Ann-Kathrin Bendixen and professional dancer Valentin Lusin didn’t survive the eighth edition of “Let’s Dance” – they were thrown out.
“It’s about our honor!”: Motsi Mabuse, 43, made that clear last week. Because in the eighth show of “Let’s Dance” (RTL and RTL+), the jury members Mabuse, Jorge González, 56, and Joachim Llambi, 59, coached the seven remaining dance couples – and the spectators dropped the score.
So whether it was the dancers or the jury members – we don’t know. The dancing couple Ann-Kathrin Bendixen, 24, and Valentin Lusin, 37, lost the evening in the overall ranking. The influencer Benedixen had previously tried to overcome her blockages for her samba. “I know that half of Germany sits in front of the television and laughs,” she feared during training. Mabuse corrected after her dance: “90 percent of people sitting at home couldn’t do that!” She received 15 points from the jury.
Detlef Soost’s personal “horror dance”
In the individual dances, Detlef Soost, 53, and Ekaterina Leonova, 37, this time performed a quickstep under the motto “Aladdin”. Disguised as Genie and Jasmine, they danced the dance that was a little too fast to the music of the Disney classic – not for nothing Soost’s personal “horror dance”. Llambi judged, among other things, “off the beat” and “much too fast”. There were 21 points in total.
This time Gabriel Kelly, 22, took on the challenge of a Viennese waltz to “Mad World”. He metaphorically danced his way free from the clinging world and thrilled the audience. Mabuse: “That’s what ‘Let’s Dance’ is: eight weeks ago the young man couldn’t do anything and now look what happened to it.” González: “That was just beautiful.” Llambi also agreed. Moderator Daniel Hartwich, 45: “Do you also have the feeling that the jury is flirting with you?” I guess you could say: overall score 29!
Top score for Jana Wosnitza
This time, Jana Wosnitza, 30, and Vadim Garbuzov, 36, had to sell a quickstep under the rock’n’roll motto. Wosnitza was flung across the parquet in a leather corset and tulle skirt. “I have rarely seen anyone in these shows who dances standard as well as you,” praised Llambi afterwards. The highest rating of 30 points was given for this performance.
For Mark Keller, 58, it was all about samba. The actor even sang the beginning of “Copa Cabana (At The Copa)” himself and then impressed with his hip swing. Llambi: “At lunchtime you’re crying my ears off about how my hip hurts and then in the evening something like that…” They got 23 points for it.
Tony Bauer, 28, performed a paso doble in a sparkly leather cowboy outfit and strutted across the stage in a decidedly straight manner. Bauer explained that he had previously been given the tip to move as if he had a coin on his head. So he ran, “as if there were lumps coming.” For González, it was Bauer’s best dance to date. Overall rating: 27 points.
Singer Lulu, 32, and Massimo Sinató, 43, danced to “Crazy” at the Contemporary. During the emotional barefoot dance, Lulu actually wanted to express her panic attacks, but the whole thing looked more like a sexy bondage foreplay. “Very exciting, very modern, very sexy,” said Llambi. Mabuse: “I have the feeling that I’m a little child and I’m not allowed to see something, but I still look.” The jury awarded it the maximum rating of 30 points.
Llambi’s honor tarnished
Then it was up to the jury’s honor: Team Mabuse was allowed to coach Kelly and Wosnitza and their professionals for their dance – a kind of contemporary to “Euphoria”, which also euphorized the audience. At 61 percent, she received the most calls. Team Jorge, which consisted of Soost, Keller, Bauer and their professional dancers, came in second. They concentrated on Michael Jackson – from the classic “Thriller” to the soft “The Girl Is Mine”, the men were allowed to show what they were made of. 32 percent of the calls came from the audience.
Last place went to Team Llambi, which was supposed to take Lulu and Benedixen and a made-up Llambi to “sexy Berlin in the thirties”. However, the dance was – especially because it was so slow and long – too much of a challenge for the inexperienced dancers. The master critic only received five percent of the calls for it. And now a bit of tarnished honor, if his colleague Mabuse is to be believed.