World of Dance Season 3, WEEK 9 – Who Got ROBBED?? (Vote)

Well, I see it on Twitter – someone ALWAYS yellin’ at Derek or Jennifer or Ne-Yo for their votes on such and such dancer, saying it’s their fault they didn’t make it to the next round. This week I saw LOTS of yelling at Derek for his scoring of…I think it was Funkanometry. Well, now’s your chance to make your voices heard. 🙂

As you may recall, the Junior Division Duel Winners competing in the Cut were:

Moving 4ward (90.3)
Funkanometry (91.3)
Lauren Yakima (91.7)
Julian & Charlize (93)
Kayla Mak (93.7)
Ellie & Ava (95.3)

The top three scorers will be advancing to the Junior Division Finals (you can vote for your favorite at this link), but the bottom three were eliminated. Let’s take another look at the eliminee’s dances.

Totally bummed about these guys – loved them. This dance just wasn’t strong enough, plus they had that slip on the table.

Next, Funkanometry…I love these guys too. Cute and funny dudes. I think they have some growing to do before they make it farther in the competition though.

Finally, Lauren Yakima…

I think Lauren is an exceptional dancer. Is she better than Moving 4ward or Kayla or Ellie & Ava?? Maybe. But the problem for me is that this dance was so cliched contemporary. It had all the stuff it was supposed to have. There was nothing new or different or exciting about it. And I think it’s because the emotion doesn’t feel authentic, in addition to the moves being quite standard.

ALL that being said, I am very surprised that she didn’t get a shot at the final. At the end of the day, she was out danced by Kayla Mak, not to mention Ellie & Ava, the other contemporary dancers in the division. But that doesn’t change the fact that she’s a very good dancer. I’m not sure she was robbed. I don’t think any of them were at the end of the day. What do you say??

As for the Upper Team Division…I need a reminder of who all was dancing in the Cut.

Fuego Dance Crew (89.3)
Exiles (90.3)
Radiance (92.7)
Unity LA (93.3)
The Heima (97.3)
The Kings (97.7)

The Top 3 Teams from the Upper Team Division will be dancing tomorrow night in the Division Final (click the link to vote for your favorite and rewatch their dances), but the bottom three were eliminated. Re-watching their dances…first, Fuego Dance Crew:

They overestimate their own sex appeal. I seem to recall in the earlier rounds them chatting up all the ladies. Perhaps some focus is in order. Sad to say, I didn’t remember who these guys were until I saw them dancing and remembered the (foolish?) advice they got to sex it up a bit. As if.

The Exiles:

I said it during the live blog, and I’ll say it again. The one guy wearing a white hat?? Why?? Why? For one little trick?? The trick was good, but it wasn’t enough for that distracting hat!! The guy wasn’t even the main focal point for half the dance. I love these guys though…love them. They are entertaining, but they need more polish.

Why do I like contemporary so much better when it’s done in a large group?? Love Radiance… they did have a few tiny mistakes though.

So, what do you all think?? As much as I love Radiance, I don’t think anyone was robbed. Remember, if someone was robbed, you have to deprive another team of their spot – and who is that going to be?? Noooobody, IMO.

World of Dance Season 3, WEEK 9 – The CUT Not-so-Live BLOG

Hi all! Sorry I didn’t blog yesterday – it was Easter and I was in a sugar coma. 🙂 But I am going to watch the show now and blog as I go. Hope you all enjoyed it last night. It was all about the Upper Teams division and the Junior Division. Here we go…And I haven’t been spoiled.

Derek looks fineeee in a turtleneck. Love Derek singing to Ne-yo through the wall. Love Jennifer’s very strange outfit.

Juniors going first, mentored by Jennifer. Haha…Funkenometry going first…little spacemen. They are all 12 year old boys in front of Jennifer. And she’s wearing some amazing shoes.

Here we go with their dance. This is actually pretty cute. Don’t know if cute will be enough, but it is cute. Fun little lean trick. Highly entertaining – not super difficult, but highly entertaining.

