Episode Report Card Kim: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT It's a Mod, Mod World
By Kim | Season 8 | Episode 12 | Aired on 04.20.2009
Last week, the judges loved LT, even though I wasn't that impressed. LT was happy to dance to music that had words, since that's his criteria. This week, LT had a charity golf tournament, so he brought Edyta along. He made her try to hit a golf ball, and it gave her empathy for how difficult it is for him to dance. They begin rehearsing their waltz, and LT has trouble understanding the gracefulness necessary for this dance. So I don't have high hopes, and... it's actually pretty awesome! The beginning is not my favorite -- Edyta is lying on the steps, and I thought she was dead or something, but I guess she was supposed to be sleeping, and then LT goes over and "wakes" her up. But LT is very graceful and smooth throughout, with good extension on his arms and legs, and good footwork. At one point, he goes down to one knee and sort of slips, but he recovers nicely. That horrible coat that Edyta is wearing gets removed about halfway through, and her dress is just beautiful, very flowy in shades of blue. Except that there is an attached scarf that goes from her back to her wrist and during her turns it gets caught on her head. I think the audience giggled about that. But overall, great job and probably my favorite routine for these two so far. It's a good week for them to have a breakthrough because I've been pushing for LT to go for a while now.
Bruno enjoyed the Dr. Zhivago romance of it all, but he points out LT's bad turns and slip. Carrie Ann saw more openness and freedom in his movements, and she also compliments his work on Edyta's dress. Len liked the elegance, although he also saw a few glitches. He was shocked at how well the dance went, though. Me too, Len. Backstage, LT says that he's having fun and Edyta jokes that the reason she usually doesn't wear such heavy clothes is to avoid getting tangled up in them. Scores: Carrie Ann 7, Len 7 and Bruno 7. Hmm. I thought it was a little better than that, although LT points out that they did make some mistakes.
Last week, Lil' Kim got perfect marks from the audience, Carrie Ann and Bruno, but now she wants to impress Len as well. Their first challenge in the rumba is to tone down Kim's sexiness a little bit. Derek is also struggling, because he wants the routine to be entertaining, but also meet Len's technical requirements. So their rumba starts out strong, although I don't see Kim's sexiness being toned down at all. I think it works, though. I find that the middle loses a little something, and I think it's because Kim seems more focused on the audience instead of her partner, so the intimacy isn't quite there. The footwork is great, and I almost always like Derek's choreography. They pull off one amazing move where Kim has one foot wedged against Derek's and then she leans to the side and does an arabesque where the only thing keeping her from crashing on her face is Derek's hand holding hers. She gets a little wobbly, but it's impressive nonetheless.