Episode Report Card Kim: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Teaming Up
By Kim | Season 9 | Episode 14 | Aired on 11.02.2009
Bruno points out that they lost a little bit of sync in the group segments, and he thought Mya and Dmitry stood out. Carrie Ann loved the intensity, and that they all shared it, although their choreography was a bit basic. She adds that Mark redeemed himself. Len thought the routine had attack and got better as it went along. So the team gets a score as a whole that gets added to their individual score. Scores: Carrie Ann 8, Len 8, and Bruno 8.
Now Team Tango gets their rehearsal footage clip package. The first thing they decide is that it's better to only have three couples, so there will be less egos. The pros (Louis, Kym, and Derek) work together to choreography the whole routine before trying to teach it to anyone. Donny is the only male celebrity, so Kym wants to feature him. Kelly reminds us that she did a "dreadful tango" in the second week and this is her shot at redemption. After rehearsing individually, the teams come back together to try to sync everything up. Donny feels like he's getting the flu, and he's having trouble remembering the steps, but everyone helps him to get the routine down. I would rather be on Team Tango.
The opening group work is pretty good. It's not perfect, but there's much better synchronization than the first team. You can tell Donny's the only male non-pro though, as his moves are not quite as sharp. Kelly and Louis take the first solo and it's really good. The footwork and posture are great; my one complain is that Kelly's serious/fierce face looks very similar to her bored face. Donny actually manages to pull off sexy for the first time in this competition, and remembers some pretty fancy footwork. Derek and Joanna finish it off. I'm not crazy about the choreography in their segment, though. I expect better. The final group segment begins with synchronized kicks down the floor, and the crowd goes nuts. It does look really cool, and the whole ending segment really closes the routine out with a bang. They definitely earned a higher score than the first group. The crowd goes insane -- the most fired up I think they've been this season.
Carrie Ann comes out from behind her desk and high fives everyone and then smacks the dudes on the butt for putting in a lift. They did? I totally missed it. Len points out that the tango is easier than paso, because you're in hold the whole time, but he feels that this was still a superior routine. Bruno has compliments for all three teams as well. Scores: Carrie Ann 9, Len 9, and Bruno 10. After the scores are announced, it's kind of chaos backstage as they all celebrate.