And now welcome to the ballroom in the fourth Judges Chair.

It shun up, Burgess, what's up?

Everybody?

Welcome to another episode of in the Fourth Chair.

I cannot believe we've just had the semi final of Dancing with the start of season thirty fourth, Like this has gone so unbelievably fast.

The season has zoomed right by.

It's been such a gift doing this podcast with you all and hearing all of your thoughts and hear you learning about technique and all the things.

And I'm super sad that next week's going to be the last one.

But wow, did we have an amazing semi final.

It was a Prince theme night, and I think for the very most part, the songs were great with the dancers.

I think we had some that were a little bit of a miss, you know.

I think for me and Argentine tango, I really want to have that Argentine tango sound something that's a bit more authentic or at least with a real sexiness to it, and so I feel like our Argentine tangos didn't quite hit the mark for me tonight.

But we'll get into those when we get to them.

And I thought you know, we do a lot of themes, and some of them really work and some of them don't.

I love Prince's music.

I do think it really worked.

I think maybe my favorite theme that we did was Wicked, to be honest with you, because I'm a wicked girly.

But overall, I think that everyone did a fantastic job.

This was also the first week really we're seeing them have to do two straight up serious dances, you know, where it is just them on the floor and they've got to give us the technique these two performances that are supposed to be at this semi final level, and I do find that well.

Naturally, of course, one of their performances was stronger than the other.

I wasn't as wowed as I wanted to be in some of the performances, especially in the first half, and then some of them really wowed me in the second.

It was a little bit all over the place.

I think you have to understand that the semi final is quite honestly the hardest of the weeks out of the entire season.

This is where you are so close with so far, you are also so freaking tired as a pro.

You know that every little thing counts.

Now every point counts.

Do you take risks or don't you?

Are you pushing the choreography enough?

Have you in these redancers?

Have you improved the technique enough so you've got to spend time on that in really getting back into it.

It is so much pressure for both celebrity and pro dancer.

And then once you get to the finale, should you make it that that part's easy.

That's like you get to do your freestyle, you know you've made it.

You leave it up to the gods of where you land.

Of course you want to win, but you just do the best you can.

You know you're in the final, but this semi final business is cut the roat and it's hard.

We had I would I don't know if i'd call it a shock elimination because of all the crazy hate that we see online.

But I was really sad to see Whitney go.

I'm so sad that we're not going to get a Mark and Whitney freestyle.

She was by far the best dancer in the competition and I think it would have been so good.

Could you imagine what Mark could have done with her in a freestyle?

And it's crazy, look it does come down to public vote.

Obviously, you guys are our newbies too, were learning how powerful that vote is, which is important to know.

But man, I did not love seeing the massive amount of petitions to get her off the show, simply because she was petitioning to be on it, you know.

And I don't want to get into the politics of that, I sort of said on my social media because I don't watch the Mormon Wives show, like what is all this hate and what's it about?

And I don't necessarily get it, but I don't know the law that's there.

But I do appreciate that she came out upfront with her ambition and was like, hey, yeah, I'm coming back because I want to do the show because this is an opportunity for me.

That's a business move, and I loved that for her.

But anyway, I listen, I don't know Whitney from a bar of soap, and I know nothing about her, but anytime I've met her, she's lovely.

And I hope that this has been a positive, wonderful experience for her, and I really hope that it just semifinal or final.

I think regardless, people now can see the performer that she is and I have no doubt that we're going to see her on Broadway should she be able to sing and head off into doing other things.

And I love that for her.

But yeah, I'm very, very sad to see her journey come to an end a week too soon.

But how about we get into the couples and we will get back to them.

We have twelve dances to get through today, so let's get stuck into it.

We first start with Elaine and Alan.

They had a fox trot.

The judges said, carry inne you so deserve your spot in the semifinal.

It was sophisticated, smooth, it was strong, it was solid, but she would love to see the edges a bit more and for her to push it a little bit harder because she's making it look too easy.

I totally understand what she's saying.

We're going to get back to that.

Derek said it was beautiful, the articulated feet with the rise and fall, really complimenting on the way she's getting that rise and fall in the foxtrot, which is something that we have.

We don't want it to be bouncy.

She was using those ankles and feet as her shock absorbers, so it had a nice and smooth rise and fall to it, which I did love and notice, and he did say that he wanted more fight in it, and then Bruno said it was flirty dancing really is much a lot like acting, and it's very character driven and the performance is great, but yes, he also wanted to see her push it just a little bit further.

So what I think that comes down to is the first thing I wrote down when I was watching this was there's no glide and no power.

And this is something that I felt from a lane in her other ballroom dances, and maybe it was when she did foxtrop before, but I understand that we have things with our frame, and you know that we can't get bigger space on that.

But what I did miss in this is the push and the drive along the floor, the longer strides in the feet, the using the power and the power center into the standing leg to drive and get a longer stride.

I felt like nothing pushed outside of underneath her body, if that makes any sense.

If you go and you watch a fox trot that pushes and glides, you could just go YouTube it, you know what I mean.

If you want to see what a slow fox trut really moves like and you will see they are long steps with long heel leads, and they push so far outside of where the body is standing, and then you use the power and your standing leg to drive yourself over and onto that foot.

