SYTYCD Season 9: Top 16 Performances – Music and Instant Thoughts!
NOTE: Because I spend most of the dance updating the music list, I will post thoughts as I rewatch the dances / episode later tonight.
Group dance: Top 16
Style: Contemporary
Choreographer: Tyce Diorio
Song: Jun Miyake – “The Here and After” 
Dancers: George & Tiffany
Style: Hip Hop
Choreographer: NappyTabs
Song: B.O.B. and Nicki Minaj – “Out of My Mind”
Thoughts: This was an interesting routine. I liked it enough but there were moments that there weren’t in sync particularly towards the end. It was a fun routine with a cute little story. I was impressed that they both were able to keep up with the choreography for the most part. I don’t know if this is going to be a memorable routine however considering this was at the beginning of the episode.
Dancers: Brandon & Amber
Style: Jazz
Choreographer: Ray Leeper
Song: Aretha Franklin – “Dr. Feelgood (Love Is a Serious Business)”
Thoughts: My goodness, why weren’t these two partnered up from the beginning? I mean come on! These were like fire and ice on the dance floor and putting fire and ice together and the whole place melts. Even for being early in the episode this is a very memorable routine for me, the chemistry, the connection was all there. I really loved Brandon’s characterization in this routing and Amber just blossomed with Brandon as opposed to with Nick previously.
Dancers: Janelle & Dareian
Style: Cha Cha
Choreographer: Pasha Kovalev
Song: Carly Rae Jepsen – “Call Me Maybe”
Thoughts: This seemed to be a rather calm ChaCha… with an atypical song. The ChaCha is supposed to be a very fun and flirty routine, but instead it seemed rather cool. I was really hoping for a little more fireworks but what kind of pulled my focus was a lot of the hand placements going on. Granted their tricks was rather good… but overall it seemed rather off.
Dancers: Lindsey & Cole
Style: Contemporary
Choreographer: Mandy Moore
Song: Charlotte Martin – “Wild Horses”
Thoughts: Somehow I managed I get the song down to watch this particular routine, but OMG I love the lighting for this piece. I got chills watching this routine… seriously I got chills… this was very beautiful. Granted, Lindsay’s hair was a bit of a distraction (I was going to say something snarky and evil but I will refrain), but her movement was just breathtaking and it complements Cole really really well.
Dancers: Amelia & Will
Style: Jazz
Choreographer: Mandy Moore
Song: The Creatures – “You!”
Thoughts: Ok, this is really beginning to annoy me… Amelia and Will has had a pop-jazzy routine their first week, followed by contemporary and now jazz… Really? I mean really? Anyway, not that I got that out of my system, I enjoyed this routine, quite a bit: it was fun, quirky and hit all the right notes in my opinion.
Dancers: Audrey & Matthew
Style: Salsa
Choreographer: Liz Lira
Song: Sverre Indris Joner / HSC / Kork – “Cinco Salsa”
Thoughts: This was a strange routine, like the ChaCha the Salsa should be a bit fun and flirty. It seemed so slow that I found myself getting bored. They weren’t in sync a few times and it looked like they were missing steps here and there. I might go so far to say that they were overwhelmed by the song.
Dancers: Witney Carson & Chehon Wespi-Tschopp
Style: Contemporary
Choreographer: Stacey Tookey
Song: Whitney Houston – “I Will Always Love You”
Thoughts: Ok… the chills from earlier in the show? Definitely have them now. What is going on with the two ballroom girls this evening? I mean seriously! I really loved the connections in this piece, their chemistry was believable and moreso than that of Lindsay and Cole in my opinion.
Dancers: Eliana Girard & Cyrus “Glitch” Spencer
Style: Hip Hop
Choreographer: NappyTabs
Song: District 78 & Cheesa – “Toxic”
Thoughts: What NappyTabs did was pretty smart, they took the animator moves and the balletic skills and created a routine out of it. Giving it a robotic edge to help Cyrus along, they highlighted a lot of their individual strengths and applied them to the routine. What I really liked about this routine is that Eliana was allowed to stretch more here than in previous routines.
