So You Think You Can Dance Season 9: Top 8 Power Rankings
TOP TWO ROUTINES
Eliana Girard w/ Alex Wong – Contemporary
This one I thought was a no brainer for myself (if not for most people). This really showed Eliana’s technical prowess and her performance level all rolled into one. Though I’ll admit I was a little disappointed it wasn’t further away from ballet because I am sure she has had quite a bit of training or background in contemporary. Having Alex as a partner definitely helps her, she held her own and really shoned the most from the Top Ten during this episode.
Witney Carson w/ Nick Lazzarini – Jazz
Witney got to show the sexy in this routine and did she ever. She and Nick had charisma and steam oozing for days. It was loads of fun watching Nick on the show finally (especially with Melody coming on as an All-Star last season)… that was a real treat. Granted Jazz isn’t too much of a stretch for Witney to begin with, but she looked like she was having loads of fun.
MIDDLE THREE ROUTINES
Lindsay Arnold w/ Jakob Karr – Jazz
What is it with both ballroom girls getting Jazz this week? I mean really. Granted Lindsay did a fantastic job and I actually believed Jakob being her shadow during the first portion of the routine. However, what really threw me was not that she didn’t dance it well, but rather that during the times that they should be in sync I felt that they weren’t. Like when Jakob does his amazing back bend or flicks his head one way or that, Lindsay wasn’t using her full body like Jakob did. Nevertheless this was a strong routine and she really held her own, but she has got to focus on the details if she wants to melt with other dancers that are just that polished.
Chehon Wespi-Tschopp w/ Lauren Gottlieb – Lyrical Hip Hop
Understandably Chehon had a bit of trouble with the choreography, but dammit he was loose, he was free and he was having fun! What more could you ask for from someone that was doing ballet most of his life? You can’t help but be drawn into this pairing and you can’t help but notice how he just feels the music and the warmth that was emanating from him. Even though the dance wasn’t perfect he really grew leaps and bounds through this routine.
Will Thomas w/ Kathryn McCormick – Bollywood
Will’s a goofball and I haven’t seen a routine that Will has done that he wasn’t allowed to tap into his goofiness. Sometimes it fits and sometimes it doesn’t… this is one of those routines where it works and it works well enough. Will danced the routine really well but dammit, sometimes I wish he’d tone down the goofiness a bit.
BOTTOM THREE ROUTINES
Cyrus “Glitch” Spencer w/ Jaimie Goodwin – Contemporary
He could have easily screwed this up, Travis could have easily cut more corners and have Jaimie dance around Cyrus more than she did, but he didn’t. This routine truly emphasized Cyrus’ strengths in emotion, passion and partnering… yes I noticed that he struggled a bit on making the lifts seamless and his technique wasn’t perfect but dammit he really did surprise me with how much he has grown. Travis did a smart job in creating a routine that would push Cyrus to reach Jaimie’s level and even though he didn’t meet by any stretch of the imagination he did grow and grow a lot. That being said, he still wasn’t strong enough, as long as he keeps growing exponentially as he has he should be fine for at least another week.
Cole Horibe w/ Anya Garnis – ChaCha
Yes, this wasn’t the best for Cole but honestly I am not going to thrown him under the bus for it… why? Because of the following:
http://twitter.com/Dance9Cole/status/237400410686631937
You read that right, Cole was actually injured this week and sidelined for two days due to that foot injury. So one couldn’t expect his feet to be perfect considering what he was going through. That being said I don’t necessarily agree with the judges saying that he connected with the audience more than Anya, I felt that there were times when he was splitting his focus with one eye on Anya and the other on the audience. I really liked these two together and Cole was always one for characterizations. If anything I would agree with Mary in the sense that I would have liked more, but I think that Cole did well as to be expected due to his injury… unfortunately despite that injury it didn’t really give as much of a cushion as it could.
Tiffany Maher w/ Brandon Bryant – Disco
There isn’t much for me to talk about with this routine, Tiffany was more in the air than on the floor so critiquing was going to be difficult. There were moments that I thought that she had a to work a bit to make the transitions smooth between tricks but it wasn’t bad. This was a very energetic routine that she did well in, however, I haven’t been able to feel much from her throughout the season and she hasn’t really captured my attention yet.
ELIMINATED ROUTINES
George Lawrence Jr w/ Allison Holker – Jazz
No surprise here, George’s performance seemed to fall flat for me here, but I had always had trouble connecting with George no matter how beautiful of a dancer he is. The one issue with this routine was the use of the cane which I kept comparing to that of Season 6’s Ashleigh and Jakob’s routine which was leaps and bounds more memorable than this. Even though the storylines differ I’ll still remember the Season 6 routine over this one.
