[MrWookie]

Katy,

Didn't you read my not-so-sober post about Before Sunset? If you need counseling about falling in love with dancers you can never really have anything with, I'm you're guy. You're only catching a whiff of what essentially amounts to all of my love life. Granted, I'm falling more for dancers I've actually held in my hands and interacted with for a weekend, but I know what it means to fall for someone for the way they move.

Dancing with Wookie 11/12/2007

In the costume contest, I have to give an honorable mention to Marie Osmond. She's obviously lost a lot of weight during this thing. Nicely done, Marie. I'm not sure who wins, though. Edyta is dressed fairly modestly, and Jennie got a dress w/ a nice cut, but the sequins didn't work for me. I might give it to Mel, since I dig the corset look.

Ell Oh Ell. In case DwtS didn't make me question my sexuality quite enough, here's Richard Simmons working with Jennie. Jennie kicks things off with jive, which is, coincidentally, the gayest of all the dances. This is a tough dance for her, since she's been too serious. I liked her footwork right at the beginning, but then she fell flat. If she just really smiled, she'd add 1-2 points to her score. After the intro, she continued to look nervous and in a shell. She even looks scared backstage. Her 24 is low, but I can understand the judges raising their standards a bit as we move to the later competitions.

Cameron's Viennese waltz was fantastic. His shoulders were a little forward, but that is my primary critique. Oh, wait. He still needs to close his fingers. For me, this was a textbook VW. The performance wasn't stunning, but his steps were right out of the book, and his technique was solid. The song he was dancing to was a difficult one to really take to the next level with performance and emotion, but the choreography worked well with it. I think he got a well-earned 27, but I liked his dancing enough that I wish he'd danced to a more gripping song. He had the potential here to be excellent.

Marie is third with rumba. I don't really know what to make of this one. She danced it pretty well, but the choreography looked very easy. Looks like the judges agreed with me. I liked Marie's hip action, but it's hard to evaluate her when it's the choreography and not her dancing that's not in the same league as the other dancers. I think that 24 is a decent score for her, but she may have been better than Jennie. Jennie's problems were mostly her fault, even though she had better choreography. Marie dance the routine she was given well, but the choreography didn't allow her to be really great.

Helio clearly had the best rehearsal shtick. Working with a total of four pros is money. Still, I don't think paso doble is going to quite be his dance. It's a serious, dramatic dance, and he excels at the happy, smiley ones. The first thing I noticed about his dancing was his posture. He had by far the best paso doble posture of anyone in this competition so far, and is in the running for the best in any season. I think he was held back again somewhat by the choreography, but also some as I expected by his dramatic side not being as strong as some other dancers. I have to agree with the 27 here.

Mel's tango finishes the first round. This was the best dance of the first half. I loved her head position and her posture. I again have to fault the choreography here. I don't think this showcased her enough compared some of her dances earlier in the season. She looked sharp, but this didn't earn a 30. Still, the 27 felt a little low. I think she should have earned a 28, with Len giving her the 10 for her technique.