On last night’s episode of Dancing with the Stars NZ, the seven remaining celebrities took on the challenge of Movie Night with references to everything from Step Up 2 to X-Men.
Teuila Blakely and Scott Cole took the floor first as super-powered mutants Storm and Wolverine from the X-Men movies, with Teuila even sporting silvery-grey hair just like Halle Berry did in the films.
Their paso doble earned them much more praise from the judges than last week’s controversial cha-cha, although the judges noted that the tricky choice of slow music affected the choreography.
However, Candy Lane praised Teuila for her efforts this week. “You not only weathered the storm (pun intended), you’re also mutating yourself into a very competent dancer,” she told the former Shortland Street star.
Next, Jay-Jay Harvey and her partner Enrique Johns danced a samba to Missy Elliot’s ‘Shake Your Pom-Pom’, which featured in Step Up 2. The duo wore matching cheerleader outfits for the performance and Jay-Jay even had her own fluffy white pom-poms to go with it, which she ditched halfway through the dance.
The highlight of their dance was a lift at the end, which Jay-Jay confessed to being very nervous about after the duo’s botched ‘snake’ lift two weeks ago. This time, however, they pulled it off without any slip-ups and it was all smiles for the pair on the dancefloor.
Candy praised the amount of samba content in the dance, while Stefano Olivieri said the performance was full of “your usual Jay-Jay charm and charisma and that’s what we love”.
Shane Cameron took the floor next with Nerida Cortese, and they danced a fiery Argentine tango (a first for the show) to music from Scent of a Woman. The judges loved his “graceful” and “elegant” performance and Stefano said it was “lovely to watch a sportsman like you take our breath away”.
Chrystal Chenery scored even higher praise from the judges for her Burlesque-inspired quickstep with Jonny Williams. After Hayley Holt criticised her for not showing enough “blood, sweat and tears” on the dancefloor last week, Chrystal stepped it up and the judges loved it. Hayley said she was “really impressed”, while Candy called the former Bachelor contestant “one hot potato”.
After landing in the bottom two last week, Siobhan Marshall and Charlie Billington were determined to knock the socks off the viewing public and the judges. For the first time, they decided to add a lift into their routine and they went all out with not just one but four lifts!
That was almost too many for Stefano, but overall the judges loved their rumba to ‘On My Own’ from the musical Les Miserables.
Actor Ben Barrington also impressed with his Twilight-inspired Viennese waltz with partner Krystal Stuart, earning his best comments from the judges so far in the competition.
Hayley praised the duo’s “classic” and “romantic” Viennese waltz and said that this time, she actually enjoyed watching him dance!
Lastly, Simon Barnett and Vanessa Cole closed the night with an intense Rocky-inspired paso doble to the hit ‘Eye of the Tiger’. While Hayley wanted to see the pair take more risks in the future, Candy gave them the first perfect 10 score of the season and called Simon a “God matador on the dancefloor”.
