( continues...) to see him dance with someone else. I would like to see him have a better turn out when he's doing plies. I know he has one. He was a little too pulled up at some points in this routine but overall it was good.

Jordan and Tadd/Waltz/Toni Redpath - This dance was just alright for me. As the judges noted, both of them had great upper body positioning. The port de bras was lovely on the pair of them. There was a sever lack of dancing in hold, but that's always the way with ballroom on this show. When they were in hold, I felt it lacked the rise and fall and the flow I would've wanted to see. They were a little herky jerky for my tastes. Jordan especially needed more flow in her movements.

Sasha and Alex/Hip Hop/Shaun Evaristo(?) - This show desparately needs new blood in their hip hop choreo crew, but not this one. I did not enjoy the piece at all. As Nigel said, it was very Hip Hop 101. And I thought neither of them danced it all that well. Alex did about as well as I expected. I've definitely seen contempo kids bomb worse at hip hop. He kind of got the smooth, grooving parts, but he could not bring it hard and really hit when he needed to. Sasha had a weird lack of spark. It's the first time I felt like she didn't pop at all in the routine. And the stuff with the tree was just awkward and wrong. I can't tell whether it was them or the piece. Also, they have zero chemistry as a couple. I think they must secretly hate each other because they have anti-chemistry. They always seem like they are two strangers dancing up there.

Ashley and Chris/Salsa/Lilian(?) - This dance made me sad because the routine was fire. If they had nailed it, this would've been off the charts. But they didn't nail it. It was stiff, from both of them. The hip action was lacking. Ashley could hide it better because she made the dress do some of the work, but poor Chris in those skintight white pants was exposed in more ways than one. The lifts were tentative and here was a perfect example of what Travis was talking about with not dancing through the lifts. Everything came to a dead stop when they had to throw a trick. Ashley is a very light dancer and salsa needs an earthiness and sensuality that I've never felt from her and I think Chris is bumping up against the limitations of his talent. He got through this dance and he was terrible, in a bad, focus pulling way, in the boys group dance.

The boys group dance was pretty good. Marko was owning it. I felt he was head and shoulders above the other boys and not just because he was holding center. I wish Mitchell had been given more to do. Jess and Tadd were both surprisingly good. Chris was embarrasingly bad. He forgot the steps which I'm not sure I've ever seen a dancer do in a group routine on this show before, and he was out of time with the rest of the dancers almost throughout the entire routine. Even though the choreographer tried to hide him upstage and had him dance half the time with his head covered up by his sweatshirt, he still nearly ruined the dance.

Bottom couples

I don't see how Chris/Ashley and Sasha/Alex avoid B3. Personally, I'd round that out with Tadd/Jordan but I also think Jess and Clarice could wind up in the 3rd slot because I think there is still a lot of animosity out there towards Jess and Clarice seems to not have a super strong fan base.

Going home

For the girls, I believe Ashley will take her final bow. Wish it were Ryan, but I'm afraid there's no way to get rid of Nigel's token blonde before top 10. For the guys, it's tough. Nigel has had it in for Alex from week one, but Chris was clearly the worst this week. If Chris can pull a great solo out of his ass, Nigel might save him, but it's going to have to be epically great to overcome both the bad dancing from last night and the judges natural disinclination to split up couples before top 10.

I hate the "star" guest judges. Hate the four judge panel. None of the star judges have added any value, though Cheno came the closest. Make it stop.

Have they kicked off just half of a couple this season?

That's the only other way they've mixed couples - Dominick went threw a few partners because they'd end up in the bottom three but the judges wouldn't eliminate Dom they'd pick another guy, but Dom's partner would get eliminated.

Have they kicked off just half of a couple this season?

not yet. i've noticed in past years it's almost like they don't want to break up the couples that early in the game.

As the seasons have progressed, the judges have become more and more reluctant to break up partnerships. I remember it used to happen pretty frequently in S2-S3. In S2, Dmitry was a partner killer, taking out his female companions and winding up in new pairings for a couple weeks in a row and I think there were partner swaps in 3 of the first 5 weeks. And in S3 you had new partnerships created two weeks in a row also (Cedric!). But by the time S4 rolled around, you only see one partner switch happen before top 10 and only once in S6. And then S7 was All Stars, so there were no stable partnerships. S5 was kind of an outlier year because you had partner switches 2 of the first five weeks (just like S3) but I think that was mainly because Nigel kept trying to save Kayla and her permanent stankface from getting eliminated.

I think I'd prefer it if they changed partners - as in pulling the partner's name as well as the dance style out of a hat. It seems like you can get a really good partnership - people who are at the same level and work well together - or you can get one that just doesn't work because of differences of style, skill, or just personality - which leave both dancers looking less than their best.

I remember in S5, they had the Power Couple of Brandon and Janette, then there was Jeanine and Phillip. Jeanine didn't begin to shine until they shed Chbeeb midway through the season.

Season 4 had some great couples, too: Katee and Joshua, Mark & Chelsie, Courtney & Gev. But by the time it hit 10, it was really nice to see them with other people.

But I guess why I brought it up to begin with was because if we're going All Stars at the point of 10, then we'll never see any of this season's dancers dance with anyone but their starting partner, as far as competition couples go. Which I feel is too bad.

I was hoping that they would go back to the weekly partner switches this year, too, but I'll still take this format over last year's All Stars all the time one. I have enjoyed getting to know this season's top 20 on their own merits.

I do wish I could've seen Ricky with anyone other than Ryan and I'd have loved to see Sasha with someone not Alex. And Alex with someone not Sasha because they just never meshed well. I think Melanie and Mitchell would be beautiful to see, or Melanie and Tadd. I would've been interested to see if Marko could pull more grounded dancing out of Ashley. So yeah, I guess especially now that I do know these dancers, I really want to see more of them together. I don't think we need the all stars at all. They will be a distraction.

Apparently, we're not the only ones who hate Ryan. Or people really love Sasha. I was shocked, because R&R nailed their routine, and that hip hop was lacking.