‘Dancing’: Bindi Irwin wows; Tamar Braxton endures

The show dropped another celebrity.

Alek Skarlatos shed his chest hair and his inhibitions for a salsa with hard lifts.

“[Tamar] was taken to the hospital earlier today, midway through dress rehearsal”, DWTS host Tom Bergeron announced at the top of the show, as Braxton’s pro partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, took the stage solo. If she is not there, then Tamar will not get to dance, which will mean pulling out of the competition. Carlos PenaVega and Witney Carson served up an Argentine Tango for a very good 27 score.

Tamar Braxton and Val Chmerkovskiy (contemporary)The dance:”But wait”, you might be saying. She made it back to the studio with just minutes to spare before the start of her second routine, and was able to perform it live. Bindi is a skilled enough dancer that this routine is predictably handsome (that leap!), but Derek is right in thinking that this isn’t his strongest dance, choreography-wise. At the moment we’d say that Bindi Irwin and Nick Carter are the likely final two this season, and we don’t really envision many scenarios where either one of them could be going home at the end of Monday night’s new episode. Inaba said the routine sent a strong message and was “more than dance”.

Monday night will be jam-packed since the six dancing couples will have to perform twice during the evening. Alek and Carlos were paired for a big, brassy paso doble salute to “We Will Rock You”. They were judged on their performance in their dress rehearsal.

Braxton arrived to perform a rumba with Nick.

Alexa PenaVega and Mark Ballas danced a Contemporary routine for a ideal 30 score! Her effort was commendable – the judges were astonished – but the dance wasn’t as sharp as the “Chicago” number. But by showing up, she wouldn’t be put out for not performing. The judges gave it their highest praise – a ideal score of 30 points.