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KEVIN & KAREN - After Kevin's disastrous performance with Latin ballroom in week one, I decided that he couldn't partner. Well, I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong (rare as that may be). I condemned him too quickly. I blame the bun… Tonight, I was pleasantly surprised by what a good partner he can be. He also has more technique than I would have thought, although I'm afraid that he was a bit too focused on technique tonight for my taste. In fact, the whole thing was just a bit too showy, particularly during the slow part at the beginning. This kind of dance is not so much meant for the audience as for the dancers' own enjoyment. Its origin is as a social dance. Yes, there is a performance element, but it's important that we see them live in the dance rather than perform it. Karen was slightly more successful in this regard. She's got passion to spare. I wonder if her intro piece about divorcing that stud husband of hers will help or hurt her cause with the voters...

JAKOB & ASHLEIGH - This is the third week in a row that this couple has performed second. Odd. And what a shock?! Mandy Moore choreographing an 80's piece? You could knock me over with a feather! I like how both of the dancers embodied the characters in this piece. I also loved the styling and the connection. Still, there was something missing for me. I'm not entirely sure if the problem is with the choreography or the execution (I'm guessing the latter), but this piece needed more percussion. More punctuation. The music demanded it. Instead of the crisp moments separated by stillness, they tended to flow the moments together. For me, it kept it from being a great piece, and instead was merely good…

PETER & PAULINE - When she introduced them in the pre-commercial tease, Kat said that both Peter and Pauline have been in the bottom and had to dance for their lives. Is she high? Peter was never in that position. The four boys who have danced for their lives are Brandon, Russell, Phillip & Victor. Stupid… I think the judges were way too easy on this pair. Yeah, they tried their best to make up for their bad dancing with performance, and they (Peter in particular) did bring a lot of energy and charisma. However, the quickstep of it all SUCKED. They never came close to the proper hold or the proper posture. When they crossed the stage, they were basically just running. It WAS a train wreck on any kind of objective level. The choreographer really needed to start from square one with this couple and teach them the absolute BASICS of ballroom. It makes me mad because I don't remember them being nearly this kind to Vitolio and Karla after their quickstep last year, and those two danced it so much, MUCH better! Speaking of Vitolio and Karla, didn't their quickstep also have a story? I don't recall the specifics, but I think there was something about a museum and a statue brought to life. WTF was Nigel talking about when he said he's never seen a quickstep with a story? Dancers - fail; Host - fail; Judges - MASSIVE fail.

LEGACY & KATHRYN - This was certainly the weakest of this couple's performances thus far. Once again, I have a problem with the judging, though. They were too hard on Kathryn and WAY too easy on Legacy. I have a pretty strong suspicion that the original choreography for this piece was much tougher, but the choreographer dumbed down Legacy's part because he wasn't able to do it. Otherwise, I don't really understand why Kathryn was responsible for at least 75% of the dancing while Legacy moved from pose to pose. It wasn't as bad as when Mia parked Cedric on his butt while his partner danced around, but it was close. Legacy executed what he did just fine, I guess, but it was extremely elementary (with the exception of the parts that drew from his B-Boy specialty). Kathryn, on the other hand, danced her butt off AND brought character to it. Yeah, it was a bit of a cutesy, coquettish character, but I fail to see what is wrong with that. The music is so light and goofy, that I think if she had been ferocious, as Adam suggested, it would have seemed out of place. I'm afraid that Legacy may be made into another Twitch with the judges giving him way more credit than he deserves. He's been good thus far, overall, but they're acting like he's gone from Quasimodo to Baryshnikov!

VICTOR & CHANNING - When Phillip and Bianca were sent home last week, it didn't occur to me that Victor, who was so great in the Week 1 Travis piece and in his solo last week, would be stuck with that dud, Channing, who has been the most unremarkable dancer of all thus far this season. Ugh! At least in her own style, she showed more technical ability than she had in either of her ballroom numbers with Phillip. But her dancing was so soulless!!! Victor, not getting much back in return, pushed too hard to manufacture emotion, and it felt forced. They deserve the lukewarm reception this piece got, but I hope that Victor doesn't become another of Channing's casualties…

RYAN & ELLENORE - This time, I agreed wholeheartedly with Nigel. That was, quite possibly, the most boring piece I've ever seen on this show. First of all, it took them literally 25 seconds before they even started to dance! That's nearly a third of their time on stage. And during that time, their "acting" did little to make up for the lack of dance. Of course, in the other two thirds, their DANCING did little to make up for it, either. Neither one of them was good at all. Still, even with good hip hop dancers, I don't know if this piece would have worked. Everything about it from the "story" to the costumes to the choreography was just lame.

NATHAN & MOLLEE - The beginning of this piece WAS as bad as the judges were saying. The synchronization was way off, and the style (particularly from Nathan) was SO broad and self-conscious. He was almost parodying the flexibility and "wiggliness" of Latin dance. When they got together and started partnering in hold, though, I thought it got a lot better. Sure, I noticed their hand problems in a few places, and it was hardly stellar, but at least I got the feeling of two people salsa dancing.

RUSSELL & NOELLE - Oh, thank God! Prior to this, I was at least somewhat dissatisfied with ALL of the performances, tonight. While Afro-Jazz probably isn't going to become my favorite genre, the execution of what was asked of these two dancers was pretty fantastic. Russell was amazing and Noelle was, perhaps, even better. I loved how she brought some of herself to it without sacrificing the authenticity of the style she was asked to dance. More importantly, there was something organic and natural about the way they were moving - I didn't see choreography, I saw dance! Bravo!


Pairs Rankings:

1. NOELLE & RUSSELL
2. KAREN & KEVIN
3. ASHLEIGH & JACOB
4. CHANNING & VICTOR
5. KATHRYN & LEGACY
6. MOLLEE & NATHAN
7. PAULINE & PETER (I didn't think anybody else could be worse, but I was wrong)
8. ELLENORE & RYAN


I absolutely hate that the judges were asked who should/would be in danger. I'm afraid that their comments will motivate viewers to vote for Ryan and Ellenore, who DEFINITELY deserve to be in danger (I'm guessing that Nathan & Mollee's fans would vote for them no matter what). As a result, some middle-of-the-pack couple who don't deserve to be will be at risk…

I was wondering if my hatred for Ryan's cheeseball douchiness during the intro dances at the beginning of the show negatively colored my perception of his hip-hop, but no, he really was THAT BAD...