Ballroom dancing pro and amateur leprechaun Tristan MacManus will be checking in with EW.com each week as he and partner Gladys Knight go for the coveted mirrorball trophy.

On Motown Night: This was a reuinion of sorts for Gladys. Berry Gordy came, which was unreal. I got to meet him tonight, and Duke, the one who’s left in the Four Tops. The Temptations then, some of the Supremes, and of course Martha Reeves and Smokey Robinson. Such a good tribute to Motown. It was unreal to dance to the real artists singing the songs. Everyone has fond memories of Motown and dancing to Motown. It’s inspired so many people.

On the “My Girl” rumba: We were hoping for a faster dance but the rumba’s what we got. We got a great song, and we got to dance to the Temptations. I was annoyed by some of the comments the judges made. They put me in a fierce bad mood afterwards. What Bruno said about wanting a more steamy dance — I thought that was stupid. It wasn’t about being steamy and hot, and no one wants to see me steamy with Gladys. READ FULL STORY »

Update: Annie’s recap is live.

I heard it through the tinsel-wrapped, jewel-encrusted grapevine that it’s Motown Week on Dancing With the Stars! The eight remaining couples will dance on their own and then compete in a special Motown Marathon cha cha at the end. William Levy (pictured) and Cheryl will be doing the rumba in the coveted last spot, so be sure to drape yourself in thin strips of toilet paper (fastened by a single gem at the left hip) to ready yourself for his “bedroom dance” by about…oh, I’d say 9:15 to be safe.

Click over here to join EW.com’s live blog of the sixth liiiiiiiiiiiiiive performance show of season 14! As always, nominate your hidden gems in the comments on this post during and after the show, and stay tuned for my full recap and Tristan’s blog overnight! READ FULL STORY »

Ballroom dancing pro and amateur leprechaun Tristan MacManus will be checking in with EW.com each week as he and partner Gladys Knight go for the coveted mirrorball trophy.

On Gladys hip-checking him in the samba: Yeah, that was the idea — She’d been waiting for a dance like this. I wanted to give her a chance to really enjoy it then. She turned around and she smashed me out of the way and then the focus was on her and she got to bust away that way. I wanted her to take the applause at the end for how well she’d done it. This whole journey is about Gladys learnin’ how to dance, and me dancin’ with a star.

I think this dance itself was the perfect dance for her, maybe like the cha cha was the first week. The song (“Fever” in Spanish) — it’s a great song all right, but when we got it first, the edit that we got, it wasn’t something that we liked in the sense that it was just a really bare song. There wasn’t too much in it instrument-wise. So the fact that we were out of town made it a lot more difficult as well. When we got there this mornin’ was actually the first time we heard the song as it was. So it was a nice surprise when we got in to see the meat behind it. The way we’d heard it, it wasn’t a song that made you want to dance. READ FULL STORY »

Update: Annie’s recap is live.

It’s spicy Latin night on Planet Mirrorballus! Tom Bergeron has been revving up for tonight’s dances by posing with Carlos Santana all day. He needs to step it up with his costuming! But hopefully piping hot beef empanada William Levy will make up for it with his LACK OF A costume tonight.

Click over here to join EW.com’s live blog of the fifth liiiiiiiiiiiiiive performance show of season 14! As always, Nominate your hidden gems in the comments on this post during and after the show, and stay tuned for my full recap and Tristan’s blog overnight!

READ FULL STORY »