Dance Your Ass Off! Top 20, Part One

It’s the first episode in which competition comes into play and I’m excited!  Go team! 

The opening number is a dystopian office-worker piece choreographed by Christopher Scott. I usually like his group numbers and this one is no exception.  It’s sharp and slightly sinister, with some fancy dancing with desks and chairs.  Naturally people will call it an homage to “Mad Men” with the vaguely 60s costumes but I think it’s a take on oppressive working environments in general, not a love letter to “Mad Men.”  Note to the TV viewing world: not everything is about Mad Men!  Yes, it’s a quality show but can we please stop giving it a constant blowjob?  Thank you.

Happy birthday to Nigel, Kenny Ortega is the guest judge, Mary is wearing something shiny… let’s get dancin’. 

Witney and Chehon are first up with a samba by Louis Van Amstel.  Yay! I love Louis – he’s tough but fair.  Anywho – they are both gorgeous creatures but I can’t take my eyes off Witney. Yes, she’s in her wheelhouse but she also has buckets of stage presence.  Chehon seems to labor a bit.  As a former ballet dancer I sympathize with his struggle to relax his hips and add wiggle.  Which is pretty much what Nigel tells him – that he needs to relax into the routines more.  Mary picks on Chehon’s footwork but puts Witney on the Hot Tamale Train (complete with irritating scream), and Kenny Ortega thinks Witney is hotter than Marilyn Monroe.  Well, she’s certainly a better dancer.

Tiffany and George are next with a Sonya jazz routine.  After watching every episode this season and paying close attention during Vegas week I STILL don’t know who these two are.  They just disappear for me.  Perhaps that will change tonight. 

Not really. 

It’s a much more tender routine than we’re used to from Sonya and while G and T do a lovely job with it I’m left feeling… meh.  Also disturbing is that Tiffany reminds me of Pebbles from The Flintstones – surely not what the costume/makeup department wanted me to take away from the piece.  They are very skilled dancers but are they special?  Do they stand out?  As an actor myself I HATE asking these questions because they’re brutal ones that get asked about every performer in the context of some show/audition/etc.  But the cruel truth is that talent only goes so far and then that ineffable quality of stage presence comes into consideration.  Kenny praises their generosity with each other (I agree) and Nigel compliments the vulnerability displayed.  Again, agreed.  But the jury is still out for me on these two. 

Then: Janaya/Brandon doing hip-hop choreographed by Tabitha/Napoleon.  Tabitha is super preggers.  The gist behind this piece is that Brandon has to choose between THE DRINK and LOVE.  It’s perfectly fine and perfectly boring.  Nigel wants Janaya to work from lower in her core when doing hip hop (which is an excellent point), Mary wants Janaya to have more grit and Brandon is told “Hey, your name is Brandon.” 

Alexa and Daniel are performing a jazz routine by Sean Cheesman.  SC is not one of my favorite choreogs so I’m already worried.  My concern increases exponentially when I see how these two are costumed.  Dressed all in red – Daniel looks like the Devil going out for cocktails and poor Alexa has been put in red spandex pants.  Not only that, they spend the beginning and end of the routine dancing their way in and out of some scaffolding.  There is very little chance for them to connect with each other.  It’s… dull, as far as I’m concerned.  Nigel wants the audience to be aware of just how difficult the piece was and while that’s true, all that difficult choreography didn’t do anything to showcase either of them.  It seemed like a lot of movement with no thought behind it.  Kenny wanted the piece to take him somewhere and it didn’t.  He makes a salient point when he says that he “… admired the exercise but not the performance.”  Yes.  It was, if I may borrow from dear Mr. William Shakespeare “full of sound and fury/signifying nothing.” 

Amber (who has a super pretty face – jeez, how did I not notice that before?) and Nick are doing a Viennese Waltz by Jason Gilkison.  But Jason decides to ruin the entire thing by setting it to a horrid cover of “Nights In White Satin.” Mary is very pleased with them, Nigel wants Amber to use her core more when doing ballroom (he’s big on using one’s core tonight), and is worried that the routine wasn’t special enough to get votes.  Ouch.  True, but still… ouch.  Kenny says something positive about the camera choreography.  As mentioned in a previous post, I LOATHE the camera work for this show because it’s directed for TV and not the stage.  I know, I know… it’s a TV show, but that often means not being allowed to see the piece as it’s meant to be seen on the stage and it irks me. 

