Your guest judge is Tasty Oreo, who is amusingly bewildered when Jason Coleman leads the crowd in a round of “Aussie Aussie Aussie/Oi Oi Oi,” which is not coincidentally also the cheer for Osgoode Hall law school students. (We stole it, of course.)
Top four: Broadway. And of course we start off with a Tasty Oreo Broadway, because that is what Tasty does and this is a final competition episode don’t you know. This was perfectly fine and decent and not nearly so cliched as a lot of Tasty’s routines can be. That is all.
Ivy and Robbie: rumba. It’s odd because I liked this, but on the other hand, throughout the whole routine as I was watching it and enjoying it, I kept thinking how un-Latin Robbie’s dancing was, and I think I peg that more on the choreo – which was really reminiscent a lot more of a smooth waltz with some ballet overtones than a rumba – than on Robbie, because really it was seamless. But a lot less Latin. Ivy’s flourishes were lovely, but Tasty makes a very good point noting the lack of resistance in the movements. So this was good, but not quite a proper rumba, to say the least.
Jessie and Philippe: jazz. Philippe is one of the best forklifts I’ve ever seen: he’s just seamless in his lifts, utterly without flaw. I liked this routine but I thought the choreo got just a bit frenetic in a few points, and the first unison section did suffer just a bit with a couple of very small missteps. Still, on the whole this was very good and I have little else to say.
Philippe and Robbie: hip-hop. GRATITUOUS SHIRT REMOVAL FOR ALL THE LADIES! This was probably the best two-man hip-hop routine out of all the SYTYCDs ever – even better than Benji/Travis from season 2. The judges were all over Robbie, but honestly, I think Philippe danced this better: it wasn’t that Robbie was bad – he was probably just about at his best all season and his improvement continues apace – but Philippe was just so completely confident that he didn’t need to up the intensity because he was able to dance the routine with pure cool.
Jessie and Robbie: contemporary. And it’s the Avatar-themed routine that the Twitters were telling me about in advance. Robbie makes me sad by saying how Avatar is his favourite movie of all time. This was… okay. Kind of bland, to be honest, and given that the choreography was obviously very difficult in its physicality that doesn’t really say too much for what was being done with it. Good unison, but I felt at points that both Jessie and Robbie were letting their exhaustion show. I wanted to like this and I didn’t.
Ivy and Philippe: contemporary. A lovely little number that three weeks ago would have been remarkable and at this point is just sort of in the middle. (It doesn’t help that this season has been really, really heavy on contemporary and jazz: there’s a reason you want to mix genres, it keeps them from getting stale.) Absolutely nothing else to say about this.
Ivy and Jessie: jazz. I will first express appreciation for the lack of a “hey look at the girls they are so pretty” contemporary routine where the two girls do a dance about feelings or rainbows. This was rough and dirty and brutal (good brutal) and a lot of fun. I thought Jessie danced this a hair better than Ivy did, relying more on her moves than facial expressions where Ivy occasionally did the opposite (Ivy unfortunately does have a tendency to be a bit of a ham). But it was a very slim difference and this was very good.
Philippe’s solo: Smooth and cool. The cane was perhaps a bit awkward for a few bars, but that is a minor complaint for a solo that was really very good.
Ivy’s solo: Unfortunately boring and sort of predictable. Dancing to “Missionary Man” by the Eurythmics should especially not be boring, and yet this was.
Jessie’s solo: A very good contemporary solo without anything that especially distinguished it from most other contemporary solos.
Robbie’s solo: Skillful controlled thrashing combined with solid technique: a strong piece of work.
Top four should be: 1.) Robbie 2.) Jessie 3.) Philippe 4.) Ivy
Top four will be: 1.) Robbie 2.) Philippe 3.) Jessie 4.) Ivy
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That should’ve been so much hotter than it was.
I disapprove of this manner of hiatus-breaking.