Audrey Case w/ Stephen “tWitch” Boss – Hip Hop
I really wanted to like this routine, I really did, but dammit I couldn’t, I simply couldn’t. Audrey is another of those dancers that I haven’t been able to connect with throughout the season and she always appeared to fall flat for me. In the case of this performance she is put against someone like tWitch who is just oozing charisma and personality and she doesn’t come up to scratch she’s going to appear like a moving prop… which unfortunately is what happened to me.
GROUP ROUTINE
Paraphrased from the IdolForums:
It was a tribute to Gene Kelly, who’s 100th birthday is this week. Tyce took classic, iconic elements of Gene’s movies & incorporated them into the dance. So there’s Singin in the Rain with the umbrella (Chehon’s part), Cyd Charisse (Eliana, in a beautiful green dress), Fair Weather, Anchors Aweigh (at least that’s what I thought of when I saw Audrey, Lindsay & Witney in sailor/navy costumes but that could have also been On the Town), when he danced with Jerry Mouse, things like that. […] There were a few props on stage: director’s chair with Gene Kelly on the back, a ladder, trash can lids that Will, George, & Tyce (filling in for injured Cole) danced with, Chehon’s Singin umbrella. […] Everyone kind of danced in their own little groups seperately at various points of the dance, then all came together at the end to dance in one big group. Cole did show up at the close of the routine; […]
TOP TWO GIRLS Eliana Girard Lindsay Arnold |
TOP TWO GUYS Chehon Wespi-Tschopp Will Thomas |
BOTTOM TWO GIRLS Witney Carson Tiffany Maher |
BOTTOM TWO GUYS Cyrus Spencer Cole Horibe |
I will have to disagree about Lindsay and Jakob, I thought it was better than Whitney and Nick, although I did enjoy them as well, especially since I never saw Nick dance before.
Other than that, spot on, thanks for sharing.
@Irina, I’m so glad more viewers have been able to see Nick dance, he holds a special place in SYTYCD history as the 1st winner!! I would almost agree with you, except that I found the size of the screen super distracting in Lindsay & Jakob’s piece, especially bc it was Jakob behind the screen so this technically brilliant dancer was enormous behind Lindsay it was hard not to watch him. I wanted to see a little more interaction between Lindsay and Jakob, almost interacting with her shadow.
Sorry, I have to call bullsh*t on the judges for not mentioning Cole’s injury – I think Cole’s a technically brilliant ballroom dancer and did just fine connecting with Anya, but I think it was kinda unfair on the judges’ part to act as if he was dancing at 100% capacity on Tuesday…which he clearly wasn’t, given that he had missed 2 days of rehearsal time and found out the following day that he has a torn ligament in his foot. If they were going to call him out on having bad footwork, I think they should have at least mentioned that his injury just MIGHT have been part of the problem. I have to wonder if they’re storyboarding a bit to create a “comeback” arc for Cole, so as not to give the impression that he’s already got the boys’ win all tied up. I just hope he isn’t forced to withdraw due to injury, a la Alex Wong 🙁
I just do not get the appeal of Will & Tiffany. I find Will to be a bit of a sloppy dancer with a tendency to overact, and while I think Tiffany’s a great technician, I don’t ever really see anything truly inspiring about her dancing. She’s just a garden-variety contemporary/jazz girl to me. And yet both have managed to avoid the bottom 2. *shrug* Sometimes I think America will always pick “vanilla” over any other unique flavor of dancer…
The debate seems to rage on over who’s the better ballroom girl – Tiffany or Witney – and I’ve gotta say, after seeing Witney’s solo the other night…I think it’s Witney. I see so many people going on about how Lindsey’s the better technician & whatnot, but honestly, I thought Witney’s samba solo had far better him action, foot placement, and overall musicality than Lindsey’s. I also think Witney’s the better entertainer, overall – I sometimes feel like Lindsey has a harder time conveying emotions through her face. But as long as one of them is one of the last 2 standing, I’m happy 🙂 I’m worried that it will be Tiffany and Eliana (who Nigel suddenly seems very attached to) in the final 2, though.
I totally agree with your entire post Courtney!
Eliana is my favorite and then I really want a ballroom girl to make the top 2 girls. It’s been a very long time since a ballroom person made top 2. I also would prefer it to be Witney, but I’ll take either. I think some people are saying Lindsay is the better technician because she put more content in her solo……but just because you have more ballroom step content doesn’t mean you do that content better. I think Witney is sharper and a bit more musical. She also conveys different emotions better and more naturally in my opinion.
Its been a little while since ive posted, so here goes.
