Cue that theme music...

Posted: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 by Travis Cody in
10

Edit:  Forgot to hit the publish button last night!

It's encores and results!



Tonight we get down to our Final Four.  Next week is the semifinals, and the week after is the finale.

Let's see what we liked last night.

Some of you may remember the Nike commercials from the 1980's featuring Michael Jordan with Spike Lee's character Mars Blackmon from his film She's Gotta Have It.  You know the one?  Where Mars asks MJ what makes him so good and concludes that it's gotta be the shoes.


"Money, it's gotta be the shoes!"

It was far from the dance of the night...in fact, I didn't think the dance was very good.  But the Jive from Chad and Cheryl had Cheryl in BOOTS and so it makes the encores.  Money, it's gotta be the BOOTS!



Erin and Maks had a moment with their Argentine Tango.  Check out that opening jump off the top part of the stage.





The Foxtrot from Nicole and Derek easily could have been dance of the night.  This dance is so fun! 




Nicole and Derek had the two best performances on Monday.  Just edging out their Foxtrot for dance of the night honors was their Paso Doble.  If you love dance, you'll want to watch this several times for all the little details that make it a full performance and more than just a couple of minutes in a celebrity competition show.  It's just that good.





Outstanding!

Here's a reminder of our leader board after Monday's performances:


59 Nicole and Derek
53 Erin and Maks
53 Evan and Anna
45 Chad and Cheryl
43 Niecy and Louis

The judges select that fantastic Paso Doble from Nicole and Derek as the encore.  An excellent choice!

The Gypsy Kings are in the ballroom.  They played You've Got A Friend In Me, Spanish style, from the new Toy Story movie, accompanied by Dmitry, Tony, Cheryl, and Kym.

Oh man...why do they keep bringing back Dance Center?  Yeesh. 


Wait!  This is why we're here.  It's results...Nicole and Derek advance to the semifinals.

And now it's the first ever college dance championship!  Sweet!  We have teams from UC San Diego and Purdue University.  

First up, it's UCSD dancing Samba.  They've got 4 national titles in dance.  The group has 5 pairs.  Synchronicity is outstanding.  It's a slower tempo Samba full of classic Samba moves but not a lot of tricks or lifts.  The team is clean and precise, but seems to be lacking in typical Samba energy.  The strength of this team is their formations and pattern changes.  They lost a bit of precision in a few of the forms, particularly the diagonal.  But mostly they nailed them.  The main criticisms I have are not quite enough energy for my taste and too reserved in the performance.  Judges say 8's across for a total of 24. 

Next it's Purdue dancing Mambo.  This is a 4 couple team.  They look like they're having a blast.  The energy is excellent for Mambo.  Hip action is excellent.  The fellas are outstanding as leads for each gal.  Synchronicity was very good.  They danced with the same clean lines and precision as UCSD, but they didn't have as many pattern changes as the Tritons did.  I thought they interacted more with the audience and had more performance flair.  So the positives for this team are precision and performance, while the negatives are not enough formation changes.  Judges say 8,7,7 for a total of 22.      

Now the fans get 5 votes per phone line and another 5 per IP address.  There will be more teams on next week's results show.  I like seeing this feature, but I have to bring out kitty for this challenge.






I won't pick and you can't make me!

The Gypsy Kings return, this time accompanied by guest pro dancers.  Excellent!
No no!  No more Kenny Mayne!

Let's have results instead.  Evan and Anna advance to the semifinals.  Erin and Maks advance to the semifinals.

Despite the BOOTS, Chad and Cheryl are in the bottom two with Niecy and Louis.  

But perhaps because of the BOOTS, Chad and Cheryl advance to the semifinals.
That means Niecy and Louis are out.


Awwww.  I really enjoyed her this season.  I didn't know who she was before the show.  She was so much fun.

Join us next week for semifinals!  Just 2 weeks left until someone dances off with that Fabulous Mirror Ball trophy!

10 comments:

  1. Anonymous says:

    Been having issues posting comments this morning. Hoep this one takes. I think Niecey is just a hoot. Her side comments and facial expressions just crack me up.

    Have a great Day, Travis!

  1. Dianne says:

    there were comment issues on my blog as well
    took 3 tries to respond to people
    the deadly B6 error!!

    I loved Niecey's final remarks
    funny and sweet and genuine
    just like her

  1. Akelamalu says:

    The scores are close!

  1. Anonymous says:

    Trav: Thanks for the update. I see Evan slipped a little. Arre you still pulling for him?

  1. I was sorry to see Niecy go before Chad..

    The college competition is very cool

    Oh


    And


    BOOTS! Thump!

  1. That leap was totally amazing ... of for legses like that!!

  1. Lois: She's definitely a funny gal.

    Dianne: Niecy had a better run that I thought she would. It was as much about her personality as anything.

    Akelamalu: They are among the top 3.

    GGG: I am!

    V: BOOTS!

    Jamie: LEGSES!

  1. Jaye says:

    New site looks fab Trav! That foxtrot - fantabulous! That's the kind I can watch all night, proper Fred and Ginger!

  1. Marsha says:

    Nice new look to the blog!! I like it!!

  1. cathy says:

    I really enjoyed watching all the clips, even the robot one, LOL.