So You Think You Can Dance Season 9: Top 10 Performances – Music and Instant Thoughts!
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Since I wasn’t able to see the show til the morning after… I’m posting everything now. Please bare with me and I apologize for the delay.
Dancer: Top 10 Dancers
Style: Broadway
Choreographer: Tyce Diorio
Song: Mark Isham – “The Cool World Stomp”
ROUTINES WITH THE ALL-STARS
Dancer: Tiffany Maher
All Star: Brandon Bryant
Style: Disco
Choreographer: Doriana Sanchez
Song: Cobra Starship feat. Sabi – “You Make Me Feel…” (Disco Fries remix)
Instant Thoughts: It was rather difficult to develop any kind of criticism because this was just shock full of tricks and lifts, which were executed really well. What I would have loved to have seen was more foot work, but what can you do? In the sense of the dance they were energetic and fun and you can’t help but want to get into the beat and groove in the movement.
Dancer: Witney Carson
All Star: Nick Lazzarini
Style: Jazz
Choreographer: Travis Wall
Song: Moloko – “Sing It Back”
Instant Thoughts: Witney needs help being sexy? Really? And she’s what? 18? I really liked this routine, definitely caught my attention and considering it is Jazz, she did rather well.
Dancer: Cole Horibe
All Star: Anya Garnis
Style: ChaCha
Choreographer: Dmitry Chaplin
Song: The Wanted – “Glad You Came”
Instant Thoughts: I was expecting a lot out of Cole this week and was a little bit disappointed. Well, he did connect with Anya but I wanted him to really dig into the steps more.
Dancer: Lindsay Arnold
All Star: Jakob Karr
Style:Broadway
Choreographer: Spencer Liff
Song: Fosse – “Dancin’ Dan” (Me and My Shadow)
Instant Thoughts: This was fun to watch and I really enjoyed it. It wasn’t a perfect shadow at the beginning and that was a little distracting but once they started dancing together I was enjoying it more.
Dancer: Will Thomas
All Star: Kathryn McCormick
Style: Bollywood
Choreographer: Nakul Dev Mahajan
Song: The Dirty Picture – “Ooh La La”
Instant Thoughts: Will is just one massive goof ball and that is fine by me. I thought he did decently well with this dance, he had energy but yeah sometimes that goofiness comes off as too much but in this case it works… barely.
Dancer: Cyrus “Glitch” Spencer
All Star: Jaimie Goodwin
Style: Contemporary
Choreographer: Travis Wall
Song: M83 – “Outro”
Instant Thoughts: Wow, just wow… Cyrus definitely impressed me this time around. Pushed beyond what we perceived to be his limit… his strengths were shown with his partnering and as the judges were calling it “raw talent”. Unfortunately it also showed a little of his lack of training in this area, but considering just how much he is growing on the show that is always a positive.
Dancer: Chehon Wespi-Tschopp
All Star: Lauren Gottlieb
Style: Hip-hop
Choreographer: Dave Scott
Song: Maxwell – “Pretty Wings”
Instant Thoughts: This was another routine that wowed me, Chehon doing hip-hop? Yeeeeaaaah. He looked like he was having fun with his partner and there were a killer team together.
Dancer: George Lawrence, Jr
All Star: Allison Holker
Style: Jazz
Choreographer: Tyce Diorio
Song: Hazmat Modine – “Bahamut”
Instant Thoughts: When I saw the cane I immediately thought of another routine in Season 6 and unfortunately I couldn’t keep myself from comparing between the two. George is a strong dancer, but he just has’t wowed me in the grand scheme of things.
Dancer: Eliana Girard
All Star: Alex Wong
Style: Contemporary
Choreographer: Stacey Tookey
Song: Nancy Sinatra – “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)”
Instant Thoughts: Definitely a favorite, this really appears to really show off Eliana in ways that she wasn’t when she was partnered with Cyrus. She really shined in this piece and having a well-trained partner like Alex definitely helped with that as well.
