Welcome to Motown Night on Dancing with the Stars! This may be my favorite opening number yet this season, with the contestants being introduced as a part of the routine, and perhaps for the first time in the history of the show, the hosts joined the dance! That’s right, Julianne and Alfonso stepped onto the ballroom and danced alongside the pros, at least for a few eight counts. I’m so glad they’re taking advantage of BOTH Dancing with the Stars hosts being Mirrorball champions.
THE DANCES
Another Barry dance filled with charm and showmanship! The choreography was a bit slow-paced and I noticed his arms seemed a bit shaky sometimes, but his footwork looked really solid. With every step, he knew where he was supposed to go and moved with perfect timing. Also, I love the shoutout he gave to the late Florence Henderson after his performance.
Even though it’s only week three, I could tell this dance did not demonstrate Lele’s full capabilities. After making a strong first impression in the first two weeks of the competition, Lele was really pushing herself, which I think may have caused her to get in her head a bit. She still did well, but it also seemed like she was struggling, like she was a little off balance. I think Derek said it best when he said “I know you know that wasn’t the best time you’ve done that.” I bet she did the routine even better many times in rehearsal, but for some reason she got thrown off when it was time to perform for the judges. The choreography was really cute, though.
After this team’s struggles from last week, they really wanted to make a comeback. That’s why I think the choreography was a little easy, to boost Mauricio’s confidence after last week. His execution was clean and beautiful, so hopefully he has some momentum back, even though the judges were pretty divided on the scoring.
I love a good jive, and Jason absolutely nailed it. He also lip synched during much of the routine, which not only was charming, but was also very impressive that he was able to lip synch while still hitting all of that choreography. And they got the first 9s of the season!
Alyson is not the strongest dancer this season, but I think this was her best dance yet! Sometimes it looked like Sasha was dragging her around a bit, BUT I love the joy she showed in this routine.
Tyson has improved by leaps and bounds since week one. In this routine, he performed with confidence and a great sense of fun, even though he was hunched over a lot (maybe because Jenna is short?) and stumbled a few times.
The more I see of Charity, the more I like her. This foxtrot was gorgeous! Every moment was perfectly placed, and executed with ease. It looked like Charity could do this all day. This week’s guest judge, Michael Strahan, said it was like “watching water roll over rocks,” and I agree wholeheartedly.
I loved the storytelling of this dance. So far in the competition, the strongest aspects of Mira’s dances have been the lines and shapes she’s been able to make with her long legs. While I really enjoyed watching this dance, I am starting to wonder how much farther Mira’s gorgeous dancer’s legs can take her.
This dance had such great energy! The choreography was so challenging and Ariana performed it with confidence and joy.
This was a solid and fun performance from Adrian. I think what influenced my viewing of this team’s quickstep was that it was directly after Ariana’s quickstep. It’s hard to follow such a phenomenal routine in the same style.
While Harry is improving a little each week, I still think he needs to become a lot more comfortable on the dance floor. For this performance, I felt like he was dancing like he wanted to be smaller, which isn’t great, since he’s a tall guy! His size does make things harder for him, so I’ll give him that.
What a great way to close the night! This was a cutesy, sweet, stunning dance. I agree with Carrie Ann when she said Xochitl is a “dynamic” performer. There was just one small hiccup, she kind of stepped on her dress at one point, but it didn’t take away from how fun it was to watch this dance!
THE ELIMINATION
This week, there were three couples facing elimination:Tyson & Jenna, Harry & Rylee, and Alyson & Sasha. Ultimately, Tyson & Jenna were eliminated. Honestly, none of the bottom three contestants are terribly strong dancers, but I thought Tyson did the best of these three on this particular night.
Overall, this was a very fun night. A lot of teams got their highest score yet, and I particularly enjoyed that there were a lot of foxtrots, which is one of my favorite styles. I am looking forward to next week’s theme: Disney100 night!!
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