Lacey Schwimmer’s entire outlook on life changed last week when a friend passed away. It made her realize life is too short, and regardless of any other ambitions, she just wants to dance and make people happy. Kameron Bink wants to dance and just as his parents have encouraged him, wants to do the same for his own future children. As Lacey talks about fans supporting her being one of the coolest things, she and Kameron pull quick step, choreographed by Tony Meredith, out of the hat. Oddly, they do bunny hops and hold each other’s hands running across the floor to pick up the feeling of the dance. Kameron has never done partnering, so it’s up to Lacey to help him. He gets a contraption that resembles bicycle handle bars shoved on his shoulders to help him keep his frame.

Dancing to Big and Bad by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Lacey and Kameron do some great jumps and spins, and she seems more like her brother every week, both with her moves and her personality. Debbie says it was fun to watch, a classic timely dance that a lot of people
have never seen before. Lacey impresses her each week with her versatility. Mary knows while she’s a ballroom dancer, this isn’t Lacey’s thing, but she did an amazing job. As for Kameron, she misses his mohawk. Mary also wants to note that the quick step is usually the kiss of death on the show, but for the first time here, someone had an extended period of time with an enclosed hold. Nigel agrees they kept the shape really well, but he wishes they would have covered a little more area like the professionals.

Anya Garnis and Danny Tidwell are next to share their ambitions. She would like to someday set up an animal shelter and says she can’t have pets because she lives in New York. This is news to me that no one in New York has pets. Danny wants to do anything in entertainment, whether it’s behind or in front of the cameras. They had great feedback from the judges last week for stepping out of their comfort zone. This week they’ll be doing this even more so as they do hip hop with Dan Karaty. He tells them that they can’t get ahead or behind the music. The dancing has to match the music. Anya doesn’t want to look like the cha cha girl trying to dance hip hop and works on it really hard, to the extent of trying to duplicate Dan’s beatboxing.

Anya and Danny dance to Oh Timbaland by Timbaland. (Boy, that’s a creative name.) It just isn’t that exciting, though, although he does a great cartwheel to then lie on the floor. Debbie wishes for something to level the playing field, as she thinks there is nothing these two can’t do. She loved the choreography and thinks Danny is a matinee idol. He says he thinks the same of her, and she tells him not to pick her big butt up. She’s fun. Mary acknowledges that they need to give the other couples a handicap but stresses the couples will be changing soon anyway, so there isn’t much of a danger here of them ruling the whole thing. Nigel says out of everything he’s seen them do, this style could be their downfall. He wants everyone to realize how hard it is to come from a classical background with those moves in your muscle memory, then move on to something entirely different that your muscles aren’t used to.

Dominic Sandoval says his biggest ambition is to do the headspins naked with no one there. Probably mjore seriously, he says his biggest ambition is doing what he’s doing now, dancing onstage in front of the whole nation. His partner Sabra Johnson? She wants to be a standup comedian. She thinks she’s “pretty dang funny, like Ellen DeGeneres.” Dominic had wanted contemporary so badly last week, and after they had it, they worried they wouldn’t do well. Still there, they choose the rumba this week with Jean Marc Genereux. He says it usually takes dancers years and years to learn this dance, but they have a matter of hours to learn what includes a difficult move where he has to hold her leg at exactly the right angle, or she’ll fall.