Alannah Beirne quick-steps into next week’s “Dancing With the Stars” after dramatic dance-off

By Kim O'Leary

The celebrity dancers on “Dancing With The Stars” chose to embrace their guilty pleasures at the weekend, with Alannah Beirne scooping a spot for next week after an energetic quick-step following a heated dance off against RTE presenter Marty Morrissey who bowed out of the show after eight weeks.

After a show-stopping first few weeks, Alannah and Vitali were determined to climb to the top of the score-board. Before the performance, Alannah said: “We’re doing to quickstep to my guilty pleasure the theme song from “Friends”, and this dance is all about the frame, its really important to keep straight. I really want to up my game and show the judges I can dance; I’ve got fire in my belly to come out fighting, I want to be top of the leaderboard.”

Meanwhile, Vitali admitted that he had never seen the popular American sitcom “Friends” but that he was willing to do what ever it took to climb the leader-board.

The Eadestown woman was stunning in a sweeping silver and light pink sparkly dress, while Vitali opted for a smart sweater to match. The talented duo performed an energetic quick-step to the beloved Friends theme ‘I’ll be there for you’, scoring a solid 26 points from the three judges Julian Benson, Lorraine Barry and Brian Redmond.

Julian said the pair's routine was "fast and powerful" and that they "raised the bar", while Brian said that he enjoyed the performance overall, and singled out the swinging sections for praise, calling them "long, peaceful, and elegant", and he also favourably compared Alannah and Vitali to the standard of professionals. Meanwhile, Loraine said it was the "complete quickstep" and that she had loved "the precision and quality" in the dancing that Alannah and Vitali provide together.

Unfortunately, they found themselves in the dance-off against RTE presenter Marty Morrissey and his dance partner Ksenia Zhikhotska, whose rumba routine matched their high score of 16 they earned the previous week.

Fortunately, Alannah and Vitali kept their composure and impressed all three judges with their in-sync performance and three judges chose to save them from elimination, with Marty and Ksenia being sent home, with now only six celebrities in the mix as the competition quickly approaches its conclusion.

Kildare viewers can show their support for Alannah and Vitali voting for them when they next appear for “Broadway Week” on the show "Dancing With the Stars" this coming Sunday 4 March at 6.30pm on RTE One by calling 1513717107 or text "Alannah" to 53125 or visit www.rte.ie/dwts