So You Think You Can Dance - Top 18 Performance and Results Night - Ep. 612
Judges: Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy, Adam Shankman
Okay, so last week I was a bit miffed at what transpired in the final moments of a so-so Top 20 night. Tonight, things got a lot better, no thanks to Tyce DiOrio, who continued his choreography of suckage.
Now that the Top 18 dancers are generally so evenly strong, any advantage they have can help, including dancing in their styles, their partners, and the choreography they're given and in essence, the choreographer they must work with. As seasons past has taught us, great choreography by some of the best can make certain routines stand out amongst the rest, bringing along the dancers to infamy with them. Now, it still requires great dancers to pull it off, but now that everyone is great, a BAD choreographer can ruin a dancers chance.
So then, WHY IS TYCE STILL ALLOWED TO CHOREOGRAPH? Why is he not outlawed yet? (It's like a bad joke that Mia is gone yet Tyce is here to stay AND an Emmy winner). Anyways, I'll continue the rant after I comment on the Top 18 routines.
Noelle Marsh
&
Russell Ferguson
Style: Hip-Hop
Choreographed by: Jamal Sims
Song: "Move Shake Drop Remix" - DJ Laz, Flo Rida and Casley
Grade: B+
It was a really fun routine that sort of storylined a Hip-Hop routine with its tennis vignette. I kinda dug it, and though Russell was fantastic and put the power into his swing.
Noelle, who sat out last week due to health reasons, finally gets to show her stuff (despite a huge backlash that she should have automatically been eliminated last week, especially in the wake of the little slack Brandon was given by the judges) and she's... not bad. I mean, I didn't really think she could pull off Hip-Hop well, especially beside Russell, but while she's no Russell, she did a fine job lobbying her swagger and I thought she was imperfect, but enthused.
Here's the video of Noelle and Russell's Hip-Hop:
Now that the Top 18 dancers are generally so evenly strong, any advantage they have can help, including dancing in their styles, their partners, and the choreography they're given and in essence, the choreographer they must work with. As seasons past has taught us, great choreography by some of the best can make certain routines stand out amongst the rest, bringing along the dancers to infamy with them. Now, it still requires great dancers to pull it off, but now that everyone is great, a BAD choreographer can ruin a dancers chance.
Noelle Marsh
Noelle, who sat out last week due to health reasons, finally gets to show her stuff (despite a huge backlash that she should have automatically been eliminated last week, especially in the wake of the little slack Brandon was given by the judges) and she's... not bad. I mean, I didn't really think she could pull off Hip-Hop well, especially beside Russell, but while she's no Russell, she did a fine job lobbying her swagger and I thought she was imperfect, but enthused.
5 comments:
I totally agree. Channing was awful. The only thing I disagree with is that I hated Noelle's solo... I thought it was SO generic and boring. Just a bunch of tricks and not much to it.
I am so sad to see Bianca go! I've been a fan of hers since she first auditioned a few seasons ago, although I didn't think she was that great tonight (but it was probably the choreo... it was awful). Phillip was kind of annoying, so I'm glad he's gone. I love Peter, so I hope he goes far.
Great recap as usual, and I totally agree about Tyce. He'll have one out of ten routines that is good, but those other nine will make me wonder why they feature him so much. I do think that Victor and Bianca didn't perform well--they looked as if they were dancing two separate routines, their styles were so far apart, and I thought he was at least as bad as she was. I think they put Noelle in the B4 instead of Channing so she could have a chance to prove herself to all the viewers who thought she should have been cut without dancing, but she did one of those frantic contemp thrashy solos, so I don't think she'll be here much longer.
I agree with your rankings--Legacy and Kathryn had the goosebumps routine for me.
I've already vomited all my thoughts on this episode into my TWoP recap, but I just wanted to say: TOTALLY agree with you on Tyce; prime example of a terrible routine sandbagging two good dancers. And I quite liked Bianca's solo (TOOTSIE ROLL! Hello homecoming dance flashbacks!), so I was doubly crushed to see her go.
I will say, I'm slightly more sympathetic to Channing because I did think she was much, much better than Phillip tonight, even if that didn't equate to much since he was awful. Would rather have lost Channing than Bianca, but if it were up to me, I'd have had to let Noelle go.
Loved Victor and Kathryn the best, yes. But more for them than the Tookey, who was pretty blatantly ripping off Mia's addiction routine there.
1. I love Wade's routines to pieces - he takes awkward, ugly movements, and works them in a way that is fascinating and totally watchable. Also, he's one of the few choreographers on this show that doesn't always make the female dancers do sexy, flirty, blah blah thank pete.
2. I've noticed over the last few years that there are far, far fewer of the somewhat disasterous "never seen this style before and I can't do lifts" routines - I think everyone knows by now that you only go places if you're versatile, so the brilliant one-note dancers don't make it to the stage.
Totally agree with you that it was nice to see Adam critiquing the choreographers as well as the dancers, because this really is a choreography competition as much as it is a dance comp. If horrible choreography sends great dancers home, they should be called out for it. So in addition to Legacy being my fav so far, I also think Adam is my favorite judge so far. He better watch out for Paula though! just kidding just kidding(Kristen Wiig)
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