Trav's Thoughts

Oh bother. This happens every Monday. I can't quite finish Manic Monday rounds.

But you know why, right?

Yup! Cue that theme music! Live from Hollywood!



**does a hop jig, a soul twitch, a left leg swing with extra thigh action, and a series of sexy Mambo hip swivels**

Heheheheheheheheheheheheheeeee

Yes, I'm geeking out because this is the performance finale.

In past seasons, the judges have ranked the dancers in a tie so that the fans can choose their favorites. I suspect they will do that tonight with Mel and Helio. But what will they do about Marie?

The first round is judges' choice.


Mel and Maks dance Cha Cha Cha as the judges' choice. Pam just said, "Wow, Maks was fantastic but where was Mel?" By that I believe she means that Maks was kind of dancing for himself instead of making his partner look good. It was a very good dance full of content and difficult choreography. But it wasn't our favorite performance of theirs. Judges say 9,9,10 for a total of 28. We believe that Mel is the best dancer of the three finalists, and perhaps for the entire celebrity cast.


Marie and Jonathan dance Samba as the judges choice. Can I just say how fantastic she looks after so many weeks of dancing? Wow! They look like they are having a blast. And we smiled through the whole dance. She's cheesy and fun and entertaining and she makes it look like everyone should do this. Of course technically she wasn't great. We understand that and we don't care. We enjoy watching her dance with Jonathan. And she remembered to breathe this time! Judges say 8's across for a total of 24. They gave her credit for being the entertainer she is but won't give her the extra point to keep up with Mel or Helio because of technique. We get what they are doing.


Helio and Julianne dance Jive as the judges' choice. This just isn't his dance. He did the technical steps but we thought it was awkward. It didn't seem smooth. We enjoyed it and it was an improvement over the first time they did Jive. It was fun and it had a lot of energy, but we don't think it was great. He's always charming and the fans will be behind that dance. Judges say 8,8,9 for a total of 25.

I have to say that we were most entertained, again, by Marie. Helio and Mel are better dancers, but they weren't so technically better than Marie was entertaining.

Did that make any sense????

Next up, the no rules, lifts allowed, freestyle round.


Mel and Maks. Regrettably we don't care for the hip hop style. They definitely danced well, but we didn't like it. We didn't find it entertaining. We think Maks should have choreographed something that showed her off better instead of letting her Spice Girls back up dancers add stuff to it. Judges say 9's across for a total of 27. We still think she is the best dancer. For the first time though, we think Maks didn't do well for her.


Marie and Jonathan. Entertaining to the last! They knew the judges wouldn't give them any credit for technical stuff so they just went for fun. The judges hated it. Whatever. She entertained us and we like her. They didn't dance for the judges, they danced for the fans. And nobody can say those lifts weren't difficult. They had plenty of content and they did ballroom stuff. They just played it for laughs and fun rather than any serious dancing. Judges say 8,7,7 for a total of 22. Sure it might be the right score from a technical perspective, but once again we don't care.


Helio and Julianne. They did a lot of really difficult tricks and lifts but the actual dance steps were very basic. Helio did a great job of flinging Julianne around in the air. Those were really tough. And the dance was high energy. Len thought it was the best freestyle of the night, but he didn't say why. Judges say 9,10,10 for a total of 29. We don't know why. We appreciated how difficult the lifts and tricks were, but we weren't really entertained by the dance.

Here's the final leader board:

55 Mel - technically excellent
54 Helio - high energy and excitement
46 Marie - best entertainer

We didn't think that the dancing was terribly impressive tonight. And we don't think any of the celebrities were dancing for the judges. They were dancing for their fans. You could tell that from the freestyle routines, which weren't designed for the judges to enjoy.

Mel and Maks danced for a Spice Girls audience. Marie and Jonathan went for vaudeville. Helio and Julianne went for charm and high energy.

Pam and I aren't using our votes based on tonight's dances. We're looking at the body of work. And if you are a fan, then we hope you used your votes for the celebrity you enjoyed most this season. Or for the celebrity you thought danced the best this season. Or for the celebrity who you didn't know before but ultimately came to enjoy this season.

Do I tell you who we voted for?

Pam voted for Helio. She enjoyed him the most all season.

Me? You guessed. I voted for Marie because she entertained me all season long and because she gave me some serious nostalgia.