Bye-bye Ballroomer and Hip Ballet Dancer: Second Eliminations on So You Think You Can Dance

Bye-bye Ballroomer and Hip Ballet Dancer: Second Eliminations on So You Think You Can Dance by Roxanne McDonald

The world (or, America) is all atumble at the decisions to let Faina and Jimmy go.

My colleagues and mentors at the college where I put in a decade of work would be horrified I spend my days fixated on this stuff.

But the trend being talent-oriented competitions and my penchant being for pop culture in general and reality TV in particular (okay…, any TV), I feel compelled to at least give recap attention to “So You Think You Can Dance?” if not in

any way an intelligent or even funny review. (I’ll leave that to the hilarious writers at Reality Shack and Fans of Reality TV.)
You know the initial drill: Cat makes introductions (including this week’s guest judge, choreographer Mia Michaels), the group dances as a whole, and the judges comment on the debacle that was the previous week—conveniently blaming America for this or that, etc..

Then, thankfully, the remaining contestants dance…after giving lip service to the redundancy that is why do you want, how did you come to want, etc. questioning.

Lauren and Neil dance a Hip Hop number, as choreographed by Dave Scott. They do some pretty impressive moves, but I am stupidly stuck on how much Neil looks like Blake from the latest season of American Idol.

Mia comments how this is a helluva lot better than last week. She notes how she loves Dave’s chorography—which “breathes”, which “moves”; and tells Neil he tore this piece up, while she could have done without Lauren, as she is not quite bringin it for her, yet.
Mary said last week she was cheerleader, but this week there is a chemistry starting to happen. They are starting to get on solid ground, she says, and adds that she loved the smack, the suspended dive, and the overall performance.
Nigel loved it from both of them. He also loved David’s choreography, and told the couple they have set the bar for everybody else who will have to get up and dance outside their style.

Jessi and Pasha do a Jazz routine, as choreographed by Tyce DiOrio.

Mia gushes that she is so proud.
Mary says it’s going to be one of those nights: they way Jessi isolates the head, the way she moves, making us just want to latch onto her, the way Pasha made us feel the stalking, the way he was always there for Jessi. Both of them, she says, are gorgeous.
Nigel says that it is beautiful to see…from a Latin ballroom to an idiosyncratic bird routine, and he believes they are on the road to becoming one of the top dance couples of the competition.

Jaime and Hok do the Samba, as choreographed by Jean-Marc and his wife France Genereux.

Mia prefaces her critique by saying that while she is usually such a nightmare, tonight she must have drunk from the love juice cup, as she feels they tore it up. The hips going were especially sexy, she adds.
Mary jokes that she obviously was not drinking from the same cup, as while she found some good bits in there she doesn’t think they have yet cut the mustard: feet were not turned out when they should have been; feet were turned out too far when they should not have been….
Nigel thinks it was a great performance, but wholeheartedly agrees with Mary. He suggests when they [the show] say they are doing a Samba, they should better pin down the details…that there is a closer holding of each other, that it is more old-fashioned. But the dancers were not asked to do that, he concedes, so while it was not technically perfect, it was done well enough.

Sabra and Dominick do a Contemporary dance, choreographed by Mandy Moore.

Mia is about to cry. She expresses how beautiful Dominick was, and tells Sabra she is like this beautiful little [and again I don’t get the reference—Allee?] girl…just stunning.
Mary calls their performance fabulous, great, what with all the intricate hooks and rollovers. She tells Sabra she is a heavenly creature when she dances—unique and different; and she tells Dominick he is a force to be reckoned with.
Nigel tells Sabra she is one of those who sometimes slips through the net: they don’t see her, he says, but when she is solo…. With a partner, she is, he continues, amazing. To Dominick he expresses how impressed he is by how seriously the kid takes this…even going so far as to shave his toes. But, but, he adds, there is also sometimes that arrogance that doesn’t allow him to be anything other than the best thing since sliced bread. [Okay, I said I was going to refrain from being snarky, but now I’m hungry: we have had love juice and mustard and now bread. Only analogy item missing is the meat.) This dance/competition requires deliberation, though, and that’s all they can ask for, Nigel concludes.

