Twinkle Toes Ward

Don’t judge.  I figure if I’m going to even write one word one sentence on Hines on Dancing With the Stars, I’m going all in….

One hour and forty seven minutes.  That’s how long I had to sit through Dancing With the Stars before it was Hines’ turn to dance.  To say I was riveted to the TV during this time would be far from the truth, but I went through the paces of watching each contestant.  The focus of the evening was either a quickstep or a jive.  As expected in these early rounds, the dancing was fairly poor with the judges fishing for compliments – most of which I find myself asking ‘What the hell were you watching?’… funny, kind of like the refs calling penalties on the Steelers D.

The lead in

The lead in video to the dance shows a rather laid back atmosphere between Kym Johnson and Hinesy.  Their dance was a quick step.  Having missed week one, I can’t really say much about the growth in their chemistry, but it seemed like what’s there already is working.  Ward admitted that he has a very difficult time keeping his gate and shoulders up because his shoulders are weak due to numerous injuries and surgeries to his shoulders.  It didn’t look like he was struggling learning the dance, and the segment focused on Ward’s and Kym’s chemistry and the new phrases Ward is teaching her like ‘as cool as a polar bear’s toenails.’

The dance

Set on ‘Lovers Lane’ the two shared a playful dance of traditional quickstep moves mixed with a bit of flirting.  Ward looked comfortable – as do most athletes who hit this particular stage.  Smiling like he just laid out someone on a run block, the charismatic Ward charmed the audience and judges with most of his moves.

The Judges

Bruno (8) – Ward led Kym with ease, had neat footwork and has great chemistry with Kym

Carrie Ann (8) – “Emitt Smith needs to retire title of ‘Twinkle Toes’!”, good control

Len (7) – frame was terrific, impressed with the dance

This week: 23

Two week total: 44 out of 60

My Take

Ward certainly looked like one of the better dancers out there.  He was very comfortable, carried the character and seemed to hit all the technical aspects of the quickstep.  He is number two on the leader board and with the judges making up 50% of the results, I don’t think he has much to worry about.  As the show continues, I just hope the no-talents get out quickly (I hear they tend to last based on their popularity with the voting population) so it’s a little less painful to watch.

So there you have it. Week 2 in the books.  Results show tomorrow.