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| Zendaya on Dancing with the Stars |
Dancing with the Stars aired its season 16, episode 2 show last night with the teams performing Jazz, Jive and Quickstep routines. By the show's end, last week's highest-scoring couple Zendaya and Val Chmerkovskiy, remained at the top of the leaderboard. Our personal favorites were Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough with their innovative choreography; Andy Dick and Sharna Burgess were the most entertaining; D.L. Hughley and Cheryl Burke were the most improved. Tonight on DWTS, one team will be eliminated.
As always, Tom Bergeron and Brooke Burke-Charvet host the DWTS competition: he is in a dark charcoal suit with a soft, grey shirt; Brooke wears a lovely deep fuchsia gown with a strappy, semi-exposed midriff. Judge Carrie Ann Inaba is fetching in red, Len Goodman is sharp as always, and Bruno Tonioli looks great too.
Soap star Ingo Rademacher and Kym Johnson do a Quickstep. In helping Ingo achieve the proper posture, Kym tells him to get in the mindset that he’s better than everyone else. She wears a long, full, white chiffon skirt and matching bra top, both with black flower appliques; he in black hat, pants and vest with a white shirt. When they dance there are some technical issues (foot placement, etc.) but they are fun to watch – Ingo is light on his feet and he looks like he’s having a blast. At the end of their dance you can see him mouth “Oh my God!” Len says Ingo's frame was good, but the footwork was “hit and miss”. Overall though, he improved from last week. Bruno calls it a “tricky-dicky bonanza of tricky steps”, and that any mistakes were because the choreography was difficult. Carrie Ann is happy with Ingo’s frame – she says his elbows dropped and caused the dance to go out of sync. Len disagrees with Carrie Ann, and points out that even the pro male dancers have a hard time maintaining the quickstep position.
SCORES: Carrie Ann 6, Len 7, Bruno 7, for a total of 20 out of 30; combined with last week 40/60
Olympic figure skater Dorothy Hamill and Tristan MacManus perform a Jive routine. Dorothy says that of all the dances, the jive is the one that terrifies her. Dorothy is injured this week, she has a cyst leaning on a nerve, and it’s causing instability in her ankles. Because she can’t rehearse, Tristan thinks of ways to teach her including utilizing a video on his phone, and by doing the steps sitting down. Tristan wears a red 50s-style tux jacket with burgundy pants and a mustard yellow shirt; Dorothy wears a black and white lace dress with a red belt and low shoes. The costumes look mismatched. Despite her injury, Dorothy makes it through the dance. Bruno says there were many obvious mistakes, but tells her for future dances to relax her shoulders. Carrie Ann says Dorothy has great, natural quality of movement but “I sense your fear.” Len says the dance “had promise, but didn’t quite deliver”, that there were “lots of mistakes” and “it was a mess.” The crowd boos, but Dorothy stands up for Len saying, “It’s true, absolutely”. We LOVE her.
SCORES: Carrie Ann 5, Len 5, Bruno 5 for a total of 15 out of 30; combined with last week 36/60
Superbowl champion football player Jacoby Jones and Karina Smirnoff do a Jazz routine. Karina brings in a group of little girls to help Jacoby learn his choreography. Later he says the kids were tougher than Karina. They arrive onstage with Karina on his shoulders, but they are in one long trench coat so they look like one tall person (like in classic comedies). When the coat comes off they are wearing suspenders, pants and spats. Jacoby dances just a little behind the music, but the judges don’t mention it. Carrie Ann calls it “rocking”, that they brought back the roots of jazz and Jacoby’s lines were fantastic. Len says it was fun and full of razzle-dazzle, and he wants to see the same attitude but more refined for future dances, Bruno thinks it was “like watching a headlining star at the Cotton Club”, that the dance had charm, energy and the moves were outstanding.
SCORES: Carrie Ann 8, Len 7, Bruno 8 for a total of 23 out of 30, combined with last week 43/60
Boxer Victor Ortiz and Lindsay Arnold perform a Jive dance. In rehearsal Victor has trouble with his coordination and is “frustrated to the point of irritation.” He wants to go home, and he and Lindsay go back and forth about it. On stage she wears a sparkly, red, short skirted costume with a feathered hem; he wears red pinstripe pants and vest with a white shirt and hat. They do okay, but there are no difficult steps except for one jump over Lindsey’s head that Victor executes very well. Len says the dance didn’t have a lot going for it. Last week Len told Victor he wanted him to knock his socks off, but when Victor asks Len if he needs new socks this week, Len says “no”. Bruno says it looked like a Zumba dance, Carrie considered giving Victor bonus points because he worked the room. When Tom asks him what the deal was in rehearsal, he admits he was being rude and says “never again.”
