Wednesday, July 14, 2010

SYTYCD7 - Unlucky Number 7

So You Think You Can Dance - Season 7 - Top 7 Performance Night - Ep. 714
Judges: Nigel Lythgoe, Mia Michaels, Adam Shankman

Last week Alex was forced out of the competition due to an injury, this week Ashley has been advised not to dance due to an injury, thus forcing her automatically into the bottom 3 this week and if she fails to dance again next week, will be automatically eliminated. At this point, the winner of Season 7 is going to be literally the last one standing. As in able to stand.

So while it's the Top 7, it's really just 6 this week. Another set back for Season 7.

(Wouldn't it have been awesome if this episode of the Top 7 of Season 7 actually aired last week on the 7th day of the 7th month? Yes I'm a nerd.)

Lauren Froderman with Mark Kanemura
Choreographed by: Tiana Liufau
Style: Tahitian
Song: "Jungle" - Last Voices
Grade - Dance: B+
Grade - Contestant: B+

Like Bollywood, it's hard to judge these kind of fun looking dances since we have no idea about the intricacies and subtleties in the techniques. So other than wiggling your butt enough, I'm not sure how else how to judge Lauren, but I could tell that Mark just looked so strong with those wiggly moves.

The costumes look fun though and Lauren looked good, though in my unprofessional eyes, it didn't look that hard to do either. (Not that I could wiggle my butt like that).

Here's the video of Lauren and Mark's Tahitian:




Adéchiké Torbert with Anya Garnis
Choreographed by: Liz Lira and Danny Davalos
Style: Salsa
Song: "Oyelo Que Te Conviene" - Eddie Palmieri
Grade - Dance: B+
Grade - Contestant: C+

It might have been the hardest Salsa ever on this show by new choreographers to the show, but I thought Anya held up most of the strength to get through the numerous tricks. There were moments where she literally looked like she was bending over backwards to make it work, while Adéchiké looked like he was struggling at parts.

The judges seemed to like it, but Mia almost seemed to be holding back her criticism for fear it would backfire again and get Adéchiké's fans running to the phone.

Here's the video of Adéchiké and Anya's Salsa:




Jose "Full Deck" Ruiz with Courtney Galiano
Choreographed by: Joey Dowling
Style: Broadway
Song: "Mister Ceollophane" - Chicago (Motion Picture)
Grade - Dance: D
Grade - Contestant: C-

They use Chicago a lot on this show don't they? I mean, I love the musical, but there are other shows you know. Though I forgot John C. Reilly did this song. Man I love him.

That said, I was terribly underwhelmed with the whole routine. I thought it was kind of boring and while cleverly built around Jose's technical strengths, it still lacked anything interesting. But I agree, Nigel mentions that the character Jose plays here is supposed to be forgettable and without his smile and bright personality, he is forgettable. Nigel wasn't even that impressed with Jose's moves. Adam and Mia thought his lack of training showed here, with a lack of finishing the moves and proper lines.

But damn, doesn't Courtney look hot in that outfit?

Here's the video of Jose and Courtney's Broadway:




Robert Roldan with Allison Holker
Choreographed by: Travis Wall
Style: Contemporary
Song: "Fix You" - Coldplay
Grade - Dance: A
Grade - Contestant: A

Everybody knows how much I LOVE Travis Wall so I was kind of scared this extremely personal piece about him and his mother would almost go into Tyce's Cancer Dance territory (which I absolutely hated).

It started out quite lovely, but it's when the beat got faster that it started giving shivers down my spine, and with the perfection of Allison dancing Travis' mother role, and the I-don't-know-why-he's-underrated-Robert dancing the part of Travis, I thought it was just simply astounding and took it beyond the usual contemporary fare.

Here's the video of Robert and Allison's Contemporary:




Billy Bell with Anya Garnis
Choreographed by: Louis van Amstel
Style: Jive
Song: "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" - Meatloaf
Grade - Dance: A-
Grade - Contestant: B+

It kinda reminded me of Benji Schwimmer meets Danny Zuko. I thought Billy did a pretty great job actually until I kept looking over to the superb Anya and then Billy looked off beat sometimes.

But if I didn't look at Anya, I thought he did a great job on the difficult jive and I thought he was great with Anya which the judges also kept pointing out. The judges actually liked it too. They had some technical quibbles but Nigel thought it was Billy's best work outside his genre.

Here's the video of Billy and Anya's Jive:




Kent Boyd with Neil Haskell
Choreographed by: Tyce di Orio
Style:
Song: "Shoeless Joe From Hannibal, MO" - Damn Yankees (Original 1994 Revival Broadway Cast Recording)
Grade - Dance: B+
Grade - Contestant: A-

Kent and Neil with balls and bats. There are too many double entendres to fit in here. It's too bad they're dancing a Tyce routine. A better Tyce routine than his norm, but still a full roster of cliche moves (with a lot of flips) but Neil made it look GREAT.

Kent danced it pretty fantastically too, but maybe because of his smaller stature next to Neil, he always looked like he was dancing to keep up with big brother Neil.

Still, putting these two blondes with big personalities together is just a dream come true.

(There! I avoided saying it was a home run or that they hit it out of the park!)

Here's the video of Kent and Neil's Broadway:




Lauren Froderman and Billy Bell
Choreographed by: Mandy Moore
Style: Jazz
Song: "Bookie Shoes" - KC & The Sunshine
Grade - Dance: A
Grade - Lauren: A
Grade - Billy: A-

Adorable shoe routine! Loved the glittery shoes. Loved the groovy beats. Loved the pairing and I thought Billy and Lauren were really cute together.

