SYTYCD 7: All Star Dancer Analysis
Every twelve hours for the next few days up until the day of the show after this post there will a post devoted to each of the Top 4 as well as some additional information…
But before talking about the Top 4 Dancers, let’s look at the All Stars this season and what I would like to see happen with the All-Stars in what could potentially be their last week as All-Star partners…
So now that seven weeks have gone by lets take a look at the All-Stars and what they have been asked to do on the show thus far (in regards to the performance shows… not the results shows)
Towards the bottom of the post there is a poll asking which of the following All-Stars would you like to see in the upcoming performance show (provided that the format won’t change).
Allison Holker
– Week 1: Contemporary w/ Alex Wong
– Week 2: Contemporary w/ Adechike Torbert
– Week 3: Jazz w/ Kent Boyd
– Week 4: INJURY
– Week 5: Contemporary w/ Robert Roldan
– Week 6: Contemporary w/ Jose Ruiz
– Week 7: Broadway w/ Lauren Froderman
Allison has danced with everyone… and has been dancing almost every week (would have been every week had it not been for her injury). So if she’s to dance this week I would love to see her work with Kent again, maybe something cultural. Otherwise, give this girl a break… 🙂
Anya Garnis
– Week 1: ChaCha w/ Kent Boyd
– Week 2: Argentine Tango w/ Robert Roldan
– Week 3: Samba w/ Jose Ruiz
– Week 4: INJURY
– Week 5: Salsa w/ Adechike Torbert
– Week 5: Jive w/ Billy Bell
– Week 6: NONE
– Week 7: ChaCha w/ Kent Boyd
The problem with Ballroom is that it is very rare to see a same sex dance. Male/Male Paso Doble is the easiest one to extrapolate, but what about Female/Female? I would love to see a pairing with her that would involve a Viennese Waltz or a Rumba.
Dominic Sandoval
– Week 1: NONE
– Week 2: Lyrical HipHop w/ Lauren Froderman
– Week 3: NONE
– Week 4: HipHop w/ Ashley Galvan
– Week 5: Breaking w/ Jose Ruiz
– Week 6: NONE
– Week 7: NONE
Poor guy, he’s one of many male dancers that have only danced three times in this competition. Should there be a hiphop routine it usually goes to Twitch as a oppose to Dominic. He’s a sweetheart, so why not put that sweetness to work with a hiphop routine with another sweet guy like Kent!
Lauren Gottlieb
– Week 1: Broadway w/ Billy Bell
– Week 2: Broadway w/ Alex Wong
– Week 3: HipHop w/ Adechike Torbert
– Week 4: Contemporary w/ Jose Ruiz
– Week 5: NONE
– Week 6: Jazz w/ Robert Roldan
– Week 7; NONE
My, isn’t she a popular one amongst the men? This is easy, pair her up with Kent Boyd. He has already done Broadway with Neil and HipHop with Comfort, Jazz with Courtney, Allison and Kathryn… the only times he has done Contemporary is with his fellow competitors… so why not a Contemporary piece with Lauren? It could be a story about Kent finding out that Lauren’s been going around with other men (as evidence of the fact that most of the guys are swooning over her) and she tries to keep him to her.
Neil Haskell
– Week 1: Contemporary w/ Ashley Galvan
– Week 2: NONE
– Week 3: Broadway w/ Lauren Froderman
– Week 4: NONE
– Week 5: Broadway w/ Kent Boyd
– Week 6: NONE
– Week 7: NONE
A great talent that is woefully underused. Unfortunately with the women getting more work than the men, the men are tied up doing male/male routines, which is fine by me. This is a dancer that needs to be used more often! And when I say more often, I’d like to see a Neil/Adechike routine. They are both very strong and athletic dancers… just think of the tricks that could come out of these two!
Pasha Kovalev
– Week 1: Jive w/ Melinda Sullivan
– Week 2: Paso Doble w/ Cristina Santana
– Week 3: Salsa w/ Melinda Sullivan
– Week 4: ChaCha w/ Lauren Froderman
– Week 5: INJURY
– Week 6: NONE
– Week 7: NONE
Awww Pasha, you sexy Ballroom dancer you. Without the Paso Doble there isn’t much more male/male dancing that can be done. Unless you want to do a Jive battle? or Samba battle. Ooooo how about him paired up with Robert Roldan doing the Foxtrot or Viennese Waltz… wait wait wait hear me out. Between the two of them a mannequin, and they are trying to “win” the mannequin’s affections… 😀 Ok I’m a nut, so sue me.
