As with any season ever, there's contestants that get huge hype and airtime and those who come and go without ever seeing their face or their name on the show itself. Early favourites going into tonight include Phillip Chbeeb's crewmember Jaja Vankova, jazz darling Jessica Richens, contemporary-beauty-with-a-sob-story Megan Marco, and Next-Travis-Wall Ricky Ubeda.
First dramatic cue of the night - hip hop dancer Stephen's girlfriend goes into labour. Um, dunno, but if I had to choose between seeing my first born ACTUALLY BEING BORN and a competition where you have a 20 out of 157 chance of making it on the show, I'd go with the labour.
First round (not including the first solo round) - Hip Hop, Choreography by Chris Scott
Nice to see Jasmine Harper again as Chris's helper. Megan Marco gets cut, for some reason Marie Poppins gets to stick around, and Jessica Richens gets to dance for her life. In other news, ballroom dancer Marcquet Hill is mistaken for a hip hop dancer by his contemporary dancer partner. "I thought he was hip hooop!" Also, was it just me or was there an underlying it's-because-he's-black joke in there somewhere? Um, I'd be ditching her for the next round, Marcquet. You're obviously a rising star.
Jessica Richens' Solo - to some Michael Bublé song. She may not have great chemistry with her partner, but she is a wonderful solo act. Missed some cues in the music, but her feet and her turns were gorgeous. Through.
Second round - Jazz, Choreography by Sonya Tayeh
Jaja Vankova and Marie Poppins have early troubles. Johnny Waacker and my early SYTYCD Season 11 love Rudy Abreu slide through. "Early father" Stephen and Marie Poppins end up getting cut. Sonya shouted some threats, but at the end of the day, it's all good, because everyone knows Sonya Tayeh is a goddess of everything.
Jaja Vankova's Solo - powerful, krumpy, I don't know what else to say??? Through.
Third Round - Ballroom, Choreography by Dmitry Chaplin and Anya Garnis
Tappers go through. Rudy knocked it OUT OF THE PARK. Someone's tooth gets knocked out of their head. Emilio Dosal is back! Remember Aaron Turner? Season 10's 21st choice? He made the show because Emilio Dosal had to get nose surgery, and, as we all know, Aaron ends up making it to the finale. Crazier things have happened. Anyways, Jaja and Emilio pair up for the ballroom round and have some insane chemistry. Phillip Chbeeb, whatever you're doing to churn out these dancers from i.am.me, you're doing it right. Rudy's ballroom-dancing best friend Nick Garcia was given just a fraction of his deserved screentime and it was beautiful.
Fourth Round - Contemporary, Choreography by Travis Wall
Makenzie Dustman!!! Her presence in this round reminded me of all my pent-up Season 10 anger about her lack of love from voters. Whatever... The ginger ballroom guy who auditioned with Jenna Johnson makes it through. Rudy Abreu, Ricky Ubeda and Jessica Richens all pass through with flying colours.
Bridget Whitman's Solo - pretty basic contemporary movement, but pretty. The story about her father is very sad, but she needs to quit talking about it so much - it's getting very old very fast. It becomes a problem in Callbacks when contestants get so little time - all her screentime is dedicated to her father's story. Through.
Fifth Round - Group Round!
And so the drama reaches its climax! The first group - "One Love" - although pretty on the surface, there was one ballroom girl and she was the star of the show. They're asked to decide who will leave. What? They play a montage of bad groups. Everyone is awful, according to the editors. Johnny Waacks's group is the best routine - a gorgeous mix of contemporary and his waacking. Then they showed a montage of good groups and a beautiful split jump from my Rudy Abreu.
Here goes "One Love"'s decision of who to kick off the show. They all get up on stage and and cry and say they can't kick anyone off. This temporary show of loyalty apparently got to a small place in Nigel's heart and they all get sent through.
Sixth Round - Last Solos
Ricky Ubeda - Genius solo. Up there with Melanie Moore's Cracks and Billy Bell's Fly. Plus, he scored bonus points by using David J. Roch's Skin and Bones, used by Travis Wall to choreograph Melanie and Marko in one of my favourite contemporary pieces on the show of all time. Ricky's solo was not only stunning, but SMART. He would totally purposely lose control of his arms and legs and then go into an attitude or a triple pirouette without a second thought to show his insane control. Controlled, creative, genius. See the full glory here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDVGZGlClkk
Top 20 Reveal
First dancer to get the news is Ricky Ubeda. If he didn't make top 20 there would've been riots. Also to make through is Jessica Richens and a couple others that got no screentime. Emilio Dosal is through with a little bit of mean talk from Adam Shankman. Jaja Vankova doesn't - I guess two people from i.am.me is too much - and it would suck bigtime for Emilio not to make it after making it once already. Johnny Waacks gets cut and leaves in his skirt. From the little sneak-peek package before a commercial break I could tell they would pull a ratchet "Well, there's only one spot left and two of you!" for Nick Garcia and Rudy Abreu.
Jenna Johnson's ginger ballroom friend, whose name I learned is Landon, doesn't make it through. I really liked him and thought he could have continued. Oh well. Justine Lutz, who was my favourite solo in the auditions, unfortunately doesn't make it through either. There's not only one spot left between Nick and Rudy, so I guess I was wrong with that one. Nick moves through first. Like five ballroom people make it through at once.
It doesn't come down between Nick and Rudy, but Rudy and Silky. Rudy gets the spot.
COMPLETE TOP TWENTY
Ricky Ubeda
Jessica Richens
Jacque LeWarne
There we have it folks - I may be back later this week to analyse this top 20 further, but for now it's pretty obvious this season will be very interesting. Twitter is in complete riot over Jaja Vankova. At the end of the day, there's only a handful of the top 20 that got lots of airtime, so time to start looking these people up...
Let Season 11 begin! I love this time of year.
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