It’s the second week of the live show, and I’m still unsure of what’s going on with this new format, not gonna lie. So we got rid of two people this week, and at this rate, how many live shows will we have? Like, two more? Are we almost to the finals? I miss the good old days of the Top 20. I know there are probably financial and logistical reasons for this shift, but I would give up, like, ALL of the audition episodes if we could just get more of these live shows. I just don’t get it.
Anyhow, on with the show. Obviously, there will be spoilers about who left the show after the cut.
I know I said I wasn't going to talk much about the group numbers on this show because they're hardly ever remarkable; however, this week the opening number was especially (remarkably) dumb. Let's break down why...
This number was choreographed by Luther Brown to a Gwen Stefani song called "Yummy." I don't know where I've been, but I've never heard this song before and it was awful. I guess this was supposed to be hip hop, but mostly it was just people walking around the stage in a semi-squat and doing weird things with their arms.
Sometimes having a lot of people onstage all at once can mask a boring routine because there's something impressive about a lot of people doing the same thing all at once. This is one of the many reasons I hate the group routines. Imagine if this was a two-person routine rather than a group routine. Very little of what was happening on that stage was remarkable or memorable.
So the music was bad. The choreography was uninspiring. How about those costumes and that set? I'm not sure what they're supposed to be. Sexy Victorian dolls? And if that's the case, how does that fit with the song or the backdrop, which appears to be a candy shop of some sort? Honestly, do Sexy Victorian dolls go with anything? I wasn't into this. AT ALL.
My actual response to this routine
Most of the routines tonight were really great. Some of my favorite types of choreography were featured. For instance, Magda and Darius did a great Bollywood routine, choreographed by the wonderful Nakul Dev Mahajan. Magda and Darius were my favorite couple this week, and their second dance of the night, which was a jazz number (one of my other favorite styles) choreographed by Mandy Moore, was my FAVORITE dance of the night.
I could really go on about how most of these routines were great. The pool is really talented the season, which is one of the reasons I'm so sad we had to lose two this week.
However, of course there were some dances I wasn't too high on. Let's talk about Hannahlei and Cole (pictured in the featured image at the top of this post). I mentioned last week that Cole is my favorite of the season. He's still one of my favorites, and I want to like Hannahlei too, but I'm really confused about the judges' response to this couple. In their disco routine (choreographed by Doriana Sanchez), Hannahlei missed her mark a few times, and yet Cole got all of the negative criticism from the judges. Nevertheless, disco is always really impressive to me, and I still enjoyed this routine.
What I did not enjoy? Hannahlei and Cole's step routine. You know how I said last week that I don't think tap dancing translates well into the format of this show? Well, stepping has the same problems, only multiplied. The other problem is that I don't feel like step is really supposed to be a two-person dance. It's more impressive when it's done with a group of people. The only impressive things in this routine were the bits that had nothing to do with step. Also both of these dancers got off beat multiple times... of course, the judges only called out Cole. Because they are insane.
Lastly, Chelsea and Evan (pictured above) went home this week, and Nigel straight up acknowledged that it was because of their tap routine last week. I know they tried to blame Chelsea for not being a good tap dancer, but really I blame this show for trying to make tap happen. The people who vote for So You Think You Can Dance are not voting for tap. Ever.
Chelsea and Evan being in the bottom was not a surprise to me. What was a surprise? Magda and Cole were also in the bottom. What is wrong with you people? Both Magda and Cole are insanely good, and last week I gave them the highest honors of being my favorite guy and favorite girl of the week. What is wrong with this picture?
How did Magda end up in the bottom after this amazing violin routine last week? I blame the youths!
Surprisingly, I don't have a whole lot of complaints about individual judges' comments this week. Nigel made one comment about not being able to BELIEVE Slavik was a hip hop dancer because he dances so well in other formats. So... Nigel's bias against hip hop as a legitimate dance form is still alive and well. Nigel Racism Count for the live shows so far: 2.
See you guys next week when the judges will likely eliminate the entire cast and just have Travis Wall choreographing dances for All-Stars for the rest of the season! You heard it here first.