‘So You Think You Can Dance’ review: Aaron Turner, Melinda Sullivan bring tap back
First of all, let’s say this about tonight’s “So You Think You Can Dance” episode: Everyone is performing six times! Seriously. This entire two hours is going to be the most exhausting two hours of most of these people’s lives. We also expect a certain dip in quality, given that there is clearly less time to rehearse than on an average week
Joining our esteemed panel of Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy this week are the one-two punch of Paula Abdul (back for some more crazy entertainment) coupled with Olympic gold medalist Gabby Douglas. We don’t really know why she is there really, given that this is not exactly her element at all. (She was still a step above Carly Rae Jepsen, though.)
Aaron Turner and Amy Yakima, jazz – We feel like “jazz” is really code sometimes for “this is completely random,” and this was. The costumes were bizarre and edgy, and so was the routine. While it was not in our top five of the season, it was the right way to start the show rather than with something slow and contemporary.
Fik-Shun and Jasmine Harper, contemporary – This was that slow, lyrical routine, and a major challenge for Fik-Shun to try to go outside of his style, and handle being paired up with someone who was much taller than him. Travis Wall did a great job with the routine, and Mary Murphy stood on her feet. Basically, the movement felt organic and gorgeous, and it never felt like one was really better than the other.
Aaron and Melinda Sullivan, tap – This was one of the cooler dances that we’ve had to see on the show in some time. Remember Melinda? She was great, but sent home not long into the live rounds of her season. Seeing a tap routine on this season is incredibly original and different, which is probably why we loved it so. The coolest routine of the night so far.
Jasmine and Comfort Fedoke, hip-hop – This was a case of a great hip-hop routine that we really wanted to like more than we actually did. It was pretty awesome to see two female dancers do a routine together, especially Jasmine given that she did not even choose her own style in the routine.
Fik-Shun and Amy, tango – This was going to be a difficult dance for these two to master, since the physical nature of the tango is just tough on someone like Fik-Shun who is clearly out of his element. This was easily his weakest routine of the past couple of weeks, as he looked wobbly at times and struggled through the choreography.
Jasmine and Aaron, samba – This was interesting in that both were better than Fik-Shun was, but neither was as good as Amy. This routine had everything that you could really want from a samba in it, with the only issue being that some of the technique was a little scattered. Had they had more time to work on it, it probably would have been near perfection.
Fik-Shun and tWitch, hip-hop – What a perfect time for Fik-Shun to be paired with the best hip-hop dancer ever on the show, right? The two of course killed this, and there really was not any doubt that they would do anything else with it. A great routine, and like with Aaron, Fik-Shun’s best of the night was within his own style.
Amy and Robert Roldan, contemporary – It’s interesting that Robert may be the most improved All-Star since his original season, and that is even with him nearly dying in between his first appearance on his show and today. Simply a stunning, emotional routine, and the strongest of the night overall. Amy may have punched her ticket to the prize here.
Aaron and Fik-Shun, Broadway – Aaron probably won the direct battle between the two guys, though it was more of a friendly challenge than a face-to-face war. Both of them are great showmen, and this routine really allowed them to show off just everything that they can offer on this show and then some.
Amy and Jasmine, jazz – We wonder how Mark Kanemura comes up with this stuff; was he off with Stacy Keibler at Burning Man the last few days? His “Siamese twins from Saturn” dance was incredibly bizarre and hard to really judge from a technical standpoint. We’d probably give Amy the edge overall on the night, but it was close.
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Photo: Fox