My favorites from last night's show were Niecy, Chad and Erin, but not necessarily because of their dancing -- more because of their personalities, their interactions with their partners, and all the behind-the-scenes goings on... which is probably why most people watch this show anyway.
Niecy cracked me up when she explained why her jive was so tiring: "The thing I was doing before to stay in shape was nothing." I love her! And Louis is having so much fun with her, and I like Louis, which makes me like her even more (I'm probably the only person watching this show to whom the pro dancers are more familiar than the celebs). Her jive was not all there, to be sure -- she didn't have enough bounce and precision, but it didn't matter to me at all. She likes to have fun but she also tries hard and it shows.
I couldn't really figure out what was going on with Chad and Cheryl during practice. It seems like he has a crush on her and she's not reciprocating because she wants to keep it all professional. So his joking around is getting too serious for her. That's what it seems anyway. He's a likable guy though, and I thought his quickstep was pretty good. He had the footwork down and he looked polished and the dance looked good on him. Those long skinny pants with the stripe running down the sides only accentuated his towering height though. Oh, and so sweet how he paid tribute to his late teammate Chris Henry.
But it seems there really is a hook-up that occurred between Maks and Erin (I don't always keep up with celebrity gossip so I please forgive me if this has been all over the tabloids). Maks, who seems to want to put out this bad-boy persona but is really a big sweetie at heart -- looked like he was getting cutely beaten up during practice. And rightly so. Arghhhh, men just don't get how hard it is to adjust to a new pair of dance shoes! We are wearing high high heels and trying to twirl around like seasoned ballerinas, you goofs; a heel that's a millimeter higher than on the previous shoe is everything! Anyway, if it's true they're an item, then it seems to have helped her tremendously because that jive rocked! This is not a dance that tall, thin people generally look good doing and she looked like a total natural. I badly wanted her body. I don't agree with the judges at all that she struggled to keep up with the music. I thought she danced fast with flair and looked very precise for a non-pro. The Uma Thurman Pulp Fiction thing really worked for her.
I thought Chelsie, or whoever choreographed Jake's Tom Cruise Risky Business cha cha, did an excellent job. Usually it's hard to tell a story through the movement with ballroom -- there are certain syllabus steps and you end up having to put the story at the front and maybe in the end and then just have the basic ballroom in the middle, but here the steps were unique to the story. I loved his guitar-strumming, his leg kicking up, rocker-like, at the end of a cha cha run, and his side-to-side lunges in response to her in-place cha chas. Really cute routine. The Walk Like an Egyptian routine from last week was clever too.
I don't think the Dolly Parton Nine to Five theme worked very well for Pamela Anderson. All she and Dolly have in common is their inflated chests - their personas are completely different. Pamela was right that the Fellini Britt Eckland Anita Pallenberg "hot chick breaking things naked" in her words, would have worked better for her. (Kind of funny that she called herself a "hot chick"!) Pamela Anderson is an actress though, and actresses are able to take on characters unlike themselves, but the foxtrot is hard - -a lot harder than it looks -- and it looked like her focus on getting the steps and rise and fall right took time away from her ability to act it.
I thought Kate did fine with her Breakfast Club foxtrot. The judges -- and Tony during practice -- thought she wasn't working hard enough, but it may be that she's so scared of failure she only wants it to seem that way. You know how if you work really hard at something then it's all the worse when you fail? Or maybe she was just tired from her kids' visit. Anyway, she's obviously not a natural dancer but I still thought there was some stylized movement (and not just strolling around as Bruno said) and there was some rise and fall, and I agree with Carrie Ann that there's a smidgeon of grace and fluidity developing. Foxtrot is hard and she had to do that pot stir trick (where she's kneeling down and he's spinning her), which is more complicated than it looks.
Nicole and Derek's tango was simply gorgeous. The most professional-looking dance on the show thus far this season. Carrie Ann's comments were right-on - -the lines, the shapes, the form, and I'd add the attitude and character of the dance -- all standard tango done to stunning perfection. That dance rose to the level of art.
Evan is sweet and I like him as well. I couldn't stop laughing during his routine though -- that was such a ballet boy rumba! It makes perfect sense he'd dance it that way -- your hips work completely differently, serve a completely different function in ice-skating and ballet than in Latin. If you have a natural balletic turn-out, or if you've developed your hips to have that turn-out, then if you settle your weight into your hip as you have to in Latin, you could really hurt the joint. Still, even without the hips, he had beautiful lines. It was a really beautiful rumba.
Here is one of my favorite couples -- Sergey Surkov and his wife Melia -- dancing a rumba. Sergey kind of looks like Evan.