Amelia/Will.  Confession: I already love these two.  There, I said it.  They’ve been favorites for me as individuals from the very start.  As a pair, I think they are fantastic and compliment each other a great deal.  Tabitha/Napoleon have given them a hip hop routine to The Cure’s “Love Cats” and they are, indeed, cats frolicking around a dumpster.  It’s sexy, playful and stylish.  They play off each other extremely well.  Will is such a big guy and how he moves as gracefully and effortlessly as he does is a testament to his skill level.  It’s difficult to move that much body as fluidly as the smaller dancers.  Kudos to him. 

Mention must also be made of the spectacular costume Amelia gets to wear: a leopard print leotard with thigh high black boots.  It’s delicious and I covet it.  Nigel is over the moon, calling their pairing a great partnership, the routine “terrific” and “danced brilliantly.”  Smiles all around as Cat sends the “cats” offstage.  (Come on, I couldn’t resist).

Oh, lordy.  It’s an African Jazz piece by Sean Cheesman danced by Darien and Janelle.  Look, I have NOTHING against African Jazz as a genre.  It’s just that every single time it’s done on this show, the routines are exactly the same.  The dancers are always costumed in some shredded “jungle” outfit and tonight is no exception.  As usual the routine is high energy and utterly forgettable.  Darien and Janelle are out of sync in several spots and rather than being “in” the piece it feels like they’re going from one step to the next.  Janelle has loads of charisma so she’ll probably be fine this week but they both need something better than this to demonstrate their capabilities.  Nigel, in an effort to find something nice to say, praises Damien’s pirouettes in the opening number.  Enough said.

Gorgeous ballerina Eliana and charismatic but severely limited Cyrus are up next with a Broadway routine by Tyce.  GROAN.  During the commercial break before we see them dance I wonder if she will be dancing around him rather than with him?  The answer is yes, as if there was really much doubt.  God bless her, she is working her ass off and Tyce does a pretty good job at hiding Cyrus’ weaknesses.  But I fear that this is what will happen every week if both of them stay in the competition – each choreographer will be forced to work around Cyrus with Eliana required to pull double duty compensating for his shortcomings.  In fact, Nigel points this out by saying that Eliana didn’t get to show off how great she is – he thinks she is the benchmark for the other women to aspire to.  My question is – when will she get a chance to really show what she can do without a partner equal to her in skill level? 

Look, Cyrus is charming and he does indeed try very hard as Nigel points out when he says that Cyrus gives himself entirely to each style.  And that’s great!  Good for him.  But how fair is it to have such a limited dancer in the Top 20?  In seasons past there have been other dancers who excelled at one genre but were limited in others who nevertheless managed to grow and develop as dancers (Comfort comes to mind and certainly, certainly Twitch!).  But Cyrus is weak at every style except his own invented one.  I love what he does and I give the show credit for trying to make room for new dance styles and unique dancers.  But it’s usually at the expense of a dancer who actually deserves to be in the Top 20 based on merit instead of personality alone. 

(Stepping down from soapbox).

And now – a Travis Wall routine!  I’m already happy.

Audrey and Matthew will be dancing this piece and really, how lucky are they to pull Travis on week one of the competition?  Audrey is teeny tiny and I get her confused with Tiffany while Matthew is the Ryan Gosling doppelganger.  Travis – much to my chagrin – has decided to make the “Leo draws Kate” scene from James Cameron’s Titanic come alive through dance.  I love Travis with all my heart but it’s not my favorite piece of his.  That being said, even a mediocre routine by Travis is better than just about anything else.  Also – credit where credit is due – Audrey and Matthew dance it beautifully.  It’s lyrical and romantic and the two of them connect emotionally to each other and the story they’re telling.  (As a side note, the extremely cute Matthew is wearing suspenders – braces for the Anglophiles among us – and for this I say, thank you costume department.  Thank you).

The judges love it, they love Travis, they love Matthew and wee Audrey.  Methinks these two will be quite safe next week.

And now it’s Lindsay and Cole to close out the show.  They’re doing a Paso Doble by Jason Gilkison.  This should be a piece of cake for Lindsay.  It must be stated that the combined physical beauty of these two contestants is sick.  Wow.  They’re also well matched in terms of technique level – I like this pairing.  The routine is sexy and dangerous, like watching two knives come to life.  The judges give it a standing O.  Mary goes apeshit, Kenny loves it and Nigel calls them “brilliant.”

Since the results show has been eliminated we won’t find out who’s in trouble until next week.  My prediction?  Here’s who I think ought to worry:

Girls: Janaya, Tiffany and Amber.

Guys: George, Brandon and Nick.

Next week TWO guys and TWO girls go home.  Who will it be?  What color dress will Cat wear?  What pervy remark will Nigel make?  Tune it to find out (or read about it here).