Season 28, Week 11, the Finale Full of Freestyles and another Bachelorette win

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Ladies and gentlemen, we have our final four for the Finale. The couple I’m really rooting for at this point is Ally and Sasha, though the fact that they keep ending up in the Bottom Two despite consistent perfect scores really boggles my mind. (What is up with that, America? They are fantastic.) To my eyes, they are far and above all the other couples.

We have an opening dance to Donna Summer’s “Last Dance,” then Ally and Sasha kick off the night.

Sasha and Ally, jive

So, forgive me, but LAST WEEK they did “Redemption Dances” where they revisited a dance they had done earlier and tried to do it better. What, pray tell, is the bloody difference with in this episode starting with another dance from earlier in the season? #Lame. 

And, as I remarked in Week 4, when they did “Proud Mary” previously, it just doesn’t/didn’t match up to the Mark Ballas version (the gold standard). Great song, but jeez.

JUDGES: 30 (out of 30)

Gleb and Lauren, foxtrot

Lauren and Gleb revisit “Jolene,” another great song, but jeez.

Also, this song is directed at a woman who’s her rival, but only she and Gleb are dancing. Is this supposed to be her inner dialogue? I hate dances that don’t make sense.

JUDGES: 27 (out of 30)

Witney and Kel, jazz

Witney and Kel revisit their High School Musical thing, which I hated the first time.

JUDGES: 30 (out of 30)

Alan and Hannah, Viennese waltz

Alan and Hannah redo the Taylor Swift song in a Viennese waltz.

JUDGES: 28 (out of 30)

OK, recaps over. Now we have an all-cast (from Season 28) dance with Pitbull (a #DWTS favorite), then on to the Freestyles! What we’ve been waiting for!

Sasha and Ally, Freestyle: Miami Sound Machine, “Conga”

This was such a perfect song for her to do. She enters out of a giant egg, and first dances with the women of the troupe. 

There was one lift that looked like it went wrong. It was quickly followed up by a signature Sasha Farber move, where he is holding her and beating on her butt like it’s a conga drum. It was truly awesome.

This was a great Freestyle. (Not influenced at all by Sasha removing his shirt at the end, and throwing it into the crowd.) Heh ;-)

JUDGES: 30 (out of 30) Once again making it a perfect score of 60 for the night. Why aren’t they winning this? DAMMIT. ;-/

Gleb and Lauren, Freestyle: Luke Bryan’s “Country Girl (Shake It for Me)”

(L-R): Jenna, Lauren, Emma; Val, Gleb, Brandon. Courtesy of ABC.

Oh, man! Do I love this song! And since it’s ABC, it’s actually Luke Bryan singing it (although I do love their singers who do covers, but it sure is nice to hear the Luke Bryan version tonight). 

And Lauren was indeed in her element with this one. It was also great to see the other dancers (like Val and Jenna) do a country line dance thing. Fun times!

JUDGES: 30 (out of 30)

The pro dancers announce their upcoming tour, and dance to Whitney Houston’s “How Will I Know?”

(How will they know that  COVID will derail the tour?) I didn’t say that…

Alan and Hannah, Freestyle: Alicia Keyes, “Girl on Fire”/Gwen Stefani, “Hollaback Girl”

This looked similar to some of the other Freestyles, but it did suit Hannah and Alan.

JUDGES: 30 (out of 30)

Witney and Kel, Freestyle: Kriss Kris’s’ “Jump”

Len compares it to “the first number you did,” and since I didn’t like either one, I have to agree.

JUDGES: 29 (out of 30) Rare for anyone to get less than 30 on a Freestyle, I must say.

MICHE’s Favorite Freestyles

1. Sasha and Ally

2. Gleb and Lauren

3. Alan and Hannah

(And this order is how I would rate them in the finals.)

Cher is here to sing “The Beat Goes On,” with backing track by Sonny Bono.

Sadly, it’s Gleb and Lauren who get booted out as 4th. :-(

Third place: (completely unjustly) Sasha and Ally

Second place: (also unjustly) Witney and Kel

And the Season 28 winner is Alan Bersten and Hannah Brown.

Ugh. So glad this season is over.

But congrats to Alan. He has put in a lot of work over many seasons, so it was nice to see him win his first Mirror Ball. And may Hannah Brown never cross my vision ever ever again.

