Dancing with the Stars: Episode 5 Season 3

Here we are, halfway through the popul.. err, I mean dancing contest. Last night's dances featured the sensual Rumba and the festive Samba.

Mario Lopez and Karina Smirnoff yet again delivered the best chemistry of the evening with their sensuous, sultry Rumba. It is no surprise that they have been rumored to be dating each other off the dance floor since the beginning of the competition. These two play off each other so well and appear very comfortable with one another. Unlike the other couples' Rumbas, which looked relatively mechanical, Mario and Karina's Rumba related a love story with a clear beginning, middle and end and the appropriate emotions to match each section. Watching the story unfold was a mesmerizing experience. If I had to pick the encore performance, I would pick this Rumba without a ny hesitation.

Monique Coleman and Louis van Amstel took a different approach to the dance of love. While their chemistry is still lacking a bit compared to Mario and Karina's, they make up for it with a solid hand connection and technical preciseness. They took more risks than anyone else out there by performing a more challenging choreography with fewer basic moves, more complex 'open' (out of syllabus) combinations and tricky poses requiring tremendous control.

Judge Carrie-Ann pleasantly surprised me for once by rightly pointing out how grounded Monique was when she danced - I was wondering when the judges would finally notice that! Unlike any of the other dancers, Monique maintains a solid connection with the floor. Among the other contestants, her Rumba walks stood out as the best.

My only concern is that there are brief moments of blatant awkardness in her dancing when she loses the feet and leg turnout so fundamental in Latin dancing. Nevertheless, this seems like such a small flaw compared to what she has achieved in the past several weeks. It's unfortunate that the viewers at home just can't (won't) see that.

When it came to the Samba, Emmitt Smith gave the most surprising performance of the night. When one watches him shake his hips like that, it's hard to believe he is a football player. He needs to maintain better contact with the floor and do something more elegant with those chunky-looking hands of his, but other than that he is to admired for his fairly wide range of motion - for a man of his stature - and his enthusiasm on the dance floor.

The most entertaining performance of the night had to Jerry Springer's, though. I have not laughed this hard in a long time, and never while watching someone dance. To a ballroom dancer who did no t know Jerry at all, it might have seemed like Jerry was making a mockery of the Samba; however, as we all know by now, this rendition of the Samba was the best poor Jerry could possibly do while putting all his heart and effort into it, which is what made it so amusing. We have to give Jerry credit for making this show entertaining.

On the other hand, Sara Evans, who is much younger than Jerry and has more potential than the old man does, gave a dull and lifeless Samba p erformance that literally had me yawning. Clearly the judges must have felt sorry for her and gave her sympathetic feedback and generous scores to boost her morale. It's a bit disturbing that only a couple of points separate her from the best of the pack.

Who should go: Sara Evans. She's dancing in slow motion incarnate.

Who will go: I get an inkling Monique Coleman will be booted off despite of her talent, improvement and hard work.

Author:: Cinthia Razakalalao
Keywords:: dancing with the stars, episode 5, ballroom dancing, mario lopez, karina smirnoff, Rumba, Samba
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