Lauren was just hitting it and Billy nicely followed suit. Billy sometimes was a teeny tiny bit TOO smooth in some moments but that's just the Billy Mia loves so much.

It's the first time I've truly LOVED Lauren.

Here's the video of Lauren and Billy's Jazz:




Jose "Full Deck" Ruiz with Dominic "D-Trix" Sandoval
Choreographed by: Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo (with Legacy helping)
Style: B-Boy
Song: "Battle for the Beat" - District 78
Grade - Dance: A-
Grade - Contestant: B+

LEGACY!!! Man I miss him. I thought he was the bomb!

The judges LOVED it. Mia thought he needed a bit more training and fine tuning generally but loved it.

Um, I wasn't drinking the same juice cause I thought Dominic totally outperformed Jose here. I thought Jose kept lagging behind and wasn't as sharp as D-Trix was. At one point I lost track of who was who but noted the purple was way better, which turned out to be Dominic.

Jose was good, I mean, it is his style (hmm... the only person to dance with an All-Star twice (on purpose) and in his own routine?) but I thought it was good, not great.

Here's the video of Jose and Dominic's B-Boy:




Adéchiké Torbert and
Kent Boyd
Choreographed by: Dee Caspary
Style: Contemporary
Song: "You Only Disappear" - Tom McRae
Grade - Dance: A
Grade - Adéchiké: A-
Grade - Kent: A

Adéchiké's best in a LONG time. LONG time. That said, I would say that Kent still pulled my eye a little more with slightly tighter lines and a bit more smoothness.

Still, I thought "White Chocolate" and um... duo worked really well (granted they were in their own styles).

Nigel says that Kent might win "now that Alex is out of the way". Ouch. True. But makes it sound demeaning.

Here's the video of Adéchiké and Kent:




Robert Roldan and Ashley Galvan with Kathryn McCormick
Choreographed by: Doriana Sanchez
Style: Disco
Song: "Instant Replay" - Dan Hartman
Grade - Dance: A-
Grade - Contestant: A-

Seriously, I yelped when I heard Kathryn's name. I LOVE HER. Why didn't she win last year?

And Kathryn and Robert work so well together. Granted, they still need to work on their lifts together, but considering what a last minute replacement this was, I can understand.

As for the rest, I thought Robert and Kathryn were F#$KEN GLITTER BALL DAZZLING and just so sharp and snazzy and I thought it was really fun.

Nigel loved it. Mia didn't love Robert was masculine enough there. Adam thought it was fun and he bought it.

Here's the video of Robert and Kathryn's Disco:



- - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Final Roundup:

The Dancers - Pairs Routine:
Best of the Night: Robert (with Allison)
2nd: Lauren and Billy
3rd: Adéchiké and Kent
4th: Kent (with Neil)
5th: Robert (with Kathryn)
6th: Billy (with Anya)
7th: Lauren (with Mark)
8th: Jose (with Dominic)
9th: Adéchiké (with Anya)
10th - Worst of the Night: Jose (with Courtney)

The Routines:
Best Routine of the Night: Travis Wall's Contemporary (Robert and Allison)
2nd Best Routine of the Night: Mandy Moore's Jazz (Lauren and Billy)
3rd Best Routine of the Night: Dee Caspary's Contemporary (Adéchiké and Kent)

The All-Stars:
All-Star MVP: Neil
All-Star MVP 2: Allison
All-Star MVP 3: Anya
All-Star MVP 4: Kathryn
All-Star MVP 5: Dominic


The Predictions:
Bottom Three: Billy, Adéchiké and Ashley who is automatically in already.

At this point, I just think it's obvious that Adéchiké and Jose just aren't close to the level of the others, but that could be dangerous that it's so obvious as their fans will know they need to vote for them like crazy to save them. So Billy and Robert are in danger because they aren't cute and blonde like Kent and Lauren who should remain safe.

Going Home Adéchiké

This is how I rank all the dancers overall (#position from last week in parenthesis):
Overall Ranking:

1. Robert (3)
2. Kent (2)
3. Billy (4)
4. Lauren (5)
5. Ashley (6)
6. Jose (7)
7. Adéchiké (8)

Sadly, this season will always have an astericks now that Alex is out. At least he's recovering well from his surgery. Let's hope he can still dance now.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -
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2 comments:

Rachel said...

I can't believe that Jose dancing b-boy with Dominic (instead of dancing with another contestant) was anything but judges/producer interference. If they'd pared him with another contestent in anything but his own style, it would have been obvious that he really can't dance well enough to be there. Sheesh!

I did really like Robert this week, and I haven't always, and Lauren has gotten so much better, and Billy was fantastic (which, his partner dances have not been all they could be, that's for sure). I think, though, given the level of screaming as various people are introduced, Kent is going to take the whole thing, with the teen girl vote.

Linz McC said...

Is it me or are the pairings/choreographers/styles SO set up right now? Jose and Dom doing b-boy? Kent & AdeChike doing contemporary.

I was worried like you were about the Travis dance although he has never really disappointed me before. But I agree, once the heavier guitar started in the song (which is my fave part of that song) I loved how they took off and started dancing on their own but it looked so so good together.

I don't like Doriana Sanchez. I could get rid of Doriana and Tyce for good and never miss them an instant. I'll agree that Tyce's routine was better than usual, but it may have just been that I like the dancers so much.