'So You Think You Can Dance': No big surprises here
We're almost to the point where the SYTYCD dancers split up and I fear for little Gev because some of the remaining girls could possibly carry him around in their pockets. Based on last night's performances, I think there were 3 couples who did 2 very good dances: Chelsea & Mark, Courtney & Gev and Katee & Joshua. That makes my personal Bottom 3 Comfort & Thayne, Will & Jessica and Kherington & Twitch. I will say that Kherington and Twitch have been strong prior to this week and should be safe. Will is an amazing dancer and I don't think Jessica quite keeps up with him, but Comfort and Thayne have been over-matched. I actually think last week Comfort only stayed because Kourtni is too tall to partner with Thayne. But let's see how right I am...
The group dance kicks off with "Closer" by Ne-Yo. Everybody is wearing a red satin jacket, which makes me sad the song isn't "Beat It." There is some neat glow-in-the-dark action with the stripes on their sleeves, but also reminds me a little of an act you'd see by the dance team in a high school variety show. When the lights come back on, though, there's a great group series that is very in sync. I dig hip-hop for the group number.
Cat comes out looking very Carrie Bradshaw with a cute black number and a giant flower in her hair. Our first two couples are Comfort & Thayne and Katee & Joshua. The Bottom 3 couple out of this duo has to be Comfort & Thayne, and unsurprisingly it is. Mia says she hopes they stick around and can prove themselves, but I really think their time is up.
Our next duo is Will & Jessica and Chelsea & Mark. Again, I think it's gotta be Will & Jessica. Their first piece was awesome, but Jessica just hasn't grabbed me yet. Will deserves to stay but I think if Will & Jessica had been in the Bottom 3 last week, they could've sent Jessica home and partnered Kourtni with Will because Kourtni is a stronger dancer than Jessica. I think Chelsea & Mark are consistently very good. Again unsurprisingly, Will & Jessica are in the Bottom 3.
The last duo is Courtney & Gev and Kherington & Twitch. Now, most weeks I'd say C & G are a shoo-in for Bottom 3 against Twitchington. However, I think C & G knocked their dances out of the park last night (I particularly loved the Jungle number) and Twitchington was uncharacteristically flat. I think that's okay, though, because Twitchington should be safe and I'm excited to see their solos. And unsurprisingly, it is Twitchington in the Bottom 3.
I don't say this often about the American Public voting, but they got it exactly right this week for Bottom 3. Before the solos, we get a performance by 3 of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre performing "Revelations." They perform to "Sinner Man" by Billy Porter and it is very raw and passionate. Excellent job.
Our first solo is Comfort dancing to "Oh Timbaland" by Timbaland. She does a passable hip-hop solo, but it's kinda flat. Comfort is great at hip-hop but she just can't fake the other styles anymore. Thayne dances to "Come Home" by OneRepublic. He has great technique and good passion, but I just can't see him staying over Twitch or Will, especially after how many weeks he's been in the Bottom 3.
Next is Jessica dancing to something I can't see because of a Weather Alert. She's very sensual, but it doesn't overly impress me. I actually think it's too bad she wasn't Bottom 3 last week because I would've really liked to see Kourtni dance with Will. Will now dances to another Weather-Alert-obscured piece. It's got a great tribal feel to it and he does some amazing leaps. I really wish since he is Debbie Allen's student that he would've picked "Fame." Alas.
Last solos are Kherington dancing to "All We Are" by OneRepublic. She does a great series of turns and far outstrips the other two girls. Twitch dances to "We Gonna Win" by Miri Ben-Ari and it's pretty sweet. He's wearing a tuxedo jacket with tails over jeans and sneakers and his hip-hop is frenetic and interesting, though I expected more from him, just a little.
While the judges deliberate, we get a performance by Katy Perry with "I Kissed a Girl." She's wearing what appears to be a yellow 1950s bathing suit that has been unfortunately bedazzled. Also, didn't we get this song by Jill Sobule a few years ago? Hmmm. And the lyrics appears to be "I kissed a girl and I liked it." Sounds like drunken sorority girls who want attention, to me. Moving on...
The judges are back and they take the girls first. They immediately dismiss Kherington from the group because her solo reminded us how good she is. Very true. Between Jessica and Comfort, Nigel says that Comfort "pulled it out" with her solo, which I don't agree with. He says they were disappointed with Jessica's solo and have been disappointed with her performances, but because of the one routine she did so beautifully this week, they are keeping her. That's fair. I do think Jessica is a better dancer than Comfort, though Comfort does bring some variety to the show.
Nigel immediately dismisses Twitch, saying that him ending up in the Bottom 3 will wake everybody up, but that they can't lose him at this stage. Also true. They then have Will step forward and tell him he would not be out of place with the Alvin Ailey company. YAY! Thayne is going home. Nigel says, "This may be cruel, but tonight is a night we wish we could keep all three of our boys and send home two girls." It may not be the nicest remark, but that's absolutely true. Why can't Thayne and Will dance together, huh? I think they could! They'd be amazing together.
