Carlos fights for Contemporary - DWTS, Season 21

Carlos PenaVega Reveals

His and Partner Witney’s Struggle

for the Semifinals Routine

- S21 Wk10

Last Monday proved to be one of Season 21 Cast member Carlos PenaVega’s best yet, as he and his Professional partner, Mirror Ball Champion Witney Carson, tied with Bindi & Derek at the top of the show’s Week 10 Leader Board in an all out, desperate fight for the Finals.

With exceptional routines being exhibited throughout the evening, such as their beautiful Contemporary,

Carlos & Witney

DWTS Season 21, Week 10 -

Semi-Finals

rhythmic Cha-Cha, and stellar Charleston Trio with eliminated Pro, Karina Smirnoff,

Carlos & Witney

DWTS S21, Wk 10 - Trio Round 

with Karina Smirnoff

the always talented and explosive, high-scoring Team that is Carlos & Witney may have made their Semifinals Ballroom Battles look easy, but as Carlos later revealed, such was not the case.

Following a tearful send off of his beloved wife, Alexa PenaVega, at the conclusion of Week 09’s episode – an event which he would later describe as being “brutal”

Carlos PenaVega sheds tears over wife,

Alexa's, Elimination

DWTS - S21, Wk09 - Showstopper Night

– Carlos shared, via his people.com, DWTS Blog, that the subsequent week was all downhill from there!

“Every week, the person eliminated flies to New York City after the show to do press.” Carlos wrote.  “From the very beginning, I told Lex that if she was eliminated first, I would fly there with her for support.  We got on a plane that night and spent, like, 12 hours in the city before I got back and had to dive right into rehearsal … Because I went to New York with Lex, I missed a day of rehearsal.”   

“Witney and I have been talking about our contemporary dance since day one.” The Nickelodeon Star additionally noted, “Witney had this great concept that involved this giant cube and a rope.  We were really excited about it; but, then we were told it wasn’t possible to do on the live show.”

Hmmm, a “giant cube and a rope”, you say?  That sounds oddly familiar, and while Carlos has admirably elected a more discreet form of “Dish-ing”, this Blogger cannot help but publicly wonder if maybe a certain #TeamCrikey had already beaten Carlos & Witney to the proverbial punch!

Giant Cube ...

... and rope.

“We let go of the idea of using a cube; but, Wednesday, Witney and I went in and really fought to use the rope and they eventually figured out a way for us to do it” the relieved, former Big Time Rush member continued.  “I’m really glad we’re getting to do Witney’s vision …”

Adding on even more stress to the Week 10 Malay, was, of course, Tamar Braxton’s sudden and, some would say rude, mid-week exit from the show, about which Carlos said, “My heart goes out to Tamar for having to quit the show … but it is tough knowing that Lex could still be in this competition with me if Tamar had quit before the end of Monday’s show.”

As the result of Tamar’s inconsideration, Season 21’s four remaining Couples were sideswiped with the announcement of yet another performance being added on to their Semifinals workloads.

“… the producers had to figure out how to fill that extra time on the show.  So on Thursday, they call us in and told us that in addition to the two dances my partner Witney Carson and I were already preparing, we now have to do a cha-cha dance-off against Alek Skarlatos.  Talk about insanity.  … Being told on Thursday that we had to prepare for a dance-off threw everyone a loop.  We had been planning to focus on just two dances, so finding time to rehearse a third wasn’t easy.  By Friday, we hadn’t even touched the cha-cha.”

With an all-important, crucial bonus of 3 points being added to every Dance-Off Winner’s Monday night score, the mounting pressure of conceptualizing, choreographing, and learning a whole new dance routine over the Weekend could not have been fun to deal with!

“But it did make me feel make me feel better after I ran into Alek’s partner, Lindsay Arnold, that night; and she said they hadn’t had time to rehearse their it [sic] yet either” added Carlos.

Of course, the week leading to the show’s highly competitive Semifinals wasn’t all bad, as Carlos further expressed when recalling his and Witney’s Trio Charleston rehearsals with Season 13’s Mirror Ball Champion, Karina.

“After spending last week with Karina, I can honestly say that if I hadn’t been partnered with Witney, she is the person I would have loved to have been paired with.  I mean, she’s crazy but she is so much fun and has a great way of explaining things to me in a way that I really understand.”

But the immaculate #TeamBrownSugar were not the only ones to experience Week 10 high and lows, as was made evident when 5-time Mirror Ball Champion Derek Hough revealed a most unexpected (and unwelcomed!) surprise that had befallen his long-time best friend, Mark Ballas.

Following Week 09’s well-deserved success of not one but two perfect scores, Derek took to writing on his tvguide.com Blog to dish to fans about what kind of Semifinals effort they might expect from Australia’s beloved Bindi Irwin.

 “I can tell you we are doing a salsa.” The 30-year-old Dance Instructor wrote.  “We have a fun song that totally embodies Bindi.  The second one is a jazz trio that’s much more artistic” he teased.

A delightful line-up to be sure, as we all witnessed from last Monday’s Week 10 episode, but as a few more lines from Derek would soon reveal, the week leading up to Bindi & Derek’s Semifinals high scores was not all <Ahem> “Roses and Violets”!

“We’re doing it [the Jazz] with Mark,” Hough further wrote on Thursday, “but I don’t know if that’s gonna happen anymore because he hurt his foot.  He got glass or something in it.”

And he still PERFORMED on Monday?!  Good grief, Mark, talk about stamina!

“Between him and me,” Derek quipped, “it hasn’t been a good two seasons for feet!”

(Derek is referring to his Season 20 upheaval with Nastia Liukin, when he injured his foot and was forced to step aside and allow DWTS Troupe member Sasha Farber to dance with his Celebrity partner for nearly the rest of the Season, although Derek still choreographed all of the routines.)

“… Now I have to see if that’s possible to do it, so we’ll see!” the veteran Pro concluded.

With a 2-part Finale on the horizon, Dancing With The Stars’ Four Finalists are no doubt more anxious than ever, as they each prepare for one, last dancing sprint over Season 21’s Finish Line and towards the show’s anticipated bestowing of its glittering Mirror Ball Trophy!