Dancer: Audrey Case
All Star: Stephen “tWitch” Boss
Style: Hip-hop
Choreographer: Dave Scott
Song: Janelle Monáe – “Sincerely, Jane”
Instant Thoughts: For some reason I wasn’t really feeling Audrey tonight, she danced the piece decently enough, but when compared to someone like tWitch she has to really step up her game and she just didn’t for me which is unfortunate.
SOLO ROUTINES
Witney Carson: Santigold – “You’ll Find a Way” (Switch & Sinden remix)
Audrey Case: Jennifer Hudson – “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going”
Chehon Wespi-Tschopp: Ólafur Arnalds – “Til Enda”
George Lawrence, Jr.: Olafur Arnalds – “Brotsjor”
Favorite pieces: Eliana & Alex, Witney & Nick and Lindsay & Jakob.
Middle: Cole & Anya, Tiffany & Brandon, Cyrus & Jaimie, Will & Kathryn, Chehon & Lauren
Didn’t care for: George & Allison, Audrey & Twitch
It was great to see some All-Stars that have never appeared as All-Stars before.
I was so glad they gave Eliana a chance to shine. And who better to partner with that Alex? So cool to see him perform again.
I was shocked Witney was in the bottom, she has been wonderful all season and was one of the best things about the Mia repeat week last week, which is what the votes were based on.
Tiffany must have a really strong fanbase somehow. My top three girls are Eliana (1), Witney (2) and Lindsay (3) but it looks as if Tiffany will beat out one of them at least, since she never has been in the bottom.
In my opinion, the eliminations were correct with who was placed in the bottom 4.
Favorite routine overall – Eliana and Alex, just perfect.
Favorite dancer – Eliana, we noticed her at the first audition and she did not dissapoint.
Favorite choreo – Spanecer Liff, it was a cool routine.
And now to the best part – Jakob was back!!!! He IS from another dance planet, his skill is remarkable and the routine showed him off perfectly!!!
Loved the entire show, one of my faves of the year.
Thank you for posting, Marianya.
agreed with everyone above, LOVED Eliana & Alex. This has the potential to play out a bit like Jeanine did in season 5, only when she was partnered with Jason, someone who could match her technically, did people really begin to see her as a force & she just exploded.
I also loved Witney & Nick, I hope that the fact that Nick may not be as recognizable to some of the younger viewers doesn’t hurt her, or is at least cancelled out by the fact their choreographer was Travis.
Lindsay & Jakob was loads of fun, I could have done with a smaller screen, though, especially bc it was Jakob behind the screen so it was really hard not to watch him bc he looked enormous (and amazing, seriously, the guy does not have a spine, how does he bend like that?!!)
Marianya, totally agree with you about the cane & George/Allison. Wasn’t digging the choreo & I just kept thinking about Jakob & Ashleigh’s cane routine.
It was so nice to see Chehon have FUN! he hit the partner jackpot this week, because we got to see his looser, sexier side. I was afraid for him that he was going to be this season’s Alexander, beautifully trained but just not emotionally connected, but I loved him this week. It wasn’t perfect, but seeing him smile & connect w/ Lauren & the audience was a huge step for him.
Ranked from 1-10 (in my opinion)
1. Eliana- OK, when you mix Eliana Girard, Alex Wong and Stacey Tookey together, you can’t go wrong. Eliana is so versatile and I feel like this was her first moment to really show us how good she really is.
2. Lindsay- This was such a fun routine, and although I agree it was a little off in the beggining, they most certainly made up for it. It was enjoyable from start to finish and hopefully keeps LIndsay out of the bottom next week.
3. Cyrus- He is such an inspiration to me because of his beautiful passion and his obsession for learning. Yes, some of his jumps were definitely not up to par, but he has such a beautiful, humble spirit that is different than anybody else on the show.