Ne-Yo wearing a helmet is hilarious. Jennifer says they added her suggestions, that it really came together and that it was fun and innovative. Ne-Yo says they’re becoming a favorite. It’s entertaining and they earned the funny and danced well. Derek says the concept and costumes were better than the routine, the choreography was elementary (agreed). Ne-Yo says he would still pay money to see it.

Scores: 93, 93, 88 for an average of 91.3. Wonder if there is discussion between the judges so that Jennifer doesn’t score her mentees low, and Derek goes low to offset her – because you know that is not going to end up being the best act in the division, yet 93 is a high score.

Sorry, this Derek-Ne-Yo thing is just hilarious.

Next is the probable winner of the Junior Division, Lauren Yakima.

Come on, Lauren, kill it. Dress is beautiful, lighting is beautiful, fairly standard contemporary choreography so far. It was very beautiful, but I don’t think it was as special as her last dance. It takes a lot to move me, and that didn’t really do it. Which disappoints me.

The judges loved it, saying the emotion was general, Derek points out the wobbly moments (I caught those – I guess they all did, based on the comments while they were scoring). It seems like they don’t have much else to say.

Scores: 91, 91, 93 for an average of 91.7 – a much lower score than I expected from her, actually.

Next up is Moving 4ward and they are edited straight out of the gate, you can tell by the way the dance gets started. And they had a slip on the table. Which is a shame because I actually prefer them to either Lauren or Kayla.

Derek says he lost excitement in the middle. Jennifer agrees. The whole thing is VERY truncated.

Scores; 90, 91, 90 for an average of 90.3 which is currently third place. The shortness of the routine means they don’t make it.

Julian and Charlize are up next. Jennifer likes the cat and mouse game, but says they have to go all the way there, but they don’t yet.

This is off to an excellent start. Really good, interesting, sharp moves. I LOVED that!! It told a whole story, it was lovely.

Derek starts off and he’s a bit on crack saying he saw the choreography more than he saw the dance. Well, I don’t agree with that. 🙂 Great musicality there. Their hits are effective thought. But then he says he really liked it. Jennifer says it was an amazing routine, narrative was great, dancing was great, it was beautiful. Ne-Yo says there was so much beat manipulation, but it was danced exquisitely.

Scores: 94, 91, 94 (Ne-Yo, Derek, Jennifer) for an average of 93…and the top of the leaderboard. Well deserved. And they are guaranteed a spot in the divisional final, I believe. Moving 4ward is out.

Kayla Mak is up next. Dig the outfit. Seeing a bit more ballerina this time. The walking and her lines. Derek is right, she is exquisite. In the end, I feel like that was better than Lauren’s routine but…

Derek says exquisite again and says ballet can compete on this show. Jennifer talks about their discussion and that she really tapped into it. Derek talks about her transitions – how great they are. Jennifer says she’s so delicate but strong and courageous. Ne-Yo says there’s a edge to her that sets her apart.

Scores: 93, 94, 94 for an average of 93.7 which puts her slightly ahead of Julian and Charlize – only 0.7 points. Funkenometry is out, but gets props from the judges.

Ellie and Ava are up next. Sounds like they might be taking a risk. Jennifer going hard core on them, saying she doesn’t get it. She actually gives them pretty good advice, but man, big changes are risky.

They do move very well together even when not in sync. Great flip at the end. All in all, very powerful routine. I think I liked it better than Lauren’s.

Ne-Yo says the power was real. Now everybody is crying including me. Ne-Yo says it was very powerful. Jennifer says it was sooo badass. The tone was perfect. Derek says they embodied it all. Jennifer says the change was worth it.

Scores: 95, 95, 96 for an average o f95.3 and the top spot on the leaderboard, knocking out Lauren Yakima. Just goes to show, you never know what’s going to happen and you have to bring it every time.

That means the top three acts for the Junior Division are:
Ellie and Ava
Kayla Mak
Julian and Charlize

Unexpected, but I love it!!

