April 23, 2007: All the World's a Stage
Let's jump right to the highlight of the night: the group swing was 100 percent fun, perhaps the best group dance that involved the celebrities in the past four seasons of
Dancing with the Stars. Everyone was so into the performance that the energy was contagious. Even more impressive was how well they gelled as a group (even
Heather and Jonathan, who missed the group practice). The couples all played to their strengths (e.g.,
Ian and Cheryl did back-to-back lifts, while
Laila tossed Max aside and carried
Apolo), and no one upstaged the others. Plus they all got into character and pulled off the cute little theatrical moments, such as
Joey and Ian's mock fight and the ladies all fawning over
Billy Ray.
Theatrics wound up playing a big part in many of the dances last night, a night in which the judges really emphasized the importance of performance. No one learned this lesson harder than Ian, who said that he was going to try to focus more on performance than technique this week in his paso doble. Cheryl explained to him that this was a love/hate dance, so he channeled his inner
Shannen Doherty and assumed a kind of pissed-off look to get into the bullfighter character. Unfortunately, this didn't work for him (nor did having Andrea Zuckerman in the audience for support), as his bullfighter lacked fire. The judges gave him some harsh feedback, telling him basically the same thing for weeks now: You have a lot of promise that you're not fulfilling; you overemphasize technique and don't come alive on the dance floor. I have to agree with them. He's got some good hip and foot action, but I've been waiting for him to really shine for awhile and it hasn't happened yet.
Carrie Ann gave him the oddest yet best advice: Watch Billy Ray - not for his technique, but for the joy and truth that comes out of his dancing.
Speaking of Billy Ray, the cowboy was back in top form (top form for him, that is). After last week's sleepy performance, his feet were moving fast and furious in his jive. Karina finally realized that he's not the next
Mario and she won't be getting any 10s this season, so she choreographed a performance that played down technique and played up fun. It worked, and their dance was cute and lively.
Bruno pointed out that they had some of the correct jive steps, while Carrie Ann noted they made up some of their own moves. Karina was hoping to appeal to the audience, but for the most part, it impressed the judges as well. (Bruno happily rhymed, "You're going the right way, Billy Ray.") Nevertheless, a desired score of 8 still eludes him.
Like Billy Ray,
John also pulled off a cute performance. True, he got some animal comparisons, such as
Len's "ruptured duck" comment. I can't quite picture what Len was talking about, but Carrie was right on the money when she described John as a "little dancing teddy bear." He has this one signature move that he does a lot, and with his round shape, he looks sort of like Winnie the Pooh dancing. It's not fancy, and it's not proper ballroom technique, but it makes for enjoyable television. (Oh, and that other teddy bear Norm was in the house to support his bar buddy.)
Not to be outdone by the others' theatrics, Joey, the master of ham, was back adding some silly moves to his playful samba, and it worked. He was mouthing the words to his song (actually, several of the celebrities were doing that this week) in an energized performance Len described as "swashbuckling." Carrie Ann again captured the essence of the performer when she said, "you're insane, and that reads well" into the performance. However, unlike most of those above, Joey also received praise for technique and improved posture.
While Joey went for comedy, Heather went for drama. She got into character for her paso doble and mouthed some of the words to "Don't Cry for Me Argentina." She received praise (once again) for attempting more tricks than anyone else, and criticism (once again) for not polishing the upper half of her body. She is consistent. I fear she's starting to follow Ian's example of showing that she's overthinking her moves. But to be fair, Heather and Ian both were assigned one of the more serious dances of the night, while most others had peppier numbers.
Meanwhile, Laila and Apolo did some of the sultriest moves of the night. Glitzy Laila, decked out in gold, got comparisons to
Tina Turner with her sexy cha-cha. She convinced Max to add some of her own funky choreography to their dance which gave it a distinctive flair, but Len didn't like her input. Still, she continued her climb back up the scoreboard, while Apolo held steady at the top. He was worried that he and Julianne wouldn't be able to transform their brother-sister vibe into something sexier on the dance floor, but Julianne's real brother (also a dancer), said he'd been in the same situation (with his actual sister!) and convinced Apolo that it could be done. Their rumba sizzled, and they got praise for their creative moves: Julianne continues to impress - there have been a lot of splits done on this show, but she did one last night that then went immediately into shifting her one leg up into the air... you just had to see it. Len did feel they were a bit
too theatrical, yet earlier he praised Heather for being dramatic. He's a hard one to please.
As we come full circle with the theatrics, let's not forget
Samatha's impressive performance as a clairvoyant, revealing Laila's score before the judges held up their paddles. (I'm at a loss for words with this....) Yet the real drama will occur when two stars go under the dreaded red light Tuesday night. It will be hard to see one of these celebrities go, as the ones left are all really trying. Sure, there are some dancing really well and a few relying heavily on selling fun performances, but all of them at this point are pretty enjoyable to watch. John and Billy Ray have the lowest scores, while Ian and Heather aren't following the judges' advice enough and are therefore slipping. My guess: Heather and John will find themselves in the bottom two.