And I feel like we didn't have the drive, we didn't have the power, we didn't have the stride.

And so that's where I think these judges are talking about wanting more push.

Was it yet to push a little harder, to fight a little bit more for it.

It's not like a literal aggression, you know, don't take it as something so literal, but really that they just could have been more done with the energy and the power that is true to the technique of the fox trot.

And I do agree with them.

And so unfortunately for me, this one just fell flat a little bit.

And I hate saying that because I love a lane and I was actually the judges gave it a nine ninety nine.

I was in between an eight and nine and eight and a nine because I just felt a tiny bit underwhelmed by it in that sense.

Look, I know she's a great performer, her face or everything that she was giving in that sense, her arms and the way she's using it.

The connection between her and Alan fabulous.

I loved it, but this is a semi final man and that drive in that power is an absolute necessary thing, and I really was missing it.

So I was in between an eight and nine, probably the higher end of her an eight on this one.

Moving on to Alex and Val and Argentine Tango, this is one of those ones where I was like, oh, it's just missing the mug.

But let's get into what the judges said first.

So Derek said he absolutely loved it.

She has potential to go all the way beautiful lines and shapes, which is also true.

All of that is true, beautiful lines and shapes, and absolutely she's going to go the whole way.

Bruno beautiful shapes and lines, agreed with Derek.

Her body work was top notch, So everything that's happening in her body, the texture, the way she's moving, the way she's holding herself, to the way she's allowing Val to lead her, all of that was not But then he called out the ganchos that needed to be a little bit sharper.

Now, garanhos are without showing you it's hard, but it's where some of the leg flicks are happening, and it's where the lady flicks and links her leg around or underneath the man's legs, and so what was happening there is Some of them looked really good, and then some of them felt a little bit loose, like there are ones where they were sort of coming towards the camera and she lifted her right leg off the ground and had to hook it over the top of vow's leg right.

It stayed a little bit wide.

It was pretty, but it wasn't in the way that Argentine tango requires it to be done, which is the retraction on it, the bounce, the speed in which you have to flick hook and flick back and pull it back.

It just wasn't happening in there.

And I did feel that throughout it, the flicks and the movements, the ganchos, the oa SHOs, the lynx, they just felt a little bit wide.

There was something in one of the tricks where she came down.

One of them was absolutely beautiful where she was in a stag position.

She looked stunning in that her leg lines were gorgeous.

But then there were other ones where it just didn't land and it all felt a little bit wide, and so yeah, for that it kind of took me out of it, paired with the fact that I think it was the song that also for me wasn't showing the steaminess that I would love to see in the Argentine tango.

Getting back into what the judges said, Carrie Anne said she is the most improved, but where her shoulders were up and she was gripping onto the dance instead of in control of it.

So I actually really agree with carry Anne on what she's saying that it didn't feel like she had so much confidence and control in this dance.

I think she was totally in control, but the performance of it wasn't really selling that for me, and agreed with carry Anne.

The shoulders were definitely definitely up, So there were a couple things in there.

The things that I said, you know, the steaminess and the gun shows being a little bit loose, but also those shoulders going up when she turned.

It just didn't feel as grounded as we've seen her in other performances, and so it really took me out of it, I think, and again being up against doing an Argentine tango to Little Red Corvette is hard, fabulous song, but hard, and so some parts of it were really incredible and then other bits less so.

But you know what one thing about Alex I will say is that her attitude every week at the moment just wins me over even more.

Like seeing her it's hard, but she wants to be in it.

She wants the criticism, she wants to work hard, she wants the blood, sweat and tears, Like I'm just so impressed with the way that she is embracing this experience, in the way that she's in this experience.

It's just phenomenal, and I'm really impressed with her.

She won me over as a fan.

The judges gave it a nine to ten to nine.

I was actually in between an eight and nine.

That seems pretty harsh.

I'd probably be on the lower end of a nine, but I did.

I felt it was good, but it just wasn't amazing, missing that character into and some of the technique of the Argentine tango.

So yeah, in between an eight and nine on Alex and vows Argentine moving into Whitney and Mark doing a chuccha chucha is just so hard to do at this point in the competition.

It is It's a dance that can die a thousand deaths on television because it's very monotonous and it's timing.

The technique is really hard to grasp.

You want to get this one done and out of the way early in the competition when you come back to a chutcha.

I was shocked that there were two chutchyars in the semi that I think they chose to do because for me, chacha is just a risk.

So let's get into it.

The judges said first.

Bruno said, the content everything is what you want from a chutcha.

The precision, the placement, the execution, the level of difficulty was incredible.

Carrie Anne said she felt that the technique that she could see it that you could see Whitney processing and thinking about it.

She could see the technique too much instead of the technique blending in and becoming part of the dance and just disappearing into it.

Totally understand what she's saying.

We'll get back to that.

Derek said that carry Inne was out of her mind.

Said it was literal perfection.

Chatcha is risky, but the precision, technique and performance was awesome.

So here's my notes.

The legs were entirely too straight for too long.

In chatcha, yes, it is a straight leg action, but you go through a bent and flexed leg that develops out to get there or bends to move backwards.

