When Dancing With the Stars announced that Shirley Ballas was going to be a guest judge for Horror Movie Night, I knew that she would be a nightmare for the contestants, especially those who have only incrementally gotten better this season. But handing out a four to Tatyana Ali and Jan Ravnik for their Sinners inspired paso doble? That’s criminal.
Things were looking rough from the very beginning of the night as Julia Stiles and Ezra Sosa hit the dance floor to perform an Argentine tango inspired by The Exorcist. Watching it in the actual ballroom, I couldn’t see all the steps (and missteps) along the way, but I knew it was going to be a pretty low score from Shirley, who has earned a reputation for her harsh critiques on Strictly Come Dancing. Cut ahead to the reveal that she had opted to give Julia and Ezra a “4” and I honestly wasn’t as shocked as the rest of the audience. Watching it back now, it feels even more apt to give a failing score, as the dance felt clumsy, dull, and choppy from start to finish. In fact, there were several moments where it looked like Ezra was dragging his partner — who scored a whopping 36/40 last week for her Dedication Night dance — into and out of moves. Counter that with Jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy’s near-perfect (one minor incident with her dress cost them a 40/40) Argentine tango and anyone can see where a “4” might come from.
Now compare that to Tatyana and Jan, who were the only dancers to have the paso doble on the night where Ballas, a Latin dance expert, was in the ballroom. Much of her complaints about the dance to “I Lied To You” actually stemmed from the choreography of the dance, rather than the execution itself, and I think that only serves to prove that a “4” was uncalled for. Was it the best paso the Dancing With the Stars audience has ever seen? Absolutely not. But Tatyana did exactly what she needed to do, i.e. show a command of the steps and channel the dance’s energy, for her to have at least received a “5” or a “6.”
I think if there was even one other couple who had danced a paso doble on Tuesday night, it might have helped Shirley Ballas’ case for a score so low, but it’s hard to look at a dance that looked well executed and on theme and not scratch your head at a score like that. It’s especially tough to justify when you put it up against Julia Stiles’ “4,” as one dance looked like it could have happened in Week 1 of the competition and the other dance was worlds ahead. It goes right back into the argument that has been made for years now about scoring inconsistency, which remains to be solved.
At the end of the day, Shirley Ballas is who she is for a reason; the woman knows what she’s talking about and only she can explain the rationale behind a score like that, but perhaps it just underscores (pun intended) how important it is for the judges to have more time to explain how and why they came to the number that is revealed on their paddle. It’s just hard to watch someone like Tatyana — who I would argue has been relatively under-scored all season — receive the same score as Julia and Ezra, who I think struggled their way through Horror Movie Night.
One thing I do agree with, though? Shirley Ballas is right: judges should not be afraid to whip out a paddle that they think accurately reflects the dance. It’s frankly tiring to see the judges get locked in the score range of six to 10 in the middle of the competition when some dances simply do not deserve anything resembling a “7” or an “8.” Hopefully, Derek Hough, Carrie Ann Inaba, and Bruno Tonioli take a page out of her book and move back into the realm of any score being on the table. It only helps the contestants.
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