AMAZING PIECES
Eliana and Alex
It really suprised me that i loved this piece, considering that i wasn’t a fan of Alex (yes, its possible) but this was just breathtaking! Every move was flawless, and Eliana really showed her dancing strength.
Tiffany and Brandon
Why is everybody against Tiffany? I admit that her personality was never showcased, but that shouldn’t have an affect on how people judge her dancing. I thought this disco was the best i have seen in a loooong time on this show. All the lifts were perfect, and it wasn’t cheesy like most of the discos are. It was a great piece, plain and simple.
GREAT PIECES
Cheon and Lauren Hip-Hop
I tend to hate lyrical hip-hop pieces because they never take skill to dance or show off the dancers, but this one was so different! It was slow, yet everything looked intricate and meaningful. I loved how he brought himself to this piece, and how sometimes there was elements of ballet in the hip-hop. This piece just made me feel warm inside.
Lindsay and Jakob
I thought this piece was great dancing and cool tricks, but there was no chemistry between them. I enjoyed it though, and thought both of them did a good job.
GOOD PIECES
Whitney and Nick
I thought this piece was really boring, and definately not a stand-out, but they danced really well. I was really impressed when Whitney did some of the slower moves, because she did them so well, and they looked really smooth.
EH PIECES
Will and Kathryn
I could barely watch this piece because of Will’s dancing. In his pieces with Amelia, he didn’t have a strong leading role so i never really realized it until now, but i really don’t like how he dances. He kind of flails his arms and legs, and he moves his head around really weirdly. He also didn’t extend while perfoming some of the moves, which is important to really shine in a bollywood piece.
Cole and Anya
He really didn’t do well in this piece, and he was stiff, but i agree with Marianya that he really shouldn’t be fully blamed for this considering his injury was so bad he couldn’t dance the group piece, and i think it was nice that he danced even at all.
Cyrus and Jamie
Face it, it was all her in this routine. She was dancing around him, and he barely did anything. He even forgot what to do when he was supposed to lift her from the legs, and towards the end of the piece there was a point where he almost dropped her! I just hate how the judges worship him just because he can do the robot. He’s a one trick pony, and any of the dancers that got cut before the top 20 could be dancing circles around him! Its unfair that he’s still in and any of the dancers that got cut aren’t.
I didn’t include the dances from the eliminated dancers for a reason. I just think that they gave the George awful music for his piece, and Audrey awful makeup and a sub-par piece so the audience wouldn’t feel bad that they were going home. It’s a shame, because i think that Audrey was sent home too early and while George was saved numerous times, he had a bad start from the beginning.
The boys that should go home soon are Cyrus and Will, because their technique and skill are behind the other two male dancers. The girl that should go home is Linsday, for that same reason. The boy that i think will go home next week is Will, but i think that Tiffany will go home for the girls due to the fact that the audience doesn’t know her as well.
@EPMusic – Couldn’t agree more with your assessment of Witney vs. Lindsey’s solos. Lindsey’s may have had more content, but I also don’t think it was executed quite as well – she seemed to get a little wishy-washy on certain steps, and the whole thing just seemed a bit frantic to me. She may have been nervous due to unexpectedly being in the bottom 3, but I think letting nerves affect one’s performance is possibly the WORST thing a bottom 3 dancer can do in their solo. Witney, on the other hand, may not have had as much content, but the content she did have was executed smoothly & with a ton of confidence – and a lot more showmanship, IMO. I think the best solos don’t always have the biggest quantity of steps – I go more for quality. Which is why I always hated Darien’s flaily, tricky, cram-as-much-action-as-you-can-into-60-seconds solos 😛
@Phenom – I’m not “against” Tiffany – I actually just said what a great technician she was, and that I just didn’t find anything about her dancing to be particularly special. And l don’t feel as though I’m inherently wrong for thinking that way – the reality is, people can vote however they want to, and the minute you start making rules about voting on personality vs. dance skill and how you can/can’t separate the two, I think you lose track of the big picture: that the show is about America’s FAVORITE dancer, and that’s not always the BEST dancer. My criteria for what’s good and yours aren’t the same – and that’s fine.
# Margaret, I see your point, I was very happy to see Nick dance, I have never seen him perform before, and I liked it.
The thing is – I LOOVE Jakob, and loved to see him dance on the SYTYCD stage again. It could have very well clouded my judgement. Now that you explained it, I think I probably liked it because I saw so much of Jakob, and he of course overpowered Lindsay, it was a given.
RE: Tiffany – I like her, but also was wondering why she is so popular?
She does not stand out to me in any way – good, but not great, at least not ad good as some others. My two cents.