Now for the Upper Team Division. Exiles are up first. These are the dads doing hip hop thing…they’re fun though. Good enough to win redemption. Ne-Yo says they are in an unfinished place. He tries to pump them to get them to believe in themselves. Hope it works.

Like their outfits. Only one guy with a hat??Seems like it worked. The hat guy seems to be the focal point but he’s not except sometimes. This is a pretty strong routine, but I don’t know.

Ne-Yo says they were feeling uncertain but they found the confidence. Jennifer says they were trying to tell them something with the song. Jennifer felt it. She says they nailed it. Derek loved the windmill trick. Jennifer says some of the spacing was off. Derek says some of the dancing in between dropped the energy.

Scores: 90, 90, 91 for an average of 90.3. I tend to think that won’t last but we’ll see.

The Kings are up next. Love these guys – hope they do well. Ne-yo seems to tell them to streamline it a bit, but I dunno.

Their outfits are really effective with a team that large. I’m at loss for words actually. That transformer move was super cool, and everything after that point was just amazing. Fantastic.

Jennifer is all like OMG. She says it was a very different routine. Ne-Yo said it had just enough comedy. Derek – at the beginning it was too much but when it got going it was fantastic. Derek and Jennifer both say insane. The judges are essentially raving.

Scores: 96, 98, 99 (Ne-yo, Derek, Jennifer) for an average of 97.7. Well deserved.

Up next, Unity LA – my favorites (with Kings a close second). Zack talking about how their careers have an expiration date.

Oh boy, they’re in trouble. They were edited to the point that the audience wouldn’t get the point of the dance, and it was still a bit messy and not as compelling as some of their earlier routines.

Derek says “interesting” which is not a good sign. Jennifer says it was super creative, but it can’t get too abstract so that they don’t get it. Yeah, even the judges comments are heavily edited. They’re not long for the show even with what will probably be decent scores

Scores: 93, 93, 94 for an average of 93.3. That puts them temporarily in second place.

Fuego Dance Crew is up next. Ne-Yo tells them to turn up the sexy.

Off to a pretty strong start. I’m not seeing the sexy but the moves in the middle are cool until they almost blew the roll. It was interesting, ,I don’ know if it was that great.

Derek says they improved their wave. Ne-yo says they brought the latin fire. Jennifer says they have improved and they are the most fun and would be great to hang out with. She thinks it’s a little elementary. Derek says it needed ore gasoline and it was a little elementary. Derek liked the pictures, but he doesn’t think it was strong enough for this stage of the competition. I would agree.

Scores: 90, 89, 89 for an average of 89.3, which puts them out of the competition.

This is going to be tight. Radiance up next. They were so fantastic last week, I hope they can hold it up. If they can bring the emotion they have back stage to the stage, they should be good.

I think they did it. I think it was beautiful. Derek asks what it was about. Derek got it I think. He says they did a great job with the narrative. From a competitive standpoint there were a few moments that weren’t together, Ne-Yo agrees. Jennifer loves when dancers convey what they’re feeling. She thinks the piece itself could have been stronger, she didn’t understand that it was about shootings.

Scores: 94, 92 92 for an average of 92.7 which moves them into third place, knocking out Exiles. This means that Unity LA and Kings are guaranteed a spot in the Divisional Final. So why did Unity get so edited??

The Heima are our last group of the night. No Mask tonight…This could help or hurt them, as they explain in their package. The Mask mask their insecurities.

I like their hands as masks. Off to a great start. Love that swing they created. The slow mo part was also awesome. Hell, the whole thing was awesome. Excellent.

Derek is up…and he hasn’t been for a while. Jennifer says they are explosive and exciting. They know who they are, all their athletic talent. Derek says they defy physics. Ne-Yo says they took amazing risks, he loves seeing their faces, loves the smiles, they brought personality on top of being technically sound. Quality work.

Scores: 98, 95, 100 for an average of 97.7 – which knocks out Radiance. Hooray for the Heima but boo for Radiance. I’ll have more to say about that tomorrow in my recap post.

End of the show leaves us with (for the Upper Team Division):
The Heima
The Kings
Unity LA