Judges get generous with 10s on ‘Dancing’

It’s one of the irritations of “Dancing With the Stars” (ABC, Mondays/Tuesdays) that, as the season wears on, the judges start giving such high scores to almost everything that almost no space is left to differentiate between a great dance, a very good dance and a truly spectacular and special dance. Almost everything becomes a blur of 10s late in the game, and the rare 9 begins to look like a nudge in one direction or another — a particular slap to place a contestant where the judges want him or her to be.

Coming out of last week, there was a clear frontrunner in Apolo Anton Ohno, a knocked-back former favorite in Joey Fatone, an on-the-rise upstart in Ian Ziering and the much loved Laila Ali, the last woman standing. To edge toward a good finale, storytelling would suggest that Laila and Joey should have strong weeks, while Apolo should be a little off, and Ian should be nipping at the heels of those he formerly couldn’t match. Let’s see how it played out, shall we?

Apolo announced in the rehearsal footage this week that he wanted to get six 10s for the quickstep and the cha-cha. He chose those dances, he explained, because they were the first ones he did for the season, and he thought they’d be best to demonstrate his improvement. Indeed, the opening quickstep, set to the go-to quickstep song “Mr. Pinstripe Suit,” was a controlled, high-energy performance full of intricate footwork and big smiles. They were indeed rewarded with three 10s, a strong start for a big night. There appeared to be no question that once again, Apolo and his partner, Julianne Hough, had set the bar very high.

Ian counting on fan support
Ian Ziering was pounded with scores last week that were strikingly low for this point in the season. Coming into this week, he was clearly looking to capitalize on the fan support that kept him out of the bottom two last week, and he and Cheryl Burke chose the tango and the jive to demonstrate both passion and their “fun side.”

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Their tango, while crisp, seemed to have trouble getting off the ground and developing any kind of flow, and it looked weirdly stiff at times, a complaint Ian has repeatedly heard from the judges. Still, Ian got good scores on it, surprisingly getting his first 10 of the season from the notoriously critical Len Goodman, while Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba both gave him 9s. For some dancers, that would be disappointing, but for Ian, who took weeks to wipe the look of terror off his face while he was dancing, it was a huge relief.

Laila Ali and partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy started the week with what appeared to be some actual tension and bickering surrounding rehearsal styles and who wasn’t listening to whom. It looked like Maks might wind up with quite a shiner on performance night, but they made up when he appeared with flowers and she took him to a barbecue with her family.

By the time they hit the floor for a lighthearted quickstep to “Walk Like An Egyptian,” they seemed to be back on track. The dance looked a little “basic,” as Len would later say, compared to Apolo and Julianne’s, but it nevertheless scored straight 10s. It seemed odd that the dances were scored the same, but when the scores are this tightly compressed, only a very bad dance doesn’t get a 10 if it comes from a strong candidate.

It was fairly clear from the moment Joey Fatone appeared in his all-white tails to do a foxtrot that he would indeed get all 10s. Indeed, while the level of difficulty of the fairly frothy foxtrot to “My Guy” didn’t seem to even approach the level of difficulty of Apolo’s quickstep, Joey too received straight 10s, and was even told by Carrie Ann that he had “won the ballroom round.” Also: sparkle lapels!

Len then hosted a segment in which he traveled around to visit the various celebrities and help them prepare for the Latin round. While it came off like filler during a performance show, which is the last thing people want to see when dances are already fairly short, it was charming to see Len do a little actual dancing. He demonstrated foot positions to Apolo, arm placement to Laila — it actually made it look like he has some experience and practical suggestions to go with the grouchy-pants commentary.

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