This is it, DanceFans! The moment you've been waiting for. SYTYCD Season 15 has reached the LIVE SHOWS! How exciting! Now, we the voting viewers and they, the lovable judges, will help figure out who makes it to the Top 4 and then the popular vote carries the day and determines who is America's Favorite Dancer! Full disclosure: I'm in rehearsal for my new play Meaningful Conversation that will be going up in NYC in September, so my time to write recaps for Our Show Of Shows will be limited this summer. They will likely come way late, but they will come! As for this year's Top 10, 3 Contempos, 3 Ballers, 2 Jazz Hands, 1 Hopper, and 1 Tappa Tappa Tappa made it this far. Where will the go from here?
TOP 10 Group Dance. Choreographer: Travis Wall Song: "Dream State" by Son Lux
All that body glitters is GOLD! Gold Dresses! Gold pants! Topless Male Dancers! Lifts galore. Gorgeous lighting. Everything we've come to love and expect from an opening group routine. Still, it's funny to watch an opening number with NO ALL-STARS. So different from last year! I'm happy the Top 10 get their moment together though.
Cue the theme song and the dancer intros! Here are your top 10 - OMG! Cat throws it OLD SCHOOL with a, "Here are The Girls! And here are Your Guys!" along with a head turn on the beat from the guys as they strut forward. How I missed that! Cat looks lovely as always in a green suede dress Saint Laurent. She shouts out Travis as an Emmy Nominee this year along with 3 other SYTYCD choreographers and the lighting team. Where's Cat's Nomination?? I must suppress my anger and carry on. Cat lets us know that beyond the 250K and the cover of Dance Spirit Magazine and the Title of America's Favorite Dancer, the winner of this season is joining the cast of Rent Live! It will be airing on FOX in January. So that will be fun!
On to the judges! Mary Murphy is here! Vanessa Hudgens is here! Nigel Lythgoe is here! And Twitch is back filling out the foursome! Nice. Cat chats with Nigel for a bit about the 9th Annual National Dance Day. Usually we're into the live shows already when this happens so they get to promote it more. But Nigel still leads the audience in saying "Happy Birthday, Granny!"to one of the older Dance Day enthusiasts he knows. No more stalling! The Top 10 are becoming 5 couples, dancing 2 routines tonight. So one routine will be in the guy's style and the other will be in the girls. This should be interesting. Let's get to it!
Cue the theme song and the dancer intros! Here are your top 10 - OMG! Cat throws it OLD SCHOOL with a, "Here are The Girls! And here are Your Guys!" along with a head turn on the beat from the guys as they strut forward. How I missed that! Cat looks lovely as always in a green suede dress Saint Laurent. She shouts out Travis as an Emmy Nominee this year along with 3 other SYTYCD choreographers and the lighting team. Where's Cat's Nomination?? I must suppress my anger and carry on. Cat lets us know that beyond the 250K and the cover of Dance Spirit Magazine and the Title of America's Favorite Dancer, the winner of this season is joining the cast of Rent Live! It will be airing on FOX in January. So that will be fun!
On to the judges! Mary Murphy is here! Vanessa Hudgens is here! Nigel Lythgoe is here! And Twitch is back filling out the foursome! Nice. Cat chats with Nigel for a bit about the 9th Annual National Dance Day. Usually we're into the live shows already when this happens so they get to promote it more. But Nigel still leads the audience in saying "Happy Birthday, Granny!"to one of the older Dance Day enthusiasts he knows. No more stalling! The Top 10 are becoming 5 couples, dancing 2 routines tonight. So one routine will be in the guy's style and the other will be in the girls. This should be interesting. Let's get to it!
Jensen & Jay Jay - Samba. Choreographer: Jean-Marc Genereux Song: "Mad Love" by Sean Paul
First up are Jensen and Jay Jay. They partnered briefly for ballroom in Academy Week so they know a little bit what to expect from each other. Jensen looks great in this routine. Jay Jay also is serving it up wearing a black mesh T-shirt. I like this pairing. A couple of transitions weren't 100% locked in, but they had great chemistry and hit it hard. A very strong routine to start the live shows, I think! Mary is fresh out of the gate trying to fake out the kids, before declaring it, "GREAT!" Nigel thought they both delivered. Vanessa that it was "fire," and tWitch loved their trust and commitment. Wanting to make it clear that she won't be continuing last season's "let's all fall in love with another contestant" scenario, Jensen tells us she just got engaged to someone she's not competing against for votes! Congrats, Jensen!
Hannahlei & Cole - Contemporary. Choreographer: Tyce Diorio, Song: "They Won't Go When I Go" by George Michael
Tyce brings us apocalypse dancers. Cole and Hannahlei make the the apocalypse look damn good. Legs for days with both these two. If Cole's pants were a millimeter further down on his but the network sensors were going to have to do that modesty blur they sometimes do on bare backsides. This dance was really really nice. Excellent chemistry and connection to the piece. Nigel thinks Hannahlei is this season's Warrior Princes. Not a bad title to walk away with from Week 1. Everyone else liked it too, but no one made an "Apocalypse, NOW!" joke and that made me sad.
I don't know if I love this pairing out of the gate. On the one hand, they are both tall. So height difference is not a problem. The routine is fun and playful... in moments. But at other times it feels forced and the technique feels a little wobbly. I feel bad that this one was a little off. Vanessa is kind but points out the flaws. tWitch felt there was a disconnect throughout and let's them know as a former contestant that they need to let people know why they are there. Mary thought they were trying too hard to have chemistry and Nigel was just like, "Samsies to what they said. Nothing to add." It's a bad sign when Nigel isn't moved to say anything on his own. Yikes!
