‘Dancing With The Stars’: A Celebrity Bags On Her Pro Partner And Gets Sent Home On Disney Night
Disney Night is back in the ballroom, and production didn’t disappoint: the opener featured Broadway’s Michael James Scott crooning “A Friend Like Me” as the Genie from Aladdin while the troupe absolutely percolated with choreography from Mandy Moore.
So no booing, crowd! Judge Carrie Ann Inaba only wants the love in the house tonight.
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NBA Champion Dwight Howard with partner Daniella Karagach. Howard suffered from some serious stage fright last week, which impacted his performance and pushed him down the leaderboard. He’s got to take control of his anxiety! He certainly did something, because his tango to a Wreck-It Ralph tune was filled with joy. The audience was wowed! Inaba, however, wasn’t. “The way you are able to get through that tango is very impressive that needs to be celebrated,” she said. “But you did have a lot of mistakes and you did go off time a lot.” Score: 24 out of 30
Phaedra Parks (The Real Housewives of Atlanta) with partner Val Chmerkovskiy. Parks’ partner is vowing to “rev up the Val engine” this week by encouraging his celebrity partner to tap into her villainous side for their jazz routine. He got a little testy in rehearsal — Parks called him “abrasive” — but he prepped her well to dance to “Cruella de Vil” from 101 Dalmatians. The competition is just too stiff for her to last much longer, however. “That dance was devilishly delightful,” said judge Derek Hough. “The choreography was smart, the concept was complete. It felt like a Broadway show. There were a few times I felt like you were waiting for him. But there was so much confidence oozing out of you.” Score: 24 out of 30
Jenn Tran (The Bachelorette) with partner Sasha Farber: Fun fact: Farber says he got his start on DWTS by playing a crab. Fortunately, he chose not to dress as a crustacean for his romantic — but not flub-free — rumba to “Kiss the Girl” from The Little Mermaid. “Honestly, I’m actually kind of disappointed we didn’t get crab Sasha,” said Hough. “That was beautiful. Jenn, I really seeing you improve every week. Moving forward, focus on the hips, but the rib cage.” Score: 24 out of 30
Olympian Stephen Nedoroscik with partner Rylee Arnold: Hold the phone: pommel horse guy hasn’t had a spray tan yet? The Olympian finally brown-sugared up for his Charleston performance to “Star is Born” from Hercules. But it wasn’t a herculean effort, despite what host Alfonso Ribeiro declared. “What a fantastic way to start off the night. You danced that like a hero … but a little bit off a hero,” said Inaba. “You got a little ahead of the music.” Score: 24 out of 30
Olympic rugby player Ilona Maher with partner Alan Bersten. Fun! Maher opened her jazz number holding a huge earth balloon before she hoists Berstein, dressed as a donkey, onto her shoulders. This is a song inspired by the badass Luisa Madrigal from Encanto, and she’s the perfect one to perform it. “There is no secret why you are crowd favorite,” said Hough. “You are so captivating when you dance. Tonight is about embodying these characters and you did just that. My only note is balancing the difference between storytelling and dance. I want to see dancing a little more.” Score: 25 out of 30
The Bachelor‘s Joey Graziadei with partner Jenna Johnson. Apparently, Graziadei always wanted to play a shirtless Tarzan on TV. He’s come to the right show! The bachelor was able to strip down — but keep his goofy grin while rocking a shaggy wig — for his animated samba. “You Tarzan. Me, to happy to see you,” said judge Bruno Tonioli. “Listen, the samba is one of the hardest ones to perform … it requires musicality and it has to look natural. You did all of that.” Score: 25 out of 30
Super Bowl Champion Danny Amendola with partner Witney Carson. No silly little character from a Disney animated movie for Amendola! The baller got to perform jazz to N’SYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” from Deadpool & Wolverine. Their “re-creation” of the movie’s fight scene just looked silly, even though he got to flip his partner around and slide across the floor. At least the judges were charmed. “Is Deadpool and all that jazz the musical! you should pitch it to Ryan Reynolds,” said Tonioli. “I love the fact you incorporated everything from the opening of the movie. It worked, it was strong. Great tribute to the excitement of Marvel.” Score: 27 out of 30
Chandler Kinney (Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin) with partner Brandon Armstrong. Kinney was buggin’ about last week’s “dig deeper” comment from the judges’ dais, and it certainly didn’t help when buddy/actor Milo Manheim came to rehearsal and confirmed that the trio have been hard on her. So she used her frustration to juice up her Paso doble to “We Own the Night” from Disney’s Zombies franchise. “I know it can be difficult to hear the things we say,” said Inaba. “What makes me happy is when I’m proven wrong. You come out on this dance floor and throw down like nobody’s business! That was a passionate and powerful performance.” Score: 27 out of 30
Kinney earns immunity for next week because her judges’ scores over the last six weeks have averaged higher than the other duos.
Team Dance Round
Team Roar featuring Amendola, Nedoroscik, Parks and Howard danced to “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King” from Mufasa: The Lion King. Parks looked a little too much to Chermkovskiy and her fellow celebs for guidance, but Nedoroscik got to do some more tumbling and Howard was his usual charming Howard — especially when he hoisted pommel horse boy over his head. “Great pictures, you managed to produce some very lovely images,” said Tonioli. “You have to be totally in sync always in time, but the sync wasn’t always great all the way through.” Score: 24 out of 30
Team Goofs featuring Maher, Kinney, Tran, and Graziadei. Described by Farber as “one big paw-dy” on the dance floor, their performance to “Eye to Eye” from the Goofy movie featured the women in black hot pants and the dudes in neon green jumpsuits. They were right to trash Team Roar before their number; the Goofs were so … much … better. “That was so tight and so clean and so well rehearsed,” said Hough. “That was brilliant! Well done.” Score: 27 out of 30
Team dance scores were added to the individual scores. And oh hey, it was another record breaking episode when it comes to voting!
Bottom three were Parks, Tran and Nedoroscik. Parks was sent home.
“Val has been the best coach ever. I want to thank him for being patient and allowing me to explore dance,” she said.
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