Last week, when we said that Season 7 of So You Think You Can Dance was cursed and that bad things happen in three’s we were joking. Lesson learned: never joke about SYTYCD. Last night, we learned that another dancer was injured for the third week in a row. This time the finger of fate pointed at Billy Bell. Could it be that dancing with the All-Stars has pushed the competitors past their limit?
But enough of the dark stuff. Let’s get right to the biggest deal of last night—no, not surprise guest judge Kenny Ortega—it was AdeChike. Click below to see the routine that finally gave Chike his moment in the spotlight this competition as well as all the other “big deals” from Wednesday’s show.
THE BEST: Adechike and All-Star Comfort‘s hip-hop routine (choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon) to Alicia Keys’ “Fallin’”. NappyTabs has done it again! First, with Alex Wong and Twich’s fun upbeat “Outta Your Mind” and now with a lyrical hip-hop routine so emotional, it moved Adechike to tears. Not only have we never seen Chike dance like this in this entire season, we’re not sure we’ve ever seen Comfort dance on this emotional level—ever. From Vegas to Hollywood, this show has been a constant struggle for Adechike: almost always in the bottom three, never getting a break from the judges. But tonight was a breakthrough for him. We think the audience will see him in a new light from this point on. We credit Tabitha an Napoleon, not only with creating a spellbinding number, but finding a way to work the chemistry between Chike and Comfort into sheer SYTYCD brilliance. Bravo!
RUNNER UP: Kent and All-Star Twitch‘s Steppin’ routine. Lordy, lordy could last night have ended on a more upbeat note then with the first ever competition Step-dance in SYTYCD history? In a word: no. We loved the nod to African American fraternities and sororities (where Stepping originated in the mid-1900s) in Kent and Twitch’s costumes. See Kent really “step up” his game below.
Okay, now we’re gonna get a little “conspiracy theory” here. Please indulge us. During rehearsals we see how this could have been a train wreck, seeing as this form of dance was so foreign to Kent and original partner Billy Bell. This train wreck that very easily could’ve have been as disastrous as say…Billy’s krumping routine. What we didn’t see were any moves where Billy could have seriously injured his knee. Going on the medical prognosis that doctors gave Billy the green light to compete last night if he felt up to it, we think he took it as a pass knowing (or hoping) the judges wouldn’t send him home if he was in the bottom three for an injury rather than face what could have been humiliation for another disastrous attempt at a form of dance so out of his wheelhouse. We’re sure that’s not the case, but regardless we couldn’t help but wonder. And if it was his plan, it backfired. Watching Kent dance on par with Twitch only helped his cause even more. Adam Shankman said, “You’re the one to beat in this competition.” And unless you’ve been watching the show on closed captioning, you can tell from loads the screaming girls that he’s right. In fact, it’s not Billy’s injury that’s hurt him the most in this competition, it’s Kent. Kent has dominated the Adorable Young Lad category that Billy would normally fill.
And now THE WORST: Jose and All-Star Allison‘s Contemporary routine, choreographed by Sonya Tayeh. It’s not that this dance was bad or that Jose danced it poorly, it was the reason for Sonya’s creative “edge of the stage” choreography that left a bad taste in our mouths. The judges praised the inventive choreographer for creating a dance that so wonderfully masked all of Jose’s weakness, namely ANY TECHNICAL SKILL WHATSOEVER, and based it on his undeniably wonderful personality. Did choreographer Chuck Maldonado tailor his Step routine to fit Kent’s classically trained style? No. So why are we watering down dance routines to help a performer hide the fact their dance abilities? And again, why does everyone on the show treat Jose like he’s handicapped? Why does he get special treatment? We think it must have something to do with his eyelashes. Judge Mia Michaels called it like she saw it last night when she told Jose, “She [Sonya] gave you pedestrian contemporary.” At this point in the compeition should the contestants be given or dancing anything pedestrian? We say, nay.
RUNNER UP went to AdeChike and Jose‘s Paso Doble, choreographed by Dmitry Chaplin. Now, before we tear into this one, we have to say that it was impressive to see a Paso Doble performed with two men for the first time ever (and it was great to see Legacy helped with the choreography). Where this dance fell flat for us was in the selection of music. It was just too overpowering combined with choreography that had a lot of what the judges call “space”. Chike and Jose needed to work a little harder to fill that space. While it’s always great to see something brand new on the SYTYCD stage, we’re not sure we ever need to see this again.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NIGHT: Lauren and All-Star Twitch‘s hip-hop routine from Tabitha and Napoleon took Ludacris’ “My Chick Bad” to the wild wild West as only NappyTabs could. Kent and All-Star Kathryn‘s Sonya Tayeh Jazz routine to “Tightrope” reminded us a bit too much of Mandy Moore’s “Boogie Shoes” routine from just last week. And Lauren and Robert brought us a sexy samba, choreographed by Dmitry Chaplin. Is Robert, our dark horse (as the judges have called him), finally ready to take the lead in this competition?
QUOTE OF THE NIGHT went to Adam Shankman when he told Robert and All-Star Lauren “I want a t-shirt that says, “You Shot Me With Your Butt”.
WHO MIGHT BE DANCING FOR THEIR LIFE: Well, we already know that Billy Bell is in the bottom three, we think Jose will be joining him. Who do you think will take slot number three?
Will Billy be well enough to continue in this competition? Which was your favorite of the night. Comment below and let us know!
I’m not the only one who saw through Billy’s facade. Thank goodness. He just volunteered to put himself on the fake injury train and never deserved that special “11th” ticket. Booo to Billy Bell for punking out. I remember watching those amazing straddle split jumps that Alex and Adechike had to perform and saw exactly how that injury Alex suffered occurred. I experienced it doing something that seemed less difficult than other stunts. Billy does not deserve to be apart of the cast any longer. He’s sullied the integrity of the show with his lack of it. It also showed a disrespect to the dance style….like he didn’t see it worth his time and possible drop in standing on the show. Every other contestant no matter how bad they may be at a certain style pushed themselves through hard routines and took whatever came of it. These are true competitors and dancers. I’d give Kent a shout out for moving forward and doing a excellent job.
If the judges have any sense they will vote Billy off to teach him a lesson and then get rid of Jose next week because Jose is just not on par with the other dancers. I watched other dancers kill in the Hip Hop genre when its out of their element (i.e Alex and Twitch’s routine) but have yet to see Jose kill in a genre outside of the Hip Hop B-Boy realm.
“have yet to see Jose kill in a genre outside of the Hip Hop B-Boy realm.”
totally agree. i can’t imagine that the judges would kick billy off if he’s well enough to compete next week, but i do agree that jose is either going home tonight or next thursday.
Stepping….well, never thought I would see that here. However, it was luke-warm for me. I like step but this was so watered down I couldn’t even call it half-stepping.
Bell didn’t look hurt to me, Jose sucks, Lauren needs to win this thing, Robert’s no dark horse but at least he can dance, Adechike -wow- enough said, and Kent, gotta love him, you just gotta.
Well, Shankman, here it is. The butt shirt!
Well, Shankman, here it is. The butt shirt!
http://www.zazzle.com/butt_shirt-235601426981484124
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