Top four! America's in charge! Cat Deeley! With her hair swept up underneath in a vaguely Trump-ian swoop I don't entirely approve of but whatever! Fourth judge Tyce Diorio! Wow, things have really gone downhill in this paragraph. Seriously, So You Think You Can Dance, WHERE is my Debbie Allen?? I can't go a whole season without her! Who will make sure that someone calls the fire department (honey)?
First up is a group routine with all four remaining contestants -- Kent, Robert, Lauren, and Adechike -- choreographed by ... ugh, Tyce. It's a Broadway routine set to something from Guys & Dolls. I've never seen that show, but it's always struck me like every high-school production you ever saw. The ones where they have to entice the boys to audition so it's all about gangsters and guns. The choreography involves a lot of passing Lauren around (in mostly non-creepy ways), and a lot of the usual Tyce flourishes that ultimately don't connect to anything else. There is one maneuver I quite like, where Kent and Adechike lift Lauren up into an iron cross, and then Robert passes underneath her like a car in a car wash, swooping her legs up behind her. It ends up looking like she's flying. But overall, this isn't nearly as dynamic as a Top 4 group routine should be. Damn it, Tyce. Afterwards, Tyce critiques his own routine, saying Kent stood out and he wants to see Adechike fighting more. The latter will be a theme.
Lauren is paired with Pasha for a tango, choreographed by Mirian Larici and Leonardo Baarrionuevo. "Steamy" is the watchword from rehearsal, but the word I keep coming to as I watch the performance is "stark." The stage setup, choreography, and performance styles of both dancers seem darkly atmospheric and desperate -- in a very good way. There's a last-call, come-home-with-me vibe to Lauren and Pasha that is incredibly sensual. Loooove this. Probably my favorite ballroom of the season. Nigel loved Lauren's passion, du-hoy, but he also gets rather tongue-tied on the subject of Pasha, coming as close as he ever has to admitting he'd totally do it with the Russian sex-bomb. We all would, Nigel. (And fuck you, Scott Pilgrim for making me almost type "sex bob-omb" just then. Fuck you in your effortful face.) Mia tells Lauren she just became a woman, and calls the routine voyeuristic" (yes!). Adam takes a moment to give props to today's court ruling striking down Prop 8 (WHOOP!) ... and then asks Nigel to marry him. Oh, Adam. You can do better.
Adechike draws a Sean Cheesman African jazz routine with all-star Lauren (!), who enthuses about how far Adechike has come out of his shell since they last performed together. That's sweet and very genuine. The dance itself looks pretty impressive. My focus is constantly pulled to Lauren, but I can't exactly blame Adechike for that. Still, there remains a tightness in Adechike, about the shoulders and such, that keeps him from dancing with appropriate abandon. And in fact, the judges pick up on this very thing, with Nigel and Mia noting the tightness. Mia didn't care for the performance at all, though Nigel ultimately says he did. Tyce, because he has to take up some time, is all "You gotta lay it down!" (He also takes a moment to say he loves Lauren, which: o...kay? She's worked with you for several years, this isn't exactly news.) The overall verdict for Adechike is that this routine was lacking.
Robert and Anya will be dancing a Viennese waltz, choreographed by Jonathan Roberts. There's a bit in the rehearsal about how Robert's done quite a bit of ballroom this season, and while I took it as kind of a backhanded "Yeah, Rob's not so great at ballroom" acknowledgment, after the upcoming judging, I'm beginning to doubt that. The routine -- okay, first of all, it's set to "Lost" by Anouk, which, I thought we had gone over this: this song belongs to Courtney and Gev now. It's off limits. Don't make me have to tell anyone again. So here's my thing with Robert and ballroom: I think he's pretty terrible at it. He doesn't handle his height well, he looks awkward, in this case he struggles mightily on a lift, and sometimes it felt like Anya had to lead. And yet the judges ... it's like they were watching something else entirely. They loved it! "Superbly danced!" says Nigel! Mia flips for it! Adam calls it "brilliant"! At least Tyce's "Invest wholeheartedly...to the max" is the usual bullshit he'd say to anybody. Nigel even calls attention to that awful lift and praises it! I don't understand. And you know Robert is my favorite, so this isn't bias. I just think everybody's gone crazy. At the end, Adam mentions that Robert is on a "little surge" in a way that sounds like he's referring to vote totals. Could Robert have finally caught on with the plebes just in time?
By the way, each dancer is getting a clip package from before their initial auditions. Lauren's wasn't really that interesting. Robert reveals that he's roommates with last season's (uninspiring) Channing. Huh. He also gets Cat to dance a little Batusi-lite shimmy, which is adorable. I honestly don't know how she does it. How can she enthuse about being squeezed up against Robert and not make it sound a bit pervy? The woman has a gift.
