It’s every dancer for him or herself now on So You Think You Can Dance, and the effects were not subtle for Wednesday’s Top 10. Jessica is out with broken ribs and Comfort is back in her place, but the real change-up was in the partnerships, with each girl now drawing her guy for the week’s show out of a hat. Luck created a dream team for super-technicians Will and Katee, and gave Comfort a chance to show offer her true hip-hop chops alongside hard-hitting Twitch. But the audience votes now go to individual dancers, not couples, and the competitors who can overcome any casting challenge (ahem, Chelsie) are looking unstoppable. Does anyone else wish the solos didn’t all blur into each other, obligatory flailing and hip-strutting with a come-hither smile? The one solo act that won me over was Lil’C as guest judge: observant, considered, and articulate. "Buck," he explained impromptu after Comfort and Twitch killed their number, "is when internal artistry meets physical expression." That definition—and that ideal—is buck.
The rundown:
-- Courtney and Joshua in hip hop. Choreography, 8. Performance, 7.
And in a rumba. Choreography, 8. Performance, 8.
Courtney can’t pop but she comes out totally in character in choreographer Dave Scott’s clever Bride of Frankenstein hip-hop fantasia, and wisely lets down-and-dirty Joshua do his thing. Joshua swatting her wonderfully wiggling booty is an instant replay classic. Alas, another instant replay is Courtney flubbing through a jump that should have been her high point, drawing on her contemporary training. I have to admit I’m continually perplexed that Courtney doesn’t have the contemporary dance technique that you’d expect her to, and that seems like it should be well within her grasp. Check out her solo: her turns are sluggish, her extensions and stretch underpowered. She should be able to use her legs better than that. Is the issue plain laziness? Or, as a shorter dancer, does she shy from “dancing tall”? She redeems herself with her effortlessly swaggering hips in the rumba, while Joshua’s arms and hands look much improved from last week’s waltz with Katee. His hip rolls are divine. You know you’re prowling like a man when Nigel, ever alert to any hint of effeminacy, says you’re too butch.
Joshua’s solo: Wow! He had great flips and tricks, but most of all, great attitude. Prediction: safe.
Courtney’s solo: Ho-hum, but her spit-fire sex appeal keeps building. Prediction: safe.
-- Mark and Kherrington in a country two-step. Choreography, 8. Performance, 4.
And in a jazz routine. Choreography, 5. Performance, 6.
Kherrington draws a fine partner in Mark this week, but both of them suffer the luck of the draw when it comes to choreography. I was totally tickled by the whiplash country two-step (love the wit of those heavy deep lunges on the lyrics "weight of the world"), but was also mouth agape at the impossibility of mastering its devilish turns in one week. Kherrington doesn’t help Mark with her loosey-goosey arms unconnected to her center, which Mary rightly nails her for. Mark just keeps smiling, and even looks sexy. Tyce Diorio’s jazz routine should suit them both better, but neither makes anything of the pedestrian, amusement-park show choreography. Bad ballet alert: check out Kherrington’s way awkward opening sauté arabesque. She powers through her turns but needs more interplay with Mark—the two hardly make eye contact, and Mark is curiously low energy.
Mark’s solo: his wacky, cartoonish, hunched-back physicality. Ho-hum. Prediction: in danger.
Kherrington’s solo: flirty prancing, but, ah, that pretty face! Prediction: in danger.
-- Comfort and Twitch in a smooth waltz. