One star turns in a perfect evening on ‘Dancing’

Apparently, filling two hours of show isn’t easy with only four couples left, so the entire first half-hour of Monday night’s two-hour “Dancing With the Stars” extravaganza was consumed by all four couples explaining in great detail exactly how they progressed from the early weeks to the semifinals.

The actual dancing kicked off with Melissa Rycroft and Tony Dovolani doing the quickstep. The choreography looked difficult and varied, and the audience responded very enthusiastically — and then Melissa waited to hear the verdict on her oft-maligned feet. As soon as judge Len Goodman said “Your feet are much improved,” Melissa visibly relaxed. Still, Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba vaguely concluded that the performance wasn’t joyful enough and she wasn’t having enough fun, and it was clear that Melissa wasn’t going to get the straight 10s she wanted. She did receive a 10 from Len, for a total of 28.

Gilles Marini and Cheryl Burke followed. Gilles spent the first four bars of the dance sitting down while Cheryl danced, which seemed like a bit of a risk (you never want to emulate Tucker Carlson), but once the waltz began, it was awfully pretty, if not the most emotionally involving performance. Bypassing any criticism over joyfulness and whether everyone was having a good time, the judges overpraised Gilles, as they tend to do when he does something they deem “romantic.” Gilles and Cheryl walked off with an easily predictable perfect 30 for the waltz.

Shawn Johnson and Mark Ballas started with the Argentine tango. Shawn was much better prepared for this dance after making angry faces in the paso doble not long ago, and indeed, she looked surprisingly convincing in the intense and sometimes intricate dance. She even managed to generate some legitimate chemistry with Mark. At times, he has made dances a little less intense, seemingly not wanting to ask too much from her as far as adult expression of … well, lust. But in this case, she pulled it off without it appearing tacky. For the first time, Shawn saw 10s across the board, tying her with Gilles.

The ballroom round wrapped up with Ty Murray and Chelsie Hightower. Ty openly stated in his introductory piece that his fans kept him in over a better dancer (Lil’ Kim) last week, so he felt that he had to try to justify their faith in him. He and Chelsie began with the Viennese Waltz. Ty was not as good as the people he is competing with, but as usual, it was impressive to watch him and keep in mind how completely lost he looked back in the first week. He ran into a little trouble on a move where he was to grab Chelsie’s free leg and spin her, and it seemed like he might tip her over like a broken top. But for the most part, he was on target. Len offered praise, but Bruno and Carrie Ann were much more critical. It’s clear that Ty, who is always gracious and humble, is satisfied with his progress, and was also okay with his two 8s and a 9 from the judges.

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The Latin round kicked off with Melissa and Tony’s cha-cha. The cha-cha can be a tough dance to interpret emotionally, but Melissa and Tony’s sparkly routine was romantic and precise, and, in response to the complaints in the first round that she wasn’t joyful enough, she couldn’t have smiled more broadly during this dance if she had two sets of teeth. Still, Bruno complained about her energy levels again, and Carrie Ann and Len found a few gripes also, and Melissa was forced to sit through bad news while Tony stewed behind her, undoubtedly lamenting the vague and wildly subjective complaints. For this dance, they received three 9s, for a total of 27. That gave them a total of 55 points for the evening.

Gilles and Cheryl were up next. Interestingly, Gilles looked like his timing was a little off early in the dance, but then he got the music lodged more firmly in his head, and the rest of the salsa was smooth sailing. When it was over, Carrie Ann freaked out, shrieking over the perfection of Gilles; Gilles obligingly tried to look surprised. Len only wished he had an 11 to wave. (Viewers could be forgiven for an “Oh, please” at this point.) In the least surprising development of the night, they received 30 more points, for a perfect score of 60 for the evening.

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Shawn Johnson was nervous about the jive, simply because it moves fast. Moreover, she’s a bit cursed to be a solidly built, muscular girl doing the jive with an endlessly loose-limbed, skinny guy like Mark who seemingly has springs in his feet. Carrie Ann looked vaguely ill throughout their performance, and Len complained that there wasn’t enough traditional jive for him. It was at this point, as Mark shook his head a little in frustration, that it was hard not to notice that both Shawn and Melissa had received amorphous criticism that was very hard to interpret: Shawn was “messing about,” and Melissa wasn’t “joyful” enough. Neither of those are things you can necessarily go back to practice and work on. Much more than generally happens on “Dancing,” Mark frowned in disgust when Len hit them with an 8 (after offering nothing but the “not quite enough traditional jive” comment for an explanation). Along with two 9s, that gave them a total of 26 for the dance and 56 for the night.

Ty and Chelsie were responsible for closing the evening with a samba. Ty is not comfortable with a samba or any other dance involving shiny shirts. But he’s working above his natural ability far more than any of the other dancers who are left. Ty may only be able to do a samba worth about seven points, but six of them are from pure effort. Unsurprisingly, the judges were not complimentary, and the two 8s and a 7, for a total of 23 points for the dance and 48 for the night, were quite generous, considering Shawn’s scores for her jive.

So Gilles is obviously safe, taking a big lead into tomorrow night’s results — he’s got 12 points on Ty. Shawn and Melissa are only one point apart, right between Ty and Gilles. Whether Ty finally goes home will depend, as it has for weeks, on the support he can get from fans. In the event his fans turn out in large numbers, it will essentially be a race to avoid the boot between Shawn and Melissa.

And while it may look like Ty is down and out, take note: he only trails Melissa now by a single point more than he was behind Lil’ Kim last week going into the audience vote. And you know how that turned out.

Linda Holmes is a frequent contributor to msnbc.com

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