What Whitney was trying to do was keep her legs straight for as long as possible, and so it made her look like a Barbie doll dancing on the floor right where her legs were so stick straight and they didn't really bend.

It made it feel like it was out of the floor, which made it feel like there wasn't any hip action in it, which meant it didn't feel like there was any rotation or opposition in the body in that middle snowman and lower snowman, as I've talked about before.

So I just truly feel that it wasn't the right dance for them to choose as a redemption or a redance.

It just Now, that's not to say that the content wasn't amazing.

The content was phenomenal.

Marx musicality, her performance factor, the cheekiness between them, the booty slaps, like there is so much to love in this routine, her arm placements, her everything is absolute fire.

But the way she was using her legs, the way that they were tracking, the way that she was moving from foot to foot, her New Yorker positions where you both go through when you face forward ish right.

It's hard to explain, but her back leg was bent and a straight leg was her front leg was straight, which means her weight was too far back on her back leg.

She needed to have her nose more over her toes in that position.

And while from the first chutch that she did, it was vastly improved, because I was really not a fan of the first chutcher that she did great improvement.

And you can see she worked a lot on the technique and there were some parts where there was hip action and she was using her legs properly, and there was also a lot where she wasn't, And so it just took me out of it.

I feel, yeah, I don't know if this dance hurt them.

I think maybe the voting was going to go the way it was going to go anyway for her, and also her performance was pretty spectacular and memorable, but as far as the technique things go, it just wasn't the one.

In saying that the judges didn't necessarily feel as strongly about it as I did.

I was in between eight and nine because the technique thing really really got me.

But her performance factor is a ten, so I probably would have landed on the lower end of a nine.

Carrie Anne was a nine.

Derek and Bruno were both tens.

I think it's fair.

Look, I think you can see how they're going to give it a ten.

But for me, that chatcha technique and leg action was just so off, and as Carrie Anne said, you could see her focusing on it so much, or that you could see too much of the process of it.

In a sense, it really took me out of it, guys, which is such I'm sorry, I'm still processing that.

I am so bu We're not going to see a freestyle from them.

Well done, Mark and Whitney.

All right, moving on to Dylan and Danny doing a tango.

Let's get straight into the judges.

Carrie Anne said that it was a very smooth debonair leading men and he was very in control.

However, there was a mess up in the footwork and he wasn't feeling the music, so he needs to come back and really feel the music.

I get that.

I get that as maybe hard in a tango because you've got this character that you're trying to give it.

But I think the musicale ltty is really what Karanne is leaning into.

That he wasn't sitting in the musicality of it and using the music not so much as like a character and tension thing, but a body thing in the way that we use the music.

Derek said he complimented the frame when he's going into promenade positions.

So promenade position is when we both were in frame, but we go to face the same way.

And in tango you do there's like rap these head movements that have this like short, sharp staccato type of shake to them, right.

He did that there was a lot to love when it came to the intention of the tango from Dylan in this like really really good in some of that action and that flavor.

Again, it's like the nuances that Danny teaches that are just so freaking cool that I don't know I've ever really seen a female pro teach before.

I love that about her, and he did.

Derek called out that it was missing heel leads, which it was.

I had to go back and watch it another time to actually focus on footwork and my goodness, there were very few heel leads, and that's what I think was making it feel not quite as grounded and powerful as I wanted it to.

Like he was doing things like he was doing the head flicks and the frames and the intention of it, but it wasn't reading as powerful as I wanted it to.

And I think it comes from not driving through that leg onto a heel lead and truly getting that roundedness.

So I totally agree with Derek.

We were missing on those things.

Bruno said the bum was under control.

He is a leading man, and felt his firm assertiveness and he got all like funny with Derek.

I felt his assertiveness and that was the part of his intention and those head flicks and the you know whatever.

But again I agree with Derek at the hill Leads that it was lacking a little bit of power.

It was just lacking a little something.

But at the same time, so much improvement with that bum being under because that was a whole thing for him, and so there was a lot about this to love for me.

But then there was some stuff where I was like, I don't know, it wasn't the greatest.

I also felt that his frame, it's just it is definitely more angular in this this tango, and so you want that to be, but it felt a tiny bit rounded.

And his head just goes so far left, like he's looking over his shoulder instead of slightly left where he's looking over his left hand.

And so that's always bothered me when it comes to his ballroom dances, and I wish that was something that they had fixed and worked on because it just takes me out of it, Like it's like, where are you looking, dude.

You're supposed to be looking over your left and also have the idea of where you're going, but he looks like he's looking over the back of his shoulder, like there's someone behind him.

So that took me out of it a little bit.

But the opening arms, the opening thing that they did where he like burst his arms out and there was a little texture and energy and musicality in his arms.

I thought we were starting strong, and then it just teed it off a little bit.

The judges gave it nine ninety nine.

I was solid on an eight.

Moving on to Jordan and Ezra doing a jive, let's get into the judges first.

Derek said it was funky and fun and fresh.

But he wanted a bit more attack and sharpness and bite from it.

Bruno said that it was high energy fun, but it's so fast.

She lost the timing a little bit, but otherwise it was brilliant.

It wasn't really fun jive.

I wonder if they weren't allowed to slow it down or if it sounded weird slowed down, because it did seem fast at least.