Faina and Cedric do a Foxtrot choreographed by Hunter Johnson.

Mia shows her disappointment, and tells them she thinks they got through it—but it looked like Ginger Rogers and an insecure Michael Jackson. Too bad, because Cedric is her second favorite, brilliant, but he has to take the next step up, she advises, because he is better than that. To Faina she says how beautiful she was, but it wasn’t “copacetic”.
Mary believes Cedric is wonderful on his own but not with a partner. In this style, too, his hands were all wrong, and when they tried to throw in Hip-Hop for him, they got it all wrong, she says. Faina was beautiful, however, and should have been, Mary adds, for this is after all Faina’s field.
Nigel confesses he has always worried about how Cedric would be with a partner, and tonight is justified: Cedric appeared anxious, without charisma, and needs to invest to win.

Lacey and Kameron do a Broadway number, as choreographed by Tyce DiOrio.

Mia decides the dancers were sexy, but says they had no pizzazz.
Mary gushes and does her shrill expressions.
Nigel says they were so good—looking as if they had been dancing as a pair for years and appearing as a pair we might see on “Dancing with the Stars”…so good, maybe they will even marry?

Anya and Danny do a Waltz choreographed by Hunter Johnson.

Mia is impressed with the technical success, pointing out such examples as how Danny appropriately held or moved his hands.
Mary loves it and gives it the endorsement of several adjectives.
Nigel also says it is brilliant, calling it the best performance of the night.

Shauna and Jimmy do a Hip-Hop number, choreographed by Dave Scott.

Mia says the dance was good, but admonishes Shauna for doing what she calls that of “dance school syndrome.”
Mary is impressed and proud of both of them for stepping up.
Nigel is so impressed, he says, that he is going to use the ‘f’ word: that was so fffffun, he crows.

Jesus and Sarah dance a Paso Doble, as choreographed by husband and wife team Genereaux.

Mia says that Sarah was all over the place but is forgiving of Sara when she hears how little training she has had. She is less forgiving of the music, which was really inappropriate to the style, loud, and distracting.

Mary also gives nods to Sarah for doing something out of her league, but finds Jesus to be simply amazing, considering this is not his usual style.
Nigel also gives nods to their surprisingly having pulled it off, and also tells Sara (his shocking B-Girl) that she cleans up well.

The following night saw two dancers (one boy, one girl) hitting the pavement.

After the votes by America,

Hok and Jaime were safe;
Anya and Danny were safe;
Lacey and Kameron were safe;
Sarah and Jesus were safe; and
Lauren and Neil were safe.

Jessi and Pasha were in the bottom three;
Shauna and Jimmy were in the bottom three; and
Faina and Cedric were in the bottom three.

After having to do solos for the judges,

Jessi is told the judges didn’t like her solo, and that if she stays, she will have to step it up.

Pasha is also told his solo was not good enough, and if he remains, he will have to do a lot more work.

Shauna is told she would have had to have a rather dramatic Dance for Your Life…and that is exactly what she did have.

Cedric gets the judges’ rationale: last week they fought over whether to go with really good dancing or the promise of something good, uniqueness (they went with uniqueness); this week they argued over whether to go with the same, but this week, Mary changed, saying they can’t keep going with just uniqueness, should go with talent, and should therefore keep Jimmy.
Mia, however, changed, too, this week going with uniqueness over potential, and voted to keep Cedric. That left Nigel to break the tie, and he was on the fence. But, he, too, decided that keeping Cedric was the thing to do.

Faina was sympathized with for the difficulty of doing a solo ballroom dance. Nigel adds that it didn’t happen for them tonight, and it didn’t happen the previous night either—though she may not have let her partner down and instead, her partner may have let her down. But all of this logic is lost when her partner stays and she goes.

THAT is what the regular reviewers of “So You Think You Can Dance?” are raging about…. That is why for some of us, the world is a tumblin’ down rather than dancing in celebration.

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