Week 8 DWTS Recap: Daniel Durant advances into semi-finals
Now, it is Week 8 of Dancing with the Stars Season 31 with the Deaf actor from the Oscar-winning movie CODA, Daniel Durant as one of the contestants. This is a recap of his performance last night. The theme was “90’s night” and the dance was jazz. The song choice was “Enjoy the Silence” by Depeche Mode. Last night was also double elimination meaning those who made it will advance to the semi-finals next week.
[Photos from Disney+ DWTS Competition]
Daniel’s partner is Britt Stewart. The pair and Daniel’s interpreter flew to New York City to have their rehearsal there for a few days because Daniel received an award from the Center for Hearing and Communication (CHC). After Daniel received the award, they all flew back to Los Angeles where DWTS is, and continued with their rehearsal.
[Photos from Disney+ DWTS Competition]
There was a moment during rehearsal time when Daniel shared his life story about him being adopted when he was 18 months old by his two moms. He mentioned that his birth mother was deaf but never met her while growing up. His birth mother left him at a friend’s house and never returned. Daniel mentioned that his mother used drugs for many years. As Daniel grew up and graduated from high school, his birth mother contacted him wanting to see him. Both of them met up for the very first time after Daniel graduated from high school. He said it felt weird, but also good to finally meet his birth mother. A couple of years later after that, Daniel found out that his birth mother had cancer and that it was spreading fast. So he went to tell her that he thanked her for giving him life. Two weeks later she passed away. There was an emotional moment for Daniel when he was in tears as he was telling this story because he regretted not making more effort to see his birth mother.
[Photos from Disney+ DWTS Competition]
Daniel said it is hard for him to share this story, but he is happy to open up about it to Britt and to the world. Daniel said that he wanted the audience and judges to get a perspective of what it is like to dance from a deaf perspective. So, by doing that, the plan was to cut off the music halfway through the dance.
[Photos from Disney+ DWTS Competition]
Daniel and Britt both wore black tight outfits with sparkles on them. The background looked like some digital art with fuzzy areas. Their dance moves were solid and strong. It involved a lot of hand movements and stomping. There were a few parts where Daniel lifted Britt. The entire dance was choreographed based on Daniel’s story.
[Photos from Disney+ DWTS Competition]
The judges mentioned that they were blown away by Daniel’s story and performance. There were some tears in some of the judges’ eyes as it seems they were moved by Daniel’s childhood story. It seemed that the judges did not have any feedback for him except to give compliments on how much of a great job he did. They also complimented Britt for the choreography. While waiting for the judges’ scores, the host did ask Britt how she felt about choreographing a dance without music from halfway point. She mentioned that it was a good experience and very profound. It helped Britt connect to Daniel even stronger because the focus was on the body movements, not music. The total score that the judges gave was 39 out of 40 and that is the highest score that Daniel and Britt got.
[Photos from Disney+ DWTS Competition]
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Since last night was also double elimination, there had to be another challenge. The 2nd challenge was the duel between two dancing couples. Daniel and Britt had to go up against Shangela and Gleb Savchenko to dance the cha-cha with an iconic singer of the 90’s, Vanilla Ice, in the background singing. The challenge is observed by only one assigned judge and it was Len that was assigned. Both couples had time to rehearse their dances before going on stage to perform for the challenge. Shangela and Gleb went first with their cha-cha dance then Daniel and Britt came after. When they were finished with the challenge, judge Len had to choose which one he liked best to give 5 extra points. Len chose Shangela and Gleb.
[Photos from Disney+ DWTS Competition]
At the end of the show, two couples had to be eliminated based on the total judges’ scores, audience/viewers' votes, and the scores from the challenge. The two couples that got eliminated were Heidi D’Amelio / Artem Chigvintsev and Vinny Guadagnino / Koko Iwasaki. This means that Daniel and Britt made it to the semi-finals for next week. There are 6 dancing couples left competing for the mirror ball. Next week, there will be double eliminations again for the semi-finals. From what we know, the finale will be on Monday, November 21st. If you want to watch DWTS, you can tune in to Disney+ on Monday nights at 8pm EST.