Season 18 - Week Nine

From wetpaint:

It’s American Icons Week, featuring songs by pop music icons from Elvis Presley to Beyoncé. There will also be a big Macy’s Stars of Dance routine, and Derek Hough told AfterBuzz it will feature 28 different dancers. ABC added that the unique performance, choreographed by Derek and Christopher Scott of So You Think You Can Dance, will be a tribute to classic Hollywood, featuring Derek and Disney Channel’s Jessica Lee Keller from Teen Beach as the leads. The piece’s 26 additional dancers will include a variety of DWTS pros.

This week’s guest judge is producer, director, and choreographer Kenny Ortega (Michael Jackson’s This Is It, High School Musical), who has guest judged So You Think You Can Dance a few times and who is directing the upcoming Dirty Dancing movie, which a couple of our pros expressed interest in, way back when.
Here’s the Monday night dance card:

• Charlie White and Sharna Burgess — Foxtrot and Samba
• Candace Cameron Bure and Mark Ballas — Viennese Waltz and Jazz
• Meryl Davis and Maksim Chmerkovskiy — Viennese Waltz and Jive
• James Maslow and Peta Murgatroyd — Rumba and Cha-Cha-Cha
• Amy Purdy and Derek Hough — Update: Quickstep and Jazz  

Should be another great week, I think.  I expect Charlie to be fantastic in the foxtrot.  Seems like that would be right up his alley and play to his strengths.  Samba is more problematic because he so far has not shown great hip action, but it's a party dance, so if he can deliver the entertainment that we know he is capable of, people (who knows about the judges) may well forgive a lack of hip action.  Candace has two dances that should both play well to her strengths, and I expect these will both be good.  Ditto with Meryl - I expect a gorgeous V.Waltz and an energetic and fun jive.  Peta had trouble with the rumba she did with Charlie during switch week.  I'm a bit afraid of this one honestly because after she danced in her underwear earlier, who knows what she'll put on for the "dance of love."  This could be really uncomfortable and raunchy, especially given that I just don't see the supposedly "chemistry" between these two.  And I just don't see James being capable of the movement required for the rumba.  But what do I know really?  Not much.    I think he'll fare better with the cha cha, but I don't know if he'll be capable of fixing his feet, especially since the judges never even mention how "stompy" he often appears to me.  I don't know what to expect with Amy.  Apparently she is wearing running blades (like Oscar Pistorius wore in the Olympics) for the Quickstep, so I hope that means Derek is intending to do a real Quickstep and actually let her travel around the floor.  I'd love to see that happen.  Since Quickstep is done entirely in hold, she should be okay with that.  Jazz might be more difficult since that doesn't seem to be done much in hold.  Derek has been so reluctant to let her dance on her own, I don't have any feel for whether it's because she can't or because he's just afraid she can't.  Guess we'll find out on Monday!

I have no idea who will go home on Monday.  I want it to be James or Amy, but I'm afraid it might be Candace, and that would be a shame since she's finally starting to improve and enjoy performing.  There also seems to be some concern on various boards that Charlie is in danger, and that would just be so wrong on so many levels.  My final 3 would be Meryl, Charlie and now Candace (before it would have been Danica), but I have a feeling Amy will be there instead.  So the question becomes - who does she knock out to get there?  Although maybe she doesn't knock anyone out - now that I think about it, it looks like they're going for a final 4 again instead of a final 3, since next week is the finale. 

I'm looking forward to seeing Kenny Ortega as a guest judge (unusual for me and DWTS).  I've seen him guest judge on SYTYCD, and he's pretty good.

ITA agree with you, SLA.  If Maks and Meryl are voted off, I will not watch the rest of the season.  They got a really raw deal last week.

I'm not too worried about Meryl.  Yes, she's on the bottom of the leaderboard, but I would be amazed if she's not killing it in the audience vote.  And I suspect that ridiculous score for ALM energized people to vote for her where they may not have before.  I'm more worried about Charlie.  He just doesn't seem to be resonating as much with the audience, and getting the perfect score may have hurt him.  Folks who were splitting their votes between the two might have given extra votes to Meryl because she was at the bottom of the board.  That could spell trouble for him.  But I continue to hope it will be James or Amy who leave.

I can't even.  Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Frankly, the only thing I cared about last night was whether Meryl & Maks would be voted off, and thank goodness they weren't.  Not to be callous, but I'm "over" Amy and Derek.  If they are trying to prove something, they did, but there's been too much sitting on a chair or table, as SLA pointed out above.

SLA -- There is no justice...what we need to remember is that life in general is not fair, and this TV show is no exception.  Once it's over, most everyone will forget and go on to the next thing.  JMHO.

So before we get completely past this, I want to post a few thoughts about last week's dancing.

I thought Charlie's foxtrot was fantastic.  I enjoyed that so so much.  His samba was less successful but still one of the better routines he's done.  It just sucks that he's gone.

Both of Meryl's dances were fantastic.  I especially loved the Jive, and the way they had her costumed so she looked like one of the characters from an Elvis Presley movie.  Maks made a great Elvis, and I loved how excited he was after the dance with all the kisses for everyone, including Bruno.    Speaking of Bruno, I was so glad he mentioned "Giant" because I knew I was supposed to be thinking of a movie during the waltz, but I just couldn't place it.  Great night for Meryl.

I thought James' cha cha to Michael Jackson was one of the best things he's done on the show.  Thoroughly enjoyed that.  Was pleasantly surprised that the rumba wasn't raunchy, but I didn't think he did that great of a job with it.

I knew Candace was having trouble with her V. Waltz, but I still thought she did a creditable job, and I give her huge props for getting through the jazz without incident.  I could see the problems in the VW causing her to get inside her head too much for the jazz, but she pulled it out.  I'm proud of her.  Yes, it didn't really have enough attitude, but she had to be way out of her comfort zone with that one, so again, good for her.  I have really enjoyed her on the show.

Loved Amy's quickstep.  Wish we could have seen that kind of dancing from her all season.  Hated the jazz number.  Sitting on a table crossing and uncrossing your legs is not my idea of dancing.  Rolling around on the table wasn't either.  The slide down the table was cool, but the side by side stuff they did was off sync.  No way that dance should have gotten scored so high. 

Over all, though, I thought it was a really good night of dancing, and I really enjoyed it . . . except for the part where Charlie went home.  Still rankles a week later.