Dancing Debates

            This last Monday on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, Olympic Gold Medalist Shawn Johnson and her partner Derek Houg danced another unforgettable dance.  This past week they were given the assignment of the rumba and it was truly capturing.  However, following the dance there was some debate among the judges on a few different points.

There was a point in the dance where Shawn came running at Derek well he stood on the edge of a stage they had set up and he cut her.  It was debated whether Derek had lifted Shawn or just caught her out of a jump.  Carrie Ann decided that Derek had lifted Shawn and therefore broken the rules, which docked them a point off of her score so she scored them a 9 out 10.  The other two judges felt that Derek had simply caught Shawn and therefore did not dock her any points.

If the debate over the jump wasn’t enough, Len then said that he felt there was not enough hip action in the dance to qualify it as a rumba.  Len has always been known as a grump but that did not make the audience very happy at all.  Overall, Len gave Shawn and Derek an 8 out of 10 for not following the style of dance they were assigned.

I know I had to agree with Bruno who gave them 10 out of 10.  The dance was beautiful and unforgettable.  Shawn had truly gone out there and done what she needed to do.  Carrie Ann even agreed that Shawn deserved a 10 by giving her a 9 but saying she was docking a point for a lift.  Shawn took the judges’ criticism and never disagreed and even smiled after given the score.  I truly think she is a great dancer and she probably deserved a higher score.

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