BOTTOM SIX DANCERS
Amber Jackson
Song: Lana Del Rey – “This is What Makes Us Girls”
Lindsay Arnold
Eliana Girard
Song: Ólafur Arnalds – “Near Light”
George Lawrence Jr
Brandon Mitchell
Song: Tye Tribbett – “I Want it All Back”
Dareian Kujawa
Song: John Legend – “Ordinary People”
Guest dancers: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Song: Les Tambours Du Bronx – “Jungle Jam” (Jungle Jam does not exist on iTunes, so I went with Jungle Jazz instead )
Elimination Thoughts: Last week I put in my own thoughts as to whom would be the bottom six:
– Last week: Lindsay Arnold, Amber Jackson, Tiffany Maher, George Lawrence II, Cyrus Spencer, Matthew Kazmierczak
For the girls I was off by one girl and the guys I was off by much more. I will admit that I am not entirely surprised to see Eliana in the bottom six dancers… but personally I loved her. As for the guys Dareian I thought did a much better job in his routine with Janelle and should not have been in the bottom six and the same goes for Brandon Mitchell when compared to Janaya.
What song did the group of male dancers dance to? Really loved the song!!!
Well, tonight was kind of boring…
Group Dance – AWESOME. I kept thinking it was created with Amelia’s sort of persona in mind and it was phenomenal.
George & Tiffany – Well between Tiff and Audrey, Tiff really jumped ahead for me with this. I really enjoyed it and she got down so much better than I expected. I’m still not a big fan of George. Tiffany looked SO much like Kathryn tonight.
Brandon & Amber – Beautiful amazing routine. I still didn’t really connect with Amber but I loved Brandon’s strength and masculinity in the dance. When I stopped focusing on the lack of emotion in Amber’s face, I could really enjoy her dancing, but this was really the first time.
Janelle & Dareian – Um. So, a cha cha should not be done to Carly Rae Jepsen. The music didn’t connect with the dance, so the dancers didn’t connect with each other. Which is a shame, because Dareian is great. Still not digging Janelle, she isn’t that great a dancer so far (relatively speaking)
Lindsay & Cole – OMG. Omg omg omg. Ok so I just introduced my bf to this show recently and as we watched I sort of broke down my untrained observations of why ballroom is SO dissimilar from contemporary and he said, “So is she doing bad?” NO! She KILLED this routine, and Cole is awesome. The lightning made it seem like three couples were dancing on screen and it was just hypnotic. Favorite routine of the night, hands down.
Amelia & Will – I’m totally on board with this routine. Will & Amelia totally get each other and so far they have totally gotten each routine they’ve danced. Amelia continues to blow away my expectations, she’s so cute but she dances with such maturity. And Will is just there for her. His nuances in tonight’s jazz made me endeared more toward him.
Audrey & Matthew – Fail fail fail. Matthew was stiff and Audrey was dramatic. Both were obviously uncomfortable in the routine and I just don’t feel it was the music. I feel it was the dancers, they just didn’t grasp the salsa. Of course, I also wonder if it was Pasha as a choreographer, because the routine seemed simple and uninspired.
Witney & Chehon – Ok so this was a beautiful routine. However, I feel the routine at some points didn’t adequately connect with the music, especially the brief seconds right before the dramatic lift and drop where Chehon did a variety of tricks and spins, I feel that silence would have been better served by the lack of movement or very slow movement, but that’s me. I definitely dug it far more than last week’s.
Eliana & Cyrus – Did this remind anyone else of Pasha & Lacey’s Season 3 “In The Morning” hip hop to start, and thematically of Twitch & Alex’s famous “ballet therapist” hip hop? Eliana was great, not as good as Tiffany but better than Janaya with hip hop this season. Cyrus is definitely being overshadowed by Eliana, and I’m curious how well he’d do if he had a weaker partner.
Solo dances – Amber seemed desperate, but I think she knew she was going home. Brandon’s wasn’t really all that, and as much as I enjoy him as a dancer, Dareian is really stronger. Eliana is a great dancer and I enjoyed her control in the standing split, going from standing flatly on the floor to lifting to just her toes. Maybe that’s an easy thing in ballet but I was impressed. Dareian catapulted across that stage in a really entrancing way, but I feel he is going to be in the bottom again next week. Dang his partner!
Eliminations – I think Amber was the obvious choice, Lindsay definitely is showing her potential. I just don’t see why they saved George though, Brandon has been a more masculine dancer which George is definitely not.
I thought Lindsay should have gone home over amber tonight and darein instead of Brandon. Darein has some of the worst feet. It’s so distracting!!! Lindsey is sweet but she doesn’t have the maturity or strength that amber does. Bummer.
[…] were eliminated I would put in my thoughts after the Power Rankings. I have already posted my instant thoughts as well as polls for you guys to […]
What is the song that was played when they replayed Amber’s and Brandon’s going home clip?
The Alvin Ailey group did dance to “Jungle Jazz”, not “Jungle Jam”, so you linked it to the right song.
Also, Amber’s going home song was “Free” by Haley Reinhart, and Brandon’s going home song was “Counting on You” by Mikey Wax.