DWTS - S9 Week 5

The show has experienced all manner of debilitating injuries to its participants but it has never faced the flu, Tom intones with his usual tongue-in-cheek drama. Samantha's poodle hair is back, and it brought friends with Lacey, Kelly and Louis all getting odd 'dos this week. Once again, I can barely hear Tom which I think has mostly to do with all the audience screaming.


Natalie & Alec: Power and aggression are up her alley. She has an overly technical approach and needs to feel. Paso Doble. Very clean and exact throughout, but not enough physical connection between them. She's dancing way too tight. Horrible music. 7.5/10.0

Aaron & Karina: "Turn me on," says Karina, "and that's hard 'cause I'm a cold, hard bitch." Glad she said it. Bring in Parissa & Sandor, an Argentine Tango couple. Excellent, intricate choreography. Great character and expression. Legs not quite flexed enough for a solid base, so feet a bit wobbly. Well done. 8.5/10.0

In the audience: LaToya Jackson (again, but this time they announce her), Nathan Fillion & Stana Katic from Castle. Maks is noticeably absent from the Red Room during Karina's interview.

Michael & Anna D: This should be his dance, with the aggression. She tells him to drive his hips up and forward like he's holding a coin between his butt cheeks. He pretends to. Paso Doble. Good poise standing and in closed position, but off in pivot. Strong, but not explosive and striking. His best so far. 7.5/10.0

Anna D looks really good with the dark hair. Just thought I'd mention. Also worth mentioning is that now Maks is in the Red Room and Karina is not.

Mya & Dmitry: The choreography is difficult, and she nails him in the crotch twice. They do the visit to Habitat For Humanity. Argentine Tango. Spectacular job with technique and leg action. Great job acting on the intro, awesome centering on turns. A little short on fire and chemistry. 9.0/10.0

Mark & Lacey: Trying to break out of the middle pack, finding his action movie star aggression. He gets a small "solo". Paso Doble. Very strong, very sharp and well-poised, although posture sometimes stretched a little too far back. Great shapes and solid leading. 8.5/10.0

Donny & Kym: "This is the most passionate dance of all, do you understand?" asks Kym. "I have five kids, what do you think?" Donny deadpans. Argentine Tango. Fantastic technique, great footwork and leg action-- perfectly soft and flexed. Intense character, great feel for dance and music, so subtle and nuanced. 10.0/10.0

Louie & Chelsie: Bouncing back from the bottom two, putting all his focus. His pretend house in the interview has a snowboard on the wall, of course. Argentine Tango. Very focused, he nails the steps of difficult choreography. Good connection. Weight too far over his feet, especially in solo walks. Big improvement. 7.5/10.0

Melissa & Mark: He stayed home one day with flu, bringing in Anna T, who says to "keep the girls (her boobs) up and perky". Argentine Tango. Difficult, super-fast choreography. Some very nice snap and speed, but a few falters because of the speed. A little light on chemistry. At the end, her fishnet stocking gets caught on his jacket button. 8.0/10.0

Kelly & Louis: She can't believe her character is a cape, and can't stop giggling. Paso Doble. They're dancing to Ozzy's "Crazy Train", so they're done up sort of like Ozzy & Sharon, and a big skull is projected on the floor. Very solid footwork and leg action, good shapes and speed. Intense in spots, mostly well performed, but loses focus in spots. 8.0/10.0

In the audience: Ozzy, of course. In the Red Room, Maks is holding a Derek mask over his face.

Joanna & Maks: Derek looks very sick in rehearsals (jokingly blames it on taking his shirt off last week) and has to stay home for days, so Maks subs. Maks: "it was refreshing how quickly she picked it up". Argentine Tango. Streetlamp on the stage, awesome theatrical opening. Great choreography, fantastic footwork. Good leg action. Needs more softness in her body. She steps backwards wrong, stumbles, but recovers. 8.5/10.0

Apparently, Kelly sprained her ankle during her performance, so will be dancing barefoot for the...

Group Dance: Hustle to "Do the Hustle", naturally, plus a big sign saying so on stage. Corky Ballas is the choreographer. They totally dressed up a club to rehearse. Donny is loving it, flashing back to the 70's. Out come the crash mats for the solo bits. They've all got hysterical period costumes on, the girls have their hair done and the guys have awesomely bad wigs, especially Alec; although Mark in his wig looks like my father in old pictures. To do the solos, it's like the Soul Train line, awesome. Melissa cracks up after their solo. Best were Mark, Donny, Mya and Michael's lift.

Results show. This will be choppy, since we fast forwarded through almost all of it.

Encore: Donny & Kym's Argentine Tango. A great demonstration of how to be strong without being hard.

Video package: Throughout the show, they look back at the total of 17 routines that have been danced on the show to Michael Jackson songs. They start with Monique Coleman's, and wow did I forget how good she was.

Musical guest: Norah Jones. Two couples dancing for her, one of the guys looks like a young version of Benjamin Linus (AKA Benry Gale) from LOST.

Video package: What a show day is like.

Musical guest: Norah Jones, "Come Away With Me". Jonathan and Anna T Waltz and are beautiful and adorable dancing together. It turns out this was their wedding song, awwww. Even as Tom is talking, they're still swaying and being cute in the background.

And finally, the much-touted tribute to Michael Jackson. There's a video on the influence Jackson had on the pro dancers and all dancers in general. The performance is introduced by LaToya. They've got the second stage set up on the other end of the floor. There are a few different sections, danced to various songs: Mark, Karina & Derek dance "The Girl Is Mine"; choreography for "The Man In The Mirror" section was by Maks; the "Thriller" section, which closes out the routine looks like Louis' work. When all 16 pros are on the floor doing the iconic "Thriller" choreography, it becomes apparent who has the jazz/hip hop dance chops (the ones in front) and who aren't that comfortable with it (the ones in back). Overall, a pretty good dance show if not mind-blowing.

Eliminated: Natalie Coughlin & Alec Mazo. Bruno and Carrie Anne are visibly very upset over the loss. The judges begin a standing ovation for her. She's clearly taking it hard.

Next week we start two weeks of double eliminations, plus the dance-offs begin.