‘So You Think You Can Dance’: The Best And Worst Dances From The Top 8—Make That 7

Erika Brooks Adickman | July 8, 2010 7:30 am

It looked as though we call the competition off and hand the title of America’s Favorite Dancer to wonder boy Alex Wong. Surprisingly, his only achilles heel in Season 7 proved to be his actual achilles heel (or tendon to be exact). Last night, we learned the dreadful news that Alex suffered a ruptured achilles tendon during rehearsal (the same injury that had David Beckham out for three months). If the doctors “think he can dance”, Alex will be in the bottom three tonight, if not— well, he went out on the highest note he could. As they say, the show must go on. See who acted like a cat, who played devil’s advocate, and which two dancers might be more than just pretending to be lovebirds.

THE BEST: Kent and Lauren‘s Contemporary routine (choreographed by Travis Wall). Kent and Lauren sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G (No, really! They actually smooched in this number. Cat practically had to tear them apart) Forget Twilight, the real teenage sexual tension is taking place on SYTYCD. Playing a prom couple (not a stretch for these recent high school grads) sparks flew between these two, making the dance the most real and memorable of the night. If Lauren was really hoping that teenage girls would hear her plea not to hate her because she got to dance with Kent, we’re sure it fell on deaf ears after that number. After the season wraps, we want them to grow up, get married, and return in season 12 as the new Tabitha and Napoleon of Contemporary choreography.

RUNNER UP: Billy and All-Star Katee (from Season 4, ya’ll!) in a Broadway routine to “Macavity: The Mystery Cat” from the musical Cats (choreographed by Spencer Liff). While we hope All-Star Allison’s rib injury doesn’t keep her out of the competition for good, it was fantastic to see that Katee’s still got it. But that’s not the reason this dance came in at number two. We’re glad that Billy finally got his chance to shine this week. After his Krumping disaster, and being in the bottom three last week; it was great to see him own a dance like this.

THE WORST: AdeChike and All-Star Courtney‘s Jazz routine (choreographed by Mandy Moore). The dance was meant to be a smoldering number about a bartender getting hit on by a hot woman at last call.  It ended up being a routine that was all steak and no sizzle. The technique was there (Courtney danced on a metal stool in stilettos for crying out loud), but we felt no fire in this dance. We agree with Nigel that this could have been helped had there been more moments away from the bar that actually included some real Jazz dancing. It came off as lazy choreography so for this we blame not AdeChike, but Mandy Moore. THE RUNNER UP: AdeChike again in his Bollywood number (choreographed by Nakul Dev Nahajan). This dance is in the bottom for us not for the way AdeChike danced it (we’d like to see the judges get on stage and perform jumps like he did knowing that it was the same dance move that may have cost Alex the competition). This dance is at the bottom because seeing a reminder of what this season could be like without Alex and having to look at him stuck in the bleachers was just more than our hearts could bear. Someone cue “What I Did For Love” from A Chorus Line and get us a tissue.

The judges told AdeChike that he put too much of his own style into the dance and wasn’t true to it’s real essence. This is where Cat played devils advocate asking the question that was on all of our minds: How come when Jose did the same Bollywood routine (though it was a few weeks ago) you commended him for putting his own twist on it and said it was really fun, but when AdeChike did it you criticized him? That earned Cat a standing ovation from Nakul, among others in the audience. Mia retorted with a line about how it’s because Jose had heart. The audience booed (and so did we).

OTHER MOMENTS WORTH NOTING:
:: Ashley finally drew something other than Contemporary out of the hat! Her “ninja assassin” NappyTabs routine with All-Star Dominc was off the hook. We take back every bad thing we’ve ever said about Hammer pants.
:: Robert played a “Ken” doll coming to live in Jazz routine with All-Star Kathryn. We agree with Mia that the dancing that took place in the toy boxes was everything.
:: Ashley and Robert danced a quick step that for once didn’t make us want to hit fast forward on our Tivos.
::All-Star Lauren clearly holds the key needed to unlock the mojo of the boys in this competition. Last week, she did it for AdeChike and this week it was Jose that she helped out. We’re sure it didn’t hurt that Jose admitted (on national television) that he really likes her booty.
QUOTE OF THE NIGHT went to Adam Shankman who asked,“Did everyone drink performance juice this week?!”
POOR OUTFIT CHOICE OF THE NIGHT went to Mia Michaels and her wonky headband.
WHO MIGHT BE DANCING FOR THEIR LIFE: With our fingers crossed that the doctors give Alex the go ahead to continue this competition our guesses are: Alex, Jose, and though the judges have all but warned us not to put him in the bottom three again and sworn by his hard work ethic (Nigel event went on the “Internets” trying to figure out why he’s been in the bottom three time and time again) we’re going to have to say Robert though there’s no way they could let him go home.  We think AdeChike will be getting some major sympathy votes this week that will keep him off the chopping block.
What do you think of last night’s show? Talk to us! Comment below.
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