Season 8 Top 8 Power Rankings
Sorry this is late! I’ve just caught up on the episode. Thanks for all your comments, y’all!!
I really wish this wasn’t going to be broken down into Top 2 Girls and Top 2 Guys vs. Bottom 2 Guys and Girls. I really want three girls in the top and I have to put one of my favorites in the bottom. :'(
Top Four
1. Melanie – While I agree she hasn’t been as challenged as some of the other dancers (she does tend to get contemporary/jazz) and never gets critiqued, I also love her. Her contemporary with Neil was the best of the night, I think and then she ended on a high note with Sasha at the end.
2. Sasha – She was stymied with a weaker partner at the beginning, but she’s gotten almost as much face time as Melanie since Vegas Week *and* she’s had to stretch herself more. Her routine with Twitch last week was maybe the best of the season. I liked her quickstep with Pasha, but it was the first routine. However, she and Melanie had that lauded Sonya routine at the end.
3. Marko – He had a stellar contemporary with Allison, has been part of the Power Couple with Melanie and had an alright hip hop with Rickey later.
4. Tadd – His heist routine with LoFro was great, despite his hat malfunction. He was very MJ-ish and had one of the more popular All-Stars, plus good chemistry. Also, his foxtrot with Caitlynn was really classy and elegant and I think might’ve surprised a lot of people.
Bottom Four
5. Caitlynn – I’d like to put her in the Top if this wasn’t broken down by gender. She had an alright hip hop early on with Ivan, but I really, really liked her foxtrot with Tadd. I think she’s grown enormously and she’s been challenged a lot, even just in tonight’s episode.
6. Jess – He surprised me in his hip hop with Lauren G., but his later number with Jordan wasn’t good. He was stronger than her, to be sure, and I know he’s got a fan base, but I think he’ll be in the bottom. I think he should be, anyway.
7. Jordan – She’s annoyed me more and more each week, with her “sexy” pouting and vamping, not to mention her leg extensions. She danced an alright jazz with Ade, but I think whatever strength the routine had was Ade’s, not hers. She didn’t connect with him or later, Jess, at all. Her rhumba with Jess really sucked. It’s time for her to go home, in my opinion.
8. Rickey – His jive with Anya was pretty good, but not nearly the most memorable routine of the night and then he was called out as the weaker link in his hip hop with Marko. He’s been in the bottom a lot and if he is again, it’s probably his week to go.
It makes me nervous that I didn’t get to vote, but I’m fairly confident that Jordan and Rickey will be going home tonight. What do y’all think?
Also, I BOUGHT MY TICKETS to the tour!! Whooo hooo! Has anybody else gotten theirs yet? I’m going to see it in Atlanta this year, with my mom and (I’m sure) Amanda.
I suppose I agree, though I’d put Sasha above Melanie in my opinion (though probably not in the opinion of everyone else). I thought she was better than Melanie in their co-dance and although I loved Melanie and Neil, I didn’t think it was worth ALL of the over-the-topness that it got.
I also thought that despite Nigel’s comments about Rickey and Marko that Rickey actually outdanced Marko in their hip hop. Rickey threw his entire body into that routine where I felt that Marko shortcutted some stuff.
I think Jordan’s grown on me more than Caitlynn over the past few weeks. Mostly because although the rumba sucked, Jordan + Ade was delightful and awesome in every way. She was strong and danced it perfectly. Caitlynn’s hip hop was really really weak. I mean, she hit the steps, but didn’t have any oomph in it. Oh well. Guess we shall see!
And except for Jess and my inability to handle his attitude (rightly or wrongly), I don’t have a real problem with any of the dancers left at this point–and I thought last night was awesome–dances, dancers and judges all.
hmm…. i agree with you. i wish they would only send 1 dancer home, cuz then it would definitely be ricky, although i would prefer jordan.
caitlynn has shown real passion and potential, whereas i’m not sure jordan has. i am SOOOOOO sick of her and although her flexibility is incredible, it’s all she, the choreographers and the judges harp on about.
jess’s attitude? way better than tadd’s. i can’t STAND how he’s so impressed with himself, whereas jess always takes the judges’ comments and works hard. he works incredibly hard, and i’ll be sad to see him go if he does, although i’m pretty sure he has at least one week left. ricky’s going home tonight.
isn’t it overly predictable?
plus, hasn’t anyone noticed that they always have the same genre-specific dancers? at the end it’s always contemporary, jazz or hip hop at the end. season 7 was 2 contemporary and 1 jazz in the final 3. and all the ballroom/tap/bollywood etc dancers get kicked off really early. sigh. but on sytycd canada they have a huge mix. maybe that’s another reason i like jess so much.
