Week 2 usually marks a bit of a lull, as couples now face only one week to prepare a routine and most celebrities still have considerable room to grow. And when paired with “TV Theme Night” and its often ill-suited musical selections, there’s another level of added difficulty. Still, a number of performances rose above the challenges.
1. James Hinchcliffe can develop more fluidity, and a lack of practice time with Sharna Burgess leading into this week may be relevant there, but for a style like paso doble, a strong frame is key — as is a clear sense of timing and rhythm, which James has shown twice now. Great potential remains:
2. Calvin Johnson’s ease with specific ballroom technique, like the rise and fall of his foxtrot with Lindsay Arnold here, needs more time, but his comfort level with the performance factor — and clear sense of music — should serve him well. We’ll have time to wait and see; he’s likely in this for awhile:
3. Kudos to Artem Chigvintsev — and the directors — for exposing Maureen McCormick’s feet in a style like quickstep where it’s too often easy to conceal a celebrity’s potential shortcomings with a long skirt. Instead, she’s reasonably clean and crisp, and clearly more at ease than in her debut week:
4. This jive for Laurie Hernandez and Val Chmerkovskiy is not as sharp or clean as last week’s debut, and Laurie’s kicks and flicks can use refinement as enthusiasm sometimes overrode technique. But her edge as one of the show’s more musically-inclined gymnasts and a well-tuned athlete can’t be denied.
Honorable mentions to two musical challenges. Marilu Henner and Derek Hough’s foxtrot is a fairly standard piece of choreography, but well danced — and helped by a re-orchestrated, more rhythmic interpretation of the melodic but light Taxi theme:
Meanwhile, though this X-Files Argentine Tango from Babyface Edmonds and Allison Holker was fine by second week standards, more impressive was Babyface’s role in adapting the theme to Argentine tango musical stylings. Including a producer among the competitors has its advantages:
