Former rule-breakers play nice on ‘Dancing’

Last week’s “Dancing With The Stars” (ABC, Tuesdays/Wednesdays, 8 p.m. ET) became an extended rules controversy akin to Olympic skating scandals of the past. The tense question, “Who will break the rules?” even made it into this week’s teasing introduction. But this week, everyone played nice, bringing talented frontrunners Joey Lawrence and Mario Lopez back to the forefront, along with a surprise appearance near the top of the heap for America’s punching bag, Willa Ford.

The night kicked off with a good performance from Monique Coleman, whose waltz wasn’t particularly heavy on traditional waltzing as you might imagine it. As Monique said afterwards, it was a waltz about “the human spirit.” Indeed, Monique moved herself to tears. She earned praise for her connection with partner Louis, which is interesting since in the first week, they were specifically told that they were “as romantic as an autopsy.”

Describing Louis’s unconventional teaching methods in their training segment, Monique showed great reverence for his tendency to speak in deep philosophical statements (“Look, I dare to go that far!”) that, even if they didn’t make her a better dancer, might make good fortune cookies. Whatever Louis is doing, it seems to be working, as the judges were uniformly impressed with the emotional heft of their performance, if not entirely by the technique.

Emmitt makes a comeback
Not going for “moved to tears” was Emmitt Smith, who was so ticked off about his scores last week that partner Cheryl believed she could channel it into a passionate paso doble. Indeed, their performance was taut and spirited, and Emmitt brought back some of the body control and sharpness he showed in the first week’s cha-cha. The dance played directly to his charisma and intensity, and he didn’t look nearly as tentative as he did during last week’s tango, a dance that is also meant to be passionate, but came off as if it had been danced on a severe lack of sleep. While Emmitt threatened to fade after that performance, he came back this week as the most confident of the middle-of-the-pack dancers.

Willa Ford unexpectedly escaped the bottom two last week, so she was hoping to continue down her personal road to redemption. She explained that after years cultivating her bad-girl image, the waltz would be her chance to “exude a lady.” In fact, Willa not only tried to exude a lady; she tried to exude Debby Boone.

From her tightly curled and drawn-up hair to the use of “You Light Up My Life” to the flowing white dress that looked like something from a 1970s variety show, Willa took serious aim at the Puritan vote. It’s hard to say whether Willa is likely to win votes with this approach, but it certainly worked on the judges, who gave Willa very high scores, including her first 10 of the season, which came from the predictably excitable Bruno.

Sara slips down in the standings
Sara Evans offered an embarrassingly weak paso doble, proving that last week’s line dancing was, in fact, just a fluke. While she showed promise in that loosely defined jive when she could wear her hat and boots, the paso doble had Sara at a complete loss. Her strutting looked wildly clumsy, her stomping was unconvincing and scared, and she simply had no ability to connect with the rhythms of this particular dance.

Like some others, she was hurt by her music, “Phantom Of The Opera,” a song from a show that does not actually contain bullfighting. Even the generally accommodating Len, who tries not to insult people who at least try, was forced to tell Sara that this simply was not her night. Her fans are likely to rally behind her as they have all along, but she will soon become the female Jerry Springer, clearly overmatched but kept around for sentimental reasons.

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