Dance

The Times has gymnast Aly Raisman , a two-time Olympic gold medalist at the London Games, guest-blogging while she competes on "Dancing With the Stars. " Each week while she competes on the show, Raisman will answer a few questions from Sports Now editor Houston Mitchell and give some insight into the competition. Here are Raisman's thoughts about Week 8, which she offered via email. Q. Is there anyone in the world better at giving lessons on how to be a seductive harlot than Mark Ballas?

Welcome to Week 8 of “Dancing With the Stars,” which host (and birthday boy) Tom Bergeron also dubbed “the special edition of 'Len needs a cookie.'” So much happened in this two-hour quarterfinal spectacular. Each of the remaining six couples danced two full routines. The first was an individual dance. The second was a dance trio, in which each couple invited another Pro or Troupe player to step along with them. Which is kind of like a side-by-side challenge, but with one less Pro dancer.

With no ABBA reunion in sight, patrons can take a chance on a new museum devoted to the 1970s Swedish pop super-group. Opening Tuesday in Stockholm, the museum will display band memorabilia, including star-shaped guitars, gold records, concert footage and the requisite hip-hugging flares -- except for a few "embarrassing" skin-tight costumes, band member Bjorn Ulvaeus told the Associated Press he omitted from the collection. The permanent exhibit inside the Swedish Music Hall of Fame features an interactive side where guests record music videos to ABBA hits alongside life-sized holograms of band members and try on costumes via a green screen.

Well, he felt like he was “in the pack of scraggly coyotes, hanging on by a thread.” And in this seventh week of “Dancing With the Stars” competition, Andy Dick was finally picked off from the pack. And while no one can say they were very surprised by the result (well, perhaps except Andy's daughter, who shook her head in disbelief in the audience), it was still sad to see the comedian and his elegant pro partner Sharna Burgess go. Because he took this competition so seriously, and also because it seemed to be a huge part of his whole life recovery.

An annual spring ritual draws curiosity-seekers -- those not afraid of serpents--to the plains of central Manitoba, Canada , where the arrival of warmer weather brings with it mating season for scads of snakes. Conservation Manitoba, a government agency, boasts that at Narcisse Snake Dens "you can see more snakes at a glance than anywhere else in the world. " Each spring, tens of thousands of non-poisonous, red-sided garter snakes emerge from their subterranean winter homes to bask on the balmy plains and reproduce.

What has sparkles, lots of bare skin and emits more heat than a bedazzled chili pepper? Latin Night on “Dancing With the Stars” of course! And Week 7 came in two parts. First, each of the remaining seven couples danced a Latin dance to a Latin song. Then, the couple with the highest score in that round received immunity (a first in the “DWTS” glitterverse), while the remaining six couples had to dance it out in either a rumba, cha-cha, or jive dance-off.  To the victor: Three more points to their total!

Sergia Anderson climbed high up a pole as Bjork's "Hyperballad" blasted through Circus Disco, a West Hollywood nightclub. Spinning and twirling, legs straight and toes pointed, she hung perpendicular to the ceiling, holding the pole with just her hands. Anderson then dropped quickly, catching herself just inches above the floor. The crowd gasped, then applauded. So goes the National Aerial Pole Art Championship, in which 10 amateur pole dancers and 16 professionals competed on April 7. The stage included two floor-to-ceiling poles -- one that spun and one static -- against a glittery backdrop for competitors.