Your Vegas judges: Nigel, Mary, Adam, Twitch and (for the first couple rounds) Jason Derulo.
Stage One: SOLOS:
The very first round, before the dancers even get to unpack, goes by mostly in montage form, so it's sometimes hard to spot the casualties as they fly by. That awkward sweater-vest guy who felt like he was splitting the difference between joke and real talent? Gone. Hampton Williams's wife Darlesha? Gone. Salsa-dancing Katlyn Rodriguez who auditioned with the help of her baby brother? Gone. Donovan Gibbs, whose adorable dad sold their home to keep their dance studio? Gone.
Who does get through? Malece Miller, our SLC contemporary girl with the Robyn haircut, gets the good news from Jason Derulo himself that she's staying. And Du-Shaunt "Fik-Shun" Stegall, whose locking and animating are incredibly clever as well as precise and otherworldly, is also moving right along.
Stage Two: HIP-HOP
Tabitha and Napoleon are back from their baby-creating adventures of last season with a routine that they say should make you puke, and that's if you do it right. Cat tells us this is the first chance for animators and street dancers to prove themselves with tough choreo. Jade, a street dancer from Detroit, really seems to take to the choreography well and moves on, but human anime character Toshihiko was not strong enough. Then there's Shanshan Qiao-Rothlisberger, who is feeling lost without her traditional Chinese cups to dance with. But she kills it! She sticks with the swag even when she loses the choreo. Overall, the dancers seems to be doing well with the hip-hop, and after the round, 77 dancers remain.
Stage Two: JAZZ
Sonya Tayeh is back again to terrorize these children with a very partner-heavy routine. After an afternoon's worth of rehearsal, Sonya "decides" that the dancers need overnight to prepare, so she sends them off to rehearse/sleep until the morning.
Malece Miller is teamed up with ballroomer Armen (our Slavic Pitbull!), but he keeps wandering off. Malece is growing impatient. And then, after midnight, after they seemed to finally be back on the same page, he drops her on her head. She's checked for concussion symptoms and sent to the hospital, show editors high-fiving the whole way because now they have an act-out for the rest of the episode.
The morning, Nigel scolds the dancers for not being ready yesterday and warns them that they had better bring it. Which all seems rather gross, since I can't imagine the dancers' level of preparedness was the only reason for that postponement. Hannah Simone from New Girl (Cece!) is here to join the judging panel, and she seems delighted to be there. Amy Yakima from Detroit gets an "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" from Adam, who says she's in his personal Top 20. Also Fik-Shun, who is becoming the Cyrus of this year's Vegas round, sails into the phase.
Animator Jade Zubrey went through a particularly rocky partnership with Sydney Miller, and at some point during rehearsals, she calls out Jade in front of Sonya and everyone ("he's holding me back"), and Sonya calls her on it. Sydney bails and leaves Jade to rehearse all alone all night, but she's back and apologetic the morning. My guess would be that the judges are hugely predisposed to Jade now, but Nigel seems to judge him all the more harshly and asks him to dance for his life later. Meanwhile, he makes excuses for Sydney and says Jade wasn't a great partner, though he's unequivocal that she should not have called Jade out in front of everybody. Sydney moves on to the round, but now, backstage, she's threatening to quit anyway because people think she's meeeeeean.
After the break, Malece returns and is cleared for competition. She seems on the verge of tears even talking to Cat about her injury, and Cat asks the most reasonable question one could ask at this stage: "Are you not terrified?" The performance appears to go well, but the judges seem divided on Armen -- Mary thinks he's the best one, but Nigel hates droppers and thinks Malece made him look good. Malece gets raves and moves on. Meanwhile, Mary tells Armen that she's fighting for him. She scolds him for putting another dancer in danger, and Nigel tells him to thank Mary for keeping him. He's stunned and promises to "fix everything," but backstage, like Sydney, Armen is at a loss for how to rehab his image.
The bad news: Shanshan is cut! She seems proud to have made it this far, justifiably so, and she pledges to be back year.
Meanwhile, Jade returns to dance for his life. These last-chance solos all seem pretty pointless, don't they? They're never going to get rid of anybody after they've gone back and danced in their home style, and Jade won't be an exception, especially after ... wait, does Hannah lick her lips?? Obvs he goes through with the admonition that he can't just rely on this one style, even though he just proved that he can.
