I am struck by how nobody has yet "drawn" a quickstep or Viennese Waltz, which have traditionally been first-few-round killers. If they can make Pasha do a jive and Anya do a samba, surely they can do European ballroom, no? Not that I need to see anyone suffer through them; the only quickstep I can recall liking was Jakob and Ellenore.

One with another contestant which will necessitate same sex partners next week?

I didn't even think of that part! Brilliant. If only Cat could stop making o.O faces when she talks about same-sex dance partners -- not every dance is a love story! I mean, obviously.

They don't have any ballroom all stars who specialize in the smooth dances. Anya and Pasha are Latin dancers, so the five dances they would normally compete include jive and samba. Most ballroom pros are not ten dance specialists. That said, I'd bet we get smooth ballroom numbers before the season is out. Anya and Pasha showed that they can more than hold their own in those styles on their season. The Danny/Anya Foxtrot was a dream! And Pasha and Sabra had one of the more competent Quicksteps thanks largely to him. Alex could do very well with a standard ballroom routine - Foxtrot, Waltz. He has the carriage for it. Ashley as well. If they really want to keep Billy around, they'll give him a standard ballroom as well, I think. A Latin ballroom routine with Anya has the potential to be as much of a trainwreck as his Krump with Comfort.

I thought the group routine was a hot mess.

amen. Carmina Burana is totally overused. Plus, the direction was terrible, I couldn't get a sense of the dance because the cameras were all over the place at weird angles and spending random spotlights on the individual dancers.

You could also really tell during "The Garden" that this stage is just not conducive to actually getting into the dances. It just didn't have the intimacy of the original. At least for me.

I miss the stairs and levels, it made for some interesting possibilities. What would Ramalama have been without the stairs?

No kidding, smonster!

What would Ramalama have been without the stairs?

I know, right? The old set was just so much more intimate. I hate this new set and think it may be a contributing to the seriously cracked out camera work. Like maybe the cameras are too far away from the stage. They don't even have the big screen at the back of the stage that ticks down the seconds during the kids' DoD. What's up with that?

Plus, all of the weird lighting effect may be contributing to the awkward camera placement.

Since I'm home on the couch I decided to check out Work of Art. I didn't think I would like it, but after three episodes I'm eager to see more.