think fell flat.  Peta looked like a ballroom dominatrix tonight.  Not a good look for her, either.

Tracie: I'm not sure if it's the wardrobe dept. that hates Melissa, or if it's Maks since he's the "mastermind" behind all of her costumes, but dear Lord, her tiger-striped Foxtrot dress was Hideous with a capital H!  I hate dresses that have huge bits of flesh-colored stretch fabric for modesty purposes.  It's always an eyesore and it didn't even work in Melissa's case because she had tons of cleavage showing down the center, as well as major side boob!  So tacky on a woman of her age!  And the shape of the dress made her look like she had no waist.  Just UGH!

Jen: Holy boobalicious Batman!  Yikes on Melissa’s dress this evening.

Gracie: Oh my goodness…  Did you see that tiger lady (Melissa)?  I say it every week!  Put your clothes on, people!  Why do you have to be naked on tv?

What were the judges' smoking?

Michelle: "8" seemed to be the magic number of the night.  Bruno was in his typical lecherous mood, but Len and Carrie Ann were a bit cranky. Of course, we are heading to the semi-finals and they want to see massive improvement and the wow factor. I do NOT agree with the two 10's that were given to Roshon and Chelsie for their first dance.  I think the judges feel bad because he had his grandmas in the audience.

Bruno was the first to take the trio aspect and run with the one liner - "It is so hard keeping in sync with a threesome."  Bwahaha!

Tracie: It really irks me when the judges' comments don't match their scores.  They all flipped out over Donald's trio Jive and praised it to the high heavens, then gave him a combined score of 28?  That means they thought Roshon's and William's Foxtrots were BETTER than that awesome, crowd-pleasing Jive?  Ridiculous!

Jen: We three seem to have the same difficulty tonight with scoring not reflecting accurately compared to comments by judges.  The scoring for trios was difficult for me to swallow.  I find it very difficult to come to terms with the judges giving a ravishing trio score to Roshon and William’s teams respectively against Donald’s Jive.  Something is amiss in the ballroom.

Tom Bergeron's best one-liner:

Michelle: I had figured that Tom would get that threesome line in first, but he refrained.  He called out the fact that Len obviously had it in for Derek tonight with "They got two nines and one mood swing."

Tracie: Hee hee!  I'm still laughing over Tom saying that Maks and Val were wearing outfits from "The Larry King Chippendale Collection" (they were shirtless with suspenders holding their pants up.)  Funny, and so true!

Jen: In reply to Len’s comment to Roshon’s trio, that the men looked like, “two skinny fries chasing the ketchup” when dancing with Chelsie; I loved that Tom said, “WOW!  Someone just had a Happy Meal!”  

The "Oh, Brooke!" moment of the week:

Michelle: Brooke clearly was hoping to get something more out of Melissa and Maks when she brought up the rugged rehearsal footage that was shown, especially with the query of "Maks, are you okay?"  The look on his face was all "sit down and shut up."

Tracie: Brooke is in my good graces this week for holding both Derek and Maks accountable for their unprofessional and borderline abusive behavior towards their partners in rehearsal this week.  She didn't let either one of them off the hook and basically got them both to apologize, so kudos to her for standing up for the ladies!

Jen: Tonight was the night that Brooke asked questions I wanted to hear answers too!  I loved that she asked the teams that struggled with relationship strain in rehearsals about the tension.  Great job, Brooke!

Gracie: Peanut Butter Noise?  That’s that girl’s name??  Brooke said it was Peanut Butter Noise! 

*Mom’s note: Gracie would be referring to Peta Murgatroyd*

 

Time to hang up your dancing shoes:

Michelle: Melissa and Maks should not make the semi-finals.  Yes, they have a pretty strong fanbase that MIGHT save them, but if it comes down to talent and not a popularity contest, then they will go home tomorrow night.  As much as Melissa tries, she isn't improving enough to go any further.

Joining them should be Roshon and Chelsie.  They have been barely skating by for a couple of weeks now and I think tomorrow they will finally be escorted off the show.  Besides, how boring would their free-style be when you know they would just pull out a Michael Jackson dance since that is what Roshon falls back on all the time.

Tracie: Although she did improve a lot this week, I think it is way past time for Melissa to hit the Jimmy Kimmel show and have her dancing shoes burned.  She seems to have a huge fanbase power-voting for her, though, so who knows?  Roshon had quite a comeback and got good scores from the judges.  I fear that Katherine may be in jeopardy, along with Maria.  This whole double elimination thing is scary!  If I had my druthers, it would be Melissa and Maria going, but I wouldn't be at all surprised by a "SHOCKING!" elimination (Katherine, William, Donald - please, no!)  Tonight's results show will definitely be a nailbiter!

Jen:  Roshon and Chelsie finished with high scores this week, and worked hard to improve.  I am not convinced it is enough to keep them from the bottom two again this week.  I think we will also see Melissa and Maks meet up with Roshon and Chelsie as most likely to go home.  Although both teams worked hard this season, I think we are down to the best of the best staying, and the remaining four couples are just that.  In my Final Four, that does not include Roshon or Melissa. 

Gracie: *sing songy voice* People go home… People hug their dogs…  People eat ice cream…  So really, losing just means you sleep in now and quit breaking your feet and bumping your head when you practice your dancing.  I think that is a great reason to go home and lose!

See you next week!

XOXO

Michelle, Tracie, Jen & Gracie