Davis and White competing on Dancing With the Stars!

Yeah, I mean... maybe it wasn't perfect or whatever, but an 8?? Also, it was more the way the judges spoke to him that grated than anything else.

Maybe it's just a ploy to gin up votes for Charlie by being harsh on him and sticking him in the fake bottom 3? Personally it feels obvious to me that the Top 4 they want is Meryl, Charlie, James, and Amy. I felt like they damned Danica with faint praise and subpar scores (they could have been more generous) and calmed the people voting as hard as they can for Candace by giving her 9s and declaring her safe first.

In the beginning of the show I was so wrong in my assessment on Maryl vs Charlie. I was sure Maryl would be eliminated quickly as someone with no personality and it would be Charlie who would go far. Now I see it is Maryl who gives the personality to the Maryl/Charlie duo and it is Charlie who needs Maryl's help to carry on, not the other way around.
Really surprised. And I must say: positively surprised. Really glad to see a completely different Maryl from what saw in many figure skating competitions.
I love such surprises!

I think Len in particular is being overly hard on Charlie. I think compared to the other dancers that he was undermarked/

noskates said:

I think Len in particular is being overly hard on Charlie. I think compared to the other dancers that he was undermarked/

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Len's first 10 of the season was given to Charlie, though. But, yea, he also gave him a harsh 8 this week. Similarly, Len was the only person to give a 9 to Meryl in week 2 (remember Mak's "The important one gave us a 9") but then refused to join the other judges in giving Meryl 10's for the next two weeks. I don't think Len has it out for anyone--he just has things that he likes (good-old-fashioned vaudeville in the theme of Mary Poppins seems a nice fit for the stereotypical old curmudgeon), and things that he dislikes (he sounded particularly annoyed by the shirtlessness).

Part of the problem is also music, which isn't entirely within their control. Like last week's Everybody Dance Now was totally unsuitable for a cha-cha-cha, and this week's music, while better, didn't fit as well as the music that M/M got.

The other problem is that the standard against which he's being judged is Meryl, not the other contestants. And, at least in this week and last week, Meryl was (in my totally amateur, unqualified opinion) clean while he was not. Like the little corrective steps that it looked like he had taken this week or the little small pauses and hesitations last week when it looked like he lost timing and had to resynchronize.

Let was a crotchety old buzzard last night. I think most if not all of his scores were 1 point below the other stooges.

noskates said:

I think Len in particular is being overly hard on Charlie. I think compared to the other dancers that he was undermarked/

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For me, it wasn't so much the 8 that Len gave him, but his remarks. It was unnecessary and uncalled for to go, "For me, you need to do something special to get a ten." Brief pause. "And that WASN'T something special."

Don't go and get his hopes up and them give him an 8! What the heck was that, Len?

So, I guess everyone is going to do an individual dance and then a dance with another couple next week. Sounds cool to me!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=781wvrab7Wg

EDIT: And some sort of updates on Amy:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2014/04/29/amy-purdy-hospital-okay-dancing-injury/8450283/

Every year there is a dancer that Len chooses out to be really persnickety about - and this year it's Charlie! I thought Len was pretty much out of line last night. The other thing I've noticed, and it's kind of been mentioned here, is that Charlie is used to presenting his partner! That's what has made him special (to me) as an ice dancer. That doesn't translate so well on the dance floor when his partner is trying to present him. And of course Meryl is more lithe - she's the one who's been thrown around and has had to jump and leap and twist on the ice. But I do think Len needs to let up a bit.

Then, too, putting Charlie in jeopardy and having the judges pick on him might be a strategy for getting viewers to vote for him this week.

On GMA this morning, Tony apparently said that Charlie's knee is injured (makes sense, that was where he messed up... and um why is he doing spinny things on an injured knee to begin with??) and Meryl's toe is broken??? Apparently she broke it with Val during the switch week but kept it quiet?

I'm trying to find the video of it to make sure, but that's what someone at FSU said.

ETA: If their strategy was to gin up votes/outrage for Charlie, it worked. THis is the most I've seen him talked about since the first two weeks.

caitie said:

On GMA this morning, Tony apparently said that Charlie's knee is injured (makes sense, that was where he messed up... and um why is he doing spinny things on an injured knee to begin with??) and Meryl's toe is broken??? Apparently she broke it with Val during the switch week but kept it quiet?

I'm trying to find the video of it to make sure, but that's what someone at FSU said.

ETA: If their strategy was to gin up votes/outrage for Charlie, it worked. THis is the most I've seen him talked about since the first two weeks.

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Hey, I expect them to be up and ready in May on SOI in my city. I hope they will not hurt themselves too much!

These injuries don't surprise me, especially Meryl. She is extremely thin and a lot of the moves she does look to be very jarring on the body.

