Lindork’s So You Think You Can Dance Recap – Top 16/14/12 Performance & Results Thoughts

July 11 2009.

Okay so basically I fail at my recaps given that I missed recaps for the past two weeks. My bad. I swear I’ll do a better job for Season 6.. lol. Anyway this recap is going to go in a weird sequential order because I want to touch on things from the recap/thought blog weeks that I missed!

So here’s a jumbled Top 16/Top 14/Top 12 post:

Jonathan Platero, Asuka Kondoh, Karla Garcia, and Vitolio Jeune are eliminated Top 16 and Top 14 week. I would have traded Caitlin for Karla to stay an extra week but I’m not really upset at all over these eliminations and I think these four (well, excluding Karla because again, I’d prefer if she had stuck around for at least Top 12 week), were definitely at the bottom of the stack when compared to the other dancers. It was definitely their time to leave and their routines won’t really sorely be missed on tour. In fact I really couldn’t name or describe any of the routines that these four were involved in, besides Jon & Karla’s Stacey Tookey (woot woot, Edmontonian!) contemporary.

Sidenote: Did you know Jonathan and Karla are dating now in real life? WEIRD.

Phillip’s elimination + what Nigel said during Top 16 performance episode..

So Top 16 is awhile back now and I don’t know how many of you remember this but it’s one of the points that I really had wanted to blog about. After Phillip and Jeanine’s Top 16 performance, Nigel said to Phillip that he knows it’s hard and that they’ve put a lot of pressure on Phillip, expecting him to do all these different styles each week, yadiyadiya, like that was an excuse for Phillip’s subpar performances. I was really annoyed by this. I have been a Phillip fan since pre-Top 20 week but even as his fan, I knew that he was not proving to be the best or most versatile in this competition and I was just so annoyed that Nigel said that because Phillip is not the only one on the show being faced with the challenges and pressures of learning new styles and choreography under time constraints weekly. No. And that is what the competition IS. So that is not an excuse for a bad performance when others in your same situation are doing great. Back during Top 16 week I had intended to write that Phillip better step it up or else he’s going to be gone because even if he is likeable, and even though his solos are fantastic, his repeated failure in couple performances was going to be his downfall.

And so it was. Lol.

Phillip’s departure from the show this week (Top 12 week) was a sad one but he was up against the seemingly-unstoppable Ade (who had by far the best solo of the night, and one that was done to the same song that Travis Wall has done solos to), and the ever-adorable Jason. Nigel and Co. were super smart and timely with this elimination however, because they were able to ensure that Phillip gets to be a tour alternate, thus still ensuring the thousands and thousands of fans who will be sure to buy their tour ticket in order to get a chance to see/meet Phillip once tour kicks off which equals cha-ching $$$$ for Nigel and the producers.

What do you get when you combine Mia Michaels with Kuponohi’ipoi (YES I LIKE TO WRITE HIS/SAY HIS FULL NAME BECAUSE IT IS AWESOME!) Aweau & Kayla Radomski? The stand-out, memorable routine of the season, where once Season 5 is over and you think back to it, this routine is the one that pops out (or well, one of the ones that pop out, as I expect more memorable brilliance is yet to come). This “addiction” piece is intense, mesmerizing, beautiful and so sad. Kaypono perform the hell out of it and the choreography is fantastic. Everything about it is perfection and I am still blown away by how eerie Kupono’s smirk is throughout the routine, especially at the part where Kayla is fighting to get out of his grasp near the end. I thought Nigel’s critique about Kayla’s hair was ridiculous. I saw her face just fine thanks. And Kupono in the rehearsal clip, voice wavering + tearing up over his friend & family’s experience with addiction was heartbreaking. Let’s everyone re-watch the routine again now:

The other stand-out performances from this week is obviously Brandette’s Argentine Tango and Wade Robson Jazz. Wade is so amazing. He is a dance choreographing genius and he looked fantastic this week. Seriously. So pretty.

Other things to note from this week:

Looks like there’s not going to be a SYTYCD Michael Jackson Tribute which is REALLY sad news. Do you know how kickawesome an MJ dance tribute would have been? Seriously. (P.S. if you’re confused about the picture choice that accompanies this MJ paragraph, that is a shot of the Season 4 dancers on tour last year during their Halloween “Thriller” finale dance special). Anyway, I’m hoping that because Nigel expressed his disappointment and sadness nationawide, whoever is in charge of music rights (Sony or something?), feels bad and decides to let SYTYCD do a tribute after all, because really, that would be such an insane show..

I didn’t really like Tyce’s Top 14 group routine. Which is unfortunate because it kind of ruined the streak of group routines that I all really enjoyed. And also…

I LOVE JEANINE MASON. SHE IS MY FAVOURITE S5 GIRL.
AND I WOULDN’T MIND IF SHE WON. I WOULDN’T MIND AT ALL.

I have been steadily liking Jeanine more and more as the past few weeks have progressed but this week I am really able to say that I. Love. This. Girl. And me saying that I wouldn’t mind if she won this season, is really a big deal because if anyone recalls my earlier SYTYCD-related posts, I repeated several times how I never ever care for the SYTYCD girls as much as I care for the SYTYCD boys, and the fact now that I’d like a girl to win… that’s a big deal! But seriously. Jeanine has been stellar in everything she’s done. She’s outperformed Phillip in their partner routines on more than one occasion. I love her solos. I love the youtube videos I’ve found of her. She’s ridiculously talented. She has an adorable personality and, clearly stating the obvious, but, SHE IS UNBELIEVABLY GORGEOUS. As I’ve stated on my Twitter, if people reading this have been reading my tweets, I am completely into the male gender, but I seriously cannot express enough how gorgeous, beautiful, attractive, and super talented I think Jeanine Mason is.

Now let’s watch this:

Frick. <3

Kupono's still my favourite guy/overall though.

In fact, here is my ranking for the remaining dancers:

LOVE
1. Kupono
2. Jeanine
3. Jason

Like
4. Kayla
5. Evan
6. Ade
7. Brandon
8. Janette
9. Randi

Meh
10. Melissa

Overall, a very strong Top 10.

Okay anyway, for Top 12 week, the bottom 3 guys and bottom 3 girls were:

- Jason Glover
- Phillip Chbeeb – eliminated (but will be on tour)
- Ade Obayomi
- Caitlin Kinney – eliminated (but will be on tour)
- Jeanine Mason
- Melissa Sandvig

Caitlin’s elimination was right (and should have happened sooner in my opinion). I wrote my thoughts about Phillip’s elimination above. As strong as Melissa’s performances with Ade have been the past few weeks, as of now she is my least favourite girl and I’d like her to leave as soon as possible but I highly doubt that will happen, especially given that the judges are in love with her.

I also enjoyed NappyTab’s group routine this week:

ALSO, major awesome news…

TRAVIS WALL IS FREAKING CHOREOGRAPHING A COUPLE ROUTINE THIS WEEK!!!! Seriously. This is going to be amazing. I am so excited. If Kaypono’s Mia Michaels ‘Addiciton’ piece was memorable this past week, Trav’s routine for whichever extremely lucky couple this week, is going to be the memorable one. Mark my words. Ah I cannot contain my excitement!!!

And please be sure to watch this video of Kupono’s “Signature Move”, hehehehe:

And if it says not available in your country, because America hates Canada, click here!

Anyway, here are my little picture elims for the last three weeks:

Dancers remaining:

Comments are very welcome!

Linda (: