I’ll likely to a post on this tomorrow or the next day, but as tonight is the last day of qualifiers, I thought I would look to see who’s left to be shown on the show. They have NOT done what they did last season – there’s been no “fast forward” through several acts each week who either go through or don’t. And there have only been three acts who got no package at all. The most they’ve done is edit some of the dances last week. I find that highly annoying, but I’ll be able to live with it if they DON’T edit in the later rounds of the show. Anyway, here’s where we stand going into tonight:
- Out of 74 groups/dancers announced, 35 have yet to dance. Since they only get to 6 or 7 per week, there are going to be a LOT that don’t see the light of day.
- 11 upper teams have qualified
- 7 uppers have qualified
- 7 junior teams have qualified
- 11 juniors have qualified
Hmmm…..that seems rather….symmetrical. So are we going to see mainly uppers and junior teams tonight to balance it out? Or are they not being so obvious this season? We already know we’re seeing Luka and Jenalyn from last season (Upper) tonight and odds are good they’ll go through. From what I can tell, the others performing tonight are mainly junior teams and uppers soooo….
T-minus 30 minutes to show time!!
Okay, here we go. Let’s see some great dancing!!
Haha…JLo says Derek is “still good” to have kids at 32. 🙂
First group is a whole bunch of cute kids who have “faces – this kids are going to kill me. Hilarious. they are the CubCakes, a junior crew from …
Orange County California.
They’re quite good, but I’m not sure how I feel about that first little one kind of sexing it up. And they might be over playing the face, having watched the The Lab last season. But dang, they’re great.
They judges totally go for it…I don’t blame them. They were fun, great kids. JLo: “makings” of a really great dance crew. Not sure what that means.
Derek: “World of Cute”. LOL. NeYo doesn’t know how to judge them cuz they are so cute. Derek is raving and talking about how great their support system of each other is.
Judges: 80, 84, and 85 (Derek, Ne-Yo, Jennifer) for an average of 83. Ridiculously low score from Derek – I would love to hear more of what he was basing that on. Perhaps TOO cute??
Luka and Jenalyn up next! Very excited to see what they do this season.
Massive improvement from last season, so far. Lifts are still incredible. Derek is digging it. Okay, that had fewer tricks than last season, but they danced way more, far more polished, very lovely.
JLo loved it, very complimentary. Derek picking on Luka’s body roll (he’s correct), but other than that he loves them. Ne-Yo says he has a “straining” face, Derek and Jlo disagree.
Scores: 87, 86 and 88 (Derek, JLo, Ne-Yo) for an average of 87 – making it through easily. As well they should.
Some arguing between Derek/JLo and Ne-Yo about the straining face which leads to Derek trying to get Ne-Yo to lift him. I’m not sure if that would help. 🙂
Ohhhhh….a tapping crew!! This excites me. The Jam Project, an upper team. They are a rock and roll type group of tappers. This excites me.
JLo says it takes a certain type of gentleman to do tap (you’re sitting next to one) – wonder if she still thinks that. I like the idea of a tap crew, and these guys are pretty damn good. Good amount of sync with still some individuality. I think I dug it, but perhaps not as much as I wanted to.
JLo thinks it’s hard to really appreciate it, they disagree. Derek says they’re selling him. Derek tells the audience how very difficult it was to do what they did and had a suggestion to make it stand out more. Jennifer wants them to bring all the legacy of the art form to it. Interesting.
Scores: 82, 83 and 84 (Ne-Yo, Jennifer, Derek) for an average of 83 and they’re on to the next round. This makes me happy.
Jennifer…how do I tell you this without hurting your feelings….DEREK DOES EVERYTHING. I’m not sure there’s a style of dance he hasn’t at least tried (and possibly done on DWTS) at this point. You might have to work hard to find something he hasn’t done on TV. Okay…I don’t remember a polka. 🙂
Marinspired from Los Angeles is up next – this is the male contemporary duo that’s been getting a lot of play (and a lot of bigotry) on twitter. I thought they were pretty amazing. “Let’s just get to being people.” Amen, brother.
I appreciate any contemporary that is not flaily, and they do some pretty amazing lifts. Great musicality. The one risk I see is that they played it a little too light at the beginning. Okay…excellent. I just love the musicality.
JLo says they are so strong and it was so awesome. Derek loved the turns, thought the movement was abstract and beautiful. Ne-Yo says the lack of clean makes it great. Very intentionally, if you look at their hair and outfits. Definite choice.
Scores: 90, 88, 96 (Derek, Ne-Yo, Jennifer) for an average of 91.3 – great job. Of course going to the duels. I agree with JLo….they are cute. 🙂
Alysa and Joseph are up next – Upper couple doing contemporary to a song that talks about their relationship.
Coming out with books and school costumes…shades of Keone and Mari. In fact, it starts off VERY like a Keone and Mari routine. I wonder if they choreographed. Great sync. I think they have the personal chemistry and humor of K/M too!! Delightful.
OMG…JLo just copied my “delightful” and my K/M comment. Ne-Yo says he loves when it feels real. He also says he feels like he’s seen it (I agree). Derek loved how theatrical it was, the isolations, etc. Derek wants to know if it will be competitive – JLo says yes. (And we all know she’ll do what she has to to make them win if she so desires…)
Scores: 92, 94 and 86 (Ne-Yo, Jennifer, Derek) for an average 90.7.
Next up: The Gentlemen, juniors from Fairfield, CA. Pretty tight boys on the hip hop!! Very well done and giving JLo a flower never hurts. Jlo said it felt like two brothers dancing on the street, tells them to take it to the stage level. Derek likes the swag, groove and charisma.
Scores 81, 79 and 79 for a 79.7, so they won’t advance to the next round. Sad for them, but they do need to step it up.
They are really blasting through the dances now. Slow down!! I can tell they’re really sped it up because of how hard it is to blog all of a sudden. 🙂
Dragon House – isn’t this the group that has all the poppers and lockers (including Cyrus) from SYTYCD. And they all call themselves members of Dragon House? Ne-Yo is not terribly impressed, needs more. JLo likes their sync, but the in between moments were lacking. Derek says they had great moments but it wasn’t consistent.
Scores: 79, 80, 81 for an average of 80 which means they just squeak through!! That’s surprising from that crew, because they have always killed it on SYTYCD.
Judges having the “artistic athlete” discussion again, talking about doing more than dancing to keep in shape.
Next up is a junior team that works out and talks about having big quads. They’re all tiny but muscular. They are Quad Squad for obvious reasons. 🙂 Great formations, great spins, great sync. Fell to of it a bit there in the middle.But in general they are killing it.
Derek is talking their language, loves them. Ne-Yo loving them spins like I mentioned. Jennifer calls them mind blowing. Ne-Yo trying to get his leg up there (hint: he can’t :-)). Jennifer says they’re a great team.
Scores: 86, 90, 91 (Derek, Jennifer, Ne-Yo) for an average of 89 – through to the duels!!
TWO NIGHTS next week – Tuesday is the end of the duels, Wednesday is the first night of the duels!! I saw in numerous places that this was the last night of the duels, but I guess they decided to give the 20-some dancer(s) another chance to be seen.