Comfort Fedoke
– Week 1: HipHop w/ Jose Ruiz
– Week 2: Krump w/ Billy Bell
– Week 3: NONE
– Week 4: HipHop w/ Kent Boyd
– Week 5: NONE
– Week 6: Lyrical HipHop w/ Adechike Torbert
– Week 7: HipHop w/ Jose Ruiz
So which dancers have yet to be had by Comfort? ROBERT! Geez I’ve been using him a lot lately. Though, a Lauren/Comfort piece would be very very interesting too… Lauren is full of personality and Comfort knows how to bring the funk. I think this would be another female/female pairing that could go right for once.
Mark Kanemura
– Week 1: Jazz w/ Cristina Santana
– Week 2: Jazz w/ Ashley Galvan
– Week 3: NONE
– Week 4: NONE
– Week 5: Tahitian w/ Lauren Froderman
– Week 6: NONE
– Week 7: NONE
Ah yes, Mark, another dancer that’s being woefully underused, and not his fault. I think I would like to see a Jazz or Contemporary piece between him and any of the guys. Though if it were with Robert, then it’d be kind of difficult to figure out who is who. I’m kind of scared that Mark would overshadow Kent, but that might be a challenge worth looking into… Adechike I think could keep up really really well.
Stephen “Twitch” Boss
– Week 1: HipHop w/ Alexie Agdeppa
– Week 2: NONE
– Week 3: HipHop w/ Alex Wong
– Week 4: NONE
– Week 5: NONE
– Week 6: HipHop w/ Lauren Froderman
– Week 6: Steppin w/ Kent Boyd (fill in)
– Week 7: NONE
After some mini-vacations early on, Twitch jumps in with two dances in one week. He’s had the most male/male dances, but granted considering his style it’s fairly easy to have male/male dances. Me, I’d love to see some heavy chocolate so a Twitch/Adechike routine would work, or a Twitch/Robert routine would be interesting… well that and the fact that Robert has yet to do a hiphop routine… so why not toss him with Twitch and see if he would sink or swim?
Courtney Galiano
– Week 1: African Jazz w/ Robert Roldan
– Week 2: Jazz w/ Kent Boyd
– Week 3: Jazz w/ Robert Roldan
– Week 4: Jazz w/ Adechike Torbert
– Week 5: Broadway w/ Jose Ruiz
– Week 6: NONE
– Week 7: Jazz w/ Adechike Torbert
Ok folks… just to get this out of the way, Courtney is my least favorite All-Star. I never really “got” her, except in her Rumba w/ Gev, but I love ballroom in general so that’s no surprise. That being said, she’s managed a dance with every male contestant thus far, leaving Lauren… so another possible female/female pairing, but despite the other possible female/female pairings as mentioned earlier, I’m not too keen about this one happening. Though with my luck THIS would be the one that ends up happening. 😀
Ade Obayomi
– Week 1: Pop Jazz w/ Lauren Froderman
– Week 2: Contemporary w/ Melinda Sullivan
– Week 3: Contemporary w/ Ashley Galvan
– Week 4: NONE
– Week 5: NONE
– Week 6: NONE
– Week 7: Contemporary w/ Billy Bell
He’s the most classical trained dancer of the group (I believe) and his style is so strong and upright… After seeing him in a piece with Billy Bell last week I’d love to see him with any of dancers again… though I don’t think I’d would like to see him with Lauren…
Kathryn McCormick
– Week 1: Jazz w/ Adechike Torbert
– Week 2: Bollywood w/ Jose Ruiz
– Week 3: Contemporary w/ Billy Bell
– Week 4: Jazz w/ Robert Roldan
– Week 5: Disco w/ Robert Roldan (fill in)
– Week 6: Jazz w/ Kent Boyd
– Week 7: Contemporary w/ Robert Roldan
Considering she was JUST a contestant not even a year ago, it’s amazing to see how much work is being thrown at her, not that she minds apparently. She has danced with everyone thus far (with the exception of Lauren) and has danced every week… I think it’s high time that she gets a break. What do you think?
