Yamaguchi Bests The Boys On "Dancing"

Olympian Earns Perfect Score, Keeps Her Shirt On

(CBS)  Kristi Yamaguchi danced her way to a perfect score on the "Dancing With The Stars" season six finale Monday night, and - unlike the other two competitors - she did it without exposing her chest.

Yamaguchi, football star Jason Taylor and actor Cristian de la Fuente each danced a cha cha and a freestyle number Monday night as they competed to win what host Tom Bergeron jokingly referred to as "the world's sparkliest trophy."

The cha cha "face-off" gave the judges and the viewing audience a chance to see each couple dance the same dance style to the same music (Lionel Richie's "Dancing On The Ceiling"). Each couple performed a short routine and at the end all six dancers came together on the dance floor for a few final moves.

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Photos: "Dancing With The Stars" Finale

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Taylor, who openly admitted that Latin dance is not his forte, fared the worst in the group.

"You've got elegance about you, you've got style. If this had been a fox trot, the whole scenario could have changed," judge Len Goodman told Taylor.

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Photos: "Dancing With The Stars"

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The three judges each gave Taylor a score of 8 for a total of 24.

De la Fuente, his shirt unbuttoned to show off his ripped torso and six-pack abs, clearly had the best hip action and feel for the Latin rhythm of the dance.

Judge Carrie Ann Inaba told de la Fuente that he had great energy, but she noticed that his injured left arm was starting to affect his posture. De la Fuente injured his arm a few weeks ago while performing a samba routine on the show. He has since been wearing a soft cast - often decorated to match his costume - and doing most of the lifts and holds with his good arm.

De la Fuente earned a score of 26.

Yamaguchi, looking like an Ikette in her fringed mini-dress, danced a spirited, but technically precise cha cha.

"Kristi, it's ladies night, you won that hands down," said Inaba.

Yamaguchi received a perfect 30 from the judges, moving her closer to achieving her goal of being the first woman to win the ABC show since season one's Kelly Monaco.

The dancers returned to perform a freestyle routine. They were allowed to choose their music and were free to mix dance styles and add lifts.

Yamaguchi and her partner, Mark Ballas, performed a mix of hip-hop and mambo to Michael Jackson's "Working Day And Night," liberally adding aerial moves and difficult lifts.

"This was so difficult, so demanding," said judge Bruno Tonioli. "To me, it was worthy of the championship."

The other judges agreed and Yamaguchi earned another perfect 30, giving her the top score of 60 for the night.

Taylor and his partner Edyta Sliwinska had a few club moves of their own to Will Smith's "Miami" The Dolphin's defensive end showed off his strength in a series of difficult lifts and showed off his muscled torso by tearing off his shirt at the end of the number.

"It's like watching two centerfolds - and the dance wasn't bad either," quipped Tonioli.

Taylor's score improved to a 27, giving him a total of 51.

De la Fuente's injured arm came back to haunt him in the freestyle, danced to merengue star Elvis Crespo's signature hit "Suavemente."

Although he and his partner, Cheryl Burke, put plenty of fire into their dance steps, he simply wasn't able to execute the same difficulty of lifts as Ballas and Taylor.

His score of 26 gave him a final total of 52, putting him in second place behind Yamaguchi.

The dancers return Tuesday night for the two-hour grand finale. After the first couple is eliminated, based on viewer votes, the remaining two couples will dance again for the judges. The one with the best score will win the disco ball trophy and bragging rights.

All of this season's competitors will be back for another spin on the dance floor and R&B superstar Usher will perform two songs.

[starleo146]

Kristi if you do not get it something is going on behind the scenes we don''t know about, she is the best.

[rational_1]

IMHO The dancing just isn''t at all interesting if a pole doesn''t get used at one point or another. The guys should stay off the stage altogether and just concern themselves with rummaging for singles in their wallets. Now, that''s dancing! LOL

[jetlizhan]

i love the show - i can''t imagine learning a new dance every week, along with their ''regular'' lives - how do they do it? the dances are so fast and strenuous - kudos to all of them. i think they''re all good - but kristi is the best, hands down. as far as the women showing too much body - hel.l if my body looked like theirs, i''d show it off too. it''s taken them years of hard work to have a body like that. go girls!!

[pollroller1]

Well I like the show. My wife got me hooked on it and we watch it together every week. I am pulling for Kristi Yamaguchi. She is the best dancer.

[katia327]

Oh, who cares. This show is so overrated. Honestly sick of hearing about it.

The only reason most people watch it, IS because the women are exposing their chests, and other body parts. It''s disgusting, and is why I stopped watching the show long ago. NO CLASS AT ALL. Funny it was mentioned at all in this article, but I guess it was just a cute little connotational ''quip'' versus the men. You would think the women dancing, would have more respect for themselves. You would think women in general would, too.