World of Dance Season 3, WEEK 7 – The Duels LIVE BLOG

The final night of the duels is upon us. Tonight it’s the Upper Team Division!! I’m about five minutes behind show time so it will be a few before I catch up. Nice weather = me drinking wine outside. 🙂

First, Judges looking fiiinnnneee. 🙂

Next, Fuego Dance Crew chooses Siudy Flamenco – hard to say who all they had to choose from since they were the number for team and presumable, three other teams chose before them.

Rooting for Flamenco. I don’t like extreme arrogance.

Fuego going first. First move is excellent. But their sync isn’t as impressive as some of the junior teams. Not a particularly difficult routine, kinda simple, IMO. But well danced.

Derek says the song was all in the same pocket. Ne-Yo said the choreography made up for the lack of energy. Derek said their wave needed more of a wave. Ne-Yo seems to like them. Jennifer liked the shirt move. She thinks they’re strong, they don’t have the tricks but they hit harder and have personality.

Siudy Flamenco off to a beautiful start. This is some hard core Flamenco. Their sync is good. This is deceptively difficult. I guarantee you that Derek is the only person at the judges table who has dance flamenco. And he likes it, he said it had more flamenco and he felt it. Ne-Yo loved the fans said they amplified the performance. He says he was thoroughly impressed. Jennifer took flamenco at 5 (doesn’t count). Jennifer says it was a duel and they have on bull fighting pants. Jennifer loves the flamenco part, says the non-flamenco parts were too basic (agreed).

Scores:
Siudy flamenco: 90, 89, 90 for an average of 89.7
Fuego Dance Crew: 91, 89, 93 (Jennifer, Derek, Ne-Yo) for an average of 91 which is utter bullshit. Give me a break. This is on Ne-Yo. 93?? Seriously? Compared to other teams we’ve seen? no.

I don’t think that Siudy Flamenco will make it to redemption.

Unity LA is up next and they pick Style and Grace. They admit going with the lowest score. Unity, I confess, is my favorite crew – I love, love, love Zach from his SYTYCD days, through his touring with Derek, through to last season’s WoD. And I love Ashley as well.

Unity talking a bit of smack. I hope it doesn’t come back on them. And they’re going first. And I have nothing to say. That was excellent. Damn. Perfect from start to finish. Ne-Yo says it was frantic in the best way possible. Sheer energy and power, he felt it. Quality synchronicity. Agreed. Jennifer says it was an amazing routine, the drop to the knees, the manipulating of ashley. They’re a rare group. Everyone in the group is amazing. She didn’t like the music though. Derek says they are a force to be reckoned with, great creativity, thoughtfulness, great little details, undeniable quality. One lift looked a little labored.

Style and Grace is up next. Wow, I thought we were going to get two dances without a commercial again like we did for the first duel, but no such luck. Here we go. I like this girl group, and they are doing quite well, but not as clean as Unity. And the routine is quite simple. And I think they were edited too. Don’t think that was the whole thing. Ne-Yo says it was super fun, looking for harder choreography and he didn’t see it. It didn’t get him there. Jennifer disagrees with Ne-Yo, says the intensity in their movement was great. But there was nothing they haven’t seen before. If they make it, they need to show something they haven’t seen before. Derek says they lived in formations too long. He says they can create more visuals in those moments.

Scores:
Unity LA: 96, 97, 98 for an average of 97
Style and Grace: 88, 88, 88 for an average of 88

Unity goes to the cut, while Style and Grace heads to Redemption – but I don’t think they will last there at all. Jennifer tells that great dancing won’t cut it for Unity? WTF is she smoking?? She doesn’t like the song?? Get over yourself girl.

Ne-Yo, goosies are over rated. You do you man. 🙂

I do love Jennifer when she isn’t being judgy.

Next up, The Heima choose Exiles and there is a ton of smack talk going on. Honestly, both teams need to work because I don’t remember either team from the qualifiers. Oh, wait, I remember the Exiles once I saw the flashback.

Exiles going first. I’m surprised at how good this is, actually. I remember them as being sloppier, but they’re fairly tight. Cute magic trick right there in the middle. Pretty damn good! Ne-Yo says they elevated their routine, he had been afraid for them. Jennifer says it’s the small town boys against the global superstars, but they’re great too, and that’s what champs are made of. She says they all stepped up to the challenge. Derek says it’s a much better performance than their qualifiers, the loved the magic trick, and he says they have character. Ne-Yo says it was super tight, super clean, loved the flips and the burns – simple and effective.

