Season 20 - Week 8

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[size=30]America's Choice and Trio Dances Revealed 
Thursday, April 30, 2015[/size]
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John Kubicek
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
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Dancing with the Stars is two weeks away from the finale. With only six couples remaining, they will all perform two full routines before two couples get eliminated on Tuesday's results shows. Not only will they each do an individual dance chosen by America, but this week also marks the return of the Trio Challenge, where the couples join forces with another pro.

Here's a look at the styles, songs and trio partners for week 8 of Dancing with the Stars season 20.

America's Choice Dances

Paso Doble
-Nastia Liukin and Sasha Farber: "Centuries" by Fall Out Boy

Rumba
-Rumer Willis and Val Chmerkovskiy: "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" by Doris Day

Viennese Waltz
-Riker Lynch and Allison Holker: "What Now" by Rihanna

Tango
-Noah Galloway and Sharna Burgess: "Geronimo" by Sheppard

Contemporary
-Chris Soules and Witney Carson: "Lay Me Down" by Sam Smith 
-Robert Herjavec and Kym Johnson: "Champagne Kisses" by Jessie Ware

Trio Challenge

Nastia and Sasha: Jive with Derek Hough

Rumer and Val: Paso Doble with Artem Chigvintsev

Riker and Allison: Jazz with Brittany Cherry

Noah and Sharna: TBD with Emma Slater

Chris and Witney: Paso Doble with Lindsay Arnold

Robert and Kym: Samba with Jenna Johnson


I'm extremely stoked to see three Paso Dobles, especially the ones from Nastia and Rumer. It's a bit weird to have Derek as the Trio partner for Nastia, but that should be great too since we basically got a sneak preview of it this past week with all three of them together in the Modern Charleston.

I'm also excited for Riker's Jazz Trio, though I may be setting the bar incredibly high by remembering that Jazz Trio Corbin Bleu did in season 17, which Carrie Ann Inaba called the best routine she'd seen in all 17 seasons. And it's nice that his other routine is a Viennese Waltz, which should give him the chance to show a lot of range.

This is the sixth time DWTS has done the Trio Challenge. Val and Derek are the only pros to compete in all six Trio Challenges, while this will be the first time Mark Ballas, Henry Byalikov and Peta Murgatroyd don't participate. It's the first Trio Challenge for Allison, Jenna and Brittany.


Dancing with the Stars airs Mondays at 8pm on ABC, with results shows on Tuesdays at 8pm.
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Oh, dear, Chris is going to dance "contemporary."  I expect that will do him in.  JMO.

That's actually funny. 

Glad I could make you smile!! 

When I think about Chris doing contemporary, I envision that stiffness in his neck and upper back.  Maybe I'm wrong.  Perhaps he'll surprise us?

Personally, I don't think so.  It's time for him to go home.  JMHO.

Well, Chris DID surprise me.  I never expected such fluidity as he showed in the contemporary.  The trio paso wasn't great, but passable for a beginner.

Didn't care for the choreography in Riker's V-Waltz.  Not enough elegance and hold.  But blame Allison for that.  I loved the jazz trio, and the sync was great.

You could see Robert concentrating in the contemporary and his trio samba was meh.

Enjoyed Nastia's Paso and loved her in the trio jive.  Lots of debate over Derek's choreo on the ABC board.  Don't know why he's choreographing around his injury instead of allowing another pro to take his part.

Loved Rumer's rhumba and they killed it in on the trio paso.  Strong and seamless.  I'm liking Val more and more.

The above being said, I really don't like the trio dances.  All awkward, no matter how well choreographed.  It's "whose hands go where?"  When they can dance apart (as they did in Derek's jive and Val's paso) it can work well.  Otherwise, it just looks like someone is trying to steal a partner  without it fitting in with the dance.

When Len praised Val and Rumer's rhumba and voiced his displeasure with all the hoopla that's now part of the show, I wanted to reach through the screen and kiss him.

PS:  I'm actually thinking Robert should go before Chris.  Chris seems to have had an awakening after Alfonso's visit.  He's lightened up - and it shows in his dancing.  Robert seems to be getting worse instead of better.

Derek just can't stand not being in the spotlight.  He just irks me.

Kinda makes one wonder if he thinks she can't possibly win without his face.

Kind of a mixed bag last night, I thought. 

Chris - did okay in the contemporary, but it was obvious in some of the lifts that Witney was doing all the work.  Chris does seem more relaxed now and appears to be enjoying himself more, but he's still not good.  Of the three second-tier men left, he probably should be the one in the semi-final, but it was clear to me last night that the 4th should have been Willow.

Robert - did better than I expected, but he is still struggling and unlike Chris does not appear to be improving at all.  I like him and his enthusiasm and pure joy at being on the show, but at this point, I think it's time for him to say goodbye.