I was really surprised by how underwhelming this performance show was as a whole. There were flashes of good, but nothing wowed me. I’m also struck by how in each of the video blogs from this last week that I managed to see (all except Robbie), the things they’re all most looking forward to are sleeping and eating. I know the judges are always going on about “life of a dancer” and such, and every season I’ve seen from any country has left the Top 4 practically flat on the floor from exhaustion, but that refrain feels like it should be an indication of SOMETHING.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to the grand final. Particularly the opening group number. Given seasons 1 and 2, I can’t wait to see if they manage to top themselves again.
i actually agree with eli that this pre-grand final performance was a bit underwhelming, but i am also aware some of my view was associated with the use of the avatar theme / music and celine dion – both of which i have no time for (though i’ve definitely heard enough celine dion, but have not seen avatar, thank goodness). i built walls when these factors infringed on the wonderful routines they performed.
from very early on i was a massive fan of robbie & ivy, and my second favourite pairing was phillipe and renee. i was disappointed when renee was eliminated, but jessie has definitely grown on me, especially as she reminds me of my favourite self-portraitist, katie west (coincidentally a canadian like yourself).
so, essentially, at this point, i’d be glad with whoever wins, but i think growth-wise, robbie & phillipe take the cake, and i think all of them have been consistently strong.
i agree phillipe’s performance in the duo with robbie is perfectly understated, but i love how robbie stands alongside him with a much more androgynous physique, but still manages to “measure up” without any real sense of irony. i actually find it funny the big deal made out of robbie’s height given that when you look at him and phillipe together and subtract phillipe’s hair, they’re not that far different. it’s more about build than height, and robbie has shown he’s able to rise to the challenge of lifting girls who are heavier than he is.
as for the gratuitous shirt removal, it fit with the lyrics, but yes, it was gratuitous… but it wasn’t just the ladies enjoying this: gay boys, including one of my friends tweeting during the airing, approved wholeheartedly 😛
i never vote on the series, but i have a massive soft spot for ivy, so my preferred outcome would be robbie, phillipe, ivy and then jessie. nothing personal against jessie, but yes, i have a “connection” with the others developed early on, and i definitely feel robbie and phillipe have outshone what anyone actually expected from either of them.
I stand by my statement. Skilled almost naked girls in fetishwear dancing should be HAWT. These two fail at that.
I’m really glad to hear that other people though Philippe did a better job of the boys Hip Hop routine than Robbie. I know the shirt removal was a bit gratuitous… but it did kind of fit with the song and I actually think that stripped down you can see that Philippe is hitting each move perfectly.
I too was a bit blah over the whole night. Nothing felt risky – everything just was kind of good.
I dislike the Avatar rip off. You can be inspired by something but you don’t need to use the soundtrack, story AND costume. Shame because the dancing was lovely.
Ivy seemed a bit flat for the whole night. She snaps in and out of “fierce face” in the girls duo and her toga (what’s with the costume here?) dance with Robbie kind of put me to sleep. Or maybe it was the boring music.
I think Jessie will win, and after that show I think she deserves it. Robbie will come second in my opinion.
you guys sound incredibly uneducated as far as dance is concerned..
the Avatar dance (chorey by Jacqui Howard) was amazing…
you said they started to show their exhaustion??.. i want to see anyone of you attempt the schedule that these dancers are on..
the Avatar routine was a pop culture-lyrical contemporary so yes, the music and costumes where appropriate.. further more..
unless you can do better than these athletes week after week then shut ur mouth.. and dont release stupid blogs about stuff u dont understand..
also…. the avatar song is called “i see you” and its by Leona Lewis…
not Celine Dion…
In the first place, the choreography managed the rare combination of being both obviously difficult and artistically uninspired. It was just profoundly literal, which doesn’t make it “appropriate” – it was just kind of uninteresting. If you liked it, good for you; welcome to the wonderful world of differing opinion.
Secondly, I don’t think anybody denies that by the end of any SYTYCD season the dancers are exhausted – I mean, consider Twitch and Joshua in the fourth American season, who were sucking fumes so heavily that they were actively blowing major stunts. The yardstick isn’t “don’t be exhausted,” because that’s impossible; it’s “hide your exhaustion as much as possible.” Robbie and Jessie didn’t quite succeed during the Avatar routine, which was likely because it was so clearly physically difficult.
If you don’t mind me asking, how come there hasn’t been a SYTYCD finale post? Was kinda looking forward to one, haha. Oh well.