Dancing With The Stars Recap: Season 35, Week 8 Elimination Results

The end of Daylight Saving Time was so powerful this week, even “Dancing With the Stars” fell back to its original Monday-night perch.

Since Election Night news coverage will be airing all evening tomorrow, ABC’s reality competition aired on a special night just for this week — and it was a special night indeed, courtesy of the show’s annual Disney Night theme. Enchanting costumes! Beloved songs! Heather Headley briefly reprising her role of Broadway’s Aida, which was very important to theater geeks of the early 2000s!

Plus, spirits in the ballroom were raised even further by the always-fun team dances, which featured cameos from co-hosts Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough, just as they did last year. (This time around, Team Wildcats — made up of Connor Wood, Ezra Frech, Jenna Dewan, Harry Shum Jr., and their respective pros — scored a perfect 40 out of 40, besting Team Slaytopia.)

Unfortunately, with eight pairs still left in the competition and only three weeks to go in Season 35 after Monday’s episode, “Dancing” didn’t have the luxury of ending Disney Night with a “No one’s going home!” twist. Rather, one couple’s journey did come to an end — but was it the couple you would have chosen for elimination this week? Keep scrolling to read our recap of Disney Night’s performances and results, then hit the comments with your thoughts!

DANCE STYLE: Quickstep (to “A Star Is Born” from “Hercules”)

After a Week 5 samba that went viral, and a Dedication Night contemporary that was among that episode’s strongest performances, Amber is hitting a slight plateau here, with both this routine and last week’s routine falling into the Very Good But Sorta Forgettable category. In addition to a couple of footwork missteps, poor Amber had to contend with her costume flopping over her face at an inopportune time (though none of the judges mentioned it); Amber rolled with the punches nicely, but it was all just a little off.

JUDGES’ SCORES: 34 out of 40

DANCE STYLE: Jive (to “You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!” from “Peter Pan”)

I would argue that this soundtrack put Maura and Mark at a disadvantage from the start; the original tempo of “You Can Fly!” isn’t terribly jive-able, and the slower version performed on Monday felt unnatural as a result. But, yeah, this dance style just wasn’t Maura’s best. After many weeks spent in a gorgeous ballroom frame, she’s now confronting the styles — contemporary last week, jive this week — that give weak feet nowhere to hide, and Maura’s kicks and flicks throughout this jive lacked the relentless power they needed. Plus, she and Mark had both joked at the start of the season that she doesn’t have a whole lot of stamina, and that unfortunately showed in the last third of this performance, when her energy noticeably dipped in comparison to her partner’s.

JUDGES’ SCORES: 32 out of 40

DANCE STYLE: Contemporary (to “Easy as Life” from “Aida” — with OG Aida Heather Headley singing live!)

If Heather Headley is just Helen from “Sweet Magnolias” to you, then the excitement of her singing this “Aida” number may not have translated; get thee to YouTube and allow the videos of her “Aida” Broadway run to leave you in awe. But I digress! This was a really great showing from Tatyana, who seems to unlock a new level of comfort on the dance floor every time she performs. I do think the emotional climax of this contemporary could have been even more raw and no-holds-barred from Tatyana, but her execution of the choreography was fluid and easy.

JUDGES’ SCORES: 33 out of 40

DANCE STYLE: Jazz (to “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” from “Mary Poppins”)

Going by the judges’ scores, Harry also seems to have plateaued in this competition… but his plateau is perfection, I guess? That’s not to say he hasn’t been terrific these last two weeks; he has! He’s been terrific from the start! And this routine was, too! But with three more weeks remaining in the competition, are we to assume he’s got nothing left to learn? That Jenna has no bad habits to help Harry break? It’s all starting to feel a little rote, and I say that as a founding member of the Isn’t This Show Most Enjoyable When the Dancing’s Good? club. (Plus, I would have loved for Harry to have a bigger role in the closing seconds of this performance, instead of vanishing from frame and then returning to pop a confetti cannon that didn’t seem to go off properly.)

JUDGES’ SCORES: 40 out of 40

DANCE STYLE: Samba (to “Under the Sea” from “The Little Mermaid”)

The samba is already one of this show’s most intimidating styles, with such particular movements, and I did worry that the limitations on Ezra’s bottom half might prevent him from executing the samba confidently. Not so! He delivered the same hip flexibility that he brought to the cha-cha and rumba in previous weeks, and his and Daniella’s samba rolls — a move that can look awkward in even the strongest “Dancing” routines — were smooth in an unexpected and delightful way. 

JUDGES’ SCORES: 37 out of 40

DANCE STYLE: Quickstep (to “Be Our Guest” from “Beauty and the Beast”)

My feelings about Harry and Jenna largely apply here, too, and I hope Jenna and Val don’t coast on perfect scores and zero constructive criticism until finale night. That said, this was only Jenna and Val’s first 10s-across-the-board moment of the season, and they deserved it; their quickstep was fun, theatrical, and so light that I’m not even sure Jenna’s feet ever hit the floor.

JUDGES’ SCORES: 40 out of 40

DANCE STYLE: Waltz (to “I See the Light” from “Tangled”)

Coming off a tremendous contemporary on Horror Movie Night, Connor was once again forced to confront his imperfect ballroom frame with this waltz, and time is unfortunately running out for him to work out those kinks. (I mean, technically, he never has to work them out. Bobby Bones taught us that!) Still, the improvement from Week 5 (that Super Bowl Night samba, oof!) to Week 8 has been massive for Connor, and he brought an open-hearted softness to this waltz that was really sweet to watch. 

JUDGES’ SCORES: 32 out of 40

DANCE STYLE: Paso doble (to “Satisfied” from “Hamilton”)

Julia was ultimately a tricky one. She came into Season 35 as one of the most beloved contestants, with tons of support carrying over from her years on the silver screen. But her “Dancing” trajectory was wildly inconsistent, punctuated by reminders that she was taking this Very Seriously and was maybe not having that much fun? All of that context made it tough to fully enjoy her paso doble on Monday, which was a major improvement from last week, but didn’t do enough to suggest Julia had the grasp on technique that she’d need to win the whole thing.

JUDGES’ SCORES: 33 out of 40

OK, your turn. Would Julia and Ezra have been your pick for elimination this week? Tell us in a comment below.