So You Think You Can Dance – Episode 7-5

It’s another season of So You Think Yakin Dance! Thankfully, it’s in the summer, but with a whole slew of other changes.

How does everyone like the season so far? I feel about the auditions the way I always do: too many forced sob stories (with a few that were truly touching), not sure why they made some decisions (They said no to Adrian and Anthony? Why didn’t they say yes to Ryan and make it a Top 12?) but I wasn’t in Vegas so I guess I’ll never know.

I was reserving judgement on the All Star concept until the competition started, but I have to say – tonight felt weird. It was supposed to be all about the Top 11 but the All Stars were stealing the show left and right. The newbs are talented, but were outperformed by the people that are there to help them. And it was handled so… awkwardly. The All Stars received no introduction packages, so we don’t know what they’ve been up to for the past few years and recent viewers have no idea who they are, the judges didn’t talk to them, Cat barely talked to them, and they were forced to stand off to the side and smile even though they’re better than that. Let’s see how next week goes?

On to the dancing!

Best Routines of the Night:

My favorite was easily the first, the Group Jazz by Wade and Amanda Robson. No one does routines like Wade. The kooky Tea Party was an awesome mash-up of dancers new and old, and got me really excited about Season 7.

Tied for second are the Jazz bya Sonya Tayeh and Jazz by Travis Wall. Neither routine did favors to the NKOTB (I couldn’t take my eyes off of Kathryn or Neil, for instance) but both were extremely well choreographed and exciting routines that I want to watch again.

Meh:

Samba by Jason Gilkison: Christina kind of had no chance with this one. It’s technically not even her style (She’s Salsa, it’s Latin Ballroom) so she was already out of her element and it showed. Pasha and Anya could have been dancing with a piece of wood for all I cared, they’re that good, and they saved this routine for me.

Broadway by Tyce Diorio: Oh, Tyce. Leave the Broadway to someone else, please? Just stick to Jazz/Contemporary, because you do them oh-so-well. The four females in this routine were so interchangeable I had no idea which was which, and I didn’t really care. But very prettily danced.

Contemporary by Mia Michaels: I just didn’t feel the concept. The boy, man, old man thing wasn’t working for me. But the dancing by Alex, Billy, and Ade was superb.

Worst Routine of the Night:

Hip Hop by NappyTabs: There’s been a lot of hate over the choice of Comfort as an All Star, but this routine showed why she was back. She kills it in her own style, and so do Dominic and Twitch. Unfortunately, Jose didn’t quite compare. He looked amateurish when dancing next to them. Maybe it was nerves? Don’t know, but tonight I was not impressed.

Let’s hope next week fixes the oddness of the All Stars and we actually learn more about the contestants. The whole “eleven seconds of information we already know” was a bit silly. But it was worth it to get moment #682 and #683 of Why Kent Boyd is Adorable – “I’m single!” “Beyonceeee!” Could have done without the mom comment, though.

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