So You Think You Can Dance – Personality, NappyTabs, and the Hand of God

This week on So You Think You Can Get An Injury Bad Enough To Earn You A Tearful Goodbye, Billy Bell did something to some body part we don’t care about and he’s going home. Oh, and some people danced and stuff, too.

Honestly, it was really Billy’s week to go, so he wasn’t missed that much, but Jose should be thankful, because if it came down to him or Billy, I’m not sure the judges wouldn’t have sent him home. He’s stayed around because he’s adorable and lovable and you want him to succeed, but I’m not sure that can propel him much farther.  Personally, I enjoyed his solo (he’s the only non-Contemporary flailing dancer left, and that goes a long way in my books), and I thought his Contemporary number choreographed by Sonya and danced with all-star Allison was lovely and evocative and interesting, but it’s clear that Sonya choreographed around his weaknesses instead of trying to make him rise to the occasion. So while the piece may be good enough for Top 10 or Top 8, when it’s down to these kind of numbers, it’s time for you to go home.

Once Jose is gone, though, I think we’ll have to go back to the hand-of-God-injury method of eliminating people, because hell if I can choose from this group. They’re all strong dancers and every week I change my mind about who’s the weakest. For a while I was really gunning for Adechike, but the more I see of him the more I like him. Sure, the Paso Doble with Jose wasn’t that good, and I understand that the judges were ganging up on the technical aspects, but I’m not a dancer and I don’t give a crap about technical stuff, so speaking from a pure entertainment standpoint, I liked it. I like mixing it up this season by having two guys dance together and I thought that this was an extremely creative way to get something that’s normally a very strictly boy-girl sort of dance to work for two guys. So what if it wasn’t technically correct? Maybe they’re pioneering a new form of dance right before our very eyes that will become wildly popular with it’s own set of techniques, and then the judges will feel pretty stupid, now won’t they. And as for Adechike’s hip-hop number, just one word: wow.  Wow. NappyTabs have always been my favorite choreographers (especially since Mia stopped doing numbers) and they brought amazing pieces tonight. Fallin’ was raw and painful and emotional and I had no idea hip-hop could make me feel like that.

Speaking of insane hip-hoppers, let’s take a moment to discuss Lauren, our only girl left. I’ll be honest, originally I was not a fan, but holy crapballs, that girl dances like a beast. She completely out-danced Twitch in her first hip-hop number (especially with those tumbleweed flips – I was in awe), and the only possible complaint I could make was that she had a terrible stankface and smiled way to much. Which, let’s be honest, I don’t care about, because if I was that awesome and dancing with Twitch, I’d be smiling too. And of course she was lovely and perfect Samba-ing. Like we expected anything less. It doesn’t matter what this competition throws at her – hell, last week she got Tahitian – she knocks it out of the park time after time and makes it look like it took zero effort whatsoever.

As for her Samba partner Robert… well, I’ve never been able to get into him. Oh, I know, realistically, that he’s pretty phenomenal. I can see him being phenomenal. Like his jazz piece? Excellent. He partners like he was born to it. I know he’s good. And yet something about him when he dances just makes me disconnect utterly. This week, I blame the leg-licking. Add any sort of licking to a dance routine and I’m sorry, I’m out.

And this brings us to Kent. Now I know I’m going to get attacked for this and I am, as we speak, typing this from an underground bunker, but I’m honestly sort of over him. At least, I’m over him as a dancer. Oh, he’s an adorable person who I want to feed cookies and tuck into bed at night, but his dancing? Over it. He’s Jose with better technique in that he’s sailing through more on his personality than any sort of talent. And it’s a lovely personality that can be a huge asset in certain dances (like last week’s Broadway routine, which I am willing to fight Michael to the death on. I love Broadway. I can write essays about the wonder of Broadway and musical theater and the importance of it in not only dance, but in entertainment as a whole – nay – in the continued pursuit of life, liberty, and the American dream), but overall I think it hinders him. I think it really crippled Sonya when she choreographed with him (she basically said “I’m choreographing this piece to show that Kent is more adorable than a duckling and a baby snuggling with a polar bear cub”), and it really, really crippled my enjoyment of his step routine. What should have been mind-blowing and character re-defining a la Alex’s hip-hop routine with Twitch instead was “awww, look, Kent can rhythmically slap himself.” And if I never have to hear the insane screaming every time he so much as breathes on stage, I will die happy. Or at least with fewer headaches.

So, in short, this week, the good remained good, the bad remained bad (or injured and going home), and Napoleon and Tabitha should have shrines built in their honor. The end.

Clacked by Julia Hass
on Jul 22, 2010 @ 17:22 EST5EDT