*It’s Almost Time to Reveal the All-Stars!!*

Hi everyone and happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great 4th of July holiday! As we get into Top 12 week, I thought I’d whip up a speculation post about the All-Stars! Unlike last season where Nigel gradually introduced who would be the All-Stars via Twitter, my thought is that they’re going to be introduced during the week between the Top 12 elimination (which is going to be so hard!) and the Top 10 performance show. Though, he might also just wait and introduce all of them on the Top 10 show. I’ve been wracking my brain (and watching way too much YouTube) to figure out who some of the All-Stars might be. If I had complete show control, these are some of the dancers I’d bring back:

#1 Robert Roldan: with the amount of time he’s spent on screen this season as an assistant as well as filling in for Mitchell during week 1 (he almost had to fill in on the most recent show, Mitchell’s foot was super swollen. Robert had his costume on and everything but Mitchell stepped up to the plate and delivered a fabulous performance with Caitlynn), I’d be SHOCKED if Robert wasn’t an All-Star this season. Not only is he an amazing dancer, but the public has really embraced him, even more than last year I think. Plus, he’s pretty easy on the eyes which might help dancers like Jordan and Ryan who seem to be having trouble getting the audience to vote for them.

Robert and Kathryn’s contemporary (top 6 week)-Stacey Tookey. I think this is the best he looked the whole season, and his partnership with Kathryn was absolutely amazing, the best partnership of the whole season. You can see through the whole piece how much he gives of himself to his partner, part of the reason he’d make a perfect All-Star. (sorry for the poor video quality, it was the only one I could find where embedding was allowed)

Katee Shean: I’m not sure if people remember that she actually stepped in as an All-Star last season when Allison Holker injured her ribs. She danced a Spencer Liff broadway number with Billy and the judges say it was the best they had ever seen Billy dance. Seeing her on the SYTYCD stage again made me remember what an incredible dancer she is. I’m embedding her “Imagine” number with Will from S4, a number I think should rank in the top 3 of the best dances in the history of the series. What the two of them did in that number is nothing short of extraordinary.

I would also be overjoyed to see Will as an All-Star, he’s an incredible dancer and it would be great to see how much he’s grown in 4 years since the show.

*your All-Star choices*
Kayla Radomski (S5) In the history of SYTYCD, Kayla has to be in the top 3 of the most physically talented girls ever to be on the show. For me, technique-wise, she’s tops. Kayla’s problem during her season was that she didn’t have much of a personality. She wasn’t boring, she just wasn’t very expressive and had trouble connecting to the audience. She began to break barrier near the end of the season, her jive with Evan during the finale was the most fun I saw her have on stage since her incredible week 1 samba with Max. Her partnership with Kupono was unexpectedly great and definitely kept her going in the competition.

Mia Michaels won a very well-deserved emmy for “Addiction” but it wouldn’t have been the same without Kayla and Kupono’s electric chemistry and partnership.

Janette Manrara (S5) Personality-wise, Janette is a great choice right off the bat. She’s also really good at multiple styles which is definitely a plus. If they’re doing a “pool” of all-stars, I want Janette in it because the ballroom, particularly the latin ballroom, this season has been pretty mediocre (this is me still being annoyed that Iveta and Nick were knocked out too early). For me, season 5 is a really underrated season, Jeanine, Kayla, Melissa, and Janette as the top 4 girls that season, that’s a pretty stacked group!

here’s Janette and Brandon’s Wade Robson “Ruby Blue” jazz number, my favorite of theirs from season 5, this also makes me miss the old stage and the stairs!

Ashleigh and Ryan DiLello (S6)
Ballroom is a tough category for All-Stars, since our best (Lacey, Dmitry, Chelsie) are all under contract with DWTS. I LOVED having Pasha and Anya back last season, and because of the lack of available ballroom All-Stars my best guess is that it will either be Pasha and Anya again or Ryan and Ashleigh. They’ve also been seen on camera helping out Jason Gilkison.

here’s their jive from the finale

and each with another partner doing ballroom
ryan and kathryn’s cha cha

ashleigh and jakob’s cha cha

Sara von Gillern (S3)
the idea of sara and tadd working together right now is making me giddy!! she is the only b-girl ever to be on the show, but sara’s adaptability was outstanding. I’m not really sure they could legitimately making breaking a category because it is so much about strength and practice, and we didn’t really see her do hip hop, but I would love to see her as an all-star.

I’m embedded one of the best performances in all 8 seasons, sara and pasha’s West Coast Swing πŸ™‚

Legacy (S6)
I miss Legacy! I’m not sure any of us thought, at the top 20 announcement for S6, that he was going to go as far as he did. For as much flack as the producers got for having a fall season, the fact that 3 couples (Ashleigh & Jakob, Ryan & Ellenore, Legacy & Kathryn) were 6 of the final 8 speaks to the fact that they picked people who America loved! Personality and stage presence makes Legacy an excellent choice for an All-Star

here’s his “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” number with Ellenore (another good all-star choice!)

…this is a list in progress. hit me up in the comments with your All-Star picks and I’ll add them + videos if I can find them to our big master list!