We were all surprised when the group number's choreographer was revealed. The number SCREAMED Sonya Tayeh, but surprisingly Mia Michaels came back and decided to make this part-burlesque, part-Rocky Horror Picture Show, part-gothic piece. It was definitely creative, but for some reason the guys seemed to do nothing more than swing off of the bars of the setpieces. Fik-Shun basically just swung on the bar on the setpiece for the last twenty seconds of the entire performance.
Bottom four this week; Jenna Johnson, Tucker Knox, Fik-Shun Stegall and Hayley Erbert. I found it surprising that Tucker was in the bottom instead of Paul, although if the bottom had included Paul and Fik-Shun it probably would have ended differently for Fik-Shun. We see all the solos, and Fik-Shun's was by far the most entertaining and interesting. Hayley's was standard contemporary (again, super reminiscent of Tiffany Maher), Jenna's was a strange ballroom concoction complete with a sparkly bustier and choker (although, to be fair, ballroom is super hard to dance solo), and Tucker's was, as impressive as all those tricks are and as much as I adore him, kind of a desperate last plea in my opinion.
Before I dive into the actual recap/review of all the performances, just a reminder that this week's pieces were choreographed by the respective All-Star which performed them. I still don't know how I feel about this, because in some cases it was nothing short of stunning, but in others unfortunately the choreography felt a little short.
1. Aaron and All-Star Chelsie Hightower
JIVE
I love watching a really good jive with a fun premise (best one off the top of my head in recent memory was Tiffany Maher's and Benji Schwimmer's; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS_lrfPeTRw), and although this had a fantastic premise, Aaron sort of seemed to run out of energy halfway through or so. His jive kicks (I have no more ballroom-move-naming-expertise, sorry) were fantastic, in my opinion, and Chelsie is one of their great ballroom girls (incl. Lacey Schwimmer, Anya Garnis, Witney Carson...). Fun, but at this point in the competition, Aaron really needed to pull out the big guns and I'm not sure he did so. The judges seem to really still love him, though, as they kept mentioning his stunning contemporary piece last week with Kathryn McCormick in a last-ditch effort to remind voters of his talent. Again, I'm still super surprised at how well Aaron is succeeding. Actually, of the four guys left, outside of Tucker, they're all kind of a surprise.
2. Fik-Shun and All-Star Allison Holker
CONTEMPORARY
Love to see Allison choreograph something finally, as she has proved time after time that she is one of the best contemporary girls to ever grace their stage. The premise was gorgeous, and the lanterns were super effective. Their lovers-against-prejudice storyline was refreshing, and it just reminded me of how much I'm excited that tWitch and Allison are getting married. We just need a Lauren Froderman/D-Trix Sandoval engagement now, okay?
ANYWAYS, Fik-Shun fell short technically on this piece, but you can just feel how much passion he has for dance in every performance. As much as I love Cyrus Spencer (S9), I think Fik-Shun is way more versatile generally. He needs to work on his classical technique- toe pointing, leg straightening, etc. - but I still loved this piece.
3. Tucker and All-Star Courtney Galiano
JAZZ
Here's the thing about getting the All-Stars to choreograph. If they never have on the show before, if anything, they shouldn't be
dancing their own very first choreographies, because then they lose half of their critiquing ability on the polishing of their performances because of having themselves in the performance (does that even make sense?) Anyways, bit of background on Courtney Galiano - she was chosen as one of the All-Stars on the Season 7 tour, and after noticing numbness in parts of her body, she was actually diagnosed with MS (Multiple Sclerosis) and, as Nigel mentioned, lost vision in her left eye for a month. It is incredibly inspiring for Courtney to come back and dance nationally after such an experience. I can't imagine being diagnosed with such a disease if you're a professional dancer.
To be completely honest, as talented a dancer as Courtney is, she really needs to beef up her choreography. There was no creativity whatsoever in this piece, and the storyline we were given in the pre-performance package (a Romeo and Juliet love story), was all but absent within it. With that said, it was well danced, and Tucker did what he could. They're both fantastic dancers, I just wish we could see them in a routine with a different choreographer. Kind of forgettable.
