It usually happens once per season. There’s a show where the dances are good, but not extraordinary. There are fewer goosebumps, fewer tears from being moved and fewer clips saved for future watching. Last night was that night for So You Think You Can Dance Season 7 and it’s not really that surprising since everyone peaked last week.
The injury list continued to grow this week. This time it was Billy who sat in the audience watching instead of performing. It sounds like his injury will allow him to dance next week so it hopefully won’t be him going home from the bottom three tonight.
Last night was SYTYCD‘s 150th episode! That’s quite an excellent benchmark. Choreographer Kenny Ortega (High School Musical) was guest judge and he did far better at the guest judging stint that when Ellen was on for the 100th show.
Here is my top three from last night:
AdéChiké (Tabitha & Napoleon D’uomo hip hop): I’m surprised I’m putting AdéChiké in the top three, but this performance was pretty perfect. It was the right marriage of choreography (and haven’t NappyTabs been outstanding this season!), performers (Comfort rocked here as well) and music. It’s AdéChiké’s best performance to date. If he’d performed like this all season I would like him a lot more. Meanwhile, this number stands beside “Bleeding Love” as one of the best lyrical hip hop pieces the show has ever presented.- Kent (Chuck Maldonado step): Kent performed this with Twitch instead of Billy and I thought this was a train wreck in the making. I was so wrong. Kent managed to shed his wholesome image for a couple minutes and brought out a strong, fierce dance that allowed him to shine next to his all star partner. Unlike last week where I thought Neil outdanced Kent, here Kent and Twitch were pretty equal.
- Robert (Tyce Diorio jazz): The musicality in this piece was outstanding and Robert and his all star Lauren nailed this dance. It was sexy and had some drama in it. It seemed occasionally like there was a tango trying to bust out of the jazz.
Here are the rest of last night’s numbers, in the order they were performed within their groupings starting with the all-star partner numbers, the contestants together and then the solos.
- Lauren (Tabitha & Napoleon D’uomo hip hop): Tremendously fun number. Great to see Lauren find a new side to herself. She stayed sexy, but developed an edge. The parting scene with her riding off on Twitch was perfect.
- Jose (Sonya Tayeh contemporary): Despite what the judges said, I thought this showed growth from Jose. His technique appeared to be stronger tonight that it did in last week’s Broadway or his previous contemporary piece. Allison was a willing partner too, allowing herself to be thrown around quite a bit. This was a good piece for Jose and hopefully it keeps him safe another week.
- Kent (Sonya Tayeh jazz): This was just cute, fun and peppy. Kent found the right performance face too. It would’ve been easy for him to go over the top here (and Mia seemed to think he had), but I thought it stayed in a believable place.
- Lauren & Robert (Dmitry Chaplin samba): Robert’s done a lot of ballroom this season and he just keeps getting better at it. This partnership was quite excellent too as they both looked like ballroom dancers, lost in the music having a great time.
- AdéChiké & Jose (Dmitry Chaplin paso doble): This was the disappointing number of the night. Burn the Floor has a male paso doble in its show and it is outstanding as it overflows with fierce, fighting drama. I was hoping that’s what we were going to get here. While AdéChiké and Jose didn’t quite find the right characters, the choreography also let them down. There was too much cape spinning at the beginning and too many moves, such as the death spirals, that seemed more appropriate in a male/female paso than a male/male one.
As we head into the solo commentary, I have to say that I was overall disappointed in the solos this week. The dancers didn’t seem to do anything new or risky here. It was just them, doing their thing. I’d like to see at least some innovation within their styles so it doesn’t feel like I’m seeing the same solo every week.
- AdéChiké: Here was his usual strong contemporary style, but there was nothing new or fresh to it.
- Robert: At least there was some joy and some really great musicality to this piece. Even though we’re seeing a sameness here, he looks so happy to be doing the dance that you can overlook the sameness from week-to-week.
- Lauren: She looked like she relished this 30 seconds, which helped make it a pleasure to watch.
- Jose: Another annoying case of same dance, new song. There are so many things Jose can do in his style. I’d like to see him pull some new tricks out of his bag.
- Kent: He was really in sync with his music and seemed to get lost in it. That was good to see, rather than him playing to the audience.
So we know Billy will be in bottom three, but who will join him? Jose will make a reappearance since he wasn’t helped by the paso. The last slot is a hard call. I think Robert’s going to end up here too since he didn’t stand out last night. It will be Jose’s night to go home. The judges, who’ve hammered him for two weeks on technique, aren’t going to let him get another step closer to top 4.
Speaking of top 4… I think that’s going to be Lauren, Billy, AdéChiké and Kent. Sorry Robert, AdéChiké’s got some sort of magical fan base in play that’s going to cost you the spot you should have.
Results update: That was a surprise and I guess a good one. I got the bottom three right for the first time this season, but then the judges sent no one home. Next week two will go home so we’ll still get to the top four at the usual time.
I loved DJ Smart and getting to see his whole routine. It’s amazing someone as muscular as he is is as flexible as he is. Based on this solo, I don’t understand how he got cut in Vegas. I hope he makes it on in a future season because I’d like to see what else he can do.
The other highlights of the night were the classic routine from Neil and Lauren as well as the hot opening number.
