SYTYCDA Bloggin’

Your guest judges are Mia (with buzzcut) and Dan (with no buzzcut).

Guys: musical theatre. Melissa Williams delivers a straightforward, fairly simple routine that was perfectly decent. In order of weakest to strongest: Cody, Emanuel, Everett, Vincent. Everett’s fancy trick was better than Vincent’s fancy trick, but Vincent’s overall dancing was better. Emanuel was not feeling this compared to the other routines he’s done, especially considering he works best with a character.

Tara-Jean and Vincent: rumba and krump.. Ugh, “Hero.” I hate this song. The choreographer looks like George Strombolopoulos. Tara-Jean and Vincent’s lifts are gorgeous (and some of them were spectacularly original, particularly that last one with Vincent lying down), but her form during the apart portions of the dance was somewhat lacking. But overall this was a good dance.

The krump was bleh. Tara-Jean was actually pretty good, although not on par with Melanie’s previous krump earlier in the season (probably the best single krump performance in SYTYCD history, for my money). But she hit her moves hard and I was impressed. Vincent was just soft, and the judges gave him very forgiving and nice comments for what was a weak performance, probably because krump is the real kiss of death.

Tara-Jean’s solo: Standard contemporary solo #16.
Vincent’s solo: If he makes top four it’s not gonna be because of his solos I tell you what.

Kim and Cody: hip-hop and smooth waltz. May I just say that I love that this show tries to do old-school hip-hop every so often? The US show seemingly gave up on old-school after that “Push It” routine failed in season three. Anyway, this was dead-on and managed to be old-school without coming across as corny or lame. The judges talked up Cody especially, but Kim, I think, was even better than he was.

The smooth waltz was horrendous. Cody’s rise and fall was terrible – terrible. Kim’s form was pretty bad too. (Also, what an ugly goddamn dress.) The two of them had precisely zero chemistry in this. Pierre Allaire was specifically spared by the judges and didn’t deserve the mercy; the routine was awkward and cheesy and didn’t flow well at all, and at this point he is zero-for-whatever for me because I can’t think of a single routine of his that I’ve liked thus far.

Kim’s solo: A bit frenetic for my tastes but not bad by any means.
Cody’s solo: Probably his weakest so far, with all of his bad tics and feeling fairly repetitive.

Melanie and Emanuel: contemporary and disco. OH BOY ANOTHER CONTEMPORARY ROUTINE ABOUT LOVE GOING WRONG WHERE ONE DANCER WALKS AWAY AT THE END. Well, that quibble aside, the contemporary routine was quite strong; not my favorite contemp of the season, not even close. Melanie was, as always, a goddamned beast. Dan particularly nailed it when he said that Emanuel wasn’t really in tune with the piece; it’s a shame because Emanuel’s gayness was never an issue with Kim and I really felt he doesn’t bring the same chemistry to Melanie that he does with Kim.

The disco was not my favorite thing. Melissa Williams’ disco makes me cry inside: after she talks about how fast it is, it’s always got these awkward pauses. The chemistry here wasn’t missing, but it felt a little bit forced. Emanuel in particular seemed to struggle with the footwork.

Melanie’s solo: Much stronger than she’s previously delivered in competition and reminded me why I liked her right off the bat.
Emanuel’s solo: Oh, so he has a sprained ankle? That explains a few things. But this was a better solo than last week’s trickfest.

Jayme-Rae and Everett: mambo and jazz/funk. Gustavo Vargas continues to demonstrate why he’s the best ballroom choreographer on the Canadian show. Jayme-Rae was spinning so fast that her outfit fell apart, hee – but her performance quality was just insane. Absolutely perfect on all the little things and the big things were very, very big. Everett was there and did not detract from Jayme-Rae’s performance and led her capably and there isn’t much else to say about him: this was Jayme-Rae’s routine, period.

Hey, Nico’s choreographing! And the girls all scream for him because he is Nico. This was a sexy routine and Everett, in particular, stepped forward to really embody his character. That having been said, both dancers had some crazy-ass tricks to work on in this one (that upside-down splits was INSANE) and they nailed every single one of them. “Jazz/funk” is just code for “dirty Canadians,” I am pretty sure.

Jayme Rae’s solo: A lyrical hip-hop piece, emphasis on the lyrical, Quite strong.
Everett’s solo: Bizarre: speedy stunt tapping to “Stand By Me” that was barely in sync with the music and felt completely wrong.

The girls: jazz. Oh boy another all girl routine where they get to be sultry and sexy and show their asses off. Bleh. I want asskicking from the girls, dammit. I mean, don’t get me wrong, they did it just about perfectly. But still. I expect more.

Should go home: Kim and Cody.
Will go home: Melanie and Cody.