SCORES: Carrie Ann 6, Len 6, Bruno 6 for a total of 18 out of 30, combined with last week 36/60
Country legend Wynonna Judd and Tony Dovolani do a Quickstep number. When Tony asks Wynonna what her motivation is, she says, “to not pee my pants” and that dancing is the hardest physical work she’s done in a long time. She also cried during practice because it’s “overwhelming and over-stimulating.” They perform dressed as policemen; Wynonna’s jacket is open to reveal cleavage and a red bra. The dance is easy and unremarkable, but we can’t help but root for her. Bruno says the dance “started well as a quick step, but ended as a casual stroll” and says she need to keep it up all the way through. Carrie Ann says Wynonna is on the right track and has great posture and stature, but needs to take more risks. Len tells Wynonna she does “something very important, you entertain us”, but that she had her engine running but never got out of first gear.
SCORES: Carrie Ann 6, Len 6, Bruno 6 for a total of 18 out of 30, combined with last week 36/60
Disney star Zendaya and Val Chmerkovskiy do a Jive dance. They were last week’s high-scoring couple with a score of 24, beating Kelly and Derek by 3 points. At age 16, Zendaya is tall and lanky with long limbs, and says she feels like a newborn deer. Val says she hasn’t fully grown into her body yet, and she gets disconnected from her arms. This is what rehearsal is for though – to work it all out – and when they hit the stage Zendaya nails it. Last week we compared Kellie Pickler to Joey Heatherton; this week with her endless legs and innate grace, Zendaya reminds us of Juliet Prowse. Zendaya wears a gold fringed costume with a feather fascinator; Val is in a black shirt and pinstriped pants. Their dance is fast and effortless – Tom says it’s “like buttah.” Carrie Ann enthuses, “You are the whole shebang, you killed that number, that was fantastic!” Len tells her “you’re back next week, you were fantastic”. Bruno says, “a star is born big-time, you hit some lines that were absolutely breathtaking.” As their segment ends Tom remarks, “Imagine how good she’ll be when she’s 17.”
SCORES: Carrie Ann 9, Len 8, Bruno 9 for a total of 26 out of 30, combined with last week 50/60
Comic actor Andy Dick and Sharna Burgess do a Jazz routine. Andy admits, “This is the first time where I have experienced an exorbitant amount of stress and I didn’t drink.” Because he’s picking up steps a lot quicker this week, Sharna lets Andy have some creative input with the choreography, but jokingly regrets it when he comes up with the Worm. They perform dressed as characters from Alice in Wonderland; Andy is the Mad Hatter in striped pants, a cutaway tux jacket, she’s the Queen of Hearts in a white hoop skirt and top with a plunging neckline and stand-up collar. They dance really well – they are very entertaining and the crowd stood for them. Len doesn’t want to judge first – he says, “I don’t want to start I don’t know what to say, that was a lark!” Bruno says, “The mad actor has gone gaga” and says it was “outlandish and crackers, I loved it.” Carrie Ann says, “You are so lucky that jazz was your category, it allowed you to be wacky and demented” and she tells him he nailed it.
SCORES: Carrie Ann 7, Len 6, Bruno 7 for a total of 23 out of 30, combined with last week 37/60
Regarding the score Andy says, “I like it”, but we think he was scored low for the performance he gave.
The Bachelor star Sean Lowe and Peta Murgatroyd do a Jive number. Sean struggles with the dance’s speed and remembering what comes next, so Peta yells at him. Maybe she’s reacting to the fact that according to him, he hasn’t showered in two days. Yikes. Their routine has a beach theme; Sean wears a lifeguard outfit, Peta wears a yellow skirted bikini and a matching head wrap. Bruno gushes, “Save me shark!” and says Sean has charm and charisma, but the dance was more lindy hop and jitterbug than jive, Carrie Ann says it was a solid performance, but not in sync, that they fell out of the music. Len “didn’t get it at all” and said the theme took over form the jive, and there “wasn’t enough jive going on there.”
