Jodie Sweetin - Ellen 2-9-16 part 1
It was Week 8 and it was a bit weird, from the opening number with the pros dancing around what looked like lighted stripper poles, to the call of who was in jeopardy right after the introductions (What?!), to the first-ever "Judges" Team Challenge," which followed the individual dances.
It was the quarterfinals of Season 22 and it happened again -- a celeb who performed their best dance of the season was eliminated, due to the previous week"s scores. The pairs are doing some of their best work and the scores reflect that. Two couples -- Jodie Sweetin and Keo Motsepe, and Ginger Zee and Val Chmerkovskiy -- received 10s from all judges for perfect 30s, and three others were close behind with only Wanya Morris and Lindsay Arnold getting a low of 25. Declared in jeopardy were Wanya and Lindsay, Jodie and Keo, and Antonio Brown and Sharna Burgess, and it was Jodie and Keo who bid the ballroom farewell.
"You are leaving on such a note," co-host Erin Andrews said to Jodie. "You yelled, "I did it! I did it!" to your mother (after the 30), and this was such a wonderful night for you."
"It was!" agreed Jodie, with a huge smile. "And you know what, I couldn"t think of a better way to say thank you that I got to do this. I got to go out on all 10s, it"s amazing! I got that, and I start production on "Fuller House" tomorrow at 8." Turning to Keo, she added, "This has been an incredible experience. I can"t thank you enough, Keo. And I"ve made some beautiful, wonderful friends."
TOP THREE DANCES
I hate to keep repeating myself, but one of my favorite dances was that of Nyle and Peta. Their paso doble with a short section danced to no sound was amazing. Peta explained that they wanted hearing people, especially the dancers, to know how it"s been for Nyle to deal with the choreography without music. They carried it off well with four of the pros, and the rest of the performance was terrific. As judge Bruno Tonioli said, "It was mind-blowing -- five men dancing to the sound of a single heart," and in tears, judge Carrie Ann Inaba described it as "profound." The scores showed it -- two 10s and a 9 for 29 out of 30.
I loved the Argentine tango of Ginger and Val, especially since Ginger is always smiling and upbeat but had to become fierce with a bit of an angry scowl. The choreography was great and very complicated, and they did well enough to impress the judges, who gave them 10s.
The third favorite is a tie between all three of the performances in Judges" Team Challenge. In the challenge, each judge had two couples to mentor and to choreograph as a group dance, and then the other judges plus viewers voted on each performance. Team Bruno -- Jodie, Keo, Nyle and Peta -- danced a fantastic Argentine tango. The best part was when the women danced together, then the men danced together (with a lift of Nyle by Keo), and then Nyle danced with Jodie. It was great. Team Len Goodman was silly fun with Ginger, Val, Wanya and Lindsay doing a deserted island/sexy island girls-themed samba. Len even got in on the dance at the end. Finally, Team Carrie Ann -- Antonio, Sharna, Paige Vanzant and Mark Ballas -- performed a paso doble with tons of imagination.
OH DEAR
The problem with props -- Wanya and Lindsay danced a jive with a Western theme and they were doing great. At one point, however, they pulled off bandannas to do a slide step but Lindsay didn"t pick hers up and Wanya slipped on it. It wasn"t until the end of the dance that he finally got back in step after nearly falling. Lindsay felt terrible, and they ended up on the bottom of the leader board.
The scores for the judges" challenge were ridiculous. The scores from the judges were all 10s and the viewers" live scores were 9s -- for every dance! Bruno"s team did a far better job than either of the others, and Len"s team dance was funny and silly -- and definitely not a 10. Besides, when the challenge scores were added to the individual scores, the couples were in the same places on the leader board. It didn"t affect anyone"s standing and only required more hours of work by the celebs and pros.
Finally, I didn"t like the way that the couples who were safe and in jeopardy were announced throughout the show. It must have been great to dance after finding out that they were safe, and miserable and stressful to perform after knowing that they had one foot out the door. Those announcements should all be at the end of the show for dancing interrupted only by commercials.
Next week will be the semifinals and will include the infamous trio dances. Each couple will add one pro to their choreography -- in the past, sometimes it"s great and sometimes it"s awful. I understand that there will be a double elimination to get the number of pairs down before the finals, which are set for Monday and Tuesday, May 23 and 24.
Jacquie Oliverius is a retired newspaper editor and columnist and longtime chronicler of "Dancing With the Stars."
[[[Normal]]][[[Normal]]]{"Infobox Head"/}How they scored{"Infobox Text"/}Celebrities, pros with individual + team scores:Ginger & Val: 10; 10; 10 = 30 + 29 = 59Jodie & Keo: 10; 10; 10 = 30 + 29 = 59 (eliminated)Nyle & Peta: 10; 9; 10 = 29 + 29 = 58Paige & Mark: 10; 9; 9 = 28 + 29 = 57Antonio & Sharna: 9; 9; 8 = 27 + 29 = 56Wanya & Lindsay: 8; 8; 9 = 25 + 29 = 54
Source: http://www.eastbaytimes.com/breaking-news/ci_29872681/dancing-stars-jodie-sweetin-receives-perfect-30-then
