This week is REALLY hard, so I cheated a little and checked out y’all’s comments on John’s music post. Thanks for all the help, all of you! One thing I have to say about the non-dancing part of the show was I love, love Cat Deely’s dress last night. And I’ve never noticed before, but doesn’t she seem to have a lot of pockets on her dresses? Last night’s definitely did, she kept sticking her hands in throughout the show. Cute.
Now to the couples:
Jeanine & Phillip – I’m loving Jeanine more and more and of course Philip rocked in his style. This was the best hip hop of the season, in my opinion and I think it gives this couple’s legion of fans an excuse to keep them faaaaaar away from the bottom 3 this week.
Janette & Brandon – Brandon won me back with their intro video and then with his emotional response to the overtly staged “apology” from Mia Michaels (he must be working with her soon). This routine was smoking! Great song, great choreography and great dancing. I think they’re safe.
Kayla & Kupono – Okay, you got a routine about vampires, a song from the Twilight soundtrack and Sonya. Kinda seems like it couldn’t fail, especially because good dancers were in the mix. I like Kupono’s dancing better with Kayla (though I really liked Ashley). Kayla is stunning. And Kupono matched her step for step in this piece.
Melissa & Ade – Pointe shoes! Awesome. It was beautiful and really cool to see. I thought Ade did a spectacular job when you consider how specialized classical routines are and it’s not his style. But it kinda felt like a gimme, like a routine you couldn’t judge against the others. I almost felt like I was watching one of the professional routines on Thursday. Which is a compliment, but also not (am I making any sense). It didn’t feel like a SYTYCD routine to me. I did enjoy it, a lot.
Randi & Evan – I really, really don’t want to put them here! I love this couple and I liked the routine. But you could feel that it lacked some of their normal vitality. There were numerous great moments (starting with Evan’s slow handstand across the table), but I think they’ve been flying high for several weeks and are probably due for a bottom 3 landing (temporarily). I don’t think (and really hope) they won’t be going home. They’ve been near the top every week, so hopefully that and their solos will save them.
Caitlin & Jason – I don’t want to write this one either. I didn’t feel the piece (it was weird!), but I do think the two of them danced their hearts out with what they were given. Those costumes, especially Caitlin. WTF? The moment I saw them walking into the room with Brian Friedman, I thought, “Oh, this could be really good or really, really, really bad,” and when he said “You’re an alien who came down to Earth…” I kinda wanted to throw up, I was so scared for them. They showed a lot of good sportsmanship and personality at the end, facing the judges, so maybe that will help them. But, they have been in the bottom 3 several times…
Karla & Vitolio – I still don’t like Vitolio, though I do agree he’s growing and demonstrating more personality every week. I like him more when he’s dancing and Karla has really, really grown on me. I loved the quick change and Karla in general throughout the piece.
In the end, I suspect that it will be Caitlin and Vitolio that go home. Or perhaps Caitlin and Jason, since they’ve both gotten a lot of flak and have ended in the bottom. I love Caitlin, so this is a sad conclusion for me. But I don’t want Randi and Evan split up before the Top 10 and Karla has been doing better and better every week.
TV Guide.com has done a Power Ranking of the Top 14 individual dancers, some of which I agree with and some of which I don’t. They place Jeanine and Karla in a tie for the bottom of the Top 14, when both girls have been gaining steady popularity AND the girls (in my opinion) are far stronger dancers than the boys this season. Nice to see TV Guide liked our idea for power rankings.
You helped me create this week’s Power Rankings, so let me know if you think I got it right or not.
