Motown week separates the pack…a little bit.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is Motown Week on Dancing With the Stars!

The show opens with Smokey Robinson, Martha Reeves, and the Temptations serenading us.  Lovely medley of songs.  This is going to be a great night for music, that’s for sure!

The stars are introduced and enter the stage…what a splash of color this is! You’d think it was another Latin Week!  Lots of 60s hair happening, too. The stars and the pros look really nice tonight.  There’s not a single costume that is making me cringe.

This should be an interesting night.  I keep wondering if this will be the week that really separates the great kids from the good kids.  It has to happen sometime, right?  Right?

On to the dances….

Gladys and Tristan dancing the Rumba.

• Gladys and Tristan got a little Motown help from a real Pip!  How cool is that?
• They’re dancing to the Temptations!  Nice.
• Oh…and all of a sudden the camera is on Gladys and Tristan…That could have been a better segue.
• The colors they’re wearing are great.
• Some of the dance is realy quite wonderful  It’s clear that she’s enjoying herself.
• There are some parts however, that don’t quite fit a Rumba though…it’s not that smooth.  It was too jerky and on the beat.
• Tom just called Gladys “a vision in grape.”  HA! (But she is.)
• Len:  “If I could judge purely with my heart, you’d be on the top of my leaderboard.”  “You’re not the best dancer….[boos]….you’re the most charismatic dancer.”
• Bruno:  “I like my Rumba a bit steamier.”
• CarrieAnn:  “It’s a tough one, because if tonight is going to belong to anyone, it’s going to belong again.” “But the truth is there were some forgotten moments.”  (Len actually breaks in “If I were at home, I would be on the phone now.”)
• 7 from CarrieAnn; 7 from Len; 7 from Bruno
• 7+7+7=21
• That’s not too bad, really, for that dance.  I probably would have voted lower.  But, this is Motown week and she’s probably getting extra points for that.

Barry Gordy is in the audience, too!  The founder of Motown himself!

Maria and Derek dancing the Foxtrot.

• They’ll be dancing to Martha Reeves.
• “Classy, that’s what I’m all about.”  Ha!  Great sense of humor.
• Let’s see what the dance looks like…rehearsals looked challenging.
• Check out Maria flirting with the camera.
• Looks like one or both of them nearly tumbled down the stairs…whoops.
• Overall, though, this seems like a nice foxtrot.  It doesn’t have the speed that some others have had, but, it’s fitting with the tempo of the song, so I guess it works.
• The dance is like the dancers…fun and flirty.
• Bruno:  “You lost your footing, but you caught up beautifully.”
• CarrieAnn:  “Your shoulders came up a bit.” (Len just gave her a stunned look!)
• Len:  “A joy to my eyes, and listening to Martha, a joy to my ears.”
• 8 from CarrieAnn; 9 from Len; 9 from Bruno
• 8+9+9=26
• That’s a good score…this late in the game, that’s a really good score.

Roshon and Chelsie dancing the Rumba.

• When he thinks sensual he thinks “huggy”??  Oh dear.
• Chelsie is doing her best to bring out the sensual man in Roshon…I wonder if she’ll be able to do it.
• Based on the rehearsals, it doens’t look promising.  But, they never show everything in the rehearsals, do they?
• Smokey Robinson sings.
• His hips have gotten a little better, but he still seems a little stiff.
• He’s not “Rumba smooth” on this one…his extnsion almost seems too much…and his movements don’t seem smooth enough.
• The judges will probably love it.  CarrieAnn will likely be all gushy over him.  She likes the boys!
• CarrieAnn:  “Definitely got a little sexy at the end, but in general I thought your movements were a bit over exaggerated. ”  OMG!!  CarrieAnn agreed with me!
• Len:  “Movement was clipped and jerky…it was like paint by numbers.” OMG!  He agrees too!
• Bruno:  “Roshon, my darling, what you lack in size, you make up for in fire.”  Bruno is calling the lack of smoothness…YAY!  He agrees too!
• Mom just said, “You got three 10s with the judges!”  Go me!
• 7 from CarrieAnn; 8 from Len; 8 from Bruno
• 7+8+8=23
• Len is in a good mood tonight.  CarrieAnn is not.  Bruno is just Bruno.

Katherine and Mark dancing the Samba.

