‘So You Think You Can Dance’ review: Amy Yakima and Travis Wall steal the night
“So You Think You Can Dance” is not a show afraid to take gambles sometimes, and the one by Nigel Lythgoe to feature dancers working alongside all-stars, who were also choreographers, was a gamble very much worth taking. This show is on a winning streak in season 10 with great dancers across the board; we are just disappointed that there are not more viewers around to actually see the magic that is being made on this show.
Before we get to the routines, a brief congratulations to Jenna Elfman for coming on and being a great example of a celebrity judge who understands the world of dance, and also the world of performing, as well. We’d be happy to add her to the rotation after a weak series of guest judges a few weeks back.
Aaron Turner and Chelsie Hightower, jive – Fun, fun, fun! It’s a nice way to start of the show, and a great opportunity to see Chelsie back on the show doing some of the things that she does best and is known for. What is going to be interesting, though, is seeing if he could be struck with fewer votes courtesy of going first … though we hope that is offset by Chelsie’s presence. He’s still our favorite dancer of the season, and we had fun watching this one.
Fik-Shun and Allison Holker, contemporary – This routine was inspired by the relationship with tWitch in some ways, and it was lovely. This was the Fik-shun that we loved before some of the stumbling blocks in recent weeks. There was some great fluid movement in here, and he was completely invested in the story. It was not a surprise, however, to see him in the bottom two, and he could have some trouble making it into the finale.
Tucker Knox and Courtney Galiano, contemporary – It was nice to actually see an uptempo contemporary routine for a change, given that so many of these are slow almost to the point of there not being any sense of timing at all. There was still an inspirational story here with Courtney’s struggles, but this dance was stellar. Tucker’s athleticism is just remarkable, especially when you remember that this guy was just injured.
Paul Karmiryan and Comfort Fedoke, hip-hop – After two very emotional dances, these two had the challenge of actually coming out and cheering people up again. That wasn’t easy. It wasn’t our favorite hip-hop routine ever, mostly because Paul just wasn’t completely on Comfort’s level, but this was completely as far away as possible from what he does on a regular basis, and he did handle the moves well and at least kept up with the best female hip-hop dancer in this show’s history.
Hayley Erbert and Dimitry Chaplin, rumba – After we proclaimed that Hayley was going to be the favorite among the women to win this season, she then ends up in the bottom for the first time all season. What gives? The challenge with this routine is simply that rumbas are almost all based on sensuality rather than choreography. It was a very strong routine, but we worry if it will be a little forgettable by the end of the night.
Jenna Johnson and Mark Kanemura, jazz? – It was technically dance, but it was so wonderful and weird it may as well just be labeled a “Mark” dance. We’re pretty sure he is a crazy person, but this was the most original, off-the-wall routine quite possibly all season long. From the braid to the bizarre step moves, there was so much content in here that we really quite frankly had never seen before. It was such a nice change from seeing the same sort of thing every week.
Jasmine Harper and tWitch, hip-hop – Considering that tWitch is the most famous solo hip-hop dancer going right now, he is a pretty hard person to keep up with on the floor, but Jasmine really held her own here, and also incorporated some of her own moves and swagger into it. She is a dancer who really has shown us now that she can do every single facet of the craft, from tear-jerkers to goofy routines, and this may make her our personal favorite of the ladies.
Amy Yakima and Travis Wall, contemporary – This is what we call a great way to close out the night! Amy and Travis did so much here that was in a word wonderful, and they did it together and completely in sync. The leap off of the ground by Amy is one of the greatest single moves that has aired on this show, and we completely understand why this dance was saved to the end. Along with the one featuring Mark, this was the best of the night.
Elimination – This was almost sadly a given. It was not as though Tucker and Jenna were bad; they had just been in the bottom on so many occasions this season that it really did not matter what the judges thought any more. They had to put people through who they felt were going to have a shot at winning. We’re just surprised that Tucker was in danger after that spellbinding dance with Robert Roldan last week.
Next week, we imagine seeing the end for Fik-Shun and surprisingly Hayley based on tonight, which leaves us with what should be a pretty amazing showdown for the finale.
Of course, we want to hear about your favorites below, as well as if you think having the all-stars as choreographers really worked to spice things up.
Photo: Fox