Episode Report Card Kim: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Fix You
By Kim | Season 15 | Episode 7 | Aired on 10.15.2012
Judges? Carrie Ann loved how dramatic, sexy, and graceful it was. Len points out that the bolero is slow so mistakes can be magnified, but Emmitt danced it cleanly. Paula calls Emmitt a "sexy beast" and loved that he went by the "less is more" philosophy. Bruno thought the desire was tangible, and Emmitt had smooth and yet masculine lines. Scores: Carrie Ann 9, Len 9, Paula 9, and Bruno 9. Those might be a little high. The judges are getting 9 happy.
Gilles and Peta fell down the leaderboard last week and this week, they have Bollywood. Peta knows nothing about it, so she brings in an expert. As they continue rehearsing, Peta is freaking out because the dance is not coming together, and Gilles comments that they don't know what they're doing. Like the pros, I don't know much about this style of dance since they don't usually do it on this show. The routine looks very energetic, but Gilles slips in and out of proper form to my eye. Sometimes he looks great, but sometimes his arms and legs just aren't right. He looks more Broadway than Bollywood.
Judges? Len admits that he knows nothing about Bollywood, but he liked this, especially how much Gilles committed to the cause. Paula does a not half bad Bruno impersonation and I can't hear what she says but it seems to be mostly about how sexy Gilles is. She's not wrong. Bruno thinks Gilles is a superstar. Carrie Ann thinks Aladdin has nothing on Gilles. Scores: Carrie Ann 10, Len 9.5, Paula 10, and Bruno 10. Wow, that was overscored. No way was it that much better than Shawn's, I didn't think.
Melissa and Tony have the jitterbug. Tony wonders how you can top what Shawn and Derek did, and Melissa notes that Shawn is untouchable when it comes to flips and tricks. Tony has to try to figure out how to make it good but also different. And then in rehearsal, it seems like all they are doing are flips and tricks. Okay. I am on record as being kind of against tons of lifts and tricks that don't seem organic to the routine, and that's my problem with Tony and Melissa's moves here. It feels like they are just going from trick to trick, when my favorite parts of their routine are the non-trick parts. I would have liked to see more dancing and less lifting. I get that the jitterbug is all about throws and flips; I've seen Swingers. But this feels like Tony figured out the maximum number of tricks they could do and then filled in with dancing when it should have been the other way around. Also, they screwed up one of their tricks a little bit. Not major, but a stumble on the dismount. I expected better dancing from them.