And I agree with all of this on the attack, so we'll get back to that.

Carrie Anne said she loved the performance, but she saw that there was a mess up and she was her favorite performance actually so far of the night.

So this one's tough for me.

First thing I said was she has flexed feet in her kicks.

I was like, wtf, Like, point those toes, girl, and you could see them, especially as she was going backwards down the stairs, I think, and she'd kick her foot up.

That thought was fulllexed.

We need to work real hard to point those toes, especially when in a Latin heel and in a shoe that can accidentally make you look a little bit more flex than you are.

We definitely needed to work on that.

I said that it was back weighted and low energy and it was somehow missing dynamics, which is kind of also what Derek and kind of everyone is saying.

It felt backweighted.

So I have more than ever and we have another drive to compare it to, which is Roberts, and you can compare this in them.

He is so nose over toes, right, it's so far past his toes because the energy is right on the balls of the feet, so naturally your weight moves forward over your center is different, and you want to have that lightness the whole time.

There is a bounce that's happening in your core, in your belly, not just through your toes or your ankles.

It has to be coming through your belly into the knees, into the ankles, into the toes to be bouncing the whole time, right with the kicks and the flicks and the retraction.

There is energy in it constantly.

Nothing hits slow and heavy.

And I don't mean heavy in weight to reiterate, I mean heavy in timing and movement.

And so I felt like with Jordan and Ezra it was just I know she was giving face, and I know there was performance in that, and I loved that, but it was missing the energy of jive for me, which is crazy because she's super athletic.

It's not like she was struggling for energy.

I mean the energy of the jive, the essence of the jive, and that essence of the give then translates into the body and the action these kicks and flicks.

I also found that the you know, her kicks and flicks were a little bit mechanical instead of coming from the core, so they were muscled through with the legs as opposed to being a reaction to a contraction, and so it just missed the mark for me.

She did jive before, and I actually think I preferred the other one, but that could have been a song situation.

I don't know that this song necessarily gave me jive feels right, and I think before she did I think she had fringe pants on.

Also a nice little hack when you wear fringe pants.

But yeah, I just I was super bummed when I saw this one because I love Jordan, I love Ezra, I love what they've done this season, but it just it was you know again.

I wasn't all that impressed with the first performances, so I landed on an eight.

The judges landed on nine.

Nine nine.

What more could Jordan have done?

It definitely needed to have that lightness, the excitement, the energy of a jive, the contraction in the middle, the joy in the laugh room between the two of them, the joy and the joy when you're coming forward with it, like it is the most joyful dance of them all.

And I feel like it just wasn't giving that for me, not just in the presence and personality of it, but in the action of the body.

So bummer.

But their next dance was pretty good, so I did land on a note.

Okay, getting into that other jive that we were talking about.

Now, For some reason, Robert is just he's just he's a driver.

I don't know how to explain it.

This man came out week one and I was like, holy crappy can dance.

And then like we had a journey with Robert of things he can can't do, and we remembered, oh wait, he's not a dancer.

But this was strategically a spectacular choice for which to go back to it with Robert and to do the give again, because the give was an amailing dance for him, you know, which is where I say, I don't know why people chose chutcha.

I would never choose to do a chutcher in a semi final.

I would honestly choose one of my stronger dances from the first half of the season and come back and do that even better as a redemption dance.

So interesting, So let's go judges first.

Bruno said it was a superstar jive.

It was so energized, but it was so in control, never a foot wrong.

Loved the choreography from Whitney.

Carrie Anne said, that's how you demand a spot in the finale.

So sharp, so clean, so buoyant, so amazing.

Agreed the buoyancy.

Buoyancy is a great word, actually, which is what I was missing from Jordan.

I needed the buoyancy and this kid has it in spades.

Derek said, great example of dancing with your whole body.

I love that he called out steps like a sugar push and all sorts of things they did, which is a true content of a jive that is in the syllabus book.

They did it really well, and he said it just had it all.

This is what he's saying about the whole body.

A great example of using the whole body, like yes, this is it's such a beautiful way to describe Robert, and also like a couple others in the season two but when he dances, it's from the tip of his head to the bottom of his toes, to the tips of his fingers, to his entire face.

Like he says it, with his whole body.

It's a whole body experience.

There is not one bit that is left untouched.

Every single little bit of him is cleaned, especially in jive.

I think Whitney is just a queen of jive, right.

I've loved all of her jives, Alfonso's drive.

There's so many of her jives over the years where she's just kind of a master at creating something that is dynamic, that is musical, that is clean, that gives good action.

And so I feel like she just absolutely crushed it with him on this one.

I look my notes.

I was like, Okay, Patrick Swayzee, the way this man jumped off the judge's table, you put that side by side with Pat jumping off of the stage in Dirty Dancing, the knee slide into her amazing.

And then whatever this like backward kip up situation is that he did the athleticism in his body very very impressive.

And then I love that we caught the James Brown moment with the feet this time, because we didn't see that in the very first episode when he did jive, so Witt made sure she's like, let's do it again.

They both did it.

We were on a wide shot.

Love that I wrote so good.

His nose is so over his toes, his retraction and his lightness is amazing.

It is so clean.

