Season 18 - Week Seven

From puredwts.com, here are the dances for the couples tomorrow night:

Danica and Val – Salsa
Meryl and Maks – Salsa

Candace and Mark - Argentine Tango
Amy and Derek – Rumba

Charlie and Sharna - Paso Doble
NeNe And Tony - Argentine Tango
James and Peta - Samba

Danica may have trouble with salsa because of the broken (cracked?) rib.  I suspect it's going to be hard for her to move as much as is needed for a good salsa.  Meryl and Maks should kill the salsa.  Can't wait for that.  I think Candace is capable of doing a great Argentine Tango. Maybe not Meryl levels of great but I'm hoping this will be good for her.  Not sure how Amy will be able to handle the rumba.  It's a slower dance, and she struggled with the waltz, so I don't know here.  Am really looking forward to Charlie and the paso doble.  It's the first more serious dance we've seen him do, and I thin he'll be great.  Nene's AT should be bad.  I just don't see her being able to do it well, and I honestly can't see Tony being able to do much in the way of lifts with her either.  I'm thinking James should be able to handle the samba well.  Should be a mostly good night.  And if Nene goes home, it will be a great night no matter how they all dance!

Tomorrow is also the team dances.  Once again freestyle.

Team Loca: 
Meryl/Maks
Amy/Derek
Danica/Val
Candace/Mark

Team Vida:
Charlie/Sharna
James/Peta
NeNe/Tony

On paper, Team Loca should win easily, but with both Charlie/Sharna and Meryl/Maks being gone most of the week and Danica hurt, I don't think it's necessarily a lock.  Especially if the judges, who have been scoring Nene ridiculously high (imo), want her to stick around.  We'll see!

According to rumors, Derek and Maks choreographed together, and everyone was getting along!    Should be interesting any way you look at it.  But I am in complete agreement about Candace and Nene.  Really pulling for it to be Nene.  She has outlived her welcome for me.

More beautiful flowers!!!  Love your profile pic. 

JMHO but Nene outlived her welcome the minute she first appeared on the DWTS stage.  Hate to see Tony go home, but.........

 newto, I totally agree with you there.

Thank you LadyMustang, I like newto love flowers.  I want it to be NeNe also but do worry it could be Candace instead. 

I worry about Candace as well.  The judges' scoring for Nene has been atrocious.  Same as Meryl one week?  Higher than Candace last week?  I don't think so.  Yes, she's enthusiastic when she dances, but she's sloppy and not terribly graceful.  I don't find her at all enjoyable to watch.  So I really don't know what the judges are seeing in her and can only assume they think she's a big draw to the show and so are overscoring her to keep her around longer?  Who knows?  But as far as I'm concerned, there's not one dancer left that deserves to leave before Nene.  They're all better than she is and far more personable.

SLA -- I've watched snippets of the Housewives shows here and there when I'm waiting for another program to begin.  NeNe is only on the Atlanta version; there are versions for New York, Orange County, and other places around the US.  She also had a whole show devoted to her engagement and wedding to Greg.  It was ridiculous.   They're all insipid; you haven't missed anything.  Bravo Network has them on almost every night; probably many repeats, so maybe there are more fans than we are aware of.

SLA - After watching NeNe last night, I thought it was obvious she was going home.

As for Len Goodman, he has been around more than any of the others.  I know he seems grumpy sometimes, but perhaps with all his experience he sees things the other judges do not.  Who knows?

Did you also notice how many times the camera panned to JuanPablo and Nikki?  Perhaps he was invited because it was Latin night; or perhaps TPTB are trying to mend some fences.  Who knows?

I thought everyone did fairly well last night except Nene.  She's just not at all graceful imo.  I was very happy to see her go.  And I was very happy that Candace was not put in the faux bottom two again last night.  I was never worried that Charlie was actually in jeopardy.  He was just a victim of the show's "all of team Vida is in jeopardy" thing. 

Loved Meryl and Maks' number.  I didn't mind the troupe in that one although I do wish they'd save their use for the trio dances and the freestyles.  By the time we get to the finale, the freestyles will only seem special if it's just the couple out there.  Use of a group won't seem at all "supersized" or different.  Loved Val and Danica's number and again didn't mind the troupe in that one, but again I don't think it was necessary.  I thought Candace did well with the AT.  I thought Amy did well with the rumba - she's very fluid - but after last week, it felt kind of like we were back to the same old same old with her dance using only a very small section of the floor.  We know she can move, so I don't get why Derek keeps their dances so confined.  I hope she's okay. 

I wasn't as wowed by James/Peta's dance as the judges.  I like James - he seems quite pleasant, but his feet seem "stompy" to me which takes me out of his dance.  I really think he should be the next one to go.  I felt so bad for Charlie.  I really wanted him to do well in the paso, but while his upper body and arms seemed good, his feet weren't.  As he was dancing, I was thinking to myself that he wasn't going to get his 10s for that effort.  I wish Sharna would work with him a bit more on proper footwork.  I think that's all he's missing.  Otherwise, he's personable and adorable as all get-out, and he's fun to watch dance. I thought Len's 8 was a bit low - I was expecting 3 9s and perhaps a 10 from Ricky, which he got. 
 
Loved both team dances, but I agree that Team Loca was clearly better in sharpness and synchronicity.  I was a bit worried when they said the judges would be watching the dress rehearsal, because I remember from Melissa's season that she and Tony weren't going all out in rehearsal, and it affected their scores.  Although now that I think about it, I seem to recall that Melissa was injured before the dress rehearsal, so that could be why they weren't going all out.  Certainly Team Loca looked like they were dancing in earnest.  Wish we could have seen what was happening in the studio as well, though.  Maybe they'll post it on the ABC website?  I'd love to see that.
 
Over all, I really enjoyed last night's show, although that could be a halo effect from Nene going home.  ;0  But I liked all the dances and thought everyone did well (Nene excepted).  I'm wondering what Tom meant, though, when he said the stars would be dancing with each other.  I don't think he meant that, for instance, Charlie and Meryl would be dancing.  That would be kind of weird.  So maybe they're doing some kind of pairs thing - a variation of what they did when they had a pro couple dance and then a pro/celeb couple in a kind of "group" dance - with two couples dancing the same dance to the same music with part individual couples and part dancing side-by-side?  That could really be interesting.
 
Not looking forward to Abby Lee Miller.  I've never watched the show but with what I've heard about her, I've never wanted to.  It'll be interesting to see if she gives actual criticism or if she plays really nice in an effort to boost viewership for her show.  Either way, I'm not interested in seeing her at all.  If they want to do guest judges, why can't they bring in Louis or Anna?  Either one would be terrific, I think.  I'm tired of the 4th person for the sake of having a 4th person.  Ricky Martin seems nice enough, but he didn't add anything really.  And then it ends up taking so long to get through 4 judges every time that they end up running short on time at the end.  I thought that's why Tom and Erin were giving those looks at the end - I think they were afraid Tony was going to want to say a lot to Nene (not bad but just as in taking up time they didn't have).  They seemed to rush him off at the end and barely had time to do the recaps.

Several people have noticed that about Nene and apparently she also failed to thank Tony during the GMA segment the next day.  However, some have said that she did thank him profusely through twitter or something.  Not quite the same, if you ask me, but it's better than nothing.

Amy seems to be doing okay.  From what little I've seen, it seems like she wrenched something but will be okay to continue dancing.  I like her, and I certainly admire her greatly, but I won't be upset if she goes home on Monday.  I would think that 2 dances each week and sometimes 3 would be just more than she could handle.  And while what she does is generally gorgeous, she is very limited in what she can do.