Monday's Dancing with the Stars was punctuated with plenty of highs and lows.
The third performance episode of the ABC hit's latest season challenged celeb contestants to base their dance on a memorable year in their lives, and all ten remaining couples delivered.
With Derek Hough at her side, Ricki Lake looked back on her most recent year — a devastating fire that destroyed her home, an ailing father, and a new fiance — and nabbed the night's highest score of 27 out of 30 points from judges.
J.R. Martinez brought the entire audience to tears and to a standing ovation when the badly burned Iraqi war vet dedicated his dance to fallen war heroes; he and Karina Smirnoff nabbed a score of 26. So did Chynna Phillips, dancing with emotion to her own Wilson Phillips hit "Hold On" with Tony Dovolani.
Still touching but less technically impressive? Nancy Grace, waltzing with Tristan MacManus as she remembered the problem-plagued birth of her twins in 2007, scoring a 21. At the bottom of the group with just 18 points was sentimental favorite Chaz Bono, who did the rhumba with Lacey Schwimmer to the tune of his late father Sonny Bono's "Laugh at Me," which mirrored his own gender reassignment experience.
"Dancing doesn't come that easy to you," judge Len Goodman told Bono, 42. "You come back and give it your all — shows a lot about your character. Well done."
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