Monique can’t catch a break on ‘Dancing’

Mario samba is a Halloween treat
The judges then went wild, for the most part, over Mario and Karina’s samba. Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” might not strike anyone as an obvious samba, but it’s a good song, and the dance was fast and high-energy. Just as Emmitt has a built-in advantage in any dance involving smiling, Mario has one in any dance involving hips, in which category the samba most emphatically qualifies.

His footwork was snappy, but as Len noted, there was something that didn’t quite hold together about the dance as a whole. Bruno and Carrie-Ann had absolutely no complaints and gave 10s, but Len held out with a 9, and Mario and Karina moved into the lead.

Monique’s music was unusual yet again when she and Louis performed a cha-cha to “Ghostbusters.” There appeared to be sections of the dance without so much dancing in them, but there were also moments of sharp footwork. Monique didn’t seem as overwhelmed as she had by the choreography in the earlier tango, despite a couple of apparent mistakes.

The performance went over surprisingly well with the judges. Monique was overjoyed to pull down two 10s and a 9 — her first perfect scores for what certainly didn’t look to be her best dance of the season.

The rumba is a tough dance for an untrained eye to judge, and Emmitt’s was no exception. While the judges went wild for the elegance and romance of the presentation, there didn’t always seem to be a lot happening. While Emmitt and Cheryl have lovely chemistry, nothing Emmitt did during this dance looked like it even approached the difficulty of what he’s done in other dances, including the earlier foxtrot.

The judges rewarded the rumba with a 9 and two 10s — Carrie-Ann being the spoiler who gave it less than a perfect score. Emmitt’s rumba wasn’t as entertaining as his foxtrot, but it was the one the judges loved — and it was the one that put him into a tie with Joey for second place.

So at the end of the evening, Monique had eked out the 10s she’d been salivating over for weeks, but she was still in last place. She could still pull off an upset, but she has to be considered most likely to go home Wednesday night, given her repeated trips to the bottom and the fact that her dances this week didn’t seem to be the inspiring kind that would get people to jump off the couch and vote for her. It’s shaping up as a Joey/Emmitt/Mario final—just as it looked like it might way back in the very first week — and Monique may need to cast a few spells herself to stay in the game.

Linda Holmes is a writer in Bloomington, Minn.

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