One of the highlights of “Oscars Night” on “Dancing with the Stars” came at the very end of the episode when the Olympic rugby medalist Ilona Maher did a salsa dance with her professional partner Alan BerstenThe duo performed the award-winning song “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” from the classic film “Dirty Dancing,” giving Maher another chance to expand what it means to be feminine. Watch their routine above.

I was a little concerned about Maher after the Season 33 premiere. She performed a cha-cha that was a little tight and reserved, and I wondered if her muscularity limited her range of motion. But when she got a six from the judges, she was happy; she seemed to think the judges were being too nice to her, and her modesty and enthusiasm were infectious. I was immediately rooting for her.

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So it was a delight to watch her relax during her salsa week two. She even did some impressive lifts — that is, she lifted Bersten up, in addition to him lifting her up. They even recreated the iconic overhead lift from the film they were paying homage to. “That was not only a moment that people will talk about for years to come,” cheered jury member Carrie Ann Inaba“You are leading this conversation about what femininity is.”

Eventually she improved her scores from week to week. This time she got straight sevens from Inaba, Derek HoughAnd Bruno Tonioli. When her scores from the first two weeks of competition were tallied, she finished in a respectable seventh place on the judges’ board. And when the viewer votes were factored in, she was unsurprisingly safe from elimination, meaning she’ll get at least one more chance to throw Bersten across the ballroom, and I’m totally up for it.

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