While I agree with your power rankings, I agree only in the sense that this will be the outcome.
It’s actually really sad that at this stage in the competition, all of the dancers are really excellent but we start getting vicious with our comments to protect our favorites. We attack the ones we don’t like.
For example, I think the comments about Jordan are EXTREMELY negative! When in fact, if you were watching her outside of the competition, or if it wasn’t a competition at all and just a compilation of dances, you probably wouldn’t critique her so harshly. Because, let’s face it, she’s an incredible dancer and she can’t really help choreographers emphasizing her leg extensions-all she can do is perform them well when they are in her routines.
On a different note, overall I think there has been some REAL power in this season. All of the dancers are incredibly talented. That being said, this season has not had the raw epicness (yes, I know that isn’t a word) that season 7 had for me.
As many have said, I agree that many of the routines are mugging for tears and heart felt moments, but aren’t feeling real to me. I have yet to feel like there has been a routine that I just LOVED. Not very many OMG moments.
Routines that I liked or have come close:
That’s LIfe – Sasha and Alexander
Misty Blue- Sasha and Twitch
Total Eclipse of the Heart – Melanie and Pasha
Memories – Jordan and Tadd
Bad Boy for Life – Rickey and Marko
Season 7 comparison:
How it Ends – Kent and Neil
My Chick Bad – Lauren and Twitch
Fix You – Robert and Allison
Sundrenched World- Kent and Allison
Heaven is a Place on Earth – Robert and Kathryn
Collide – Lauren and Kent
Mad World – Billy and Ade
I could keep going on S7…
It’s just that when you compare the routines, S8 falls way short.
I honestly blame choreographers because there’s obvious talent on the stage that I don’t feel is being utilized
@maddy: I agree with your comment about SYTYCD CA (and UK and AU, which I still miss).
@Tiffany: You make a good point about negative comments, including mine about Jordan. She’s talented, but she’s been annoying me. It would be interesting to see how I felt about her performance outside of the competition – if I saw her in something else. But my biggest critique of her is that I feel she plays to the audience more than her partner. I almost never feel like she’s connected to her partner. She dances her routines like she’s dancing a solo.
[…] surprised that Rickey is safe and Tadd is in the Bottom 4, but maybe I shouldn’t be after some of your comments lately that he seems arrogant. I don’t see it myself, but apparently enough people do to put […]
Emilie, again I have to agree re: Jordan. She has incredible facility with that powerhouse body of hers. She often out-dances her partners, but she doesn’t connect with them. It really stood out for me when dancing with Ade. Don’t get me wrong: it was a fabulous routine. Ade is such a generous partner; he never tries to steal the spotlight, and so it made it all the more obvious that Jordan did. So when she was with Jess, she seemed to regard him with as much connection as she would a prop.
Loved the opening! Tyce trying to fill a little of the Wade void?
@NC: Well said, that Jordan essentially dances with her partners like they’re props. She’s incredibly talented, but that was getting on my nerves. I mean, I can’t dance like she can, but I know for a fact I’d have more connection with Ade than she did, if I tried to dance with him! 🙂 He connects immediately with people and it’s one of his biggest strengths.
@tiffany- i completely agree with you about the ‘wow’ dances of this season vs last season. it seems to me that they’re getting in more ‘rookie’ choreographers this time around, which is great for more choreographers getting more exposure, but is not so great for showing off dancers. season 7 does NOT compare with season 8.
maybe it’s because they only cut 1 dancer each week? last year was incredible for a range of different styles and partners. so glad they had a girl/girl boy/boy performance on wednesday.
I love Ricky and I’m thrilled to see him in the top 6. I love Marko, but there’s something about Tadd that I can’t put my finger on that doesn’t draw me in as much. Tadd is always an amazing phenomenon when he picks up yet another style that he has no reason to be able to do. But to say he is better than Ricky? Really? I don’t understand the Ricky criticisms. In fact, I enjoyed watching Nigel nod his head in agreement when Cat read the re-cap of the night before and they showed the clip of Nigel “worrying” (commanding) that Ricky won’t get the votes to stay. I wish the camera had gone to his face when Ricky was voted the one to stay. I love imagining his face falling, so I guess it’s OK it wasn’t on film.
I also agree about Jordan. She just doesn’t have the versatility of Melanie and Sasha, but what she does she does beautifully. Her legs really are amazing to behold. I actually thought she connected reasonably well with Tadd when they were partnered and since then haven’t seen a good partner connection on her part.
Gemma–I completely agree about Rickey. He and Mitchell have been my two favorite boys, but Ricky has continually impressed me. His final latin dance with Ryan was phenomenal, each solo rocks, and he hasn’t taken a real wrong step in my book. 🙂