Unfortunately, they let Tyce be a guest judge AND choreograph so that puts a couple of huge ticks in the con column. He adds nothing but obnoxious faces and excessive faux sincerity to the proceedings.
Contestants: Lauren, Kent, Robert, AdeChikeDance: Broadway, Tyce DiOrio
This week he’s whipping up a Guys and Dolls routine for our top 4. The guys are guys and Lauren is a girl and there is dancing. Also a bench. I don’t really know what to say about the dance – it’s Tycey in the extreme which is to say a whole lot of ho-hum but it’s danced very well by all involved. And Lauren is wearing the most adorable dress ever so if the wardrobe mistress over there can drop me a quick note to let me know where I can get one just like it, I’d really appreciate it, thanks! Anyway, the judges were complimentary, Tyce thinks Kent is more awesome than the rest (possibly because he has a crush on him like the rest of America) and he thinks AdeChike needs to be less stiff. He says all that with his head tilted to one side, his eyes doing their best “sad puppy” impression, and his lower lip out just a little while he nods to show that he’s only saying these harsh things because he REALLY CARES. Get used to that, because he’s going do that every single time he gives a critique the rest of the night (until the last routine when he’ll change it up and be obnoxious in a whole other way).
Grade – Lauren: A
Grade – Kent: A
Grade – Robert: A
Grade – AdeChike: A-
Grade – Choreography: B-
Contestant: LaurenAll-Star: Pasha
Dance: Tango, Miriam Larici and Leonardo Barrionuevo
This is the slowest tango I’ve ever seen and it’s all very seductive and sexy. I think Lauren has excelled at nearly everything she’s been asked to do on the show this season and she’s grown a ton since the auditions but she does occasionally still struggle just a little with giving us sexy or sultry because her smile is just so sweet and young. Pasha, on the other hand, can’t NOT be sexy. As with the last routine these two danced together, it was awesome and she was so good I almost – ALMOST – forgot to stare droolingly at Pasha during the course of it. It fogged up my TV screen, I got all flushed and I kind of wanted a cigarette when it was over. Though, to be fair, that was partly because in my head, I was having sex with Pasha the whole time. But still! The panel thinks everything about that was awesome and they are not wrong. Also, Adam takes this sexy moment to celebrate the judges ruling on Prop 8 by proposing to Nigel on live television and while Nigel has been lonely of late, he’d like to take some time to think it over before he agrees to anything.
Grade – Contestant: A
Grade – All-Star: A
Grade – Choreography: A
Contestant: AdeChikeAll-Star: Lauren
Dance: African Jazz, Sean Cheesman
I usually like the African Jazz numbers (remember the frog number last season? I loved that!), but this one was really boring. Other people mentioned that they couldn’t take their eyes off of Lauren but I thought both dancers were good and I could watch them both equally it’s just that the entire thing was so boring it was gone from my mind the second it was over. Actually, what wasn’t gone from my mind is that Wardrobe had AdeChike in an orange shrug for the routine. That will never be ok. Ever. And my beef with AdeChike’s dancing continues to be that I get no performance from him – he does the steps, and he does them well, but that’s where it all stops dead. He is blank when he dances and it fills me to the top with ambivalence about watching him dance. The judges all thought the routine was great but that AdeChike was too stiff. Tyce thought he needed more of a center and Adam thought he needed to lose his center. Mia said things that did not in any way distract from the fake-hair braided headband she was wearing. Her accessories are really becoming an issue for me.
Grade – Contestant: A-
Grade – All-Star: A
Grade – Choreography: B-
Contestant: RobertAll-Star: Anya
Dance: Viennese Waltz, Jonathan Roberts
A beautifully choreographed routine that was danced wonderfully by both Robert and Anya. There isn’t much more to say past that. He did a very impressive straight arm press lift and his shoulders were a slice of perfection throughout. It should go without saying at this point that Anya was awesome, because, you know, she’s just awesome. The judges all liked it but Mia thought that Robert needed to relax and enjoy himself. It’s a Viennese Waltz Mia, “relaxed” is not really the look they’re going for.