The Heima haven’t got it as simple as they thought. And commercial. Okay, that was very fantastic. Very well done, perfect music choice, it had pretty parts and it was graceful. Ne-Yo doesn’t know what he just saw (agreed). He says very original, very unique. Originality through the roof, synchronicity through he roof. Jennifer loved it, says it was exciting. She says they’re awesome – after all kinds of fun interplay. Derek loves how they were creating moves that didn’t exist. Loves the elbow flares.

Scores:
The Exiles: 95, 93, 91 for an average of 93
The Heima: 96, 95, 99 (Derek, Jennifer, Ne-Yo) for an average of 96.7 which moves them to the Cut

Style and Grace is eliminated from the Redemption Round by The Exiles – and with that score they could well stick with that score.

OMG…hilarious story from Derek about Rod Stewart and the Queen of England. LOL…don’t miss it. Then all the boys are trying to guess what Jennifer is doing…and they sing. And Derek nails it. 🙂

Main Guys face off with Radiance in the default duel.

Radiance going first. Dig the outfits. Love the pictures. Is this a contemporary group, because they’re looking hip hop. Great moves in the middle. I like that stalking thing they do. That bit at the end was COOL. Jennifer is very happy. She says God is a woman. 🙂 Jennifer says there were so many great things about it, and she has goosies all over. She says they became regal and fierce. Ne-Yo says it was woman power, loves the stalking like I do. Derek loves that this was powerful, beast contemporary. Jennifer says it was awesome, and the tricks blew her away.

Main Guys are next. After a potty break. These guys are excellent also – oh, didn’t quite stick the landing on one of their tricks. Not quite sure that that was up to par when all is said and done. Jennifer loved it. Derek liked that they took an older song and made it their own. Ne-Yo says the chore felt like a class he would love to take. Interesting move choices. Jennifer says it took a minute for them to get in sync. Halfway through they kicked it into high gear. She loved the ending.

I personally think the outfits worked against them, but that’s me.

Scores:
Radiance: 93, 93, 95 for an average of 93.7 – and they go to the Cut
Main Guys: 90, 88, 90 for an average of 89.3

The Main Guys don’t even make the Redemption Round, so they are out. This means Exiles are in Redemption for sure.

Jennifer premieres “Medicine”. It’s visually appealing for sure. I’m not hearing an ear worm for the song, but we only get a tiny snippet.

Final duel of the night belongs to the top scoring team, The Kings against the 9th ranked Motiv Crew. LOVE The Kings, but I tend to love anything related to Bollywood. I’m weird like that. 🙂 Motiv crew are the serious underdogs here.

Motiv Crew going first. They’re off to a good start. Ha…good burn and they’re pretty darn tight. I really liked that!! Jennifer says they were in the zone. Says it was amazing. Super clean, super professional, they came alive and gave swag and personality. Derek says he hopes the energy is translating at home because it was electric here. Derek liked the hairography. 🙂 They danced like they got picked by a super crew. Well done. Ne-Yo says you’re either going to rise or fold and they rose to the challenge. He says he needed some space to breathe though. He says it was amazing.

The Kings…start with an amazing trick. Followed by another amazing trick and another amazing trick. That was pretty amazing. I would say there were too many tricks but they had some nice transitions in there and this is the duels. The judges lose their minds, of course. Jennifer says it was insane. They packed so much into that routine. She couldn’t blink because she was afraid she would miss something. She’s basically raving. 🙂 Derek doesn’t know where to begin. So many flavors. He says it so effective, so them. They are the kings. Ne-Yo was afraid he was going to have to say he needs more dancing, but he can’t say that. He says it was like fireworks. He’s trying to wrap his head around what he just saw.

Scores:
The Kings: 99, 99, 100 for an average of 99.3 which of course sends the through to the Cut
Motiv Crew: 89, 91, 90 for an average of 90 gets to go to Redemption, cutting out Siudy Flamenco 🙁

Derek Hough is a true dancer and a lover of dance. I love when he gets out there and tries out a move. Odds are good we’ll see it on a future tour.

Exiles versus Motiv Crew in redemption. Interesting round. Exiles are the unpolished group, but both are underdogs. Should be good. Don’t know who to root for. I love the redemption round though.

Motiv Crew up first. This is really clean, and really interesting. loved the ending.

Exiles are hard core fighting for it. Good tricks, also interesting routine.

Dang. Not sure who won that one. I think Exiles might have pulled it out. Really hard to say.

And the winner of redemption round is….Exiles.

Whew!! Next week we head to the Cut where it gets even harder to lose people. Get ready.