Trav's Thoughts

Cue that theme music...it's encores and results time!

Who did we like? Well I'll tell you.

Shawn and Mark's Viennese Waltz was the fairy tale we love to see. Click here.

Gilles and Cheryl danced arguably the best Paso Doble by a celebrity in the history of the show. Click here.

As good as that Paso was, I'm giving dance of the night to Lil Kim and Derek for a delightfully classy and sassy Viennese Waltz. Click here.

Here's the leader board from Monday:

29 Gilles and Cheryl
26 Shawn and Mark
26 Kim and Derek
25 Melissa and Tony
23 Chuck and Julianne
22 David and Kym
20 LT and Edyta
21 Ty and Chelsie
18 Steve and Lacey

And guess what? The judges pick Kim and Derek as their encore choice too.

I was mesmerized for a few minutes at the top of the show by the American Idol performance of Adam Lambert. That dang show can't fit its bloated self into an hour. The performance was worth missing a few minutes at the top of DWTS though.

Results!

Shawn and Mark are safe, as are Kim and Derek.

OK...it's time to focus.

Etta James is in the freakin' ballroom! She performs At Last, accompanied beautifully by Maks and Karina. There are no words. Etta James. Damn.

And now more results. Gilles and Cheryl will return next week, as will Steve and Lacey. Well now. Someone unexpected will be out...at least unexpected at this point in the show.

Who else is safe? It's Chuck and Julianne, followed by Melissa and Tony.

It's the Macy's Stars of Dance, featuring the Las Vegas show Le Reve. That was amazing. It's a combination of dance, martial arts, and acrobatics. They have pairs performing Latin style dance, surrounded by a group that seems modeled on the Tibetan monks and that martial style, and behind that is a troup of acrobats. Tremendous! I've never heard of the show, but it is reportedly quite surreal. To take a look, click here.

And now Demi Lovato sings La La Land, accompanied by Benji Schwimmer and Tori Smith. Hated the screechy singing if that's what she calls it, but LOVE TO WATCH BENJI DANCE!

OK. Now it's business time.

Ty and Chelsie are safe, so that means that the bottom two are...

David and Kym
LT and Edyta

And now the dance off.

David and Kym reprise their Viennese Waltz from Monday. They should focus more on making this smooth. The characters they created for the dance were fine, but they need to improve on the dancing. It's a little better, but still rough in the middle. The beginning and end were ok. The chemistry between the two of them was definitely better and that was a big piece that was missing when they did the dance the first time. Judges say 8's across for a total of 24, improving Monday's score.

LT and Edyta reprise their Paso Doble from Monday. He needs to find the fire and passion, and not be so stiff and plodding. Unfortunately, the beginning started off worse than the first time. He walked through most of the dance, and maybe that was his way of saying he's had enough of dancing. This style just didn't suit him. He was much better on the free flowing dances. Given styles where he can connect with rhythm, he does very well. Judges say 6,7,7 for a total of 20, which is the same as Monday's score.

These scores get added to the vote totals. LT and Edyta survive, so that means that David and Kym are out.



We're dancing Rumba and Jive next week. YAY for Jive!

Connecticut finished off a perfect season last night, trouncing Louisville to win the women's national championship. The Huskies dominated the entire season, winning all 39 games by at least 10 points. The UConn women's program is 6-0 all time in championship games.

Congratulations also to Lousiville. Everyone thought the men's final would feature Big East teams, and it turned out the the Big East party was on the women's side.

Best of luck to the seniors from both schools...

UofL - Candyce Bingham, Angel McCoughtry, Chauntise Wright

UConn - Cassie Kerns, Renee Montgomery, Tahirah Williams

I messed up on yesterday's post and forgot to add the photo credit. I used the picture from ESPN's coverage. Apologies to the photographer.

Credit for the photo of UConn above goes to AP photographer Mark Humphrey.