I'm obsessed.

I truly loved this.

Now is he absolutely absolutely perfect?

Well, no, there's tiny bits of awkwardness sometimes in his hands that can feel like the fingers are all stuck together, the teeniest of things.

Not anything that I would take a whole point off.

But the reason I pointed out is because this is what reminds you that he's so freaking good.

But there is just enough that's a little awkward or not quite perfect where you go, oh, that's right, he's not a dancer.

It reminds you that this man, this is not what he does.

He wrestles crocodiles for a living and saves wildlife like this, that's what he does.

But this man can dance, and I don't know where he's going to take it in his time or in his future or what he wants to do with it.

But he is a natural born performer and if anyone has ever seen him at the Zoo in Australia and where he's doing his thing, he is also a performer.

And I think what it is he has so much passion in everything that he does.

This is real.

The passion that you're seeing from him when he's out on that floor, his love for it.

I think Whitney in his connection and what they have is just so freaking beautiful to watch.

It's one of those partnerships which is the reason we love to watch Dancing with the Stars is the team, you know, and the genuine love and camaraderie and support and friendship that they've built.

It's just so beautiful.

I loved everything about this.

The judges gave it a ten ten ten.

I gave it a ten, no question.

I absolutely loved it all right.

Getting into Elaine and Alan coming back for their second dance, now she did a passa dob lay.

Carrie Anne said it was amazing.

She basically ran over to hug her and got on the ground and gave her flowers pretty much.

Derek said it was a proper beautiful passo with all the shapes and lines.

But more impressively, she came with that fight, especially after that first dance, and that's what we're talking about.

It was powerful and it filled the room.

I agree.

Bruno said it was like a regal bird of prey.

It was authentic as it should be, and it was majestic.

So I said, okay, like the power and the drive there you are, there you are.

That's how I want to see you move across the floor.

Like that drive and energy that was in it.

You can have that in every dance, just with a different intention.

That's what I've been missing from her, and I'm so glad we got to see it in this dance she had.

There was this it's not a shadow position, she's slightly behind and off the shoulder of Alan.

They did this like choreograph head flick thing that is like, it's an ism.

It's not even a step, it's an ism that we do when we dance.

It can be any dance.

But I love that she matched Alan on it.

And I don't know if that was a choreographic choice or she was just so in it and so fired up that she got into it.

And she gave it.

I loved that.

I loved this.

I loved the authentic content.

I thought Alan did a really, really great job on the routine.

I thought her center was nice and high passa doblay.

We've talked about this before.

You want to raise that center, you raise it up a little bit higher.

So you're trying to make your legs feel as long as possible.

Your hips are pushed a little bit forward, your nose is not necessarily over your toes, but you're not back weighted.

You are straight up and down, and then the hips are pushed forward.

From it, everything is tight and lifted.

The elbows need to be out, the shoulders are down.

You want to get nice big shapes in it.

Passadoblay shaping is very very specific, and I feel like she did a fantastic job at doing that.

In the chasse capes, the twist turns some of the choreography that they did where you really require that true passo shaping.

She got it, man, and I think she did a great job.

But what was the most amazing for me was seeing that power in that drive.

I was like, Elaine, give it to me more and more and more.

This is what I want.

This is what I want in the finale, I don't know what their freestyle could be.

I have no idea what any of these guys are going to do, and I'm actually so excited to see it.

But I hope we see this continued attack and once again, it doesn't have to have the passive dobe late energy or presence or character to it.

It could be a veniese waltz, but you still use the power in your body, finding that power center, driving into the standing leg, getting a long stride, and using that energy slow or fast.

That's how we generate power, and she found it in this dance.

The judges gave it a ten ten ten.

I started as a nine to ten, but then I was like, well, what more am I asking from it that she can do?

Because again I know I could have asked for a bit more stretch in the neck and the shoulders and the backbends of it, but I don't think she can do them.

So then I landed on ten because I thought this was fantastic and it's actually, I think one of my favorite dances that she's done, and I was very very impressed.

I love how she came back fighting from that first one.

It was really great to see all right getting into Alex and Val doing a Viennese waltz.

Here's the steaminess like here, of course they have purple rain, like what a hot song.

So yes, that lends it to it.

Maybe that answers the question of why Little Red Corvette didn't have the steam miss in the Argentine tango.

This was so good, so Derek said, we have seen you transform into a dancer.

It's powerful, it's passionate.

It was stunning.

Bruno said it was the perfect combination of motion and emotion.

It was so connected to the music and to vow he absolutely loved it.

I agree with all points from Bruno and Derek.

Carrie Anne said, this has been the most challenging and competitive season ever, but that performance will go down in history.

You've grown so much and you delivered a passionate performance.

You basically loved it, no notes and just said, what a fantastic dance.

Will it go down in history?

I don't know.

Like I've seen some pretty spectacular vein Is waltz's on the show, and this was absolutely spectacular.

I loved the opening shot, loved the sitting on the ground.

There were so many things about this that was beautiful.

But I just really loved singing this like sexy connection between the two of them, because hey, the song requires it, and ven is Waltz would normally be the dance of true love for me, the veen is Weltz is the romantic love.

Rumber is the dance of lust and the one night stand.