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S028 Week 6: The Week Inexplicably with No Theme (and Inexcusably)

 
Twenty-eight seasons, each week with a theme, and suddenly they run out of creative juices and have no theme? WT actual F? How ridiculous is this? I know they have a new director, wanting to put his own mark on things, but this was inexcusable. We have weeks we rely upon. But ok, it is what it is, let’s proceeds with No Theme Week (listed on IMDB as simply “Week 6”). Sigh.

Sasha and Ally, quickstep

The wondrous Sasha and Ally start us off in this no theme week by diving into the 80s. They start off with Ally in a blue box (to match her outfit) and Sasha in a yellow box. I don’t know what it was about it, but it really screamed 80s to me. All the creative lights and sets really worked for me too—the squares and circles merging… oh yes, the dance. I personally loved it. I love Ally and Sasha. At the end, Ally slipped a bit, but Sasha caught her gallantly.

They were dancing the quickstep to AHA’s “Take On Me.”

Bruno and Carrie Ann think that Ally “lost synchronicity.” Len disagrees. Carrie Ann: “I love the concept, first of all. It’s very hard to start in two separate areas. You have excelled. The body contact was just gorgeous.” She says that she’s “not going to move her chair” (since she slipped and fell out of it last week). Len shocks Tom Bergeron by being the first to give them a 9.

JUDGES: 25 (out of 30)

Pasha and Kate, Viennese waltz

Don’t they both look so beautiful? I Love this couple. I was rooting so hard for them all season. I really really really wanted them to win. Pasha’s choreography with Kate Flannery was nothing short of brilliant, all season long. Every dance they danced (to me) was magical. And the Viennese waltz? Swoon. It’s so hard to do a proper Viennese waltz. I loved this dance so much.

They danced to Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing.” It was breathtaking.

JUDGES: 27 (out of 30)

Kate even says: “Pasha is amazing. He knows how to get me to do what I need to do.” (And she did all those spins while suffering from vertigo.) Wow.

Witney and Kel, quickstep

Maybe this started out as an 80s Week, but then it fell apart? Kel and Witney are dancing to Stevie Wonder’s “Part-Time Lover.” After the sublime pastry that was Kate and Pasha’s Viennese waltz, this seemed like a bit of a mess to me. Didn’t like it at all.

Len: “I thought the routine was terrific. Kel, I congratulate you on your dancing, however, there was a major incident over here. I thought you did an amazing job. Quickstep’s a hard dance. It was fast, it was clean.” This misstep, which Witney blames on her dress (and DWTS always makes dresses too long, and dancers trip over them), makes Witney cry backstage with Erin. Aw. Boo boo.

JUDGES: 26 (out of 30)

Jenna and Karamo, contemporary

Jenna Johnson is the Queen of Contemporary on this show. To my eyes, no one does it better. For me personally though, it’s my least favorite dance on this show. But what they did was beautiful. Very moving. Karamo dedicated it to his dad, whom he had been out of touch with. (Kind of bizarre because they danced to “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi, and the lyrics are of a romantic nature.)

Lots of folks are getting their first 9s this week.

JUDGES: 25 (out of 30)

Alan and Hannah, samba

The more I think about it, the more MOST of this show seems like it was supposed to be an 80s theme. And then SOME PEOPLE decided not to do that. Yes, I’m looking at you, Hannah Brown, dancing to Carrie Underwood.

Although we do get a primo shirt-ripping-open moment from Alan, so there’s that.

Val and Sailor, jive

Again back to our (possible) 80s theme, we have Val and Sailor dancing a jive to WHAM’s “Wake Me Up (Before You Go Go).”

Vsl Chmerkovskiy is one of the best (if not THE best) choreographer on this show. What I love most about him is that he really HEARS the lyrics and punctuates them in the dance. It’s truly brilliant. Plus, the steps! The choreography in this dance was just amazing. Some of the best jive I’ve ever seen. So damn good. And Sailor kept right up with him. Wonderful dance.

I loved it so much.

JUDGES: 27 (out of 30)

Lindsay and Sean, Viennese waltz

Ugh. Just typing that makes me cringe. Viennese waltz? Sean Spicer? Ugh. Especially after the luminous and wonderful Viennese waltz we had earlier with Kate and Pasha.

