Episode Report Card Kim: B | 56 USERS: C YOU GRADE IT Hazardous To Your Health
By Kim | Season 8 | Episode 2 | Aired on 2009.03.16
Lil Kim and Derek got a lot of praise last week for their cha cha. In rehearsal, Kim has some trouble getting the elegance and grace of the quickstep until Derek starts talking to her about designers like Versace and Gucci, and then she gets it. They start their routine, and Kim's classy outfit is kind of ruined by her tattoos peeking out, in my opinion. Her moves are sharp when they need to be and flowing when they need to be and she kind of looks like a dancer in a '40s movie. It's good!
Bruno thinks it was vivacious and uplifting, and other than minor quibbles has no problems with it. Carrie Ann loved it and gives special praise to Derek's choreography. Len thinks Kim and Shawn need to learn from each other, because he thinks Kim had a lot of quantity but no quality. Carrie Ann and Bruno can't believe him, but Len says that they had no body contact in hold and need to be more refined. Leave it to Len to hold them to the actual ballroom dancing rules. How dare he! Scores: Carrie Ann 8, Len 7 and Bruno 8.
Hey, remember Melissa? And how the Bachelor dumped her? And then she went on the show with only a few days rehearsal and blew it out of the water? So now she's back, and trying to learn the salsa. Her biggest problem in rehearsal is that she's used to doing big movements as a cheerleader, and she has to learn to tone it down. In their routine, Melissa comes out with a ton of energy and enthusiasm, and her footwork is sharp. There's something a touch off to me -- I think it's her posture. She's sticking her butt out a little. But it all moves so quickly that you can overlook the tiny problems, at least now. She has time to work on it before the competition narrows down. Anyway, they get a mostly standing ovation.
Carrie Ann is thrilled to see a real salsa and thought they nailed it. Len admits that he was gyrating in his seat, and says it was the salsa of the night. Bruno thought it had a ton of flavor and content, and he can't wait to see more. Backstage, Melissa says that she has started to prove to herself that she deserves to be there. Scores: Carrie Ann 9, Len 8, and Bruno 9. Those are the first two nines of the season. Tony reminds us that no one is safe and people need to call and vote.
The final couple of the night is Gilles and Cheryl. Gilles got the highest score of the night last week for his cha cha. Cheryl puts Gilles through his paces in rehearsal, trying to turn him into a classical ballroom dancer for the quickstep. Gilles stops dancing and tells Cheryl that his shoulder hurts. Of course, he has to strip off his shirt to show her where it hurts, instead of just pulling up his sleeve or something. Hey. I'm not complaining over here. Turns out that he has a separation in his shoulder. Yikes! But the doctors think he'll be okay this week. They start dancing and Gilles is dressed up like Clark Kent. The beginning of the routine is lyrical, but not all that quicksteppy. That improves towards the middle, and then Gilles ends the routine by whipping off his glasses and sliding across the floor, tearing open his shirt to reveal a Superman costume (with a G instead of an S on the chest). Damn. He is a good-looking dude. Overall, it was decent but kind of slow for the quickstep and not a lot of content, I thought.