Jane to Wayne: Highs and lows of ‘Dancing’

Best of the night
The highlight of the night came with Jane Seymour’s return, who missed the last results show following the death of her mother. Given that the British version, “Strictly Come Dancing,” was her mom’s favorite show, Jane decided to keep dancing and dedicate Monday night’s tango to her mom. Good choice, it was Jane and Tony Dovolani’s best routine yet.

Looking positively stunning in a sweeping ruby gown and flapper wig, Jane showed more intensity than she did in the mambo. It was a tight and structured dance, with dramatic looks and head turns worthy of a pro. With a lesser dance, one could have accused the judges of issuing yet another pity score, but in this case Jane deserved the 27 or even a little more.

With a tough act to follow, racer Helio Castroneves and Julianne Hough shined again with the jive. They were the big winners last week, but this time the judges were a little more critical of their early darlings. Giving them a 24 for the jump and twirl efforts, the judges might be ignoring one big difference between Helio and the other male celebrities in the competition. He doesn’t leave all the big moves to his pro partner. For every wow from Julianne, Helio delivered one, too.

Marie Osmond and Jonathan Roberts ended the night with a better than expected tango. Jonathan pegged the dance as perfect for Marie, since she’s the “queen of drama.” But it wasn’t just her playful personality that worked. She’s really improved from week-one with an amazing progression in her legwork. When evaluating the performance, Len and the gang focused on her drama, with Bruno calling her the “Meryl Streep of dance,” but in the end they rewarded the moves with a 26.

With the divide between the talented, the mostly okay and the why-are-they-still-here growing, the next elimination should be a cinch. But will Wayne and Mark stick around like so many Master Ps and Billy Ray Cyruses before them? Surely even the strong fan bases of the two-left-footers have to give up some votes to this season’s greats. Or, in last week’s random fashion, it’ll be another coin toss where anyone could go.

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