As expected, it was a train wreck. Please avert your eyes. Luckily, Lindsay did all the Viennese waltz type steps and Sean mostly walked around. Ugh.

JUDGES: 21 (out of 30)

Emma and James, samba

The lighting designer deserves a medal for this amazing lighting design. (Tell me again how this wasn’t supposed to be 80s Week…)

Ah, but to the samba. It’s wonderful.

Bet you thought James Van Der Beek couldn’t shake his hips, samba-style? Well, you’d be wrong. It was blissful to watch, with all the samba moves you’d expect (and many you wouldn’t). Did you know that people on DWTS rarely incorporate the hand movements that go with samba? Well, James did.

JUDGES: 27 (out of 30)

Erin mentions that they are at the top of the Leader Board. (They are combining last week’s scores with this week’s, since no one went home on Disney Night.)

They deserve it. That dance was really spectacular.

Gleb and Lauren, contemporary

So, one of the things that was lost with this new director is that we used to have a day where everyone got out their emotional stuff, usually in the third or fourth week. The whole night was one of sobbing. I miss that.

This dance hits on many of my DWTS pet peeves: contemporary dance, sobby emotional messes and worst of all, a singer performing their own song. UGH. I was unmoved by this dance.

But let’s proceed.

JUDGES: 26 (out of 30)

Now, at this point, after seeing so many great dances tonight, you’d be thinking: “Well, OF COURSE, Sean Spicer is the one going home. He’s TERRIBLE.” Well, you’d be wrong.

I have learned that when they have these right-wing nut jobs on, there is a large contingent of Americans who vote them up just for sport, irrelevant of how they are actually dancing. Which is truly tragic, and unfair to the great dancers of the night. As is the case tonight.

The two couples in the Bottom Two were people who danced the best tonight: Ally/Sasha and Sailor/Val. As they were announced, I heard America SCREAMING at their TVs: “Not Sean Spicer? WTF?”

Nope. My favorite dancers of the night go home. So sad. And poor Sailor was beside herself. She couldn’t stop crying. Understandably. How can you do so well (and watch someone who clearly sucks) and you’re the one going home? It’s a hard DWTS lesson. Sorry, Sailor. You deserved better.

MICHE’s Favorites of Week 6 (NO theme night, maybe shoulda been an 80s Night?)

1.  Val and Sailor, jive 

2. Pasha and Kate, Viennese waltz 

3. Sasha and Ally, quickstep

4. Emma and James, samba

5. Jenna and Karamo, contemporary

6. Alan and Hannah, samba

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S028 Week 5: Disney Week

What you want from Disney Night on Dancing with the Stars is big splashy Disneyness. Boy, did we get that with the superb opening number, at Disneyland,  natch. The opening credits showed everyone enjoying themselves, riding rides at Disneyland. Awwwww. Great choreography, too.

Val and Sailor: Viennese waltz

Seriously, Val Chmerkovskiy IS Prince Charming. So this Viennese waltz to “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” from Cinderella is perfect for these two to open Disney night.

Kudos also go to the set decorators and costumers for this delectable sparkly cream puff of a dance.

Sailor’s mom, Christie Brinkley, was in the audience, crying.

Len: “I thought it was light and fluffy, like a soufflé. I would have likeed a tiny bit more in hold, but having said that… there’s no way you’re not back next week.” Bruno: “This girl looks like the ideal Disney princess. You were actually acting it very well. Light, fluid, elegant. I can really see you apply yourself to the dance. The balance in your spins start to be on the axis. Before, you were slightly off, now you’re right on it. You were lovely.”

JUDGES: 24 (out of 30)

Jenna and Karamo, samba

Karamo is dancing this samba to a song from The Lion King. In his package, he looks at a Disneyland mountain, and dedicates the dance to his sons. (Awwww.) 

The sets and costumes couldn’t be more different from the previous number, though there is still plenty of sparkle.

Bruno: “You needed more elasticity. You don’t step a samba, you go through it.” Carrie Ann: “No matter what you do, you radiate terrific.”

JUDGES: 21 (out of 30)

Pasha and Kate, jazz

I LOVE this couple. I truly want them to win. Kate Flannery is awesome and Pasha is such a perfect partner for her. And Mary Poppins? Come on! Perfect. (Especially since Kate comes flying in from the sky, Poppins bag in hand.) 