But when a song like this comes on, you got to give it some lust, you know what I mean.

And I feel like they really really got there everything that I wanted in the Argentine tango as far as connection goes, I feel like I got in this one.

Her frame was doing better, you guys.

I've pointed out previously in the past about Alex and Val that we weren't getting the vol and the dol right that connection low in the body around the groin area.

I felt like we got closer to it today.

The body contact was much better.

Teeny tiny little bit of gapping in the hips, but the bodies were together.

I so appreciated that they were finally getting that in, you know, and so therefore the movement felt stronger and better.

The frame was better.

She could still get a little bit more in the window on the outside edge of the circle.

However, it was better.

I really really was impressed with this.

I loved she was using this gorgeous release through her body when she was doing the side by side or the solos or the arms or the opening outs.

This release that was coming through the middle of her body and into her chest and into her neck as she was dancing, like the music was quite literally flowing through her body leg it was her blood and you could see it coming out of her.

And I loved it.

I loved this performance from them, and I thought it was a great way to come back from a dance that I was kind of like meh about, and I honestly just wrote, wow, I love it.

So the judges gave it a ten ten ten.

I absolutely one percent landed on a ten.

Moving into Dylan and Danny now doing a chatcha chutch Man Like I know, I was actually a fan of his chutcha earlier in the season, but that's because it was chuched on the earlier of the season.

Like, I don't know, I don't know, it's it's just hard.

Now, Okay, let's get into the judges first.

Bruno called him a sexy beast, said, you've done so much work on the hip action and the foot placement, and he did such a great job, said Danny has done a fantastic job, which by the way, she has and those things are absolutely true and accurate.

Carrie Anne said she liked the attack and loved what he did with the music in this one, but felt that the arms were getting a little bit small sometimes.

Now let me tell you what she means by that.

It's not that his arms were literally coming in and doing nothing or being small in their action.

It's that when they're out, his elbows were down too low.

And so what that does is it weakens the position on the man because it brings it in.

You want to feel like the elbows are up and out, there is space and air underneath the arm pits, almost like there is a balloon there.

That doesn't allow your elbow to come in closer to your body.

It has to stay out and broad and strong.

And so when he's doing this action, sometimes the elbows were coming into much, which gave it a bit of a softer edge, a bit of a smaller feel to it.

Right, I would have loved to have seen his elbows go up and take a little bit more space a little bit more air around the rib cage and the armpits.

So I do agree with her, and that's what she means by that, Derek said.

The knee slide, he called it out.

He said it was compact, the chassets and the New Yorkers, the details, the proper cuban motion the New Yorkers, and the foot placement of the foot being turned out.

Nobody does that, the arm placements.

There was just so many things that he called out.

Now, this is what I love that Derek called these out.

Whether they make sense to you or not, but let me help.

These are the nuances.

These are the layers that Danny goes to right when she is teaching.

She's not just teaching, hey, hit a straight leg position.

She's teaching from the ground up the position of the foot, to where the knee is placed, to where the hip is, to how the ribcage stretchers, to how to get the arm out and how to get the and then on top of that, she teaches these little nuances and layers that pro men do that are the again, like the isms of it all.

And I just so appreciate the way that she teaches.

I don't think we've ever had anyone teach the way that she does, and I love it, and I think that she did a fantastic job with Dylan on this, and I love that Derek called out those movements because truly, those are the things that we see as professional borehom dancers where we geek out over it and there's such tiny little details, but men do they make a huge difference when you see them.

So they're not the big flashy things or it's not a timing thing or a slickness thing.

They are the isms that we recognize as professional boom dances and go, that's crazy, that's amazing that he got that, that he did.

That first word I wrote was cute.

I'm not one hundred percent sure why, but I wrote cute, and that oh write the beginning with everyone, he did a little hip bump that was cute, That was slick, and I did like that.

He had amazing action in the beginning of the chutcha, the way he was using his hips, his slow time steps with the cuban action in them.

There was really beautiful movement there.

It was so freaking well done.

I dare say better action than many other men that we've had on the show.

Doing a chutcha.

The elbows, I said, were too low.

We lost a little bit of footing.

We did have a mistake which Derek did try and call out, but he ran out of time.

There was a little bit of a mistake, and then after that we kind of lost some of the crispness some of the action there was after he'd had a little bit of a mistake.

He was doing two or three chutcha walks into a lockstep to then start to go backwards.

It wasn't as clean.

I think it was reminiscent of a combo that they did in their first chutcha, but this one actually didn't hit as hard as the first one.

So he started off super strong and then something happened and then it was a little bit less strong, and I felt like it was good.

It was good, and it gets a high score from me because the work that he did on the action was spectacular and there's so many of those isms and things in there that make it great.

I don't know that it would have ever gotten to a ten because dynamically he's just missing things.

For me.

That does come with the elbows being in the arms, there's like a threshold or there's a barrier, there's one last hurdle that he is supposed to jump over to get that face and that performance.

And I also felt this in his tango too, like there was no real face and performance.

He was doing it with his body, but it wasn't registering on his face.

And this is like, this is the storyteller, right, you want to you want to see it.

It translates what the body is doing into an emotion for you, or into it he tells you how to feel about it, right.