So there you go, a quick update of what the all-stars have been up to on the show and what I would like to see for the upcoming week. Granted, not all of them would come to pass… but they are preferences on some level… it’ll be interesting to see how many of them would come to pass.
What a great idea, Marianya!! You’re pretty spot on with your analysis, especially about the All-Star guys not getting a lot of work. I wish we have seen more of Neil and Ade especially, I loved watching them dance together in the Debi Nova number, they’re both so incredibly athletic. One quick thing, though, Courtney (I agree with you, she’s my least favorite as well) danced her rumba with Gev rather than Dominic. I think that Comfort is the All-Star who has improved the most since her season, she has become a more refined dancer, especially in her own style. I especially saw that in the “All That Jazz” opening number from a couple of weeks ago, she was great.
Margaret – I’m glad you like the idea! I had this idea last week and wanted to post it prior to the Top 6 reboot week, but I couldn’t find the time to sit down and do all that typing! Ah well, better late than never.
Thanks for pointing out that it’s Gev rather than Dominic, you’d think I’d remember something like that since they are from different seasons, but ah well.
I agree that Comfort has grown leaps and bounds since her time on the show. I enjoyed watching her then and love her a lot more now.
I have a feeling a Comfort and Lauren routine would be pretty awesome. However considering that Robert has not danced with her yet, it might be interesting to see. Plus he has not done hip hop so it might really make or break him. Lauren has already done two hip hop routine and shows she can bend her back like crazy.
I need more NEil, would love him to dance with Lauren to a Travis piece.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXZ7mZynWIo
This is a female-female ballroom from sytycd Canada maybe they could do something like this for Anya and Lauren.
Great list! Allison and Kathryn are my favorite female all-stars, and I can’t get enough Ade, Neil and tWitch. I like the others, too, but for me, there’s something special about those five.
I so hope Robert gets hip-hop this week, with either Comfort or tWitch. Although I can’t picture him doing it, he’s become quite the chameleon, and I think he could potentially knock it out of the park. I do love how he and Kathryn dance together, though. Great chemistry between them.
@MJ I’m totally with you on your favorites. I started watching during S2 and I didn’t realize how much I’d missed watching Allison until she came back to us this season. I can tell you from seeing Ade on tour that he is just as incredible live as he is on TV. Neil and TWitch, definitely two of the most charismatic and athletic dancers we’ve ever had.
I, too, would love to see Robert do hip hop, and I think he could do quite well, especially after watching him excel in the Bollywood last week. He seems to have a great sense of rhythm, beat, and musicality. And he and Kathryn have fabulous chemistry.
@Marianya: You have some interesting suggestions here. Especially Robert and Twitch and Lauren and Comfort. Oh and the Anya and Lauren combo. I’m just gonna have to pretend you didn’t say that about Courtney… Also, I can’t believe how much Kathryn and Robert have danced together. It’s almost unfair…they’ve had a chance to develop a partnership over the season, whereas the others haven’t. 🙂
I didn’t realize how much Kathryn and Robert have danced together, wow. Robert and Twitch could be a pretty sick combo as well.
This is a great idea, plus so helpful for those of us with poor short-term memory! Seeing the pairings in black and white really does bring to light some no brainer pairings, like Kent matching up with the one girl he’s not danced with, Lauren.
Totally agree that Robert needs to do some hip-hop, although as much as I like Comfort, I’d like to see him with either Twitch or Dominic – I think Twitch would bring out his power side, while Dominic would bring out his energy side, and either would be nice to see from him.
And Adechike has some nice possibilities if he goes same-sex. Would love to see Mark’s effect on his personality – he threw out some quirky glimpses in his dance w/Lauren, I thought. With Neil I would love some full-on athletic Broadway. Ade, I think would be the toughest for him, not so much because of the training and technique (which Chike has), but because Ade has this amazing emotional access that I suspect Adechike has kept tamped down, for fear of it not coming across masculine.
(I remember when he talked about Desmond Richardson being his inspiration, the key thing Adechike commented on was to the effect of ‘I saw that a man could do it and be manly’.) Maybe Ade can help him loosen up more in that respect.
Sorry, almost got on another tangent about masculinity!
As for Lauren, I would also like to see her tackle a more formal style of ballroom, like a waltz. Plus, it would be nice to see Pasha once last time!
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