Kent gets Disco and Doriana Sanchez and (good news, at last) Courtney Galiano. Doriana notes that Kent is so young, he has no reference points to disco dancing. Um, Doriana, NO ONE on this show does besides Nigel. But still, we get a semi-cute segment where Kent is quizzed on elements of disco (he thinks Studio 54 was a rehearsal space, though he's able to sing a few bars of "Hot Stuff"). On stage, Courtney's outfit/hair is astounding -- give this girl a movie, now -- and the dancing is fun and fast. These two are really well-matched. The highlight of the routine is an insane airplane spin that I worried might carry them both clear offstage. Nigel gets Kent to admit Doriana took some of the lifts out of the routine because they were too hard for Kent to do. I suppose it's a gray area as to whether the choreographers should be covering for the contestants like this, but so long as the judges are calling out the resulting routines for being too easy, I'm fine with it. Tyce says it was "just good," Mia says it was Kent's worst this season and went too far into the childlike sections of the Kent spectrum. Adam agrees with Mia, to the boos of many, including an engagement-breaking Nigel. After Kent's at-home video package, Cat basically gives him an open mic and an opportunity to ramble, and ramble he does! At the end of which, Cat makes a crack about Kent running for President, and Kent actually looks abashed. I think he whispers to Cat about whether he sounded like an idiot. Aw. I kind of loved that moment. It's exhausting keeping up with the schedule of being Kent all day.
Lauren's second routine is with all-star Ade on a Sean Cheesman jazz dance. Lauren's supposed to be a black widow of some kind, and she's wearing what appears to be a full-body hair net. So... hair net or not, the performance is one big WOW. Athletic and precise -- it's reminiscent of Sonya's work but with more humanity. Some great hand-choreography gets highlighted, and there's this insane lift in the middle where Ade takes Lauren's arms, she flips upside down, her feet on his shoulders, and he pulls her up above his head. Amazing. Ade is such a secret weapon! Seriously, though, this is sleek and sharp -- a routine just waiting for a music video. Nigel loved how Lauren did a lot of masculine work but remained feminine, Tyce offers snaps (siiigh) and just sounds incredibly insincere, as per uzh.
Adechike pulls Kathryn and a contemporary routine choreographed by his personal dance heroes Dwight Rohden and Desmond Richardson. They plan to include some jazz and a bit of hip-hop in the routine as well, all in the hopes of featuring Adechike to his fullest. The routine -- set to Melissa Etheridge's "Fearless -- calls for something bigger and more unhinged than Adechike is able to deliver right now. But he comes damn close, and Kathryn really works to make him look good. Nigel notes that he lost steam towards the end, and Mia doesn't back down from her critical stance, saying that he's moving in the right direction, but she still wants more. After Adechike's heart-wrenching video package, he gives a tearful speech of thanks. He really is pretty awesome, even if he is outmatched at this point.
Robert is paired with Dominic (ugh) for a hip-hop routine by Tabitha and Napoleon. The theme: sad clowns! Rob's hair looks static-clinged atop his made-up face. This is a fun routine, pure and simple. And while it's not an Alex-level achievement, Robert really keeps up with Dom (Adam says Rob outdanced him, which seems like a stretch, but not by much). Robert here reminds me of the kid of stuff Neil did in his season, just throwing himself into a silly concept. He also reminds me of Jason and Kayla's zombie dance in Season 5. Now you know why clowns are scary, people. Nigel loved it, and Mia calls this brand of hip-hop theater "dope." I love you, Mia Michaels.
Finally, we get Kent paired with Neil for a Travis Wall contemporary number. The theme here is the breakup of a friendship, and it seems to include a literal back-stabbing motion, which is just way too on the nose. But the rest of the routine is pretty brilliant. It's set to Devotchka, from the Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack, a beautiful piece of music I already love. The routine features some of that fighty-fighty stuff Nigel likes to see when it's two guys dancing, but there is also some serious emotional content to the dancing. I have to admit, this season has managed to blur the line between Nigel's super-macho, dance-fighty vision of male-male dancing and the kind of lyrical, emotional stuff that you know the choreographers and dancers would really excel at, but Nigel has intimated he would reject. Routines like this one push at those boundaries in a way I don't think I ever expected to see on this show. And they're making Nigel love it. A spoonful of sugar and all. It's not my much longed-for Gay Homo Mia Michaels Dance of Love, but we're creeping ever closer. Anyway, back to this particular routine which is SO GOOD. These two have such great rapport, going back to the baseball routine. But unlike that one, Kent doesn't come across as the younger brother. The push-pull of their disintegrating friendship feels really harrowing in Travis's hands. Indeed, afterwards, Nigel asks him if this was based on a true story, and Travis acknowledges that it is. Aw, Travis. Writing what he knows. Nigel calls it a chilling piece, and Mia and Adam both cry. Tyce keeps yelling "Are you kidding me?" until Cat finally has to assure him that they are not. Stop ruining everything, Tyce!
Rundown! In order of my preference:
Lauren and Ade's jazz
Kent and Neil's contemporary
Lauren and Pasha's tango
Robert and Dominic's hip-hop
Kent and Courtney's disco
Adechike and Kathryn's contemporary
Adechike and Lauren's African jazz
Robert and Anya's waltz
Tomorrow: one more goes home before the finale. Adechike? The judges seemed to like Robert the best, but I thought Lauren killed it all night. It's all up to America, which is chilling. If today's Prop 8 ruling taught us anything, it's that sometimes judges know better than the American public.
Joe R might have been coaxed over to Team Lauren tonight. Questions, comments, and unadulterated love can be sent to him at joseph.reid21@gmail.com.
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