• This is perhaps the first time I’ve seen Mark show frustration. But it seemed warranted.  He knows what’s at stake and he knows what Katherine is capable of.
• Okay, Katherine’s shorts remind me of gym shorts from junior high school.
• The Temptations singing “I Can’t Get Next to You.”  (Is this really Samba music?)
• Well, with Mark’s choreography, I guess it is Samba music.
• Oh dear, Katherine is shaking the fringe again!  For someone so worried about shaking her naughty bits, she sure can work the fringe.
• It’s a good dance, but it’s not my favorite.  I think it’s because of the music – it just doesn’t feel like Samba music.  So this is my hang up.
• Technically, the dance is awesome!
• Len:  “Katherine, I’m going to call you the midwife – you keep delivering week after week.”
• Bruno:  He’s being effusive, but I can’t hear everything he is saying.  But it’s clear he likes it.
• CarrieAnn:  “Tonight, girlfriend, you let it loose!”
• 10 from CarrieAnn; 9 from Len; 10 from Bruno
• 10+9+10 = 29
• Len just will NOT give up that 10!!!  What is up with that??

Donald and Peta dancing the Foxtrot.

• I know he was upset about that 8 from Len…but he needs to calm down.  The judges don’t like that stuff.
• He’s shooting for that 10 from Len.  Let’s see if it happens.
• The Temptations singing again with “The Way You Do The Things You Do.”
• Donald and Peta are wearing some teal clothes! Holy Moley!
• I don’t think he’s going to get the 10 from Len this week. The dance is not bad, but he’s not perfect.
• He’s doing a good job, though, don’t get me wrong.  I just don’t think this is his strongest dance.
• Well, there it went…he nearly dropped Peta on her head.  He played it off well, but it was very obvious.
• And he knows it!
• Bruno:  “Donald, you are a showman! Pizzazz, confidence, power.”  “Your performances get better.”
• CarrieAnn:  “What about impressing Bruno and I?”
• Len:  “I felt you were going to come out tonight and show me some fireworks…you didn’t.  You came out and exploded on the floor!” “Peta, this man can give more…the routine wasn’t as big as his talent.”
• 9 from CarrieAnn; 9 from Len; 9 from Bruno
• 9+9+9=27
• Still, very good scores.  Very good.  Though I think it was too high.  Just a little to high, but too high nonetheless.  Is Len making up for the underscoring in week 1?

Melissa and Maks dancing the Viennese Waltz.

• Oh, dear.  Maks is getting really frustrated.  He’s turning into the old Maks!
• Melissa fights back, though.
• Maks: “It could be worse.”  Melissa:  “How?”  Maks:  “You could have an ugly partner.”  Oh, Maks!
• Smokey Robinson sings.
• Melissa is wearing a very pretty green dress.  It looks really nice on her. This is my favorite costume of hers, thus far.
• So far, she’s doing a nice job…the pace of the waltz seems to be more comfortable for her.
• Her extensions are pretty nice…except leg on that spin…that could have been better.
• Overall, I really liked that dance!  (The judges will disagree…watch.)
• CarrieAnn:  “You worked so hard, and it is finally paying off.”  She still needs to watch the shoulders.
• Len:  “I saw rotation, I saw romance, I saw control…you lost a little energy at the end.”
• Bruno:  “I think you’re really going in the right direction.”
• I would call that her best dance this season.  But that’s just me.
• 8 from CarrieAnn; 8 from Len; 8 from Bruno
• 8+8+8=24
• Good scores…they really are.

Jaleel and Kym dancing the Cha Cha.

• Jaleel is doing everything he can to seem like a really nice guy.  What’s unfortunate is that everything outside of this show does not make him appear to be a nice guy.
• The Temptations are singing again.
• That turn on Jaleel’s knee seemed uncomforatable.  After that, things picked up a bit.
• Some of his steps are a little hesitant, but then he picks it up again.
• Personally, I don’t like his arm movements…I think they’re a little too exaggerated.  But, it’s possible I’m being overly critical because he’s rubbed me the wrong way this season.
• Overall, it was a good dance, but I donh’t think it was great.  The judges will probably disagree with me.
• Len:  “You’re back.”
• Bruno:  Bruno is being effusive again, but I still don’t know what he said.
• CarrieAnn:  “Consider the A game brought!”
• Mom:  “He’d better not get all 10s!”
• I have to agree with Mom here…I didn’t think it was that great.
• Oh, Jaleel’s getting cocky again.
• 10 from CarrieAnn; 9 from Len; 10 from Bruno
• 10+9+10=29
• I disagree.  I don’t think they are on par with Katherine/Mark or Maria/Derek or Donald/Peta. And I’m not saying that because Jaleel is not a favorite of mine.  I really don’t think his dance was as good.