4. Witney- She killed it. Dance-style-wise, I think I prefer Lindsay over her because when Witney does her solos, (especially this week’s), there isn’t much footwork but rather lots of hair-tossing and rolling around. However, for this routine, her and Nick did a fabulous job and it should be enough to keep her out of the bottom.
5. Will- I have just fallen in love with Will, because he’s such a goof and so lovable. Sometimes, because he is so tall, it’s hard to make his actions look clean, but he absolutely murdered this bollywood in my opinion. I usually adore Nakul’s bollywoods, and this was no exception.
6. Chehon- @Margaret, I completely agree that he could have been an Alexander, and in the beginning he sort of was, but he’s really grown. Personally, he’s not my favourite, and I wouldn’t be sad to see him go, but I can still see that he has incredible talent and he really stepped it up in this routine. I didn’t really like this Hip Hop because I didn’t really understand what it was supposed to portray, but nonetheless he did very well.
7. Audrey- This was a fun routine, but she just didn’t come up to tWitch’s standard, which is admittedly incredibly hard. I think it was the right decision to send her home this week, but I just really started liking her, unfortunately. Ah well.
8. Tiffany- I don’t understand why she’s never been in the bottom. Her fan base is huge, but she’s not any better than anyone else who HAS been in the bottom (except probably Janelle). I really did not like this disco, because there was hardly any footwork and there were WAY too many lifts. Overall, it was not a memorable routine for me.
9. Cole- He did OK considering, but I thought he would slay it when you look at his other routines. Honestly, I’m surprised he’s never been in the bottom either, because although he is such a fantastic dancer, his personality sort of strikes me as cold.
10. George- Six Words; The Tyce Diorio Kiss of Death. I really did not enjoy the group routine, nor did I enjoy this confusing one. If Tyce had not mentioned what this routine was about I would have never known. It was confusing, it was unoriginal, there was no chemistry. I don’t think it was either George nor Allison’s fault, but rather Tyce’s. I’m really sick of his broadway choreography and much rather Spencer Liff’s.
Needless to say, George is an incredible, incredible soloist, probably one of the best the show has ever seen.
Also, I ADORED Benjamin Millepied’s choreography. It was so gorgeous…
Why would anyone wait at a train station, all dressed up and with a cane and all, and NOT WEAR SHOES? Once I noticed it and thought about how strange it looked I couldn’t concentrate on the rest of the routine…
Beside the shoe thing, I enjoyed most of the routines! 😛 I was glad to see Jakob and Alex back.
(Disjointed thoughts to follow)
I have to say, I LOVED the disco routine! I was kind of stunned. I’m always like, “Disco, really?” Maybe it’s the power of Brandon, as his disco with Janette was one of the very few I’ve liked. But Tiffany really got my attention here. I know it was tons of tricks, but I still thought it flowed.
Eliana and Alex were best, of course. Witney and Nick, and Cyrus and Jaimie were my other favorites.
The music was excellent. Two of my favorite songs “Sing It Back” and “Bang Bang” used in two of the best routines!
So happy to see Jakob! And YAY everybody who mentioned Jakob/Ashleigh’s cane piece – I love “Relax” so much! Lol, I didn’t even remember George had a cane.
I liked Lindsay doing Broadway and actually think it might be a better style for her than ballroom. But she’s still one of my least favorite girls.
I thought Audrey did well with the hip hop, dancing-wise, but wasted so much character opportunity. The bit where she put her head on his shoulder was cute, but the strong love/hate, couple’s been together hundreds of years thing was not coming across at all. That being said, how AMAZING would it be to see that piece danced by Twitch and Allison??? 🙂
I feel a bit bad, but the LA Dance Project piece was lovely but a bit boring to me. Didn’t make me feel much of anything. But I thought Benjamin Millpied was an absolutely marvelous judge. I hope he comes back again.
Will and Cyrus are two of the most purely likable people I have ever seen in my life.