S13:W5 Tonight was 80s Night on Dancing with the Stars and after Chynna Phillips’ surprising elimination last week, all the celebrities were acutely aware of how instantly the competition can shift and how quickly it can be over for each of them. Additionally, we are now at the competition’s halfway point, and so it became clear to all the celebrities that the competition for the mirror ball trophy had officially begun.
Hope Solo was up first and she danced a surprisingly messy and disorganized-looking tango. She wasn’t very graceful and Len pointed out that she was too “willowy” for the tango to be a proper, structural dance. She got 24 points.
Nancy Grace was the third to dance and after Len commented last week that her dance lacked excitement and so she set out to make her rumba extra compelling — and Len was pleased to tell her that her performance was effective and Bruno said it was one of her best performances. She got 22 points.
Rob Kardashian danced the samba and during rehearsals, Cheryl had trouble convincing him to be sexy with her. But after a while she was able to coax it out of him and Bruno said it was nice to see him using Cheryl as a partner rather than “hiding behind her.” He got 25 points, which is the highest score he’s received yet.
Then came Chaz’s samba, and he completed the most movements we’d ever seen. The judges were very proud of him and gave him 21 points.
David Arquette performed a pretty serious tango, and it was a little sad that it wasn’t livelier. But Bruno said it was fantastic and David earned 25 points, which was his highest score so far.
And finally came Ricki Lake’s foxtrot, and in rehearsals Ricki said she was feeling so much pressure to surpass last week’s routine. And perhaps the anxiety got the best of her because the judges weren’t ecstatic over her dance and criticized her for occasionally being out of sync with her partner. She got 24 points.