I didn't get that from him in either of his dancers.

I didn't.

I know, he was smiling and there were some playfulness, but I just wasn't getting enough face and performance on top of it that I think I wish that he cracked that.

You know, we saw it in his Argentine tango because that was a different kind of energy where it could be a little more subtle, but Chat ain't subtle.

And yeah, and I very much wish that we got a little bit of a bigger animated performance from him.

I think that would have been a really cool moment to see.

So the judges gave it a nine nine ten I landed I was an eight nine.

I was an eight nine.

I think I landed on a nine because I really appreciated the chatch our work that he did and that Danny did on the action, but dynamically it was missing a couple things.

Oh okay getting into Whitney and Mauk, so I basically was right.

I said lots of swear words in this, but I was like, no, notes, she's exceptional.

And I said all the F bombs in the middle of it, which I won't say because you'll you have to bleep me out.

So it was exceptional and I absolutely loved it.

There is one tiny little thing where I would say that her frame tilts down instead of her tilting up and stretching up and out into her frame into that window onto the left side, she sort of like has this little bit.

It just has a slight few degrees of an angle that goes down, which bothers me.

But her actual frame is lovely.

It's just a direction of her tilt.

It was, Oh my god, guys, it was so good.

There was a little double foot balance thing where she did hop.

She absolutely did hop.

I think it was twice.

I definitely saw one time.

Carrie In said twice.

So there was a balanced thing in it.

There was something about this performance in her face and in the beauty in it.

I have a feeling that they knew.

I think they knew.

And let me tell you, you wake up.

I think I've said this here before.

You wake up that day and you just know, you know if you're winning, you know if you're losing, you know if you're going home.

That you just have a knowing, right you wake up and that's it.

And so I think part of the emotions for her that we were really seeing her experience in this and Mark's saying, you can do this, you can do this, and you know, none of us know really what's going on behind the scenes there and what's happening in her world, but she was experiencing some high level emotions and that could be why we saw a little bit of a foot hop and a balanced thing.

Let's go to the judges now.

So Carrie Anne said it was her favorite performance.

It was so authentic and it was unmasked and it was beautiful and she was almost emotional saying this, and then she said did say but there was a hop and that she has to Mark for that.

Derek said, thank you for sharing your ambition and your dreams.

It's so courageous, and so many people don't do that.

They're afraid to share it just in case it doesn't happen.

I appreciated that Derek said that because I also really appreciated that about her.

I don't understand.

Again, I don't know the law, but I don't totally understand the backlash that she gets for being ambitious.

I think it's spectacular that she is.

And we see men be ambitious all the time and say what they want and go for it, and I think, why can't we see her do it?

And so I agree with Derek.

I love that he said that.

Bruno said she's immensely talented.

The quality of movement that we see very rarely, she's so in tune and it was phrased with the music.

Everything was impeccable.

Agreed.

The way that this girl moves, I mean, listen, yes, I know she's got dance experience, so sure, but the way that she moves is not just having dance experience.

There is something beautiful in there.

She is meant to be doing this.

She's she for whatever reason, I think she said it in a package.

She just didn't think that this was for her because she fell into having a family or whatever, and that obviously happened quite young.

I hope that this has sparked a new direction for her where she follows this passion because it lights her up.

It absolutely lights her up, and she is brilliant at it now wherever it leads her.

I don't know if can she act?

Can she sing?

You definitely need those skills too, But I really hope that she pursues it in some way because I think it is healing for her and I think it is a part of who she is and she needs that expression.

And the partnership between her and Mark has been absolutely so beautiful, and you know, as I've said before, her freak matches his freak and we just get to see some magic happen between them.

And I think that it's going to be really exciting to see where she goes with this.

I will say that anytime I've met her, she's been absolutely lovely.

She seems to have built really beautiful, genuine connections with everyone at the show.

She seems so incredibly supportive when I observe from a distance because I don't know her, and when I'm there and I watch her so supportive of everybody else, so genuinely supportive when people get good scores, bad scores, have a good dance, make a mistake or nail, it doesn't matter.

She's in there with the people that are around her, and I love seeing that she's a part of the family of the season thirty four cast, and she will definitely be missed on the floor and I have truly loved watching them do their thing.

So the judges gave it nine ten.

Carrie Anne landed on a nine because of the foot hop and all the things.

Listen.

As a spectator, I'm tens all day.

As I said, I said all the very colorful words and saying no notes, but there were definitely things in there that I can see the nine, and should I be sitting at the judge's table, I probably would have had to have done the same thing and said a nine as well.

So but it doesn't mean I don't think she's spectacular.

I think the performance was amazing.

Do I actually feel that way?

It was just one little foot hop and her frame was a little tilted.

I don't know.

Let's call it a nine ten, Let's let's not commit.

I'm gonna be noncommittal and say it was a nine ten heading into Jordan and Ezra's Argentine tango.

Derek said that was a top performance.

Loved the lines and the smooth, slick tricks.

Bruno said it was beautiful, powerful and focused, so strong.

She is a leading lady.

And Carrie Anne said she's in a class of her own.

She's the biggest risk taker and that was the bomb.

So no real dance notes really to go off here for me, Like was it good?

It was good?