William and Cheryl dancing the Rumba.

• Cheryl is having a dance orgasm! Oh, that Cheryl.
• HA!!  Fire alarm is going off…William brought the fire to rehearsal.  Okay, that’s funny!
• Smokey Robinson sings.
• There William goes with the hips…he does have the Latin hips.
• Is it just me or does he really not seem that comfortable doing this?  Technically, he’s hitting the right moves and steps, but it just doesn’t seem to flow like it should.
• I’m sorry to be crude, but he sometimes looks like he’s trying to have sex with Cheryl rather than make sweet, sweet love to her.
• Bruno: (Here come the hormones.) “You two are wired for sex.” (Tom:  “Okay, stop being an electrician.” HA!)
• CarrieAnn:  “On behalf of all of the women, I thank you…but I’m going to tell you something, I don’t think that was your best dance.”
• Len:  “It was a little bit on the raunchy side.”  “I found it a little bit harsh and a bit hectic.”
• Two judges rather agreed with me again. Go me!
• 9 from CarrieAnn; 8 from Len; 10 from Bruno
• 9+8+10=27
• Bruno and his hormones!!!  I think he’s hoping that William will have gay tendencies and sleep with Bruno to say thank you for the scores.

Musical interlude with Smokey Robinson singing “Tears of a Clown”  and Val Chmerkovsky and Anna Trebunskaya dancing.  Yay!  This is the bonus from the pros getting voted off…they can come back and do the very cool dances and show everyone how it’s done!  I especially love it when Anna dances…yummy!

When we come back from the commercial, it’s the Motown Cha Cha Marathon!

Motown Dance Marathon!

Everyone gets in position…and hopes to not get knocked out.  The first couple out gets 3 points…then one point up to the last couple standing with 10.

So far, they’re doing pretty well in general.  Jaleel and Kym do some lifts.

Gladys/Tristan are the first to leave the dancefloor.

Melissa and Maks a get a good lift/spin in there.

Maria/Derek are out!  Goodness!  But, it didn’t look as though Maria was really trying.  She seemed tired. They’re really going to need the votes now!

Roshon/Chelsie are out next!

Melissa/Maks are the 4th eliminated couple.

Everyone is now free to use the entire floor!

William/Cheryl not really sure where they are.  William does a slide on his knees across the floor.

Donald/Peta are the next out.  Too bad…I thought they were hanging better than William/Cheryl, actually.

Jaleel/Kym are out.

Down to William/Cheryl and Katherine/Mark!

William does another knee slide across the floor.  (Tom:  “William going for the Bruno vote.” Ha!)

William/Cheryl are out.

Katherine/Mark are the last couple standing! 

(Nice of them to let them just keep on dancing…nobody let them know they can stop now!)

So here is where things are left at the end of Week 6 – Motown Week:

	CarrieAnn	Len	Bruno	Week 6	W6/DM	S 14
Katherine/Mark	10	9	10	29	10	144
William/Cheryl	9	8	10	27	9	135
Donald/Peta	9	9	9	27	8	133
Jaleel/Kym	10	9	10	29	7	131
Maria/Derek	8	9	9	26	4	129
Roshon/Chelsie	7	8	8	23	5	128
Melissa/Maks	8	8	8	24	6	116
Gladys/Tristan	7	7	7	21	3	110

If we base things solely on the numbers, it looks like Gladys/Tristan will be the next couple to leave.  HOWEVER – we’ve seen the fans come through with voting in the past.  Roshon and Jaleel have both ended up in the bottom two, even though they’ve been pretty consistently in the higher scoring couples.

At this stage of the game, I think Katherine/Mark and William/Cheryl are the only two couples that solidly have both the judges’ scores and the fan votes solidly in their favor.  Of course, I may be completely and totally wrong about that.  Stranger things have happened!

So what did you think of the show this week?  Who was scored too high?  Who was scored too low?  Will Bruno ever get his mind out of the gutter?