Man, the final four episode was a bit of a letdown after a largely superlative season, wasn’t it?
All four: jazz. Fun way to kick off the show, I guess, but four-person routines in these shows never really gel for me the way two-person routines or larger group routines do. I have no complaints per se; it just wasn’t a big wow factor performance for me. (Also, Leah Miller won a Gemini, which just goes to show they are given out at random.)
Natalli and Nico: salsa. Very complex, but I’m really getting into Gustavo Vargas’ routines because they flow really well. Nico and Natalli did this… well enough, I guess. Given the complexity of the tricks (which was very, very high indeed) it was impressive that they managed to pull it off so nicely, but the first half of the routine – you could see the strings showing, is what I’m saying. But the second half was much smoother and certain as they realized they were pulling off the tricks, so this was good.
Allie’s solo: As good as always, and Allie’s solos are always that much more impressive than most because she does so much of them en pointe. She’s still a very young dancer by any stretch (both in age and in what she brings to her dancing), but her potential is just incredibly vast. She’s not the best dancer on the show right now (Nico, Vincent and Lisa were all better, maybe Arrassay as well), but in ten years…?
Miles’ solo: Surprisingly underwhelming given how relatively subtle it was for him; technically very sound but lacking the nice “holy shit” moment a really fantastic popping routine needs. Miles doesn’t deserve to win this show, honestly – he’s not nearly in the others’ league – but he’s very, very good for someone as untrained as he is, and his work ethic is obviously off-the-charts. I didn’t expect him to do as well as he has.
Natalli and Miles: hip-hop. Oh, poor Miles – after an entire season of being solid in just about anything thrown at him, he collapses in his own specialty by forgetting the steps. This wasn’t even “hide it well” forgetting the steps, like that time Natalli did with her krump routine. This was obvious, blatant blanking which even threw Natalli off her game (despite the compliments thrown at her).
Allie and Nico: contemporary. Magnificent work. Nothing more to be said. Absolutely fantastic.
Natalli’s solo: Okayish, but nothing that really blew me away, and that’s mostly a sum-up of how I feel about Natalli generally. She’s passionate and charismatic – and that’s great, don’t get me wrong – but she frequently has timing issues and her performance quality depends a lot on how good her partner is. I honestly would have preferred to see Lisa in the top four over her, but, hey – sometimes judges have their favorites.
Nico’s solo: The usual melding of contemporary with testosterone that we’ve come to expect from Nico, who is going to win the show and anybody thinking otherwise should be interested in this bridge I’m going to sell them. Nico deserves to win, too – he’s been consistently better than just about every other male dancer on the show (with the possible exception of Vincent, but Vincent muffed at least one routine – his Latin dance with Lisa – and Nico just keeps nailing everything) and he bothers to entertain.
Allie and Miles: theatre. This bored the shit out of me, even moreso than most theatre/Broadway/whatever routines. There was nothing technically wrong with it; it was just a boring routine (standard choreographer blowjob aside) and they didn’t bring the kitchen sink with them.
Natalli and Allie: go-go. I see the same-gender-partner dances have officially become the province of “let’s see what weird-ass style we can pull out of the hat this year.” Seriously, go-go? It’s barely a dance style; it’s an excuse for titties bouncing and little more. This got the worst case of Not The Choreographer’s Fault (hereafter and forever dubbed NCF) ever, because this was a shitty, shitty, shitty routine – boring and trite. But we can’t blame the choreographers! Blame the dancers! Even though they did a reasonable job with the crap material they were handed.
Miles and Nico: capoeira. Now this was the other side of “let’s see what we pull out of our ass” – a clever and inspired original choice for a show like this that worked just about perfectly. For two guys with no experience in the form or necessarily even any martial arts training, this was exceptional.
Final order should be: Nico, Allie, Natalli, Miles.
Final order will be: Nico, Allie, Miles, Natalli.
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Again, what amazes ME is how even as they’re rummaging around in that particular same-gender routine hat, they consistently manage to come up with incredibly more interesting stuff for the guys than they do for the girls. And this after I quite rightly called the go-go routine, lame as it was, as still beter than anything the US ever gave two chicks to do together (aside from Wade Robson’s “foxes” routine). Is the idea of giving two women something aggressive, emotional or even genuinely rather than parodically sexual to do just considered a no-no on national TV? Are there censorship rules about this I was hitherto unaware of…ie, “sorry, guys, but it’s Pussycat Dolls/Girlicious-style nonsense, or nothing”? Can they simply not afford to rent a suitably pissed-off-sounding Pink song to choreograph to, or what?