Maya Heads the leaderboard
Dancing With The Stars Week nine and the five remaining couples were challenged to learn and perfom two individual dances, one traditional ballroom and one Latin dance.
First out of the traps was Mya and Dmitry Chaplin with their ballroom performance, choosing a quickstep with the pair surprisingly demonstrating style and technique and no flash gimmicks.
Aaron Carter was next up who even after getting excellent judges' scores ended up in the dance off. He again needs a big score and with partner, Karina Smirnoff suffering from the flu the pair took to rehearsal in face masks. Choosing a foxtrot their live performance though could only be described at best as safe. The judges didn't take to it either, conceeding only that he was trying hard.
Joanna Krupa and Derek Hough, meanwhile came on from last weeks 'high', hoping to maintain their momentum with the quickstep. Joanna's performance though lacked any real verve, while she had great posture her footwork was left lacking. Again the judges failed to be excited by another lack lustre performance.
Kelly Osbourne and Louis van Amstel picked a foxtrot. Although her footwork cught her out on occasion her body position and dancing line helped pull the performance up. Bruno called her performance "light and ethereal.
Donny Osmond has dropped off the pace in the last couple of weeks so he and partner Kym Johnson were hoping their Viennese waltz would signal a return to the top of the leaderboard. But again the routine lacked verve and fell somewhat flat. Carrie Ann Inaba was impressed describing it as 'mesmerising,'.
The latin round, saw each couples latin targeted to a decade. The first pair Mya and Dmitry had a 70's samba The performance was Saturday Night Fever disco themed but Dmitry... ditch the moustache. The cheesy costumes tended to detract from the pairs technical performance which was good beneath the glitz. The judges picked this up giving the pair the first perfect 30 of the season.
Aaron stepped into the 90s for his samba and a manic Aaron seemed in danger of loosing control though fortunately Karina kept him from imploding. The advantage for Aaron is that he can get away with overacting in his fast dances and the judges were suitably impressed enough to give three nines.
Joanna and Derek got a futuristic paso doble but in truth it looked thirty years behind rather than thirty years ahead, the silver suits and wierd eye makeup would have looked more at home on David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust. But credit where its due technially they got it right though Bruno desribing Derek as a genius did stretch credability a bit far.Still two tens and a nine kept them in touch with May on the scoreboard.
Kelly and Louis were given a '60s latin in the form of the jive Kelly was not really happy with this choice as she worried about her abilities to keep up with the pace. Kelly's performance suffered from being a bit flatfooted at times, something she has recieved critcism for in the past.The judges liked the routine enough as Carrie Ann called it one of Kelly's best performances.
Donny was given an '80s-inspired paso doble, pleasing the former pop star because it meant he could wig, so in true Boy George style he took to the dance floor. But then it all went wrong his performance looked silly, and Donny finished looking breathless and defeated. The judges made all the right noises but they struggled to find many positives from this performance ending up scoring Donny and Kym three eights.
Who's in danger - With four pairs grouped together at the bottom, only Mya and Dmitry stood out. Of those four, any could go, favorite would be Aaron who no matter how good bad or indifferent his daning is still struggles with the public vote. Donny Osmond, always fairs better with the public so may just escape as should be Kelly who again is liked by the voting public. Joanna, has a loyal following of fans so even after pretty average performances this week may avoid the boot.