Luther Brown has them coming out of a giant safe inside their house...? I don't really get the concept but it doesn't matter. The dancing is tight. I especially liked Slavik. He could be the dark horse of the season. I don't know if the camera work really showed off the routine in the best way possible. Sometimes they seemed to be upstaging each other. The judges EAT IT UP THO. Standing ovation from all. Love! Love! Love! They are getting the "We put you together to fail from the start, but here you go proving us wrong! Wow!" storyline this season. Take it and run with it, kids!
Magda & Darius - Contemporary. Choreographer: Travis Wall, Song: "Glass Heart Concerto" by Blondie and Philip Glass
Nothing says "Producer Love" like starting out with a Travis Wall routine. They are playing each other like instruments or stabbing each other with cello bows. It's like I'm back in Junior High orchestra! There's a lot to appreciate in the piece, both in its construction and the way it is performed. I'm a big fan of these two. But Travis has had so many wonderful routines at this point, and I'm not sure this one cracks the the all time Top 5 or even top 10 for me. It's just such a high bar! I think I liked tonight's group number more. The judges love it. This should put them solidly safe in the votes.
I thought this was a VERY difficult paso for Week 1. I know that Cole's style is ballroom but Paso ain't no joke. There were some incredibly well-executed tricks at the beginning but I thought that resulted in them running out of gas a bit at the end. It's not like they tapped out or anything, but I felt like the difficulty started to register in their faces as it went on. Hannahlei's an effing powerhouse though. I love her. And Cole is a very solid partner still looking for his emotional breakthrough. I hope he finds it. The judges like it, but you can also tell they preferred their first routine. This one might have dipped them down on the leaderboard, if other couples nail their second routine.
Jensen & Jay Jay - Jazz. Choreographer: Mandy Moore, Song: "Ex's & Oh's" by Elle King
This piece is fierce and I'm into it. As opposed to the previous routine I felt like the energy was powered up and stayed there the whole time. I'm really loving Jensen tonight. Nigel thought it was too sexy, which... I get, but I don't agree. Nigel prefers his Jazz sexiness with controlled Fosse intensity. There's a time and place for that, but sometimes you can let loose and not sacrifice technique! Mary agrees with me and tells Jensen she was a beast on the stage. Vanessa agrees with me and Mary, as does tWitch. So we win, Nigel!
Chelsea & Evan - Tap. Choreographer: Anthony Morigerato, Song: "Singin' In The Rain" by Jamie Cullum
Oh dear. Chelsea has tapped before but that doesn't make her a tappa tappa tappa. And you can't fake tappa tappa tappa in a situation like this. There's just nowhere to hide in a duet. Especially not when you're doing a routine with someone at Evan's skill level and working with a choreographer of Anthony Morigerato's genius. They all do their best here, but it comes off being too easy for Evan and too much of a challenge for Chelsea. I commend the effort, because doing a tap routine on TV that starts out okay and then keeps going wrong the longer it goes on is basically an anxiety nightmare of mine come to life. I don't think Chelsea could've done anything differently. She did her best. Evan just needed to tap with an All-Star like Gabby for it to really impress. It's not a style you can master in a few days. The judges are kind, but honest about it not being that great. Nigel reminds everyone that tap isn't easy and also notes he'd like to see Evan tap with Gabby. He and I are back on the same wavelength!
Genessy & Slavik - Contemporary. Choreographer: Talia Favia, Song: "An Evening I Will Not Forget" by Dermot Kennedy.
There is planking! There are big lifts! There are low spinning lifts! There is great chemistry and synchronicity (with the exception of one or two mistimed arm motions). I'm very impressed with Slavik. Gennesy is growing on me. The judges give them another standing ovation. I wasn't quite that taken with it, but the judges can't get enough. TWitch praises their intensity and commitment. Nigel says these two made the Top 10 because they have potential to grow throughout the series. I like them as a couple. They are a good pair and I don't think they're going anywhere soon.
Chmerkovskiy cha-cha! Bring the heat! Magda is on fire! This routine has the type of controlled sexiness of which Nigel approves. Darius shines here too. There is an ease and connection between them that's so important for Ballroom. Mary loves it, but can't pronounce "Chmerkovskiy" no matter how hard she tries. bless her). Nigel approves as I knew he would. Vanessa and tWitch are also on board. This was a great routine to close out the night!
So there you have it, DanceFans. The first Live Show is wrapped. We're saying goodbye to one guy and one girl next week. That's going to be rough because this is an excellent Top 10. My money is on Chelsea and Evan which is too bad because I think they have a lot more to show. That tap routine just sunk them. I was not able to vote this week, but here's my personal ranking of tonight's routines!
1) Jensen & Jay Jay - Samba
2) Hannahlei & Cole - Contemporary
3) Magda & Darius - Contemporary
4) Magda & Darius - Cha-cha
5) Genessy & Slavik, Contemporary
6) Jensen & Jay Jay - Jazz
7) Genessy & Slavik - Hip hop
8) Hannahlei & Cole - Paso doble
2) Hannahlei & Cole - Contemporary
3) Magda & Darius - Contemporary
4) Magda & Darius - Cha-cha
5) Genessy & Slavik, Contemporary
6) Jensen & Jay Jay - Jazz
7) Genessy & Slavik - Hip hop
8) Hannahlei & Cole - Paso doble
9) Chelsea & Evan - Jazz
10) Chelsea & Evan - Tap
10) Chelsea & Evan - Tap
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