by Gina Scarpa

 

Last week, we said goodbye to Sugar Ray Leonard on Dancing With The Stars. Last night, the remaining eight couples celebrated all things Americana and performed to songs that pay tribute to our country.

 

Couple: Ralph Macchio and Karina Smirnoff
Style: Samba
Scores: 8 + 7 + 7 = 22
How a samba translates to a dance about being patriotic is beyond me but Karina and Ralph tried their damndest with "Sweet Home Alabama". They did a pretty good job but Ralph's biggest problem is that he's not consistent. He's clearly stronger when it comes to something like the waltz than the samba. He needs to work on his Latin ballroom if he's going to go from pretender to contender, as Len said.

 

Couple: Chris Jericho and Cheryl Burke 

Style: Viennese waltz
Scores: 9 + 8 + 9 = 26
Chris hits the dance floor after a paso doble that left the judges split on his performance. In the Viennese waltz, he needs to show technique, posture, poise, and grace. Who knew that a wrestler could be so light on his feet? Decked out in a military uniform, he performed beautifully with Cheryl. Len played it off like he wouldn't be giving Chris a high score, but he handed him his highest for the season: an 8. The other two gave him 9s, making it his best score of the season thus far!

 

Couple: Petra Nemcova and Dmitry Chaplin
Style: Quickstep
Scores: 7 + 7 + 8 = 22
Going into the dance, it doesn't seem that Petra's posture (which is very important to the quickstep) will be an issue. It will be more her ability to control her bounce to the upbeat Elvis song, "Viva Las Vegas". I don't think this is Petra's best performance, as it looked like Dmitry pulled her around the stage at times. The judges agree and Carrie-Ann said it was a step back for the supermodel this wek.

 

Couple: Romeo and Chelsie Hightower
Style: Foxtrot
Scores: 9 + 8 + 9 = 26
In order for Chelsie to be successful with Romeo, she's going to take the hip-hop out of him and him to be refined, 1960s style. Fortunately for her, he's determined to raise his game and practices all week on his technique. He has a few little things he needs to fix, like his hands, but overall, this dance was the biggest success of the night thus far.

 

Couple: Hines Ward and Kym Johnson
Style: Rumba
Scores: 9 + 9 + 9 = 27
Kym came up with a smart concept for her rumba with Hines and tells the story of a soldier coming home to his woman. While I highly disliked the version of "God Bless The USA" that the band performed, I did enjoy their elegant performance. Hines and Kym have their best dance of the season and end up with the best scores of the night!

 

Couple: Kirstie Alley and Maksim Chmerkovskiy
Style: Foxtrot
Scores: 8 + 7 + 8 = 23
Hopefully, a surprise visit from John Travolta during practice helps Kirstie and Maksim really nail their foxtrot. I was excited when the song first started - the badass "American Woman" by The Guess Who but as the dance went on, it just lost power and I lost interest. They definitely could have done more with the dance but I'll always give it up to Kirstie for her fun, fearless performances. This time, Len and I are on the same page.

 

Couple: Kendra Wilkinson and Louis Van Amstel
Style: Foxtrot
Scores: 8 + 7 + 7 = 22
Kendra and Louis are the lucky couple to perform the 1000th dance on Dancing With The Stars. Can you believe there's been that many?! On to the dance. Okay, I'm just gonna say that I never imagined ballroom being done to "Yankee Doodle". This whole theme is starting to feel silly. Kendra would've been more successful if she and Louis danced more than they marched around the dance floor.

 

Couple: Chelsea Kane and Mark Ballas
Style: Samba
Scores: 9 + 8 + 9 = 26

Chelsea was hoping to break all the rules this week but Mark smartly decides to stick with traditional Latin ballroom to try to keep them at the top of the leaderboard.  Still, as the dance goes on to Miley Cyrus's "Party In The USA", it doesn't feel totally traditional but whose not open to a modern spin on ballroom?  The judges loved it and they had the scores to prove it... but Len, you couldn't have given them a 9?!

 

Don't miss the live elimination episode of Dancing With The Stars, tonight at 9/8c on ABC.

 

(Image courtesy of ABC)

 

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