It’s so distressing that Alex is injured. It was revealed at the top of last night’s show that front runner Alex was injured during dress rehearsal on Tuesday. Even more sad is that it could be a ruptured Achilles, which would have him sidelined not just for the rest of the So You Think You Can Dance season but for months beyond it too. Hopefully tonight’s results show will reveal that he will be able to continue next week.
On the whole it was a solid show last night with each dancer performing with an All-Star they had not been previously paired with as well as dancing with a fellow competitor. Here’s a look at my top three performances from last night:
- Billy (Spencer Liff Broadway): Billy was paired with All-Star Katee, who filled in for an injured Allison (it was awesome to see Katee back!) to do “Macavity” from Cats. Billy nailed this piece with both his dancing and his performance as a sly cat burglar. It was fun and stylish. Hopefully Spencer will return for more Broadway. He did a great job with the choreography here.
- Robert (Sean Cheeseman Jazz): This number was too cute with the Barbie and Ken setup. Hopefully this will give him the lift he needs to get out of the bottom three. He had exactly the right personality for this and his dancing was excellent as usual.
- Jose (Mandy Moore contemporary): This was as stunning of a revelation as Alex was at hip hop last week. He had grace, fluidity and even pointed toes. He found the right character too and was completely believable with Lauren. I like Jose more and more all the time. He’s growing so much week to week.
Here’s a look at the rest of last night’s performances in the order they were danced:
- Lauren (Jean-Marc Genereux & France Mousseau cha cha): Go Lauren! This is the best ballroom I’ve seen from any of the females this season. She worked that choreography and Pasha. And finally she gave a pretty mature performance.
- Kent (Dave Scott hip hop): Kent channeled some Justin Timberlake in this routine with Comfort. It was very smooth hip hop and thankfully he didn’t over do the facial expressions either.
- AdéChiké (Mandy Moore jazz): After showing some signs of life last week with the geek number, AdéChiké underwhelmed again this week. I’m not sure in this case of it was him or the choreography though because in general there was something missing in this number that I just couldn’t quite put my finger on.
- Ashley (Tabitha & Napoleon D’uomo Hip Hop): This was hip hop that looked a lot like bollywood to me for some reason. I still liked it though as Ashely and Dominic played assassins. Ashely stepper up her game this week and really nailed the dance and the performance.
- AdéChiké (Nakul bollywood): AdéChiké was supposed to have danced this with Alex but danced with the choreographer’s assistant instead. It looked like he was in the same character as he was for his jazz piece. I was underwhelmed and agree with Mia when she said that she wished Alex had been on the stage. I suspect Cat may not play devil’s advocate any more either because that certainly opened up the floodgates on what Jose has that AdéChiké does not.
- Lauren & Kent (Travis Wall contemporary). Outstanding choreography and outstanding technical performance from the dancers. However, the dance seemed soulless to me. The judges liked it, as did Will, but something just didn’t get me here. I wanted it to hit the heights of the “Heart on a Chain” dance Jason and Jeanine did in season five. I need to watch this again to see if I was just off last night or if something was really not here for me.
- Robert & Ashley (Jean-Marc Genereux & France Mousseau quickstep). I love a good, fun quickstep and this was exactly that. Ashley really turned it on, giving her the best night she’s had on the show. Robert was also quite good and I’m a fan of his ballroom (I loved his Argentine tango a few weeks ago). Yes, there were some technical issues, but they survived this very well.
- Billy & Jose (Sean Cheeseman African Jazz): When these two were dancing apart there was some tremendous stuff here, especially from Billy and some of the poses he can strike. When they were battling though it didn’t seem as fierce as it did in the rehearsal package and that was disappointing. Overall I liked the number.
Bottom three tonight is tough. We know Alex is there because of his injury and he’ll surely pass to next week unless they know by showtime that he cannot continue. My pick for the other two AdéChiké and Lauren. I love Lauren from last night, but I think doing some ballroom will hurt her since the voters don’t seem to go for the ballroom. AdéChiké got beat up by the judges and didn’t show anything new this week so I’m really hoping he visits the bottom.
If Alex is not forced out by medical issues tonight and AdéChiké is in the bottom three, the target squarely sits on his back tonight since the judges were not fans this week. Otherwise, I think any boy in the bottom three (outside of Alex) is in trouble because eventually they are going to want to balance things out a little bit between the boys and the girls.
Results Update: I’m so sad to see Alex go. He will be sorely missed. I’m glad they are going to let him come back in Season 8. Get well soon! We need to see more of your extraordinary talent.
Meanwhile, I’m convinced the voting public is just lame. AdéChiké misses bottom three yet again. Is he paying people to vote for him? Why put Billy and Ashley there after they had such strong nights? I don’t get it. If AdéChiké had an ounce of real personality I’d get it, but he doesn’t and I’m ready to be done suffering through his lackluster performances. I’m sad that Mia felt she needed to apologize for her remarks from last night because she was exactly right.
I loved the In the Heights performance! I loved Natasha Benningfield. Her new song was great and the all-stars had a great routine with her. It was also awesome that Mia choreographed the opening number, which was gorgeous.
Congrats to the SYTYCD Emmy nominated choreographers! Mia Michaels was nominated for the “Addiction” number from Season 5 for Kayla and Kupono. Meanwhile, from Season 6, Stacey Tookey was nominated for “Fear,” which was performed by Legacy and Kathryn. Well done!
