This week, the Dancing With the Stars 2012 cast worked it out hard on the dance floor for ‘rock week’ — on of my favorite theme nights for DWTS. Going into this week, DWTS 2012 favorites Katherine Jenkins and Mark Ballas were leading the pack with 91 total points from the judges over the second place (but equally as hot) duo of William Levy and Cheryl Burke at 77 points. Did Katherine Jenkins and Mark Ballas manage to hold onto the lead? Read on with our Dancing With the Stars recap of week 4 to find out!
WARNING: DANCING WITH THE STARS 2012 SPOILERS AHEAD
To kick off the competition this week, guest performers KISS lit up the stage (literally, courtesy of pyrotechnics) before the first couple strutted out for their rock week performance. The first rock concert I ever went to was a KISS concert. That dates me and makes me feel incredibly old right now after watching them creak around the stage.
Finally, it is on to the first Dancing With the Stars 2012 cast celebrity, Sherri Shepherd, dancing the tango with Val Chmerkovskiy. Sherri Shepherd isn’t one of my favorites this season, but she was fun to watch with the whole table dancing thing. She’s not the most graceful person though and she looked a bit unsteady through several parts of the dance.
The judges were a mixed bag when it came down to the reviews. Len Goodman told Sherri Shepherd and Val Chmerkovskiy they did a “great job,” but Carrie Ann Inaba thought Sherri was lacking her “normal exuberance” and said her “face was expressionless, which I’ve never seen before.” Overall the judges rated Sherri and Val with three sevens for a total score of 21.
Next up we had the current Dancing With the Stars 2012 favorites, Katherine Jenkins and Mark Ballas. The two were smoking hot as they ignite the dance floor in a smoldering paso doble. Katherine might have had a stutter step moment here and there, but overall it is once again a very well done performance — though not my favorite of theirs so far. Honestly, having done so well up until now, anything less than near-perfection from these two almost seems more disappointing.
The judges agreed it was not the couple’s best performance on Dancing With the Stars season 14 so far. Len Goodman said that although they “went for the attack,” the dance “had promise but didn’t quite deliver.” Bruno Tonioli was pleased to see Katherine “on kickass mode” but thought she and Mark Ballas “forgot to finish” the dance and it “wasn’t as clean and precise and defined as a paso should be.” Carrie Ann Inaba also admired the intensity of the dance, but thought it threw the pair off their footing. The end result was a score of only 24 for the leading favorites.
Jaleel White, who has been the subject of mass tabloid rumors this week about his alleged attitude problem, was next to take the floor with Dancing With the Stars 2012 partner Kym Johnson. Jaleel White and Kym Johnson decided to do a tango this week, which is normally one of my favorite dances. Although they have been strong overall, this week Jaleel White and Kym Johnson seem weaker than usual. The dance lacks fire and seems to drag on a bit.
Len Goodman admired the “humor” put into the dance by Jaleel White and his Mick Jagger strut, but thought the former child actor needed “more attack, a little bit more aggression” for the tango. “It’s gotta be… panther-like stalking across the floor,” Goodman said. Bruno Tonioli loved the Jagger beginning, but thought the overall performance was “a little bit underpowered.” Carrie Ann Inaba actually criticized Jaleel White for being “a little too smooth,” but said she loved the dance and its funky weirdness. The judges only gave the couple a score of 22 out of 30.
Dancing the second paso doble of the evening on Dancing With the Stars 2012, Melissa Gilbert and Maksim Chmerkovskiy were perhaps the least ‘rock’ couple of the evening. The dance fails to embody the aggressive, forceful feeling of a paso doble and Melissa Gilbert frankly looks like a wallflower next to steamy, hot Maksim. Overall the dance just fails to impress, no matter how yummy Maks is.
The judges were not all that pleased with Melissa Gilbert and Maksim Chmerkovskiy once again. Len Goodman said he liked it, but his praise was lukewarm. Bruno Tonioli thought there was “hot-blooded drama aplenty” and “loved the flavor of Spain” in the dance. However, he said the couple messed up the ending. Carrie Ann Inaba though it was their best performance so far, but thought Melissa Gilbert needed to push up her confidence level. The judges gave them an overall score of 22.
With another paso doble, Donald Driver and Peta Murgatroyd offered up one of the best dances of the evening. Unlike the dance by Melissa and Maks, this paso doble doesn’t lack in the aggression and the ending spin by Peta was stellar. Donald Driver and Peta Murgatroyd definitely pulled out all the stops for rock week, that’s for sure.
The Dancing With the Stars 2012 judges were quite as impressed across the board with this dance as I was. Len Goodman once again pulled out a barely appropriate comment in his praise of the dance, saying he “never thought I’d get so excited seeing a man with his shirt off” and said after the show “we’ll compare tattoos.” Goodman also said he thought it was the pair’s best dance so far. Bruno Tonioli also noted Donald Driver’s massive muscles and said the dance “had power, it had pride, and a bit of a sense of humor.”
As for Carrie Ann Inaba, she seemed slightly stunned. “What the heck did I just see?” she exclaimed. “That was the most bizarre, sexy, hot pasos I’ve ever seen.” Naturally, after all that praise, the judges ranked the couple very high with solid 9s across the board for a total score of 27 — the highest score of the night.
Is it just me or do you feel like the judges are harder on Maks and Melissa? Probably due to the fact that he is hot headed and they butted heads a lot last season.