Noah - I never know quite what to think.  He dances very blocky, but there's no way around that with not being able to bend that left knee 'on command' so to speak.  If you watch just his right side, it appears that he might well have been a contender absent his injury.  He seems to have some sense of rhythm and some fluidity of movement on that side, but the overall picture is just not nice because of the injury.  I think he has made it further than he should have, but it's time for him to go as well.

Riker - I don't know what the judges were watching, but I did not care for that VW at all.  Way too frantic and frenetic and I didn't really see any 'vulnerability' from Riker.  I was gobsmacked at the 10s.  Seriously show?  Ugh.

Nastia - Derek was superfluous in the paso, but at least he pretty much stayed out of the way.  But he got it wrong at the end - thumbs down meant put your blade in the ground next to the guy and let him live; thumbs up meant 'send him to heaven.'  Oh well.  Blame Hollywood for that.  Anyway, I thought the paso was okay, but I didn't think Nastia quite got the 'mood' right.  Sometimes her serious face looked more like a pissed face, and I wanted more 'power' from her movements.  They seemed too soft at times.  But overall I thought it was good if not great, and I did like the move where she flipped Sasha over her shoulder.  That was different.

Rumer - absolutely loved the rumba, and that's coming from someone who usually despises it.  It was clean, elegant, classy, sensual but not raunchy.  I wouldn't have given it a 40 except that Riker got a 39 for that awful VW, so Rumer definitely deserved the 40 for the much better Rumba.  I loved that Len grumbled about the production numbers and 'hordes' of people dancing.  I agree.  I had been letting myself fall into the thought that the big productions were needed to keep people interested, but after watching that rumba, I am firmly back in the belief that beautiful, classic dancing with the occasional production or an extra dancer or two would be highly entertaining.  Then the freestyles would still seem special.  The last few seasons it's been hard to tell the freestyles from the rest of the dances.

Trio dances:

Chris - not good.  He tends to be kind of 'stompy' anyway, and the paso brought that out in him.  Did not care for this at all.

Noah - I give props to Sharna for figuring out some creative ways to use the arms they had, but overall again not that good.

Robert - again not good.

Riker - I enjoyed this one a lot.  It was much better than his VW.

Nastia - I loved the choreography in this one, and I thoroughly enjoyed the dance itself.  But it wasn't Nastia's best dance.  She was noticeably lagging when dancing with Sasha, and next to him she appeared to have little crispness in her kicks.  She fared better when dancing with Derek because of his limitations.  I thought this was a creative way to put him in there, and it made perfect sense to me to use that trio.  It was a fun number.

Rumer - I really liked this paso and thought it was light years ahead of Chris's paso trio.  I also thought Rumer danced the paso better than Nastia did earlier in the evening.  I love that Val and Artem kept their shirts on (even though I think they're both gorgeous) because it was kind of expected, I think, that they would take them off.  It was a nice touch that they went with the open vests instead.  In terms of enjoyment, this was on a par with Nastia's jive trio, but I think Rumer danced it better so was okay with her getting a better score.

For Week 8 overall I was kind of underwhelmed with much of the dancing, and I thought Willow's early departure was sorely felt.  At times I felt she danced a bit immature, but she was so far ahead of the three second-tier men left in terms of technique and fluidity that it really is a shame she left before them.  I feel she was definitely 4th place in the group, but her freestyle with Mark was bound to have been so much better than anything Chris, Robert or Noah could do.  It's too bad we won't have the chance to see it and unfortunately will have to see one of them.  Or maybe all of them.  Tonight's double elimination could conceivably see one or more of Rumer, Riker and Nastia go.  That would be a complete and utter travesty.  Hopefully the show has stacked the deck enough that we don't end up with the lamest final 3 ever.

I agree, mustang, that Willow should have been fourth place.  However, due to my distaste for Mark, his partners suffer my disregard.  Shame, really.

It's too bad that Chris couldn't stay over Noah.  He's still not good, but he has been making progress and getting better.  I was surprised to see him get so emotional.  I don't think we've seen any improvement in Noah in several weeks . . . I'm thinking he's already doing all he can.  But still 2 of those 3 were the right ones to go.  Loved Robert's quick response to Tom, though.  Robert's a good sport.

I was glad that Rumer got the encore, although I almost would have preferred to see the rumba again.  But watching Val and Artem dance together any time is a treat.

I still don't think Nastia looked bad in her package at all.

I'm sure TPTB realize when they show negative clips, they have an effect on the star's likeability and the votes they receive.  Same goes for encouraging Riker votes by having him stand in the bottom two.

Speaking of packages, did everyone catch that clip of the "I love you" between Robert and Kim?  Put on?  Or not?

As for Chris, I think he was just beginning to break through his barriers.  Given a lot more time, he might have ended up a good dancer.

There's a lot of talk on the ABC board about Nastia's sourpuss expressions.  Seems to me, she broke through the gymnastics face.  We've seen a lot more smiling and personality.  She and Rumer are both excellent dancers, but Rumer is much more dynamic in her delivery.  I'd be happy to see one of them win.