But I was seeing flexed feet in these kicks again and I was like clutching my pearls, like what are we doing?

No, this is like a one oh one point your toes.

So I was feeling very very distracted by the flexed feet.

And I love the opening.

I love the coming out upside down.

I thought that was very cool.

I thought the content was fabulous, the ganchos, the ochos, the lynx, the everything, the chain step like it was really beautifully choreographed.

The tricks were were really good except one.

There was one that went a bit weird, and I think it was meant to be.

If you remember last season, Whitney did one in her Argentine tango, the deadpool situation that she did where she like lifted one leg, they fann she fully rotated in the air and then she was caught on Danny's shoulder.

I think that's what it was supposed to be, but it didn't get the high or the momentum, and so it didn't land right.

It was a little bit a little bit dodgy for me on that one, but the rest of them were seamless.

There was also no steamingers.

But like I think it was the song.

It's hard for me to criticize them for that because I do think the song didn't lend itself to it.

So I again it was that Argentine tangos were a miss for me tonight with the song choices, but I think it was a really hard dance for them with their height right, so some of these kicks and flicks in the way that your legs and your knees have to align and your stride has to align.

I think it just made it a little bit of a harder dance for them to truly get it right.

It's not to say that she didn't execute things well.

I think she did do well on it, but I wasn't necessarily as blown away as the judges.

The judges gave it a ten ten ten.

I landed on a nine.

I truly was deeply affected by the flexed feet in the kicks all right.

Heading into the last dance of the night, we have it doing a very sexy Viennese welds.

Bruno said it was in top gun mode, it was thrilling and that he will definitely be in the finals.

Carrie Anne said he always delivers, but he drew us in differently tonight and that is the evolution of dance and she loves watching him.

She's just so proud of him.

Derek said it was ferocious, commanded it with every fiber of his being, and the frame was meh okay, I agree.

The frame was a little rounded, It was a little bit forward.

It wasn't It wasn't as great as it could have been.

It felt almost a little bit more tango, but rounded instead of a Viennese or a close hold frame that you would see in international ballroom.

Tango was always a little bit sharper.

So I I look, did I love the dance?

Love the dance.

First word I wrote was hot.

Second two words I wrote was oh no, And that then it was like frame is rounded, and so it also got a little bit skippy, which meant he wasn't using his shock absorbers and getting that strike.

He had a lovely stride, but he wasn't softening it with his ankles and knees to truly make it feel seamless, like if he was if you could only see the top half of him, it should be so smooth like a duck on water.

Right, we shouldn't see the hard work that is happening on the ground.

And I felt like we could see the hard work a little bit.

Now.

There was a lot to love.

There was a lot to love.

I love their connection.

I love the performance factor.

I love his musicality.

I love how big he goes on things, even the drive and the stride, Like I have to give props to that, just the bumpiness on the other end of it, but also like props for getting it in.

So for me, I did love it, but I didn't love it as much as his drive.

The judges landed on a ten nine ten, and I landed on a nine for Robert on this one because I did love it, but there was just a couple of things in there where I felt kind of like Derek wasn't quite there.

I think you guys that it is between Robert and Alex.

That's what I think.

I have no idea where the other three land.

I think it could go anyway heading into the finale.

It is very much going to depend on what the pros create as a freestyle.

So the game with the freestyle is you want to be different to other people.

Someone's gonna go emotional, someone's going to go upbeat, someone's going to go big band, someone's gonna you know, you want to be different, and you can never tell which one's going to hit or which one's going to resonate with people the most.

The freestyle is the make or break moment, you know, that's the last thing that you guys get to vote on.

It is the pinnacle, It is the crescendo.

It is the ending of their journey.

And so I feel I have no idea what anyone's gonna do.

I think if I would predict, I would say Robert and Whitney will do something that is quite upbeaten fun, because let mean, look what he's like in jive.

I don't know what Alex and Vow will do, but I know our vow is an incredible like his beast, his craft said at many times what he's going to create.

He's done many freestyles.

I wonder if we'll go a little bit of the rumor willis angle and that was a really great freestyle.

It was like Argentini or v An easy.

I can't remember someone go back and check it, but we will see.

Now it's you know, they're in the final.

No one can take that away from them, and they've just got to create an amazing freestyle and I'm really excited.

It's one of my favorite things.

I will be at the show.

I most likely won't sit in the audience because that means I don't get to see as much as I want to see.

I'll be floating around backstage and absolutely cheering and screaming for everyone.

And I can't believe it, you guys, this is We're heading into the final of season thirty four, the finale of just such an incredible season across the board.

It's just the magic is back, what everyone has created, the ratings that are going up, the voting that you're all doing, like it is just so spectacular to see this show coming back around again like this and this new and younger generation are part of it too, that are also upping the level of it.

You're not even pros like Yahn that are new and learning.

But that's the future of Dancing with the Stars because it is evolving and I love that because as it should, everything should evolve, And not only is it evolving, it's bringing in more and more of the magic that we used to have at the same time.

So what a joy this season has been.

What a joy it's been to do this with you guys.

I'm going to see you for one more next week.

Thank you as always for tuning in, and of course if you have any questions about anything, put in the comments on the reels and I will try and get to them fail