It really helps to have an actress attempt such a number (“Spoonful of Sugar”), I thought this dance was fantastic.

Carrie Ann: “I love how you started off with qucikstep, because that’s something you really excelled in. But you were so well-rehearsed. You got every line. You guys are so in sync. You’re such a powerful couple. I love watching you dance.” (Mid comment, Carrie Ann falls out of her chair… don’t ask.) They’re getting bonus points now.” Len: “What I liked, there was a nice section of polka. You don’t see that a lot. There was Charleston, there was a bit of quickstep going on. And it was all wrapped up in a sweet and delicious routine. You are back in the game!” Bruno: “It had an olden days musical feel to it. Full of content. And you brought your own personality to it.”

JUDGES: 24 (out of 30)

Lindsay and Sean, quickstep

Sean dedicates this dance to his dad, struggling with cancer. It’s from Toy Story, and Sean is Woody.

The less said about this dance, the better. Yikes.

Len: “I watched it very carefully. You did nice heel leads on the forward step, which I like to see. Your frame was pretty good. There was a lot of stuff in hold. Congratulations.”

JUDGES: 19 (out of 30)

Sasha and Ally, contemporary

 Ally and Sasha performed a contemporary dance to Beauty and the Beast. Halfway through the song, rose petals start falling from the ceiling. It’s beautiful. So is the dance.

Someone seriously needs to tie down Carrie Ann’s chair…

The judges loved this dance, each giving it the first 9s of the season.

JUDGES: 27 (out of 30)

Daniella Karagach, someone who was hired as a pro, but didn’t get a partner, does her own dance to something from Frozen 2 (“Into the Unknown”). The great thing about Disney night is that they really make full use of the dance troupe, not more than in this number. Daniella is fabulous, by the way, even if she ends the dance on the judges’ table (man, I hate when they do that!).

Glen and Lauren, samba

After all the frou frou about her modesty, I think it’s hilarious that Lauren is playing a mermaid, yet she is completely covered up. LOL They dance the samba to “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid.

Carrie Ann: “You had the samba bounce.” Len: “There was a lot of samba content.”

JUDGES: 23 (out of 30)

Witney and Kel, jazz

Man, I just hated everything about this dance. Sometimes Witney and her choreography are sublime. Other times, she relies on quirks which really bug me. This dance was firmly in the latter category. Ugh. Plus, it was to High School Musical the Musical the Series, or whatever the name of that damn show is. Also ugh.

Judges though, loved it. Ugh. Carrie Ann: “That was nonstop, high-octane dancing. Way to go.”

JUDGES: 26 (out of 30)

Alan and Hannah, foxtrot

The sets and costumes on this are amazing. They are dancing to “A Whole New World” from Aladdin. It’s hard to make a magic carpet actually look like one, but it really did. 

The only bad thing was that they cranked out the dry ice, which is great for atmospherics, but makes it damn hard to see the dancers’ feet, which is really important in a dance show.

I still haven’t gotten over my Bachelorette bias, though, and Hannah Brown still really annoys me.

Len thought there were “too many swooshes,” so he gives it a 7. The other two thought it was a 9. Sigh.

JUDGES: 25 (out of 30)

Emma and James, paso doble

Now let me say this about that. Certain songs/dances remain indelible in our memories. This song, from Pirates of the Caribbean, was done earlier (in previous seasons) by Witney and was really spectacular. So the first challenge is getting that one out of one’s mind.

Then the dance starts. The sets and costumes are spectacular. And Emma’s choreography is superb and stunning. It’s hard not to love this dance.

And I really love James and Emma as a couple.

Tom Bergeron thanks the crew for all the setups tonight.

Carrie Ann: “That was insane. This was your dance.” Len: “It was dramatic. A really great routine.” Bruno: “It was powerful. A big hit.”

JUDGES: 26 (out of 30)

And then, the big question. Who are the bottom two?

Silly, it’s DISNEY NIGHT. No one goes home on Disney Night.

(But they lined them all up anyway, and I think that was kinda mean.)

Miche’s Favorites of Disney Night

1. Pasha and Kate, jazz

2. Sasha and Ally, contemporary

3. Val and Sailor, Viennese waltz

4. Emma and James, paso doble

5. Alan and Hannah, foxtrot

6. Jenna and Karamo, samba

7. Gleb and Lauren, samba

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