Just a quick note that I am sorry Mario wasn't there this week. He was the only one aside from Kristi who was actually attempting difficult choreography and the week would have been better with him.

Now - to the dancing! I thought Jason Taylor's foxtrot was nice n' easy, like most of his dances. Emphasis on the easy. Not that I could do it, but it wasn't that impressive. His second dance, the paso doble, was better, because he got to be a little bit more dramatic.

Marissa Jaret Winokur did a really nice quickstep that I enjoyed watching. I also liked the sensuality of her rumba, although I had to agree that the dance was way too easy to be doing at this point in the competition.

Cristian de la Fuente was very good once again for a guy with a tendon injury, and Cheryl deserves some sort of bonus for doing choreography around his weakness. The first dance was the Viennese waltz. I didn't really like it because it was slower and accentuated the things I don't like about him, like his posture. And overall form. Heh. But the second dance (samba) was looser so it didn't emphasize those issues as much, and I thought it was better.

Kristi's first dance, the tango, did not emphasize so much of the sexiness she was practicing in the class, but she was sooo good - the choreography was so complicated and it was just heads and tails the toughest tango I've seen performed this season. The jive was next, and the other jive Kristi performed remains my favorite dance of the year, so it was a lot to live up to. First of all, Kristi got a chunk of hair stuck to her face early on in the dance, and I have to admit I found that incredibly distracting. Also, she had kind of that pageant smile plastered onto her face, with no change in emotions, and normally that wouldn't bother me, but my eye was already up there with the hair. But it looked like a very difficult and well-executed jive. It didn't enthrall me like the last one did. Still, if I were comparing her to the other dances (and that is the point of the show!) she is so far beyond them that if she doesn't stay the show will be a joke!

Go Kristi!