Television: Out with “Moulin Rouge”: Lulu flies on “Let’s Dance”

New venue, but same outcome: Singer Lulu Lewe has already left the RTL dance show “Let’s Dance” after a temporary return. Pop star Sarah Connor’s sister received too few points from the jury and audience and had to leave the show. She already knew the feeling: the 32-year-old was kicked out of the dance show last Friday. Since competitor Mark Keller dropped out of the competition shortly afterwards due to an injury to his Achilles tendon, she was able to celebrate a comeback.

The atmosphere in which the dancing couples vied for the audience’s favor was special. For the first time in the show’s history, the live show was not broadcast from the original studio in Cologne-Ossendorf, but from the Musical Dome near Cologne Cathedral. The musical “Moulin Rouge!” is actually performed there. about a legendary French nightclub.

The backdrop looked accordingly: Lots of ornate details, strong red and velvet dominated. Sometimes people danced in front of a sparkling Eiffel Tower. Roles were also played with: choreographer Detlef Soost, for example, dressed as a woman for his first dance. “My wife doesn’t think it’s that good,” he explained. “She’s afraid that I’ll stick with it.”

Strong competition for Lulu

Things went well for Lulu Lewe on the unfamiliar stage, but not outstanding. In his own words, the always strict juror Joachim Llambi took into account the fact that the singer had started training again at such short notice. For the Viennese waltz to “La Complainte de la Butte” by Zaz, Lewe and her dance partner Massimo Sinató received 23 points. A subsequent trio dance for three to Madonna’s “Material Girl” together with professional dancer Patricija Ionel was awarded 26 points.

However, the competition in the show proved to be strong: the jury awarded four out of ten dances the highest possible number of 30 points. Singer Gabriel Kelly and professional dancer Malika Dzumaev even received the highest points twice. From the jury’s point of view, only influencer Ann-Kathrin Bendixen and her dance partner Valentin Lusin fell significantly behind and were initially 15 points behind in last place. The audience’s votes, which were then counted, surprisingly catapulted the couple past Lewe and Sinató.

Difficult conditions on musical stages

“In terms of the atmosphere, there is even more pressure here. It comes through the hall. There are even more people there and everything is very compressed as a result,” explained juror Llambi to the dpa during a break about the special features of the musical edition.

The dancers also referred several times to grooves in the floor that were present on the musical stage, but not in the TV studio. Influencer Bendixen, for example, cited this fact when Llambi began to harshly criticize her footwork. But the juror didn’t want to accept the condition of the ground as an excuse. “It’s like in football when someone says: But it’s bad weather. The conditions are the same for everyone here,” he said. “So why complain? If I complain, I’m doing something wrong.”

Llambi impressed by the special episode

At the same time, Llambi was very impressed with the special episode. “I think this edition is great today because it’s a bit of a cherry on the cake and we’re doing something completely different,” he told dpa. “But: It was also a brutal effort that went into it. The girls and boys in the production company worked days and nights to make it look the way it does.” In the end, RTL and the production company have to decide whether they want to do it again at some point.

Gabriel Kelly, Detlef Soost, Ann-Kathrin Bendixen and sports journalist Jana Wosnitza are now in the semi-finals. As a native of Cologne, the latter was able to see completely different advantages in the Musical Dome as a dance venue. During her time in the musical theater, she said, she also looked out – and then saw Cologne Cathedral, which was in sight. “That makes a Cologne resident’s heart open.”