Dancing With the Stars Week 5

By Armando Martin
Former U.S. Champion
FADS National Dance Director

Marie and Jonathan danced the Samba tonight to a great piece of music. Marie has unbelievable charisma and a fantastic smile. Her dancing is very easy to watch, but her feet and use of legs are definitely not the best in the competition. However, considering her great fan base, she could go a long way. Marie fainted right after her performance, which shows you how winded you can get when you dance. Thankfully she was OK. Score 21

Tony and Jane danced the Rumba tonight, Jane looked fantastic in her red Latin dress. Her performance was a little careful but her use of arms and legs was so classy and elegant that it looked like she has been doing it for a long time. I think that as Jane gets further in this competition, with her talent and Tony’s teaching experience, she will be there at the end.
Score 26

Dancing the Samba tonight was Mark and Kim, which was not a good dance for them. Mark got a lot of criticism from the judges, and rightly so. His dancing this week was geeky and unnatural with a lack of rhythm and feeling. Maybe next week he’ll get a dance that suits him better.
Score 21

Sabrina and Mark danced the Rumba. Mark received a surprise when during practice his mom, the one and only Shirley Ballas, the best woman to ever grace the Latin dance floor, showed up to help. Unfortunately, I don’t think it helped. This was Sabrina’s worst dance so far. The rumba is not a dance that you can fake and make look good with tricks and speed. Rumba needs true understanding and technique, and Sabrina did not have it.
Score 28

The Samba is not an easy dance because it needs bounce, Cuban motion, shaking and lots traveling around the floor. Jennie did a fine job with Derek this week. She is a very solid and balanced dancer. She never loses her balance and her feet look like they are glued to the ground, which is good. I agree with Bruno that Jennie needs to look up off the floor and have more fun; she shouldn’t look like she’s thinking while she dances.
Score 25

Helio and Julianne danced a very nice Rumba this week. His lines were good and the routine was well put together. But Helio really struggled with the music. He was too fast and did not pull off this dance. Rumba may be the slowest dance, but it is the hardest one to do because it requires true command of technique. Better luck next week.
Score 23

Mel and Maks showed us why she is a force to be reckoned with. I just realized this week that she has very long legs and that they are set into her hips perfectly for a Latin dancer. That’s why she looks so natural when she dances. Her Samba was by far the best technical dance and the best performance of the night.
Score 29

Cameron and Edyta danced the Rumba this week, and they certainly set the right mood on the floor - two great looking people dancing a very sexy Rumba. Cameron did a great job; his posture and emotion were truly exceptional. He is getting better every week and you can see that his natural talent is coming through.
Score 26

The competition is getting stronger and tougher every week. The talented dancers are getting better a little faster than the others, and now is when you see the gaps getting bigger even if you don’t see it in the judges’ scores, I will not be available to comments on the results show, but I think is easy to see that Mark Cuban will go home this week. I’ll be in touch again next week.