Grade – Contestant: A
Grade – All-Star: A
Grade – Choreography: A
Contestant: KentAll-Star: Courtney
Dance: Disco, Doriana Sanchez
Doriana is a scourge on this show every bit as awful as Tyce. Her routines are not fun to watch – one preposterously difficult lift after another with nothing tying them together – and they appear to be designed less as dance routines and more as endurance tests. So the rehearsal package is a non-stop barrage of tiny little Kent attempting lift after lift and dropping Courtney again and again. When we hit the stage for the routine itself there were very few lifts and, a lot more dancing that Doriana usually throws at us. You know what we learned from that? She can’t choreograph actual dancing! It was terrible. During the critique, Nigel inquired as to the missing lifts and Kent started to explain and then just said “I’m just not that big!” None of the judges blamed the choreographer for it, but they all agreed it wasn’t great. I don’t disagree with them, but I thought the choreography had everything to do with it and I’m going to use the fact that even Courtney was totally meh as my proof.
Grade – Contestant: B+
Grade – All-Star: A-
Grade – Choreography: D
Contestant: LaurenAll-Star: Ade
Dance: Jazz, Sean Cheesman
Hot damn, this was good! Dressed in a sort of lacey cat suit, Lauren was a seductive black widow trying to lure Ade in and kill him. It was jazzy and fast and precise and sexy and intricate with inventive lifts and some incredibly speedy hand choreo. Ade is as strong as ever and he and Lauren were so in sync throughout that it blew my mind. I loved every single thing about this routine. The judges pretty much agreed and Tyce snapped his fingers. Let’s just assume that means it was awesome and move on, shall we?
Grade – Contestant: A+
Grade – All-Star: A+
Grade – Choreography: A+
Contestant: AdeChikeAll-Star: Kathryn
Dance: Contemporary, Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson
Dwight and Desmond choreographed this routine specifically for AdeChike who worked with them years ago in a summer program. Because of that, it’s difficult for me to say that he didn’t dance it well or that he was too stiff because it seems to me that they knew exactly his style and limitations when they put it together and choreographed around them so I’m going to concede that he danced it exactly right. But once again, the dancing was blank. It was steps with nothing emanating from behind them. And it did not help the situation at all that the routine was danced to an aggressively percussive piece of music (Melissa Ethridge’s “Fearless”) and the piece had nothing in it that remotely matched the beat of the song. The judges give essentially the same criticisms they’ve given him for weeks, that he needs to be looser and…better. I just think it’s become obvious that he’s outmatched by the remaining contestants at this point.
Grade – Contestant: A-
Grade – All-Star: A
Grade – Choreography: A
Contestant: RobertAll-Star: Dominic
Dance: Hip Hop, Tabitha and Napoleon
A couple of clowns have lost their circus and are now distraught. And judging by the makeup, I can see why this circus went belly-up because these clowns are hella creepy. There are balloons all over the stage which are pretty deftly worked into the routine here and there. The routine was one of the better NappyTab offerings and Robert and Dominic were both fantastic throughout. I really enjoyed the beginning part where they were connected and the part toward the end where they worked in some of Dom’s breaking. The judges all loved it and Adam thinks that Robert out-danced Dominic which is patently ridiculous.
Grade – Contestant: A
Grade – All-Star: A+
Grade – Choreography: A
Contestant: KentAll-Star: Neil
Dance: Contemporary, Travis Wall
The end of a friendship. Neil and Kent and Travis is the actual dream combination of pretty much all the gay men in this show’s audience (and there are quite a few of them), and there was rejoicing from that contingent, I’m sure, that there were gay undertones to the piece. I picked up on the undertones but I actually thought that one of the dance’s greatest strengths was that it could have been danced by any combination of people and the story would have easily rang true. The friendship, the betrayal – it was all emotional and strong and wrenching. Where the dance left me just a little cold was that there seemed to be a little more story than dance in some places. Neil and Kent both did an amazing job with Kent really coming up to Neil’s size and strength in the piece. I think sometimes the height difference between two dancers can make them appear not quite as together as they should be but that wasn’t an issue here at all. Neil was truly effortless in the lifts and Kent held his own in that regard which was particularly impressive given how much bigger Neil is than him. The judges loved it – Nigel raved, Mia and Adam cried (I didn’t really get that reaction but art affects everyone differently) and Tyce just kept blustering “are you kidding me?” ad nauseum until Cat finally assured him they were not, in fact, kidding him in any way.
Grade – Contestant: A+
Grade – All-Star: A+
Grade – Choreography: A-
Predictions
Should Go Home: AdeChike. He is a great dancer to be sure but he isn’t bringing the same level of pure entertainment to the competition that the other, equally talented dancers are at this point.
Will Go Home: I honestly don’t know. This is the first time when I have no idea how America seems to be leaning so I won’t even hazard a guess except to say I definitely don’t think Kent is going home. But I don’t think any of the other three are truly safe.
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