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Recap: Dancing with the Stars - Performance 8

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Joanna & Derek's paso doble.(S09E16) Dancing with the Stars is only two weeks away from the finals. With only five contestants left, each have to perform two dances to ensure that we fit the two hour block.

The two dances consist of one ballroom and one Latin routine. The biggest flaw with having two dances was that everyone spent all their time making sure that the Latin dance was amazing, and their ballroom dances felt lazy.

I'm shocked to see the seven paddle still around with only five contestants left. This season's quality level was nowhere near Shawn Johnson, Gilles Marini, and Melissa Rycroft last season.

Round One - Ballroom Round

Mya & Dmitry - Quickstep - Mya agrees with Dmitry that taking risks are important. Ironically, they stick to technique this week. Dmitry takes Mya to a horse ranch for down time. As the two dance, Mya's feet are in sync with Dmitry and their spins were quick. The choreography was weaker than what I would expect for Mya.

Len thought that the performance was strong and had no criticism. Bruno called the performance quality. Carrie Ann thought that Mya made the performance look easy. Score: 29 (9,10,10).

Aaron & Karina - Foxtrot - Aaron has a heart to heart with Karina about wanting to win something. Karina started to feel sick but soldiers on; Aaron puts on a mask. Sadly, they dance without any bejeweled masks live. The lightness of the song helped with the gliding motions of the foxtrot. Aaron was there with each step. I cringed because he lifted Karina in the spin. There was something about the smug face at the end that I hate.

Bruno sees the hard work put into the dance, but he thought it was tense. It needed to be smooth. Carrie Ann points out the lift but commends the effort. She suggests working on his fluidity. Len compares him to a kid in a toy shop and commended him for all the work he's done. Score: 23(7,8,8).

Joanna & Derek - Quickstep - Derek and Joanna decide to study tapes of Mya's previous dances. They point out her frame and how smoothly they dance. They started their dance in the audience and ran onto the dance floor. There's something that didn't look right about their quick motions across the floor, but their stationary kicks were strong.

Carrie Ann pointed a few out of sync. Joanna's legs don't point. Len thought there was an unnecessarily high amount of running and points went wrong; it's not semifinal potential. Bruno knows it was difficult and her bottom half wasn't the strongest. Score: 23 (8,7,8).

Kelly & Louis - Foxtrot - Kelly gets distracted easily and brings puppies, calls her mother, and several other professionals visit. Louis grabs all her items and locks them away in a box. You know that PETA prevented Louis from shoving the dogs in the box too. I can see the growth in Kelly. She attempted a strong frame with her neck and she snuck smiles into her performance. I loved her spin sequence near the end because of how grounded it looked.

Len loved the grace and posture, but noted the footwork. Bruno loved the weightlessness of the performance. Carrie Ann points out her secret weapon: audience support. She suggests working on her spots and her extensions. Score: 25 (8,8,9).

Donny & Kym - Viennese Waltz - Donny admits that he was burnt out last week. He decides to hit the restart button and it makes Kym happy because he found his fighting spirit. I'm convinced that Kym is one of those professionals that make any celebrity look amazing with the choreography. Donny didn't look out of place with his feet. The stationary spin near the end looked clunky to me, but the rest of the performance was great.

Bruno compared it to watching a Lifetime movie, he was happily entertained. Carrie Ann thought it was mesmerizing and it wasn't over-performed. Len saw the improvement, but he thought that parts were too "arty-farty" for him. Score: 26 (9,8,9).

Round Two - Latin Round

Mya & Dmitry - 70s Samba - Dmitry decided to add disco elements to the samba. Mya struggles with the samba rolls and Dmitry has a choreography brain-fart. After getting past Dmitry's silly mustache, I thought that the movements fit the song and still read samba really well. All the samba moves were strong but when Dmitry did the little body slide at the end, I hoped that Len would get the theme and not think it was all gimmicks.

Carrie Ann believes that she wanted to win this show. It was beyond belief. Len thought that she was on fire and her hips were hypnotic. Bruno thought that she was unbelievable. Score: 30 (10,10,10).

Aaron & Karina - 90s Samba - We get to see embarrassing video of Aaron in 1999. He tries to teach Karina the rodeo. I found the slight juxtaposition of a more rock/alternative song with samba didn't work as well as the 70s/disco theme did. I didn't see the strongest of hips, but Aaron was in character. I hated the boy band ending with a passion.

Len thought that he sold the samba and it was well done. Bruno liked how the energy worked well. Carrie Ann knows how difficult his road has been, but he's smoothed out his problems. Score: 27 (9,9,9).

Joanna & Derek - Futuristic Paso Doble - Derek wants to perform robotic side-by-side motions which confuse Joanna. It's hard to judge the performance, but paso sections were some of the strongest I've seen, but I didn't know how to take the robotic movements. It's quite original. I really liked Joanna's sharpness and the spins had a nice abandon to them. The fact that they committed to the performance was great.

Bruno thought it was masterful and Derek was a genius. Carrie Ann thought the theme was beautiful and Joanna kept up with the choreography. Len agreed with Bruno and thought it was genius. He totally understood the performance. Score: 29 (9,10,10).

Kelly & Louis - 60s Jive - Kelly is happy that they are allowed to do 60s moves, because her video of "Papa Don't Preach" had 60s moves. I laughed at the beginning when Bruno missed the rag doll. When the dance got to real jive moves, I thought the performance was one of Kelly's best. Her kicks weren't as strong as Aaron's, but good considering the skirt she was wearing.

Len thought that she is getting stronger and stronger. Bruno thought that the dance was groovy. Carrie Ann thought it was one of her best performances; she notes that she got stuck in a turn and the doll section took too long. Score: 26 (8,9,9).

Donny & Kym - 80s Paso Doble - Donny believes that the paso is all about having an edge. He requests a mullet and gets it. I was underwhelmed by the whole performance. The opening sequence felt weird, the spins were slow, the wind machine was silly, and the steps felt like Donny was counting his way through. Then again, looking back, the 80s were crazy.

Len thought it was crazy and bizarre, but he liked it. Bruno thought it was as campy as a drag queen convention. Carrie Ann thought it was hysterical but it may have gone over the edge. She also thought the costume cut part of the lines. Score: 24 (8,8,8).

Final scores:

Mya & Dmitry - 59 (29 + 30)
Joanna & Derek - 52 (23 + 29)
Kelly & Louis - 51 (25 + 26)
Donny & Kym - 50 (26 + 24)
Aaron & Karina - 50 (23 + 27)

Who's going home? Mya is really the only one safe with a 59/60. Seeing Aaron near the bottom last week, this week could be the final straw. Both Kelly and Donny have larger fanbases. I'm wondering whether Joanna or Derek is the one getting all the votes for them. Derek seems infallible in the eyes of the judges. As always, leave comments below on who should go home and who is still over-hyped.

[Catch full episodes of DWTS on SlashControl]

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