Your judges are the usual four.
Amanda and Denys: salsa. A pretty strong routine from Gustavo MOTHERFUCKING Vargas, but he goes for the triple leg lift and Denys blows it a bit. Pity; that’s a really difficult move (and one that I don’t think blends well into a routine generally; it’s just too stunty) and it was a icky ending to an otherwise stellar bit of salsa, complete with an absolutely brilliant stunt at the beginning (a giant lift which then had Denys doing his salsa basic while lifting Amanda, which – kudos, CTV camera team, for deciding to not film that, once again demonstrating why Canadian TV is Canadian TV).
Jeff’s solo: He goes Ukrainian again, but this time with slightly more dramatic costume (pants, boots, no shirt, very King and I) and works in a bunch of his contemporary acrobatic tricks. Best solo he’s done all season.
Janick and Denys: contemporary. WIND MACHINE! I liked the choreo’s first two-thirds and then it devolved into a lot of running around, which is a shame because there were some really neat bits in it up until that point – Nico and Wynn have done better. Janick and Denys danced this quite well and I have no complaints on that front. Also, WIND MACHINE. I mention it twice because it was cheesy AND kind of awesome.
Amanda’s solo: Felt like an end-of-the-season solo: this looked really tired, and sloppy. Falling out of that pirouette was especially not so much with the thereness.
Janick and Jeff: jazz/fusion. You know, I’ve been waiting all season for a season-defining routine and it finally showed up tonight. This… thingy from CHEESEMAN~! was spectacular: weird and well-conceived (I mean, dressing up the dancers as King and Queen – or Queen and prince-consort, whatever) and danced absolutely perfectly. Simply a brilliant bit of work here.
Denys’ solo: Exactly as strong as you would expect.
Amanda and Jeff: contemporary. And we get our Very Serious Routine of the night about domestic violence, which I felt was very meh; it didn’t feel sufficiently violent or malevolent to me, not in the movements for the most part (other than Jeff grabbing Amanda’s wrist right at the beginning). Very good acting, certainly, and the dancing was exactly as strong as you would expect, but… not convincing for me as a piece. YMMV.
Janick’s solo: A decent hip-hop/contemporary blend as per usual with good performance quality.
Top four: contemporary. Wait, what? No same-sex partner dances? An entire final show without a single hip-hop number and only one ballroom routine? Janick and Jeff didn’t even have to dance out-of-genre all night when dancing three times, for crissake. Fuck you, show. No, really. Fuck you; this isn’t even a time thing forced on you by CTV because in previous years you’ve always managed to cram in six partner dances plus four solos in one hour. I’m not even reviewing this because it’s a group number and I just can’t be bothered to care. Whatever.
Final order should be: 1.) Denys 2.) Jeff 3.) Janick 4.) Amanda
Final order will be: 1.) Denys 2.) Janick 3.) Jeff 4.) Amanda
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I too was surprise yet unsurprised that they just decided to skip the same-sex challenge entirely, especially after SYTYCD U.S. managed to make it through all season with several guy-on-guy routines yet only one chick-on-chick, which STILL sucked by comparison.