Dancing with the Stars week 3: lowest scoring performances

There were some great performances during week 3 (“Story Night”) of Dancing with the Stars Season 11 and some not so great performances. Here is a brief recap of the performances that ended up with the lowest scores of the night.

Margaret Cho and Louis Van Amstel had the lowest scoring performance of the evening, a Samba that earned them 18 out of 30 points. They danced to “Copacabana” and told a story of self acceptance and coming out to be who you are as a person and celebrating it. Margaret came out with a beautiful rainbow costume and Louis (who did really look like Jack La Lane) had some cool rainbow striped socks to compliment her. The judges appreciated the story and her effort but all made mention that she had problems with the dancing. Head Judge Len Goodman said that the start of the performance was encouraging, but as the dance progressed Margaret lost timing and that the performance got heavy. Bruno Tonioli told her that she went wrong so many times in the performance and often lost her timing. Carrie Ann Inaba loved their story but thought Margaret got out of control at times.

Bristol Palin and her partner Mark Ballas got their lowest scores so far this season for their Foxtrot to “Just the Way You Are” by Bruno Mars. The judges gave them a score of 19 out of 30 points which put them in 9th place. Their story was about helping people, with Mark portraying a homeless person and Bristol someone who at first ignored him but then ended up extending her hand to help. Len didn’t care for their performance at all, telling them it was too contemporary for his taste. Bruno said her execution of the dance steps is neat and clean but the performance lacked expression. He told her to work on her acting skills. Carrie Ann told Bristol that while her movement quality is beautiful she didn’t understand the story from their performance.

Florence Henderson and Corky Ballas were tied for 7th place at the end of the night. They performed a Waltz to “Edelweiss” from “The Sound of Music.” Florence had the character of the dance right, since she performed in the stage version of the show earlier in her career. The performance was an emotional one for her, bringing up memories of her late husband. Len called the performance emotional and sweet, but pointed out that her technique was nonexistent in her feet. Bruno told her that the performance was simple, effective, and very sweet. He did point out her lack of continuous movement in the performance, something that the Waltz requires. Carrie Ann told her that she could see it was danced from her heart but the routine was simple. She challenged Florence to push her boundaries in future performances.

The Situation and Karina were also tied for 7th place this week, scoring 20 out of 30 points. They performed a futuristic Foxtrot to the Black Eyed Peas song “Boom Boom Pow.” The dance was just bizarre – from the futuristic time machine prop, to the trashy costumes, to the crazy hair style. Oh, and the dancing was bizarre as well. Viewers might have been surprised when this was chosen as the encore performance during Tuesday night’s results show. Len told him that he admires him because he is working hard and dancing doesn’t come easily for him. Len also said that if The Situation was doing this routine in his backyard he would draw the curtains so he didn’t have to watch. Bruno told them that in a weird way the routine was very entertaining. Carrie Ann told him that he was baby stepping his way to becoming a dancer.

When the judges’ scores were combined with fan votes Margaret Cho was eliminated from the show. So far this season couples with very low scores are being eliminated so fan votes are going to become more and more important for celebrities to prevent elimination.