‘So You Think You Can Dance’ review: Did Aaron Turner, Amy Yakima dance into final four?

The interesting thing about getting to “So You Think You Can Dance” around this time in the year is that for the first time really all season long, you are performing without much of a safety net at all. The judges cannot save you, and if the public decides not to vote for you for just one week, it may be enough to see you sent home.

We’re going to start things off now by profiling a little bit of what every performer on the show tonight did, and that includes their solo routines. This is the first time all season that everyone has had a chance to perform individually, which meant that we finally got some reminders about how good some people are in their own styles.

Aaron Turner – This is the funny thing about Aaron: He has never once gotten to perform in his specialty for the entire live rounds until now, but he has still never been in the bottom. His tap routine was phenomenal, as was his reunion with Jasmine Harper on a jazz number at the end of the night. The only bad news in here for Aaron tonight was his drop of Melanie Moore during an otherwise solid Broadway routine, but we still have him as our favorite on the night.

Amy Yakima – If we are talking about just who gave the best overall performance tonight, we have to give it to Amy for doing so many amazing things. Her Bollywood routine with Alex Wong (who can literally do anything) was glorious, and she held her own later in hip-hop with Fik-Shun. Of course, her solo was where she showed more of her classical side, and reminded us that when it comes to versatility, almost no one on the season tops her.

Fik-Shun – To be honest, his ballroom routine with Whitney Carson was only okay, as it felt a little lacking when it comes to content (which is never something you want to see at this point in the season). Luckily for him, he had both that hip-hop routine with Amy and the best solo of the entire night (the tempo on that!) to make up for it.

Hayley Erbert – After a week in the bottom, she still came out and performed very well. There were no stumbles in anything, and the boxing routine was very appropriate given what Katy Perry did at the VMAs over the weekend. Hayley’s biggest problem may just have been that the other female dancers were a part of these power couples early on, and that is hard to take on.

Jasmine Harper – Lyrical, powerful, and capable of doing everything from fierce to finesse. While Amy had our favorite overall performance of the night, the hurricane routine she performed was the strongest overall and was moving to the point of tears. We’re also sure that she enjoyed getting to perform with Aaron again at the end of the night. We did.

Paul Karmiryan – Paul did extremely well tonight in pretty much everything that he did, and was so good, he almost felt like he was a professional in jazz alongside ballroom. He has always been completely polished to the point where he is like a dance terminator storming around the floor and hitting move after move and blowing away the competition.

It is with that description of Paul that we say that we are stunned to see him leaving tonight. He was incredibly strong almost every week, and for weeks now we’ve imagined that he and Aaron were going to face off in the end. Fik-Shun is outstanding in his style, but we have to give Aaron the edge among the two guys.

As for the women, seeing Hayley leave was a little less of a shock given recent results, but she is someone who really came into her own the past few weeks after blending in the background at first. This is genuinely the time where we miss everyone who goes home; not only are these contestants all great dancers, but they also seem to be such humble, nice people.

Who is your favorite dancer moving into the final weeks, and are you sad to see both Paul and Hayley out of the competition? Be sure to share your thoughts with a comment below!

Photo: Fox