Dancing With the Stars 2011: For Hope, too little too late;For Ricki, almost…;For Rob...ah, not so much…For J.R.-Has it all.

Pic of the Day

As of this writing it’s down to the top four in this season’s Dancing With the Stars. They call this the “Semi-finals” . I’m not sure why.

 

Nancy Grace, ah, she didn’t make it. But goodness and praise alleluia, how on earth did she even make it this far? Nancy’s better than Chynna Phillips? Even Carson Kressley danced better than the ever-pouting Grace!

 

First, let’s get this out of the way. The Peoples’ Choice awards is accepting nominations. If interested in nominating Dancing With the Stars, bearing in mind that this IS the PEOPLES’ choice and that DWS is one of the more watched of all the competitive reality shows, to give it a vote, go here.

 

Below, two score grids maintained after every episode, sorted from the lowest to highest, the scores for the performance evening and the total score to date for each contender.

Now about these final four. God bless Rob Kardashian as the boy dances on even through the heartbreak of his sister’s recent marital breakup. He’s not so good; then again, he’s not so bad. If Rob were to win an award it would be for the most steadily improved. Even Carrie Ann said Rob represented what

the show was all about and I almost sobbed. Rob and his partner Cheryl did a quickstep, they scored a score of 27 and a 24 for something DWS calls the instant dance.

 

The instant dance was the jive for this performance evening. The concept behind the instant dance is that there is an extremely limited time for the dance couple to prepare for their performance, proving, I must suppose, that without endless hours of practice and painstaking choreography, does the contender really have what it takes?

 

Nancy Grace, who was eliminated the following night by audience fiat, danced the Tango with her partner. She got a 24 for her Tango and a 20 for her dance of the instant Jive. While I had issues with Nancy and her sparkling witty personality, I thought Len’s rude comment about Cinderella packing up for time to go home to be humiliatingly mean. Like, okay, I got his point, but is denigrating a contender in front of millions really the way to go?

 

Hope Solo, dear Lord all season long this poor volleyball player got beat up for not being sexy enough. As I see it she’s a darn good dancer and I frankly am not convinced that being sexy should be some major criteria of dance ability. By me Hope often danced as well, if not better, than Ricki Lake. Hope isn’t quite as well liked and personable as Ricki and God knows

she’s not sexy enough. Let it not be duly noted that Hope has a partner who is probably the least liked of the professional dancers. I have no stats on that, just a hunch. Maks’ assertion recently that DWS was HIS show was a clue. I take exception with the man’s insistence on dancing shirtless though I shouted with joy that the man couldn’t conjure up a shirtless look appropriate with his dance assignment of the Quickstep.

While Hope and Ricki receive close scores of late, on an overall basis, no way does Ricki Lake out dance Hope at a distance of 257 to 234.

 

Ricki Lake has been one great dancer to watch this season, both in terms of her great costume looks, her steady and very noticeable improvement and goodness but she’s lost some weight hasn’t she? For a while it seemed that Ricki would improve at such a rate that she’d soon pass J.R. and maybe wrest the trophy ball away from him. But it’s like Ricki went so far and….stopped.

Yes, it is what it is and while the contenders in this show improve over the course of time as would be expected, the natural talent is only there to a point. Hope Solo still has lots of dancing improvement left in her. Ricki Lake has reached her peak.

 

Now what could anyone say about J.R. Martinez? This fellow is the best contender, EVER, on Dancing With the Stars, don’t doubt me. First, he’s a natural on the dance floor, that was obvious from the very beginning. Next,

he’s a veteran of the armed services. Finally, he’s a hero, he’s scarred from his service to our country, HE’S why Dancing With the Stars was invented, contrary to what Carrie Ann said.







Order of finish, no great trickery of prediction:

 

• 4-Rob Kardashian
•  
• 3-Hope Solo
•  
• 2-Ricki Lake
•  
• 1-J.R. Martinez

 

May J.R. go on to bigger, brighter and greater things, God Bless Him forever. 

Finally, a video compilation of the most recent dance performances.

 

Dancing With the Stars performance show airs on ABC, Monday nights-8p/7c, with the elimination show the following night, 9p/8c.