Stage Three: BALLROOM
Chelsie Hightower and Dmitry Chaplin are on hand to choreograph and also represent the SYTYCD alumni chapter of Dancing with the Stars. Anyway, Jade and Sydney are happier with new partners in this round, but while Jade advances, Sydney does not. Also cut after this brutal round: my beloved Tommy/Tony (I've heard both) Tibball, who looked so much like my also-beloved Jakob Karr out there.
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Who does move on is ballroom expert Jenna Johnson. There's a bit of a vibe that she won't meet her high expectations at first, but no, they LOVE her. Also, Fik-Shun continues his Cyrus-like ride through Vegas and Armen manages to bounce back in his own style.
Stage Four: GROUPS
The remaining dancers are placed in groups, given a piece of music, and left to choreograph/rehearse on their own. Group 1 includes ballroom bros Alan and Gene, contemporaries Kayla and Jasmine, and golden child Jenna Johnson. Their theme is the Boston marathon bombing? The acts of heroism involved. Huh. Set to a cover of "I Can't Make You Love Me." Double huh. But the judges all take the opportunity to get weepy, and Adam says the ballroom boys really made a believer out of him. They're all through.The group includes contemporaries Jasmine (Cyrus's ex), Derek, Chrystiane, and Jarvis, ballroomer Viktoria, and Fik-Shun, who even gets the name of his group revolving around him (Facts Around Fik-Shun). Initially, Chrystiane takes the reins but the group chafes against her control. Derek is exhausted and bails to sleep or have a cig or something. On stage, the choreo seems amateurish, and the judges all say it's a mess. Mary calls Derek out specifically, and he is out. Chrystiane is also out, but the other four slide by, because obviously Fik-Shun is going nowhere.
: Jennifer, Tucker, Amy, Mariia, and Marcus. I'm kind of crazy into Tucker, looks, wise. Jennifer Jones does not appreciate Mariia and all her complaining and whining about having to work outside her ballroom niche. Jennifer explains that they kept trying to choreograph around her, to no success. Jennifer finally calls Mariia out in front of the group, while Cute Tucker tries to make peace. Marcus is drained. Jennifer just wants to kill Mariia. But on stage, Nigel thinks the whole thing was beautiful; he compliments Mariia, and the rest of the group really rallies around her, which is nice to see. They all move on.
Elsewhere, Armen redeems himself in his group, even lifting a girl without dropping her, and everything.
The final group: Makenzie, Carlos, Carley, Sarah and Vitaly. As with Fik-Shun's group, the choreo just seems very basic. Nigel calls it juvenile, and I can't argue. Chintzy, I'd say. The judges appear to be divided, and in the end Vitaly and Sarah are gone, but the three contempo dancers make it through.
Stage Five: CONTEMPORARY
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54 dancers left and Stacey Tookey on choreo. Jennifer Jones declines to pair up to rehearse and instead works on her own, which might not be too smart. Jennifer is our eating disorder survivor (and Mariia survivor from the group round). She finally partners up, with Latin dancer Misha, but neither of them makes it, which gets a full on "AWWW!" out of me. I liked them. Misha blames himself and it's so so sweet but she's not ready for comfort right now.
Maybe Jennifer can get SOME comfort from hearing that Mariia is also gone (along with a montage full of crying kids, cut so heartbreakingly close to the end).
Tapper Curtis Holland (Wayne Brady's "little bro") is overwhelmed by emotions, and Nigel really tortures him before telling him he's through. The judges share some tissues with him, and Tooks hugs him afterwards. Also making it: Jasmine (whom Nigel manages to draw more Cyrus confessionals out of) (he dumped her), Fik-Shun, Malece, Jenna and Amy Yakima. Also, Marcus (and Tucker) from Jennifer Jones's old group make it.
Finally, Jade is asked to dance for his life AGAIN, this time with Stacey making the call. This is... kind of ridic. If he hasn't been good enough on choreography TWICE? He's asked to battle against Dragon House member Blueprint. This is purely for good-TV purposes, a sentiment that becomes crystal clear when both "battling" animators make it to the round.
Finally, Nigel asks each of the dancers to individually address the judges (the better to get good TV stories for the Top 20). We hear from Amy, Fik-Shun, Malece, Blueprint -- all the faves. Finally, Armen says they changed him into a better person; they're trying some Legacy turnaround with him and I'm not buying (but at this stage, I wasn't buying it with Legacy either). But I won't have to wring my hands too much because Armen is one of eight dancers cut as we make way for the Green Mile and week's Meet the Top 20 show!
Joe R is already Team Tucker. Questions, comments, and unadulterated love can be sent to him at joseph.reid21@gmail.com.
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