My head is spinning with flora and fauna of the Bible, habitats of animals and which ones the Israelites could eat and how they might kill or trap them and where to find water and which wild plants can provide food or shelter or protection. So I’m happily putting 1,000 BCE to rest for the night to revel in some great dancing. There will be tons of dancing! Each contestant is dancing three times: one solo, once with a fellow contestant, and once with an all star. AND Christina Applegate is the guest judge. I love the stuff she says, it’s always very real and demonstrates that she actually knows stuff about dance.
Group number: I hate the strobe light effect with a burning passion. I can’t see the dancers because my main desire is to protect my eyes. They really should stop it. That said, they put Chehon and Eliana in the front and I didn’t want to watch anyone else.
Tiffany and Benji (season 2 winner, the first season I watched the whole thing, I loved him!), swing:
This is the first number of hers that I’ve loved! The choreographer let her be cute and energetic and that was perfection. And how amazing was is to see Benji dance again! The energy of this number was out of this world and relenting and they never let up. It was awesome. I wish I could’ve seen it live.
Witney solo: she’s doing a paso doble by herself, a lot of posing and walking. Meh.
Cole and Melanie (Sonya Tayeh jazz): nice, they’re not going to make Cole do another version of creepy
It was very good, but Melanie doesn’t really do vulnerable, which made it not quite connect for me. It was interesting that Melanie did so much lifting of Cole, which played to Melanie’s strengths. Cole was really good, but I wouldn’t have gotten the emotional content if they hadn’t talked about what it was supposed to be about.
Chehon solo: I always love them. I even watched his mother’s message to/about him clip passage, just to hear her Swiss accent. (I’m fast-forwarding everyone else’s parental message.)
Eliana and Twitch (I am crazy excited about this. Maybe it’ll match the Twitch/Alex Wong number), Christopher Scott hip hop:
This made me smile the whole time. I love it when Christopher Scott does a number to a Motown song. Although the Sasha Twitch song last year had more impact, this was great. Maybe a little cutesy. Not so much wow dancing. But entertaining.
Tiffany solo: Very good, but I don’t connect with it.
Chehon and Katherine, Tyce doing a serious, emotional number:
Tyce’s choreography can be a little obvious (which is fine for me to do, but I think a pro should be better), but this was marvelous. Chehon’s face was so heartbreaking at times. When he bent double and she stood up on his back, it was so moving. And Chehon didn’t dance super pretty, super lifted like all his training would have him do. When they passed the suitcase to each other, it was gorgeous and sad. The contrast between throwing themselves around and the moments when they stopped was deep. Chehon is becoming what he wanted to when he tried out for the show. Masterful, indeed.
Cole solo: (Okay, I watched a bit of his Mom package because she didn’t have the usual body language; she was great.) Compelling. I didn’t want it to end. He was clearly about to turn into a werewolf. I love it when someone does constant, fast movement to a slow song. This was a perfect example of what he does and I really wanted it to be a whole dance, not just a blip of a solo. Except I could’ve done without the skirt.
Witney and Marco (who I don’t remember at all, now I do, he shaved all his hair off, he was 3rd last season):
Very good. She really knows how to connect to a partner, which is why I think they kept her last week. She was fluid when she needed to be, sharp when she needed to be. I believed the story they were telling. We could tell that she doesn’t have the solo kicks and jumps other girls do, but she was still good.
Christina Applegate is f-ing brilliant. YES, there’s too much hairography on this show — too much hair flipping and in the face and we can’t see half of the performance.
Eliana solo: she was killer on pointe last week, this week merely extremely good.
Cyrus and Comfort, a dub step routine:
That made me want to swear repeatedly. Both Michael and I laughed. We sat with our mouths open. It was sick. It was fast, precise, angular, mathematical, amazing. Dayum! [Christopher Scott should do one routine when he choreographs for the show, because he always done one incredible routine and one that’s just fine.]
Witney and Chehon, cha cha (I admit that I’m nervous, he didn’t do so good with the hip movement in his first Latin dance):
Better than I thought, but I think he does better with women who are a little more mature. I’m a little mad that they gave him another big hip dance so close to the finale — it makes me nervous for next week. But I love Christina Applegate’s commentary.
Cyrus solo: He timed it perfectly. It was a completely number, but I wanted to see more. Love it when people do hip hop to orchestral music. This had emotional content. So great and strong.
Eliana and Cole, Mia Michaels contemporary:
Incredible up until the fake scream at the end. Another fast movement to slow music. Loved this. They were astounding. They matched each other and fought each other completely. Some incredible moments.
Cyrus and Tiffany, Spencer Liff Broadway:
They gave her another dance in which she had to be a young teenager, which she is, and again, she was fantastic. Cyrus was full of personality, as usual, and didn’t highlight his weaknesses. It was fun, they related to each other exactly as they were supposed to. Great routine.
Guest dancers. Way cool duet from the Access Dance Company, one able-bodied dancer, one in a wheelchair. They’ve been on the show before. This number was fascinating, the acrobatic use of the wheelchair and mirroring walking and being in a chair from both of them was stunning.
Who’s going to the finale?
Tiffany and Eliana. After this week, I’m a lot more excited about Tiffany.
Chehon and Cyrus. Inside my head, I’m screaming, YES YES YES YES. I will get to see Chehon and Eliana dance together. If it isn’t epic, I’m going to be mad.
But now I’m confused. Is the voting for the finale based on voting this week? Must be. Weird. That somehow doesn’t feel right. The rest of the season, it’s been odd, but for the very end, it doesn’t seem at all fair.