So we lose Comfort and Thayne tonight, which can't be any big surprise to anybody. Tune in next week when the dancers start drawing for not only dance styles but also partners. I fear for one of the taller girls drawing Gev. That could be a trainwreck of epic proportions.
As you outlined in the blog, it was a pretty much by the numbers show. Everything went as expected. The only way there could have been any intrigue at all was if Courtney and Gev were in the bottom 3 instead of Twitchington b/c then we would have had a situation where they may have kept Comfort over Jessica by keeping Thayne over Gev - thereby keeping the same 3 hip hop to 6 contempory dancers ratio in the top 10 (with Chelsie being the only ballroom dancer left) that we currently have. There was no way they were going to keep 4 hip hop dancers and 5 contempory dancers in the top 10. Hence the reason for no intrigue.
BTW, I am happy with the way it worked out b/c IMO, Gev is more deserving of the top 10 spot than Comfort.
Anyone else tired of how biased the judges are with Will? Yes he's done well, but they let him slip with techinical stuff that they don't let Gev and others get away with at all.
ALmost as annoying (Almost) as Mary's cackle and Mia in general
Thursday's show went as expected.
The Top 10 ship sails next week and the judges can't wait to throw Jessica overboard.
The only way she can save herself is to stay out of the bottom group. I think that will require her being partnered with Twitch (probably the most popular guy except for last night) and getting a routine in which they both do well. Just about anything less than that and she's gone for sure.
Yeah it went as expected, but in the hullabaloo (to which I contributed) about Mia's vicious comments about Jessica we were reminded that she'd been vicious to Comfort too "You can only fake it for so long." Um, Comfort wasn't faking anything. She had, as she admitted, only 2 and half years of training so toe points and what not are not part of her yet. Comfort did have to go, but not because she was "faking" it as Mia said but because given the high level, the judges couldn't ignore her shortcomings anymore. Why does Mia have to phrase everything so viciously? She makes dance flaws into personal flaws, but I already ranted about this yesterday so I'll spare everyone.
Comfort's solo also wasn't very good despite what they said. It is a shame because she has great body control in her dancing but she didn't show it off in this week's solo or last week's, though I frankly don't think it would have made a difference.
Thayne is gone a couple of weeks late since Matt and Chris were better partners than he was, but he was and is excellent and will do fine working for Mia.
Twitch was AMAZING!
Next week Jessica is gone, but the poor girl will be going on tour with judges who seem to loathe her... it might be her final job as a dancer given her fragility. That's a shame because she is very good. She needs Jim Loehr very much to help with her head.
Who knows about the guys?!
Not sure how anyone here could have thought anyone but Comfort and Thayne were goners. Even if Courtney/Gev had made the bottom three why would the producers - on the eve of deciding which ten dancers will go out on tour - have chosen to dump one of the more popular (adorable) couples to keep someone like Thayne, who, for whatever reason, has consistently left audiences indifferent or cold (especially since they are crossing their fingers that a budding romance may be in the works)? Sure Mia might have made a case for keeping Thayne (over Gev, if that had been the alternative) but it would have made no commercial sense for the producers to do so.
While I was with everyone on the whole "Mia was unduly rude to Jessica" thing yesterday, I don't see how, as Joe S points out, she was rude to Comfort. The exact quote was "You can only fake technique so long." True, Comfort only has two and a half years of training, but those "toe points and what not" are technique, which she does not have yet, so the only was is to "fake" it.
On that note, I am thrilled with the top 10, but disappointed that I probably won't get to see Joshua and Katee dance together again since they're drawing for partners now. And I will miss Thayne.
Very predictable results. No one should be surprised. We all have our favs, but going forward it will get more and more difficult. Is there a rule that if you are an over weight, over the hill ex-dancer you have to wear a stupid hat? What was up with Cat's hair last night. It looked like it had been combed with my weed eater.
It will be interesting to see what happens now that the couples have been split up. (Finally, some suspense...)
It seems to me that some of the men (Gev, Joshua, Mark) will become much more vulnerable without the chemistry they've developed with their partners to help sell their routines. Will has a different challenge: he needs to show that the judges were right to claim that he was being held back by Jessica. As for Twitch: he just has to hope not to draw ballroom, tango, etc. Who stays and who goes, on the men's side, will come down to luck of the draw: whom they partner and what they dance. So the men's side seems wide open.
On the other side, things seem more stable/predictable. It is hard to imagine either Katie or Chelsie faltering, whomever they partner. The suspense on the women's side is whether Jessica can knock off either Courtney or Kherington, and prove her "will" to carry on.
I agree with you about last week:
"Will deserves to stay but I think if Will & Jessica had been in the Bottom 3 last week, they could've sent Jessica home and partnered Kourtni with Will because Kourtni is a stronger dancer than Jessica."
I felt the same way. It will be interesting to see how long Jessica lasts if she's not partnered with Will. I hope he will be able to shine more with another partner. He is so incredible.
Katee is incredible as well. beautiful to watch, almost effortless
Great pun AndreB. :-)