So You Think You Can Dance Season 9: Top 8 Performances – Music and Initial Thoughts
Dancers: Top 8
Style: Contemporary
Choreographer: Peter Chu
Song: Woodkid – “Run Boy Run”
PARTNER DANCES
Dancer: Witney Carson
All Star: Stephen “tWitch” Boss
Style: Hip-hop
Choreographer: Luther Brown
Song: Lil Wayne feat. Big Sean – “My Homies Still”
Initial Thoughts: Well I wanted to see Witney try her hand at hip hop… and unfortunately I am not impressed by any stretch of the imagination. And that’s a bit disconcerting. I kind of felt that she was just being sexy, strutting around the stage shaking her booty and just added a few arm moments and voila!
Dancer: Cole Horibe
All Star: Allison Holker
Style: Contemporary
Choreographer: Sonya Tayeh
Song: Björk – “Possibly Maybe” (Instrumental)
Initial Thoughts: I have a sneaky feeling that the choreographers are tapping into Cole’s more psychotic, evil, dark side of Cole more often than not… and who am I to complain? He does that look and personality well. His partnering with Allison was off the charts not to mention their chemistry… one of my favorites.
Dancer: Eliana Girard
All Star: Ryan Di Lello
Style: Quickstep
Choreographer: Jonathan Roberts
Song: Caro Emerald – “That Man”
Initial Thoughts: Well, I wanted to see Eliana to try her hand on a Ballroom routine… but I was leaning more towards a Latin number… I didn’t think of Quickstep and man I liked this, but I wasn’t all too surprised that she could pull off a Quickstep. Her chemistry with Ryan was very good too and they looked like they were just having oodles of fun.
Dancer: Lindsay Arnold
All Star: Alex Wong
Style: Jazz
Choreographer: Sonya Tayeh
Song: Gotye feat. Kimbra – “Somebody That I Used to Know”
Initial Thoughts: Technically-wise this was a very good routine, chemistry / personality / character-wise it was ok… but I wanted to reach out and be thrilled with this routine… but instead just nothing.
Dancer: Will Thomas
All Star: Lauren Gottlieb
Style: Hip-hop
Choreographer: Christopher Scott
Song: Wye Oak – “Dance My Pain Away” (District 78 remix)
Initial Thoughts: Personally I really like this routine… it was difficult to create a chemistry when the dancers are not dancing with one another… but somehow it worked. We managed to see a whole different side of the goofy Will that I think a lot of people were getting a little annoyed with and this was a breath of fresh air.
Dancer: Cyrus “Glitch” Spencer
All Star: Melanie Moore
Style: Jazz
Choreographer: Mandy Moore
Song: Freddy Fresh feat. Fatboy Slim – “Badder Badder Schwing”
Initial Thoughts: For me this routine felt slow and you know that he’s not up there technically with the other dancers. But I have to admit, he is doing his damnedest to keep up and that in and of itself is impressive.
Dancer: Chehon Wespi-Tschopp
All Star: Anya Garnis
Style: Argentine Tango
Choreographer: Miriam Larici & Leonardo Barrionuevo
Song: Jesse Cook – “Breathing Below Surface”
Initial Thoughts: Hot Hot Hot… it is about time there is a sexy and smoldering Argentine Tango on the show and I am so glad that it was Chehon that got the honor of just that. I really loved his precision and footwork and his connection with Anya was palatable. Overall I really liked it… a lot… ok more than a lot.
Dancer: Tiffany Maher
All Star: Ade Obayomi
Style: Contemporary
Choreographer: Mandy Moore
Song: Celine Dion – “The Power of Love”
Initial Thoughts: Ok… I am slowly beginning to understand what people like in Tiffany, and honestly in comparison with the other girls of the evening this was generally a strong routine. Was I impressed? No, did I like it… yes…
SOLOS
Tiffany Maher: Glee cast – “I Was Here”
Will Thomas: James Morrison – “Better Man”
Lindsay Arnold: Bond – “Señorita”
Chehon Wespi-Tschopp: Max Richter – “On the Nature of Daylight”
Witney Carson: Rihanna – “Where Have You Been”
Cole Horibe: E.S. Posthumus – “Arise”
Eliana Girard: Max Richter – “Infra 8”
Cyrus “Glitch” Spencer: Excision & Downlink – “Existence” (VIP)
Cheon and Tiffany were my faves, I am glad they are both going forward. Eliana was great and I enjoyed the dance, I liked Cole but dd not love him.
can Jonathan Roberts always choreograph ballroom on SYTYCD?! LOVE his choreography! and Ryan is a rockstar, so happy to have him back! I’d put this quickstep & Lacey & Kameron’s from S3 as probably the best 2 quicksteps the show has ever had.
I must be in the minority, I totally dug Witney & Twitch’s number. The whole thing was very Luther Brown, youtube some of his pieces from SYTYCD Canada & you’ll see what I mean. I liked it most because it was soo not what hip hop usually looks like on the show, so it was a good change.
Dear Mandy Moore, PLEASE stop choreographing to Celine Dion!! loved the routine itself, but i totally could have done without the song.
Wow, this was one of the best episodes in a very long time. I have to admit I never really really liked Chehon before tonight, but MAN that argentine tango was so incredible. Definitely a fan now. One of the best routines all season.
also loved will’s hip hop number. It was so so perfect and it’s really unfortunate that he got eliminated now. Honestly, all though I adore Cyrus and his personality, I feel like it may be time for him to go. I agree that I never liked Tiffany much either but I definitely can tell that she is extremely talented. However, I still didn’t like her routine this week. Maybe it’s just because I hate Celine Dion’s music.
It’s Eliana’s to lose. I’m also liking Cole less and less, because he comes off as cold to me. Very sad that Lindsay left tonight, because I much prefer her to Witney. I feel like Witney takes the whole sensual thing Waaay too far to the point that it’s almost unsettling to watch her solos.
Great to have Jesse Tyler Ferguson back!!!! Now I will go cry because Will got eliminated.