Week 7 on “Dancing With The Stars” this season saw Ralph Macchio back in form. That’s to be expected as can be seen from his various turns of “good week”, “bad week” cycle. And this week was “THE” week, but I’ll get to that later.

First, let’s look at the rehearsal. We find it a pretty much “brutal” week as far as his knees were concerned. Yes, it was a “brutal” scenario of knee-punishment as Ralph worked earnestly on trying to perfect his footwork. And with a little help from an “expert” who appeared during the rehearsal, he also managed to overcome his “shoulder” problem which now looks more relaxed and natural.

So come performance night, Ralph Macchio and his beautiful, sexy and talented professional partner Karina Smirnoff was simply delightful to watch when they both took on the dance floor. Karina looked absolutely stunning in emerald green (with a “Roaring 20s” headband and feather to match). Ralph, clad in a “gangster” outfit (hat and all) with a matching green tie and handkerchief neatly tucked in one of his pockets simply looked the part.

As they made an explosive entrance to the tune of “Pencil Full of Lead”, images of “Bugsy Malone” came into mind together with all the Mafia-like gangster movies that have ever graced the screen. Ralph’s shoulder posture improved tremendously as they showed no signs of previous weeks’ stiffness or awkwardness. They tackled the “Quickstep” with exuberance and enjoyment thus making the difficult dance routine seem so much more easier than it really was. Ralph’s footwork improved by “leaps and bounds” while Karina appeared to have had more fun than usual. And as a result, they attained a total high score of “36” inclusive of an individual perfect score of “10” from guest judge Donnie Burn (Latin dance champ), being Ralph’s first “10” of the season. “Karate Kid” is back!! Way to go, kid!!!

Next in this week’s theme of "Ballroom Greats", we find a completely different Kirstie Alley altogether. From my observation, the week’s rehearsal is where the problem originated. Call it “women’s intuition” because the minute Kirstie’s professional partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy lost his patience with her, it was downhill from then on. Doesn’t this guy know that in spite of her age, Kirstie’s still a “little girl” inside? With all that passion going on between them the past few weeks, something like this is tantamount to a personal “slap in the face”, right? Yes, we “gals” are pretty “sensitive” when it comes to being chided by our “loved ones”, especially “on camera”. So, regardless of whether there’s really anything going on between them “off camera” (which I suspect there is), Maks had done the “unthinkable” of not only hurting her “ego” but her “heart” as well. That’s what I think anyway.

So it is with no surprise when they performed badly during the night’s performance. Kirstie looked absolutely “haggard” under a ton of makeup (she probably did not catch much sleep the night before) and for the first time during her dance journey, she looked like she really didn’t care anymore. The poor dear. I think it’s an absolute shame if she’s bothered by whatever is bothering her because I would definitely like to see her find her way to the Finals. Watching her each week is such a “pleasure” and I would certainly hate to see her eliminated for the “wrong” reasons.

Dancing a “Jive” (with “La Bamba” blasting away in the background) which is supposed to be lively and action-packed, we instead witnessed a Kirstie minus her usual “spunk, playfulness and vivaciousness”. Her lack of energy and drive coupled with a display of “non-passion” (as painted on her facial expressions during and after the performance) clearly showed a “defeated” attitude. Was it a “self-sabotage” on her part? It’s like she’s saying “let’s call it a day ‘cos I’m not enjoying myself anymore”. Again, this is just “women’s intuition” on my part. There’s more to it than meets the eye or what’s being portrayed on screen, clearly. And of course that awful-looking skirt she wore didn’t bring justice to her figure.

To summarise, I feel the entire dance was “uneventful”. And even when the judges were giving her much support in some of their “positive” remarks, we can clearly see that Kirstie did not buy it and could not wait to leave the dance floor. Before the score was announced as “30”, Kirstie apparently tried to show a much more uplifting spirit during the interview prior to the results but it was by no means convincing. She was feeling “down” and no words or laughter could disguise her emotions. Come on Kirstie, get your act together gal. We love to watch the “old” Kirstie so… let’s bring her back next week shall we??

This week, the individual scores were added to the group scores which comprises the 2 teams of “Team Chelsea” (consisting of Chelsea & Mark, Ralph & Karina and Romeo & Chelsie) and “Team Hines” (consisting of Hines & Kym, Kendra & Louis and Kirstie & Maks). Both teams scored identical “30” in group total but I personally felt that “Team Chelsea” were the better team, both in formation and in execution of the “Cha-cha-cha” and they certainly looked “hot” in black!!

The night ended with my “favorite guy” Ralph Macchio tying for top spot with Hines Ward while my “favorite gal” Kirstie Alley was up for elimination. I sighed a “sigh of relief” when Kirstie managed to slip through to the next round when it was announced that Kendra Wilkinson and her professional partner Louis Van Amstel were the ones departing this week.

I’ve picked the following 4 videoclips for your viewing pleasure. First up is Ralph Macchio’s individual performance followed by Kirstie Alley’s, then on to Team Chelsea’s group performance and ending with Team Hines’. Click on them and enjoy!! I surely did, over and over again. Click, click, click I went…