Episode Report Card Kim: A- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Mambo Italiano
By Kim | Season 9 | Episode 12 | Aired on 10.26.2009
The next couple to dance is Melissa and Mark, doing the waltz. Last week, Melissa's tango seemed more annoyed than intense. Melissa announces that she's ready to get serious. Now? She's ready now? Mark really needs to cut his hair. He has got quite the bush on his head. How can he think it looks good? Mark gives Melissa a hard time for raising her shoulders up to her ears. Mark brings his mother, professional dancer Shirley Ballas in, to help Melissa. She's kind of a ballbreaker, but it seems like it's what Melissa needs, because she's not listening to Mark. So how is their routine? Well, it's more graceful than Melissa has been in the past; I know I've ragged on her about that. She seems tentative at first, but gets into it a little better as it goes. Her footwork is better too. Near the end, her right shoulder goes up by her ear, which is what Mark kept telling her NOT to do. And then they do this weird spin at the end, and I'm not sure what was supposed to happen, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't right, because it looked horrible. The whole routine was adequate, but kind of boring, especially for this state in the competition.
Bruno says it wasn't good enough for week six, because Melissa was too much in her head and she lost her posture at the end. Carrie Ann thought it wasn't gliding and fluid enough and was too choppy. Len thought it had musicality and was elegant, while there were some problems. Len thinks the OTHER judges are too harsh. The world just turned upside down. Even Mark looks surprised to get praise from Len. Scores: Carrie Ann 7, Len 7, and Bruno 6. So Len thought they were too harsh but gave the same score? Also, I should mention that Mark got a haircut after that horrible hair in rehearsal footage, thank God. I almost want to vote for them just because he cut his hair. But not really.
Last week, Mark finally broke through with the judges thanks to his paso doble. And he even made the usually sour Lacey laugh in their confessional. This week, they have the jitterbug and hope to keep it up. Lacey announces that she's making Mark do all the tricks and jumps since he can, and she's going to let him shine. Lacey takes him to a jitterbug club, and I thought those all closed like a year after Swingers came out. I don't understand Lacey's outfit in this routine; it's sort of a French maid but also sort of Minnie Mouse? Or a cat? Anyway, the routine itself is pretty awesome. High energy, with lots of tricks and flips by Mark, and the regular dancing is not bad either. It loses a little in the last quarter, but how could it not?