J.R. Martinez fully embodied the 'great white way' as his quickstep from Chicago’s “Nowadays” earned him almost a perfect score, Monday night on Dancing With the Stars.
“You just keep on keeping on,” Len Goodman said with a smile. “You are truly relentless!"
“Tonight, you have really come up a notch," added the dancing with expert with a smile.
It’s probably the most ambitious routine I’ve attempted on Dancing With the Stars!
Fellow judges Bruno Tonioli and Carie Ann Inaba also thought Martinez delivered his best performance to date.
“You've created a rip-roaring, audience-rising, 11 o'clock number that makes the show a hit!" Tonioli said excitedly.
“Bob Fosse would have been proud," Inaba added and then hinted that Martinez deserved a Tony award for his performance.
Making the elaborate routine close to perfect was no easy task for Martinez, who said his goal is “to stay at the top of the leader board.”
“I don’t want to share that spot with anybody else,” Martinez said. “They’re cool, but that’s my spot.”
Indeed, the army vet should be concerned with fellow celebrity dancer, former TV host Ricki Lake, who has been trailing close behind him with top score performances.
“I’m pushing myself to grow and get better,” Martinez added.
His dance partner, Karina Smirnoff said she has “faith” in Martinez.
“It’s probably the most ambitious routine I’ve attempted on Dancing With the Stars,” Smirnoff said. “I need to prove beyond reasonable doubt that J.R. is definitely not a fluke.”
After finishing his routine, Martinez said he felt that all the contestants “stepped up to the challenge.”
“Everyone is chasing me right now,” said Martinez.
With his quickstep routine behind him, Martinez and the entire cast turned their attention to their group performance.
Season 13 took on an ambitious routine to ‘Big Spender’ from Sweet Charity and ‘Money, Money’ from Cabaret.
For this number, booted contestant Carson Kressely was brought back to be the creative director.
“They brought me back to add some razzle,” Kressley said. “A little spirit fingers and jazz hands.”
Martinez was ecstatic yet nervous to be dancing with everyone at the same time.
“It was really cool dancing with everyone,” Martinez said. “You don’t really get the chance to dance with everyone at the same time.”
“[But] It’s pretty intimidating to be dancing next to a pro dancer.”
Other show stopping moments in the evening included Maksim Chmerkovskiy’s meltdown and heated argument with Goodman after receiving one of the lowest scores of the night.
Goodman insisted that Chmerkovskiy’s and his partner Hope Solo had “the worst dance of the season” and that he knows best because he has “been in this business for 50 years.”
Chmerkovskiy snapped back saying “Then maybe it's time to go!”
“With all due respect, this is my show,” Chmerkovskiy told host Brooke Charvet. “I help make it what it is.”
DWTS is a weekly dance competition and reality show in which celebrities are paired with professional dancers and compete for the opportunity to win the coveted disco ball-shaped trophy.
Past winners, such as Nicole Scherzinger from the X Factor, Olympic gold medal gymnast Shawn Johnson and singer Donny Osmond, have taken their careers to the next level after winning the competition.
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