Episode Report Card Kim: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Season 5 Performance #2
By Kim | Season 5 | Episode 4 | Aired on 09.30.2007
Jane and Tony rehearse the mambo. Jane has trouble with the hip action. For some reason, they bring in a snake to show Jane how to slither around. Tony is really scared of the snake. That was almost as pointless as the etiquette expert. Jane looks freaking fantastic. She's got better legs than most twenty-year-olds I know. Jane is still a little stiff, and Tony isn't flashy enough to distract in the same way that Maks or Derek can be. Jane ends up looking too careful.
What do the judges think? Len thought it was precise and neat, when it needed to be raunchy and sizzling. I totally agree, but the audience boos and boos. Tom points out that Len used to hate raunch. Bruno thought was pretty and elegant, and Jane needs to get her fangs out. Carrie Ann thought the elegance worked, and Jane's playing to her strengths. Tom walks close to the camera to talk to us about voting, and then realizes that we're in HD. Yes, I am now, Tom. And you do need to back it up. Jane tells Drew backstage that she thinks you can have mambo moves that are both sexy and classy. Tony tells her she did a great job. Jane says she's having a great time, and no one can believe she's doing it. Despite the judges' disagreement in their comments, they end up giving 7, 7, and 7 yet again.
To finish off the night, we have last week's top scoring couple, Sabrina and Mark. Sabrina got the message about no hip-hop, which would be kind of hard to do in the quickstep. Sabrina, like everyone else, has trouble with the frame and the posture. At least this week, she didn't say cheetah-licious. They seem to have the combination of hopping and smoothness that the other couples mostly lacked. It's a bit disconcerting to see them dance past two guys dressed up as cavemen in the audience. I imagine someone finding this ten years from now and going, "The hell?" Ooh, they pulled off a tandem duck walk, which made my knees hurt just to look at. They end with Sabrina in a split, and she makes it look effortless.
Carrie Ann was worried about Sabrina making the transition to ballroom, but says that she shouldn't have worried. Len thinks Sabrina is fast but has control. He goes on a rant about balancing being fast with being slow, and Bruno snarks that it's called the quickstep. Len tells Bruno not to be a smartass. Whoa! Len! I think someone's a little tired and might also need a snack. Len was trying to say that there needs to be contrast. Bruno loved it, of course. Tom jokes to Len: "You want more raunch and a slower quickstep. I don't know you anymore!" Tom is such a pro. He makes hosting look easy, and I think we've all seen with Samantha and Drew that it's not that easy.