The name of the game for the So You Think You Can Dance top 12 this Wednesday was chemistry. It’s the partnerships with connection and spark that are wowing the audience at this stage and winning praise from the judges. Courtney Galiano and Gev Manoukian, Chelsie Hightower and Mark Kanemura, Katee Shean and Joshua Allen—these are the top couples and many of their performances were fabulously entertaining. But are they the top dancers? I’m not so sure. Will is, without qualification, the finest male dancer on the show, and Kherrington may be a real contender among the ladies, but both were held back yet again by unworthy partners. Get them matched up and we may suddenly have a dream team surging to the forefront. Start breaking up the couples and the race is going to get mighty unpredictable. The only sure thing Wednesday: Comfort must go.
The rundown:
-- Chelsie Hightower and Mark Kanemura in salsa. Choreography, 8. Performance, 9.
And in a Broadway number. Choreography, 6. Performance, 8.
Chelsie and Mark get the show to a smoking start in an Alex DaSilva salsa. The footwork is sharp, the turns fast and furious and the rhythm pumping—but the real heat is the pure joy that radiates from this pair, especially Chelsie, when they dance. Her hips are a force of nature, her ease onstage unmatched, but credit is due to Mark for partnering her deftly through those underarm turns and tricky wraps. Maybe Mary is right that Mark could be a little looser in his rhythm, but I was too distracted by Chelsie’s pure womanliness to notice and in Tyce Diorio’s Broadway number I was distracted by Mark’s falling suspender, and thought that he must be, too. The way Chelsie slapped around his head like a cat torturing its prey deserves a replay, and got its due from Mary. Mia puts her finger on this couple’s unfailing strength: They always tell a story. But I wonder if she’s right in diagnosing Mark as lacking technique. He hasn’t shown us any wiz-kid turns and jumps yet, but I’m not sure whether he doesn’t have that in him, or whether he just hasn’t gotten the right choreography. I’m itching to get another look at him in a contemporary or jazz piece. As for Mia’s complaint that in the Broadway number, Chelsie was “lacking movement vocabulary”: Isn’t that the choreographer’s fault? This girl lacks nothing. Prediction: safe.
-- Comfort Fedoke and Thayne Jasperson in hip hop. Choreography, 9. Performance, 6.
And in a jazz routine. Choreography, 6. Performance, 3.
I’m feeling for Thayne. He’s not getting a chance. Comfort hangs him out to dry in Tabitha and Napoleon’s terrific hip hop routine, doing her B-girl thing but attempting no relationship to him, allowing no drama. She drags him down even further in their second outing, one of Mandy Moore’s better efforts. The story of the choreography calls for vulnerability, but Comfort is all business. Her technical pitfalls would be obvious to anyone: the plodding feet, the lack of extension. But the real problem is she doesn’t dance—doesn’t shape the steps into anything resembling phrases, doesn’t build and release energy, doesn’t attempt any kind of musicality. The result is truly painful to watch. Mia thinks Thayne is brilliant despite his misfortune in partners. I’d like to get the chance to see if she’s right. Prediction: bottom three, no doubt.
-- Will Wingfield and Jessica King in contemporary. Choreography, 8. Performance, 9.
And in a quickstep. Choreography, 5. Performance, 6.
Tyce Diorio takes a big risk in his contemporary piece with whisper-quiet vocal music. The results, if a bit on the gymnastic side for my taste, are certainly striking. Will dances it gorgeously, of course—I loved the ease with which he rose from the floor and into a jump as though riding a single arc of movement. Sculpturally and dramatically, Jessica is ravishing, but the judges give her too much credit. The choreography she is given is not that difficult, and when she’s on her feet she’s still unsteady, not pulled up through a sure center. Neither she nor Will rise to the challenge during a heavy quickstep full of dead choreographic transitions. I agree with Mary that Will’s jacket destroys his topline. Mia gets devastatingly honest, saying Will looks “tired of carrying her” and needs a new partner. Don’t shoot the messenger. Prediction: bottom three.
-- Courtney Galiano and Gev Manoukian in a cha-cha. Choreography, 10. Performance, 10.
And in a jazz routine. Choreography, 5. Performance, 7.
Courtney and Gev take the prize for sheer entertainment in a hyper-sexy cha-cha by Pasha and Anya. Rocking hips, big energy, a powerful upper body from Gev, sharp legs from Courtney. Gev is practically licking Courtney with his gaze—these two are nearly obscene. I almost agree with Mia that they aren’t the best dancers on the show, except (especially after his bottom three solo last week) I’m beginning to wonder if Gev is as fine a dancer as Will, only in a different style. It isn’t his tricks that slay me—though the hand-balancing hops in Mandy Moore’s jazz routine are mighty fun—it’s his control and phrasing, his decision-making as an artist. I’m with Nigel on the Moore routine: No substance, but that’s not Courtney and Gev’s fault. Check out the replay on his roiling hips and shoulders. It’s clearly his spark with Courtney that brings him so alive. I don’t want to choose a single best dancer when I love these two so much together. Prediction: safe.
-- Kherington Payne and Twitch Boss in krump. Choreography, 10. Performance, 8.
And in a smooth tango. Choreography, 5. Performance, 2.
Lil’ C’s krump number may be the most genuine piece of choreographic art I’ve seen on this show all season. It’s real, it’s raw, it’s disturbing. The claw hands, the sudden breaths through the chest, several of them coming at the sound of gunshots—it brought out complicated emotions, among them sheer terror. It worked because Kherrington made it all real with dark anger and force like a fist-punch, rising to Twitch’s example.
The judges are all too obviously right that Kherrington ran out of energy halfway through—but they’re also right, in the face of her achievement, to ignore that. Alas, Kherrington and Twitch proceed from the most authentic performance of the night to the least in an inscrutable smooth tango. Twitch is lost—in the style, in the storyline—and Kherrington has nothing to play against. Curiously, it isn’t Twitch’s technique that’s held him back, though he certainly doesn’t achieve anything resembling the tight control tango demands. It’s his dramatic discomfort outside of anything other than hip hop. As much as I like the guy, it’s time to send him home. Prediction: Bottom three.
-- Katee Shean and Joshua Allen in a Viennese waltz. Choreography, 8. Performance, 6.
And in a Bollywood routine. Choreography, 9. Performance, 8.
So adaptable hip-hopper Josh does have his limits. In Tony and Melanie’s surging waltz, his lack of upper-body training is all too apparent with every dead-hand reach, the stiffness of his feet obvious with every step. Katee covers for him with her usual lovely lines in the explosive lifts, but as Mary says the overall effect is choppy, as Mia says “like a football player.” Bollywood style, however, suits Joshua’s hip-hop skills surprisingly well. Those jumps into deep knee-splayed bends, by the way, derive mostly from the South Indian classical dance form of Bharatanatyam (as does the custom of wearing bells on the ankles). Neither Katee nor Joshua pull off the knee-turns (not fast enough), and Nigel tosses in facile “It’s a Small World” political statements, but the style is a terrific addition to the show, and Katee and Joshua do an admirable job in it. Prediction: safe.
My leading dancers:
Men: Will and Gev
Women: Chelsie and Katee
Best Technique: Will and Chelsie.
Best Personalities: Courtney and Gev.
Send Home: Comfort and Twitch.
Rachel Howard is the dance correspondent of the San Francisco Chronicle. Her website is www.rachelhoward.com.
