Season 20 - Week 3

From BuddyTV.com

The 11 remaining couples will all perform one new Latin dance, styles that include Samba, Salsa, Rumba, Cha-Cha-Cha, Argentine Tango and Paso Doble. At the end of the night, one couple will be eliminated. Here's a look at the songs and styles the couples will be performing.

Argentine Tango
-Noah Galloway and Sharna Burgess: "Rather Be" by Clean Bandit featuring Jess Glynne
-Chris Soules and Witney Carson: "Dangerous" by David Guetta featuring Sam Martin

Rumba
-Robert Herjavec and Kym Johnson: "How Long Will I Love You" by Ellie Goulding
-Charlotte McKinney and Keo Motsepe: "Empire" by Shakira

Samba
-Nastia Liukin and Derek Hough: "Chillando Goma" by Fulanito
-Suzanne Somers and Tony Dovolani: "Copacabana" by Barry Manilow

Salsa
-Riker Lynch and Allison Holker: "Limbo" by Daddy Yankee
-Michael Sam and Peta Murgatroyd: "Celebrate" by Pitbull
-Rumer Willis and Val Chmerkovskiy: "Turn the Beat Around" by Gloria Estefan

To Be Determined
-Willow Shields and Mark Ballas: "Hanuman" by Rodrigo y Gabriela
-Patti LaBelle and Artem Chigvintsev: "Oye 2014" by Santana featuring Pitbull

Riker, Rumer and Michael all doing the Salsa should be interesting to compare since they are three of the better performers. I'm most interested to see Noah and Sharna's Tango. That seems like one of the more difficult styles to adapt to with only one arm.

See all of the Latin Night dances on Dancing with the Stars, Monday at 8pm on ABC.


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Should be interesting indeed.  The AT is known for lifts - I'm wondering how that's going to work for Noah.  I know Christian (I think that was his name) couldn't use one arm due to injury, and Cheryl was still able to choreograph a couple of lifts that used his good arm.  But Christian had the advantage of two solid legs to brace himself.  Noah won't have that, but if physical appearance is any indication, he would certainly seem to have the brute strength needed to lift Sharna.  Should be interesting.  On the other hand, I am not looking forward to seeing Chris try an AT.  He may surprise me, but based on his last two performances, I expect this will not be good.

I've only heard of two of those songs - Copacabana and Turn the Beat Around.  I am officially old.  I've never even heard of some of the other groups, let alone the songs. 

I still haven't seen any notice of what Patti is dancing, but Willow and Mark are doing a Paso.

Is it too much for me to hope that they've finally listened and got rid of contemporary and jazz?  Three weeks in a row without one popping up!

Ok - quick thoughts.  My favorite dance of the night was Rumer's disco/salsa.  I thought that was fun and energetic and totally enjoyable.  It's honestly one of the few routines I actually even remember from last night.  I thought their scores were fair until they started dropping 9s on others.

I wasn't impressed with either AT, although I thought Noah did a great job with the lifts.  I was a bit worried at the end, though, as Noah's prosthetic leg kept coming higher and higher off the ground.  I seriously expected them to fall and was so happy they didn't.  Chris needs to go next.  JMHO.  But I'm not enjoying him at all, even though I have come to adore Witney.

I also wasn't impressed with either rumba.  Charlotte hit some beautiful lines but was clunky in between.  I had wanted Chris to be the one to leave last night but after watching Charlotte's package, I was okay with her leaving instead since I wanted her gone next anyway.  Did not care for her attitude at all.  I don't care how busy you are - wait for a scheduled break to check your messages.  Don't wander off when Keo's trying to teach or rehearse.  Robert did a decent job with the rumba - it just didn't seem to be as smooth as it should have been.  It was good but not great or really memorable for me.

Riker did a great job with the salsa, but I was glad Carrie Anne told Allison to dial back the testosterone a bit.  Allison, like Peta, is a more in-your-face dancer, although Peta has really toned it down recently, probably because of the partners she's had.  But it's been good for her (or at least for my enjoyment of her anyway ).  Michael struggled with the salsa - it wasn't good but it wasn't horrible either.

Suzanne Somers did a nice job with the samba.  I liked it.    I'm honestly still not feeling Nastia.  I don't know what it is about her.  Maybe it's partly because she doesn't seem to have much of a personality?  I watch her dance, and it looks beautiful, but at the end, I'm still like . . . meh.  And I have to admit that I am more annoyed with Derek than ever now knowing that he's basically sharing duties with Henry.  How many times have we complained about a celeb who agrees to do the show and then doesn't really have/make the time for it?  Derek should not have agreed to do this season if he wasn't able to give more attention to it than that.  Ugh.  Go away, Derek.  Let Henry take over since he can do it full time.

