“DWTS” Week 6 Recap: What’s Scarier Than an Onstage Injury?
We absolutely love Halloween on Dancing with the Stars. After all, what could be better than seeing our stars and pros get into the holiday spirit with the spookiest performances of the season? Zombies and harpies and werewolves…oh, my!
Last night’s episode was pretty frightening. We saw one of our stars get injured in the middle of their performance, a shocking elimination, and more. So if you missed it while you were out trick-or-treating, we’ve captured the scariest (and danciest) moments of Monster Night.
Jason Mraz and Daniella Karagach: Contemporary
We were wicked excited to see what the resident “DWTS” queen of Halloween, Daniella Karagach, choreographed for Monster Night. After all, who could forget her immediately iconic contemporary performance with star and mirrorball champ Iman Shumpert just a few seasons ago?
And, luckily, Daniella and partner Jason Mraz did not disappoint. They kicked off the episode with a bone-chilling contemporary set to “Zombie,” by The Cranberries. And even though Daniella challenged Jason in this dance, asking him to perform his first lifts of the season, he rose to the occasion, knocking the lifts and the dance out of the park.
The judges gave the pair straight 9s, for a total 36 out of 40 possible points. We’d personally like to see Jason getting some extra credit for staying in character all night, though…
Xochitl Gomez and Valentin Chmerkovskiy: Contemporary
Star Xochitl Gomez and partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy performed a hauntingly good contemporary dance on last night’s episode. As always, Xochitl really leaned into the performance of the dance—transitioning her body from limp and lifeless to long and lithe, hitting the lines of the contemporary style perfectly.
But the scariest part of the performance by far came after the dance was finished, when pro Val had to carry Xochitl to the judges’ table. It was revealed that she suffered an ankle injury mid-performance and was unable to walk on her own. Once Xochitl assured the judges she would be able to continue on safely, they gave the pair 37 out of 40 possible points.
Charity Lawson and Artem Chigvintsev: Jive
After all the drama of the night, we were more than happy to see Charity Lawson and pro Artem Chigvintsev perform an upbeat jive. It was nice to see some smiles even on Monster Night. And star Charity completely aced the style of the jive, with precise footwork and plenty of energy to back it up.
The judges were a little more critical of Charity and Artem’s performance, though, with several saying they would have liked to see more energy from Charity in the jive. They gave the pair three 9s and one 8, for a total score of 35 out of 40.
After the final dance of the evening, it was time for the Monster Night Monster-Thon—in which all of the couples competed—to see who could dance the longest without getting eliminated. After some heated competition, Xochitl and Val won the contest, scoring an additional 5 points and securing their spot at the top of the leaderboard.
Once the Monster-Thon was finished, it was time for the elimination. Stars Alyson Hannigan, Barry Williams, and Mauricio Umansky were all revealed at risk of going home. And despite delivering his best-scored performance of the season, Mauricio and partner Emma Slater were eliminated from the competition.