4. Paul and All-Star Comfort Fedoké
HIP HOP
Really fun hip hop, and again, unsurprisingly, Paul absolutely kills it. I kind of hate myself for laughing out loud at the hoodies they were wearing ("HIP HOP LIVES"), but regardless, Comfort is an amazing choreographer. It showed off Paul's ability to become the chameleon he is and absolutely completely involve himself in every single genre he's been thrown... This guy has had his own style ONCE and he's never scraped the bottom in something like ten weeks. I'm just going to take a moment to appreciate how much of a surprise he's been to basically everybody - when he mentioned that he won SYTYCD Armenia in his audition, it was kind of impressive, but almost everybody immediately dismissed this fact. I actually originally found it to be kind of sketchy that he would be eligible to win in both. HOWEVER, I soon realized that not only are the two shows, although they share the same name, completely different audiences and competitions, but that absolutely everybody would soon fall head over heels in love with Paul. He's not flashy or obnoxious, yet he's been able to wow everyone with nothing but his seemingly limitless talent (his flawless physical features actually probably don't hurt, either).
5. Hayley and All-Star Dmitry Chaplin
RUMBA
Another successful routine because the All-Star is an amazing choreographer. Rumba's always been kind of a murky, undefined genre on the show for me (my confusion probably stems from Jordan Casanova and Jess LeProtto's barefoot rumba in season 8), but this was really, really beautiful. I think Hayley's found her niche - the classy-but-sexy. My two favourite routines from her this season have been this rumba and the Argentine Tango with Leonardo a couple weeks ago, and they both fill this character description. The "sexy" routines they do on this show fall into one of two categories for me; "classy", or "skanky". Hayley's done both (remember that terribly uncomfortable leather-clad Ray Leeper jazz routine she did with Curtis?), and the "classy" version she can pull off beautifully.
6. Jenna and All-Star Mark Kanemura
JAZZ
MARK!! Now, Mark's SYTYCD-famous for being Lady Gaga's favourite, and I'm so glad he came back to choreograph this fun piece. On the creativity spectrum, Courtney Galiano's routine is at one end and this one by Mark is at the other (sorry. sorry. sorry, I know I'll be hated for this). The eyes-and-mouth setpieces were the coolest, and Jenna could absolutely pull off the movement. One of my favourites of hers.
7. Jasmine and All-Star tWitch Boss
HIP HOP
I was originally beyond excited for this number because, well, tWitch. Who can go wrong with tWitch? Unfortunately, although his dancing was as above-par as it always is, the choreography kind of fell flat for me. The undercover-superhero premise, the dancers, the costumes, everything was lined up to go seamlessly, but somehow it didn't for me. I kept waiting for "the moment", when they would all of a sudden jump into perfectly synchronized tutting and creative movement or something, but it never really happened. Kind of anti-climactic, I guess.
8. Amy and All-Star Travis Wall
CONTEMPORARY
First of all, Amy Yakima, how do you get so lucky? Tonight's performance was the perfect storm; a CONTEMPORARY piece choreographed by EMMY-NOMINATED TRAVIS WALL partnered by EMMY-NOMINATED TRAVIS WALL danced to a song by none other than the most gorgeous voice on earth, JAMES VINCENT McMORROW. (Insert
Arrested Development Gob "COme on!" here). It was beyond stunning. It reminded me of Melanie Moore and Neil Haskell's
Total Eclipse of the Heart in season 8, except I loved this one more. Travis Wall is becoming one of the nation's premiere contemporary choreographers, and what I love even more is that he can dance the hell out of his own choreography. So beautiful, best one tonight by far. Expect to see this again at the finale.
Jenna and Tucker get eliminated. At this point in the competition, you can't complain getting this far, so they didn't look too crushed.
Top 8 Partner Rankings (all my own personal opinion :)
1. Amy and All-Star Travis
2. Paul and All-Star Comfort
3. Hayley and All-Star Dmitry
4. Jenna and All-Star Mark
5. Fik-Shun and All-Star Allison
6. Aaron and All-Star Chelsie
7. Jasmine and All-Star tWitch
8. Tucker and All-Star Courtney
Elimination predictions (remember, the guy and girl with the lowest amount of votes this week automatically go home, with no deliberation from either the producers, judges or choreographers);
GIRLS
Probably Jasmine based on tonight's performance, but overall, Hayley should probably go over Jasmine.
GUYS
Aaron
ANNOUNCEMENT - I was thinking of doing a reader-e-mail type segment every once in a while, especially as the show is heading into its final weeks. If you have any SYTYCD-related questions, comments, suggestions, etc., and if I get enough bi-weekly or so, I'll occasionally do a segment where I answer the e-mails. Sound good? This is basically because commenting on Blogger is such a pain in the ass, so let's make it easier, shall we? Questions, comments, etc. (SYTYCD-related please!!); sytycdfansblog@gmail.com
all performance pictures from www.fox.com/dance/
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