Dancing With The Stars mixed big surprises in with predictable events

Dancing With The Stars LogoAfter watching even 20 minutes of Tim Kaine (it was like having my brain burned with acid), it was a relief to turn to Dancing With The Stars and learn which two teams were being cut. Before I name names, let me say that the right people went home. Either could have lasted another week, but neither was going to be in it for the long haul. The show also had a very unexpected (but nice) surprise, as well as beautiful dancing by the pros.

The first team to get the boot was the Babyface and Allison team. Considering the disastrous tango they danced on Monday, which was poorly choreographed and horribly danced, the likelihood that Babyface would stick around was nil. A sweet, gentle, talented guy, but not a dancer.

The second team to get the boot was the Vanilla Ice and Witney team. That rather saddened me because I’d grown to like Vanilla’s goofball charm — as well as the way he picked himself up from a decade of depression, drug abuse, and suicide attempts. Vanilla is a man who, having hit bottom, seems to have made a conscious decision to be happy and live well. I admire that quality in a person.

But enough about that. There were actually more interesting things on the show than the fact that people who were inevitably going to be eliminated in fact were eliminated.

During every show, but especially during the elimination show, pros show off fast-paced, beautifully done “bites” of dances. Two of them might do 30 seconds of exquisite tango, or five of the women might get down and get funky for 20 seconds. Last night, Sasha Farber and Emma Slater did a lovely dance — really unusually lovely even for the stuff the pros usually do — and they ended it with an affectionate kiss. Then this happened:

Awwww!

The other thing that made last night’s elimination episode a stand-out was a dance that Derek Hough choreographed to music he helped write accompanied by a drum beat he played and, naturally, in which he danced. He’s a very talented young man.