SCORES: Carrie Ann 7, Len 6, Bruno 7 for a total of 20 out of 30, combined with last week 39/60
Olympic gymnast Alexandra Raisman and Mark Ballas do the Quickstep. Mark wants Ally to be animated, and make faces that are cartoony so they’ll both be portraying the same vibe and amount of energy. She has a little bit of a hard time with this because she’s so used to being serious for gymnastics. Ally dances in a long, royal blue, shiny skirt with a matching beaded top, Mark wears black pants, and a blue jacket and spats. The costumes look great under the lights. Their dance is good, but for my taste, lacks spark; I want to see quicker, crisper foot movements, and I think Ally is capable of tougher choreography. Carrie calls it the “best quickstep of the night” Len says it was terrific and well done, and Bruno says it “was like watching a little magic blue bird in full flight”.
SCORES: Carrie 8, Len 8, Bruno 8 for a total of 24 out of 30, combined with last week 45/60.
Reality star / restaurateur Lisa Vanderpump and Gleb Savchenko do a Jive routine. In rehearsal Gleb tells Lisa, “I will be a Russian dictator this week”. They practice their energetic number, and when Gleb flips her we think “Poor Lisa”. She tells him “It’s easy for you because you do that every day, I’m not doing back flips in my restaurant.” There is an air travel theme to their dance; Lisa wears a hot pink stewardess outfit (we think it looks more like a car hop uniform, but she wears it well), and Gleb is dressed as a pilot. We love Lisa, but this dance is just “okay”; we think she’s a better dancer than we’re seeing on DWTS, although she does do some pretty turns. This week her Real Housewives of Beverly Hills co-star Brandi Glanville is in the audience. Len says the dance was “a bit of a bumpy ride” and they were trying to fly but never took off. Bruno tells Lisa it was understandable because “you’re not used to commercial flight”. Carrie tells Lisa, ‘”You hold yourself with such refinement it makes your dances come across very well.”
SCORES: Carrie Ann 6, Len 6, Bruno 6 for a total of 18 out of 30, combined with last week 36/60
Comedian D.L. Hughley and Cheryl Burke perform a Quickstep number. D.L. is stressed out over last week’s low scores and says “the show went from being a fun thing to The Hunger Game in tights.” This week he thinks the choreography is too hard and tells Cheryl, “it would take me years to learn something like this”, and she responds, “Welcome to the show.” D.L. says, “I just had my ass whupped on national TV, I’m not going through that again.” They have words, and Cheryl steps out for a bit, but of course they make it to the show. D.L. performs in black pants, white shirt, suspenders and a hat; Cheryl wears a gorgeous pale aqua chiffon backless dress. They do so much better than last week, and the crowd gives them a standing ovation. Bruno says he can see D.L. worked “very, very hard”, and that he's not Fred Astaire, but did a good job. Carrie Ann tells him last week he “got slammed”, but came back and did the work, and that he still has a long way to go, but is on the right track. Len says D.L. improved over last week and the dance was well done.
SCORES: Carrie Ann 5, Len 5, Bruno 6 for a total of 16 out of 30, combined with last week 28/60
D.L. jokes that “they used up all the ‘4s’ last week.”
Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough perform a Jazz routine. Kellie’s perception of this style of dance is Broadway-style jazz hands, but Derek points out the music they were assigned is contemporary. They are cute together and have a great rapport during rehearsal. For their performance Kellie wears a silver top and rhinestone hot pants; Derek is shirtless and in black pants - they look amazing. As they enter the foggy stage, Derek has Kellie in a lift and she does a graceful bicycling movement with her legs. Their innovative choreography is sexy, they do one cool move after another, and they use a light saber as a prop. Kellie is beyond flexible, and Derek is an exemplary coach and choreographer – they are our favorite team of the night. Carrie Ann gives them a standing ovation and calls them “frigging amazing”. Len says “last week was a spark, this week was a fire”, Bruno tells Kelli, “my darling you’ve got a smash hit on your hands” and says the dance was visually arresting with beautiful extension.
SCORES: Carrie 9, Len 8, Bruno 9 for a total of 26 out of30, combined with last week 47/60
After all of the DWTS teams have performed, Zendaya and partner Val are at the top of the leaderboard with 50 out of 60 points; D.L. Hughley and partner Cheryl are at the bottom with 28 out of 60. On Tuesday, March 26, one couple will be eliminated, and we're crossing our fingers for D.L. to stay in the competition; we think he will continue to improve and don't want to see him go.
UPDATE: To see the results show recap for this night of DWTS click here.
To see all of our Dancing with the Stars coverage click here.
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| Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough on Dancing with the Stars |
Dancing with the Stars airs on Mondays at 8/7c on ABC
DWTS results shows will air Tuesdays starting March 26 at 9/8c
Photos ©ABC
Posted on Tuesday, March 26, 2013
