Dancing With the Stars is a competition-based show where professional ballroom dancers are partnered up with a celebrity and compete to be the best. Each professional coaches a celebrity to become a proficient ballroom dancer and then each partnership competes for the Len Goodman mirrorball trophy.
Dance number one: Joey Graziadei and Jenna Johnson’s contemporary dance inspired by Riker Lynch and Allison Holker’s season 20 contemporary routine to “Work Song”.
This was a very strong dance with phenomenal choreography. The lifts this week were on point for them, a very strong dance overall.
Judge’s score: 9, 10, 9.
I gave them a nine because the dance was a high-quality routine overall, but lacked emotion. Graziadei and Johnson did not capture the raw emotion that Lynch and Holker did.
Dance number two: Danny Amendola and Whitney Carson’s quickstep inspired by Juliane Hough and Hélio Castroneves’s season five routine to “Hey Pachuco”.
Another strong performance from Amendola. His footwork in this performance was quite fancy. There were a couple of bobbles, but overall the dance was very strong. This dance was different from their usual performances. Normally, their routines contain a plethora of lifts and rely on Danny’s athleticism, but this week we really got to see him dance. Carson’s choreography always plays to Amendola’s strength and she does an amazing job making him look like he has dance experience.
Judges scores: 9, 9, 9.
For this performance, I have to agree with the judges and give this performance a nine. Again there were a couple of small mistakes, but overall it was an impressive routine.
Dance number three: Dwight Howard and Daniella Karagach’s Argentine tango inspired by James Hinchcliffe and Sharna Burgess’ season 23 number to “Santa Maria (Del Buen Ayre).
A strong dance from them, this routine felt like it was a lot of Karagach dancing and very little dancing from Howard. However, Howard showcased a suburb amount of strength doing all of the lifts in this dance.
Judges score: 8, 9, 9.
I give this dance an eight due to the fact that the dancing was not even between the two partners. This performance seemed like Karagach doing a solo with Howard as a prop.
Dance number four: Stephen Nedoroscik and Rylee Arnold’s viennese waltz inspired by Charli D’Amelio and Mark Ballas’ season 31 routine to “Glimpse of Us”.
This week’s performance was Nedoroscik’s best performance of the season. He was strong the whole time and the dance was captivating. I have no critiques for this dance.
Judges score: 10, 10, 9.