I love the paso but again Willow still dances 'immature' to me (which is as it should be) so it was kind of lacking for me in attitude.  She seems to do the steps well, though, but her dancing never really touches or excites me the way some of the others do.  Patti LaBelle is still a force.  That cha cha didn't seem to have a lot of content in it, and that shimmy thing she did on the cart was kind of weird, but I love her attitude, I love the way she goes for it, and she entertains.  Good for her!

In the end, only Rumer and Riker really got my full attention, and I'm on the fence about Riker.  Despite him saying that he had no dance background, someone found records from one of the dance entities showing that he did indeed compete with his sister for a while.  It didn't appear that they were top tier but if I recall they placed several times in competitions.  It was years ago, and it seemed like they only competed for maybe one season, so it's not like he was world junior champion or anything, but I think that probably does qualify him as the first true 'ringer.'  Not by much, though.  But my own personal conspiracy theory is that they gave Riker to Allison because they figured out last season that she doesn't know enough herself to be able to teach someone who knows nothing, so Riker already knows the basics.  That way they could justify keeping her around after she did so poorly with Jonathan.

Last night was entertaining. My pick of the night was Rumer. It was surprising to see them give Riker the higher score. He's definitely in my top three, along with Nastia. But I didn't think anyone topped Rumer this go-round.

As beautifully as Nastia dances, I find myself wishing she could get rid of the dour expression. Even when she smiles, she doesn't look happy. Perhaps it's the downward curve of her mouth. Dunno.

I was disappointed to see the comedy flair with the fruit hat. I was in agreement with Carrie. Suzanne has enough grace and bounce that she doesn't have to resort to gimmicks to perform.  She needs to lend herself to the theme of each dance, old or not.

I'm SO glad Charlotte and her victimhood are gone. And despite the judges' raves, I thought our buddy Chris was mediocre at best. The lifts were good, but otherwise...not so much.  I could be dead wrong, but his attitude the first couple of weeks left me with the impression that he didn't feel he had to try too hard to win the votes of his "adoring" fans.

I don't know what to say about Noah and still be PC.  If this were the special Olympics, I'm sure he'd be at the top.  His strength in those lifts was amazing, however, the loss of grace came with the stiff prosthetic in his leg.  If I'm to be objective, that's how I see it.  That being said, he did a better job than Michael this week.

I'm glad Charlotte went home, too.

As for Chris, this guy has to loosen up or he will be gone very soon.  He seems emotionally flat; in fact had no reaction, or so it seemed, when it was announced that Charlotte was leaving.  He did dance better last night but unless he improves continuously, he will be back on the farm before he knows it.  JMHO.

I too thought that Rumor was the best last night. I guess the reason some gave for scoring her lower was how intense she is but I noticed her facial expressions last night were more in tune to where they should be, so why all the 8's? I understand the first week or two giving lower scores but obviously they aren't hesitating giving 9's so I don't know what they're thinking. I liked Riker's dance but I don't think he danced any better than Rumor.


Nastia was good but I agree with the other comments that I can't get a grasp on her "personality" if she has one. Maybe she's just so intense and doesn't smile because she is thinking it's just another competition to her. Gymnast's rarely seem to smile. I think she's the one that needs to lighten up, not Rumor.

I forget which judge said it but I agree that not only the contestant they were directing it at last night but many of the contestants were making nice graceful moves and then just being mediocre the rest of their dance.

I continue to be inspired by Noah but his disability is going to limit him in so many ways....but...those one armed lifts last night were AWESOME!

I too think that Chris believed that the Bachelor fans would keep him on the top for a while. He just looks so moody when the scores are given and during eliminations.


I am glad Charlotte was given the boot last night. She is crying about being a victim of bullying but she is not the typical bullying victim. She brought the comments on herself. That disgusting promo the first night was out of line for this show. Then the next week everyone was being slapped on the wrist for bullying her. Then this week she is acting like a teenager that can't get off of her cell phone when she is supposed to be getting her dance moves down. When Keo tried to talk to her about it instead of her saying yes, you are right all she did was make excuses for her behavior. Now she is in the news for crying bullying again because of the comment Bruno made to her last night saying, "You're never going to win the Nobel prize for quantum physics, but you are easy on the eyes and you produce wonderful shapes". Stop crying and do something to make people respect you. 

Ah. I was wondering who Josh was, and now I know!