‘Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars’ review: Melissa Rycroft okay; as for Carrie Ann…
It’s not often at all that you see a “Dancing with the Stars” episode that literally has the judges falling over with joy (more on that later), but we did have that this time around with an episode that stuffed some great routines in to a shorter run time thanks to the Presidential debate on Monday night. We also had some news on Melissa Rycroft’s injury, and she ended up being able to dance without much of a problem at all.
Kelly Monaco and Maksim Chmerkovskiy – Kelly’s biggest struggle here was not really the performance itself as it was just trying to find the time to prepare for it. She has been back at work lately on “General Hospital,” and it’s fair to say that this kept her from getting as much time as she needed for this samba … and you could occasionally see it. It was still a good routine, but in this spot she could be in trouble for the results show next week. Score: 24.5
Gilles Marini and Peta Murgatroyd – This was a great dance, but is it a little strange to anyone else that one of the most memorable moments from this routine was actually when Carrie Ann Inaba fell over in her chair while describing this rumba as being of the “baby-making” variety. The irony here is that we have a feeling that Tom Bergeron is probably going to be putting this on his other show soon in “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” For whatever reason, Len Goodman’s still holding off on the “10” paddle. Score: 29.5
Kirstie Alley and Maksim Chmerkovskiy – First things first, let’s have a good laugh that Kirstie can have a good laugh at herself with this “Mrs. Robinson”-themed quickstep. Now, we have to say that the content backed up the hype. We’re not a ballroom expert by any means, but this was clearly the strongest technical dance that Kirstie has performed, and it makes us oh-so happy that she is making some progress in the competition. Score: 25.5
Emmitt Smith and Cheryl Burke – We never would have imagined during his football days that Emmitt would one day be doing a samba to “Copa Cabana,” but it happened … and we really liked it! The thing about Emmitt is that we know that Emmitt is probably not the best technical singer on this season, but he possesses more pure energy than probably anyone else. Overall, this was his best performance to date. Score: 29
The group dance – The pros who did not perform solo numbers here ended up performing here, and this included Shawn Johnson and Derek Hough, Melissa Rycroft and Tony Dovolani, Sabrina Bryan and Louis van Amstel, and Apolo Anton Ohno and Karina Smirnoff. This “Call Me Maybe” freestlye was fun, but it actually felt too much like cheerleading to get really into. Even with that, thought, they got Len’s first 10 of the season. Score: 29.5
Who was your favorite dancer during this part of the performance show?