Riker & Allison - Review of DWTS Season 20, Week 08

DWTS Season 20, Week 08

REVIEW:  Riker & Allison

Riker & Allison:

Up next for America's Choice Night, the ever-talented Riker Lynch, and his Professional partner, Allison Holker, dancing a Viennese Waltz to "What Now" by Rihanna!

I absolutely adored this next performance!

Riker & Allison's Viennese Waltz S20 Wk08
America's Choice Night

I mean, honestly, how could I not?  Riker's dancing was nothing less than exquisite, and he led the dance so beautifully!  And his Frame! ...  I mean wow, his Frame in Hold was positively stunning!  Not to mention, Allison's riveting and gripping choreography, definitely left you wanting more!

A dramatic pause in Riker & Allison's Viennese Waltz
Season 20 Week 08, America's Choice Night

I mean to say this Viennese Waltz was amazing:  Graceful, elegant, and flowing footwork was set to a raw, passionate, emotional, and intense setting that seemed to reach out and smack you upside the face in unapologetic demand for your attention and approval!

Riker & Allison's Viennese Waltz
DWTS Season 20, Week 08 - America's Choice Night

The judges obviously loved this routine as well, as was first voiced by Bruno Tonioli when he exclaimed, " ... Wow, what intensity, and yet such control of execution!  It's so difficult to maintain a Viennese Waltz with such power and yet keeping your Frame ... you were giving it so much guts, WOW!".

"It was big, it was bold, it was full on, and yet you still kept clarity of movement!" readily agreed Head Judge Len Goodman, before adding, "I would have liked a little bit more in Hold [interrupted by loud "Boo!"ing] ... It's all losing what it should be:  It's all becoming Contemporary and Show Dance, I wanna see a bit of Viennese Waltz in there, and as great as it was, I'm an old guy and that's what I wanna see!"

Well, as much as it may grate me sometimes to admit it, I do recognize the need for someone, like Len, to point these things out and hold that firm, albeit unpopular, Ballroom line, that once Len leaves the show <sniff!>, will almost immediately and inevitably pull further and further back until the show can no longer be accurately classified as a "Ballroom Dance Competition"; so I'm glad that Dancing With The Stars has someone like Len judging ... On the flip side, I'm certainly not held to any Ballroom judging standard, and anyone who's anyone can easily see that this dance deserved all 10's, instead of the three 10's and the 9 it received from Len; and so I think I'll just play the Fan card and say, Boooo!  BOOoooo, Lenny!



See below for ABC's DWTS YouTube video of Riker & Allison's Season 20, Week 08, Viennese Waltz!