TontoK said:

Meryl and Maks get Rumba? Dear Lord, that will melt the satellites and cause some sort of national emergency.

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Yes! I've been waiting for the rumba! Rumba and Samba are my favorites and their samba was totally undermined by the awful Jungle Book music so they're better get a bomb rumba music selection.

CezarMart said:

I was sure Maryl would be eliminated quickly as someone with no personality and it would be Charlie who would go far. Now I see it is Maryl who gives the personality to the Maryl/Charlie duo and it is Charlie who needs Maryl's help to carry on, not the other way around. Really surprised. And I must say: positively surprised. Really glad to see a completely different Maryl from what saw in many figure skating competitions.

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I agree with this! And never realized until DWTS that it's actually Meryl that sets the tone of their programs. I've been going back and watching tons of D/W programs since DTWS has been going on and down to the costume, posture and facial expression, it's really Meryl that sets the tone. If she smiles in their start position, it's gonna be lighthearted stroll through the park. If it's a soft non-smile, it's going to be a lovelorn throwaway program. If she's serious, it's about to get real. Haha! Charlie has less of a spectrum so he seems to just follow in whatever direction she goes in. It's uncanny, right?! I think Meryl is definitely more harshly criticized in skating than Charlie is but DWTS is totally changing the way I look at them as a dance team.

Charlie is light, Meryl is shade. It's stunning to me that Meryl could also be shade to Maks cuz that makes Maks light for probably the first time ever in his dance career. They seem to trade light and shade from dance to dance but still... it's totally magnetic!

Paso is prob my least favorite dance and I know the least about it. I honestly... don't know if Charlie/Sharna had a good one. I saw Charlie's mistake down on the knee but that was it. I'm not sure if it was good or bad content-wise but I surely enjoyed it and liked seeing the more serious side of both of them.

I was scratching my head at both Meryl and Charlie's wardrobe selections this week. It was Latin week but both pairs looked like they walked out of the Matrix/Terminator mash-up movie.

snowflakebeautiful said:

That really was impressive. My eyes were drawn to her despite the fact that they included other dancers (and I don't think it was due to my bias). And - unlike others who incorporate some of the other professional dancers, she actually legitimately danced with them - as in they didn't move around her and she didn't just do a little pop or twist here or there...she really danced. So that was neat!

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Agree! I was distracted by all the other dancers--they didn't need that but I thought Meryl did a great job. She certainly nailed the choreo--I think the high tops threw me off on enjoying her footwork. I also think they hindered her hip action a bit. She proved with the samba that she can do the hip action. I would have liked to see more of that in this salsa. Like Len said, she's a great dancer and I would have been happy just watching her and Maks. They didn't need the larger production.

^That's something I've thought about Meryl and Charlie for years, re: the light/shade comment. I always wanted to see a yin-yang sort of themed program (without it being kitschy; maybe just more contemporary than we've seem from them) and I really think they could do it justice.

I'm mostly expecting them to retire, but I'd love to see Meryl and Charlie come back for at least one season and have total outside choreography...without Marina taking out any of the details.

So I saw this on PureDWTS (which I really don't like, BTW, since they seem to have such a toxic attitude towards Meryl):

"Note that there will be TWO dances next week (if I'm understanding this right): the individual dance and also a Mini Team dance where each couple will dance with another couple, and then the pros will split apart to let the two celebs dance."


Anyway, I wonder how they choose the pairings? Would they take into account the fact that two teams are not in LA for most of the week? Because I soooooo want to see Meryl and Charlie dance together on the ballroom floor.

Yeah, PureDWTS has been awful about Meryl since pretty much Week 2. I stopped going there. I listened to enough negativity about Meryl in ice dancing fandom, thanks.

And yup, there are little mini team dances. From the interviews, you can already tell who is matched:

Charlie/Sharna and Candace/Mark
Amy/Derek and James/Peta
Meryl/Maks and Danica/Val.

I'm hoping Meryl and Danica get a paso. The only other dances I can think of that they both haven't done are jazz (pls no) and the waltz or viennese waltz.

They have been really working the Maks/Val rivalry. Much more than the Meryl /Charlie battle that they started with.

caitie said:

Charlie/Sharna and Candace/Mark
Amy/Derek and James/Peta
Meryl/Maks and Danica/Val.

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Aww, my hopes to see Davis/White together on the floor dashed as quickly as it had materialized.

The way the show is going right now I have a gut feeling they are preparing to send Charlie home. He was in bottom three this week, so the rude comment from Len might be a nail in the coffin.

Although they have generally been quite nice to the person about to be sent home-they were pleasant to both Drew and NeNe just before the axe fell, including in the previous week.