'Dancing With the Stars': American Week, Patriotic Music, Hines Ward Back on Top

I was actually looking forward to this theme on "Dancing with the Stars" Monday night (April 18). As this would have a lot of fun, exciting and lively music to it. Instead, it fell flat at times with some of the song choices on American Week. In other words, it wasn't what I was expecting. It's hard to top the beautiful Classical Week theme that was recently done. However, there were some entertaining performances and brilliant song choices.

My Favorite Performances

Chris Jericho - This guy is truly becoming a contender while some of the early leaders are falling to the wayside. Chris and Cheryl danced the Viennese Waltz to "America the Beautiful" by Ray Charles. He was graceful all the way through the dance with excellent footwork. Len Goodman scolded him by stating he'll give an "8" when he deserves it. He got 2 "9's" and an "8" from Len. (26)

Petra Nemcova - They were the only couple to do the Quickstep ballroom dance. Petra and Dmitry lived up to the dance's name with a fast-paced quickstep from start to finish. Their song choice was to "Viva Las Vegas" by Elvis. She wore a stunningly beautiful gold dress with a faux fur stole. It was a cute story about a high-class couple spending the night gambling and dancing in Sin City. Unfortunately the judge's scores did not reflect their efforts. I completely disagreed with it. (22)

Hines Ward - He finally made it to the top of the leader board, but this was a strange song choice for a sexy rumba. Never would I have thought "God Bless the USA" to be danced on the show, but it actually worked. Hines received his highest score, but that should have been given last week too. (27)

Other Fine Performances

Ralph Macchio - Here's another strange song choice that didn't fit the dance or their costuming. I was a bit stunned how Ralph kept complaining all the way through his pre-performance video how he's an Italian, Karina is Russian while dancing to a song about Alabama titled "Sweet Home Alabama" (Lynyrd Skynyrd) in cowboy hats doing a Brazilian dance for American Week. They did a great job with the line dancing, but they did not stay true with their samba routine. Now I get it when the judges harped about his lack of hip action on the Latin dances. He still has spatula hands that are getting more noticeable. (22)

Romeo - What an excellent song choice to dance to for their foxtrot. It was "New York New York" by the one and only, Frank Sinatra. Romeo was the perfect performer. He is another one who is trying to climb to the top of that leaderboard. This was his best dance and best score yet. (26)

Kirstie Alley - Finally, Kirstie and Maks danced without incident this time. It was a sexy number to "American Woman" by Lenny Kravitz. Their foxtrot really rocked too. During the pre-performance video John Travolta was the dance doctor giving Kirstie sound advice. It seemed to work. (23)

Chelsea Kane - Of course Chelsea would dance to a Miley Cyrus song, her former Disney Channel alum. Mark and Chelsea did an admirable job on their samba to "Party in the U.S.A. This time by pleasing Len with sticking to the rules. (26)

Please Go Home

Kendra Wilkinson - My dear Kendra, we are not interested in your whining,that time of the month "hormones" or griping abut Carrie Ann Inaba. Do us all a favor and just rehearse and dance. Why they were chosen as the couple performing the 1,000 competitive dance on the show in all 12 seasons is a mystery to me. There were a lot more deserving couples for that honor. Louis and Kendra danced one of the most basic and simplest foxtrots to "Yankee Doodle Dandy." This is a song you would sing in first grade or kindergarten. They should have received lower scores on their lack of degree of difficulty. (22)

Toby Keith will be the musical guest, along with the Macy's Stars of Dance. Who knows who will go home? It's getting down to the wire after the Top 7 and beyond.

SOURCES:

Dancing with the Stars, ABC.com