Episode Report Card Kim: B+ | 64 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Perfection
By Kim | Season 8 | Episode 6 | Aired on 2009.03.30
Hey, did you know Chuck and Julianne are a real-life couple? I don't know if that's been mentioned. Last week, Chuck finally earned a little praise, but now they have to do the Lindy Hop, and you know Julianne will be running around the floor like a maniac. The problem in rehearsals is that Chuck has a huge fear of landing on his head. He seriously won't shut up about landing on his head. Julianne changes up the choreography to accommodate him. I wonder if she would have done that for anyone else. Chuck looks like a big dork as they practice, and not in a good way. As previously mentioned, they are dressed like '50s soda jerks for their routine. Chuck does a lot of dancing for this one; I don't know if it's dancing, but it's definitely athletic and they take advantage of Chuck's height to do a lot of tricks. At one point he throws Julianne so high that I thought she was going to end up in the third row. A lot of the choreography seems recycled from Julianne's jitterbug routine last season, though, with more lifts and throws put into it. I don't know if the judges care about that or not, but there were a few sections that looked awfully familiar.
Carrie Ann thought Chuck was good this week and had fun, and she wants to see Chuck go for it a little more and stop being so restrained. Len thought it was competent, but that will only get him so far. Bruno tries to make a pizza metaphor but no one knows what he's talking about. He reiterates that Chuck needs to focus more on the details that will put him over the top, and make his movements crisper and sharper. Scores: Carrie Ann 8, Len 7, and Bruno 7. Backstage, Chuck wonders if a fear of falling on your head is so irrational.
Last week, Lawrence ended up in the middle of the pack, despite feeling like he put together a great routine. This week, he and Edyta are rehearsing the Argentine tango. LT argues about wanting to learn the steps before he can get into the character, but Edyta wants him to do both at the same time. She's really brave to go up against such a huge guy. Edyta brings in her husband Alec to show him how the moves should be done and how to perform instead of just follow the steps. So did it pay off? Well, it's a mixed bag. First of all, their song is terrible. It's just loud, LOUD accordion and I can't hear any of the other instruments. I don't know if that was on purpose or a sound glitch, but I found it really distracting. And the rest of the dance is smooth, but it seems like a lot of LT standing there while Edyta does five minutes of footwork on her own, which is kind of boring. There are some dramatic lifts towards the end, and they are well done, but I wish there had been more of that at the opening. I think their routine is suffering from coming so soon after Derek and Kim's.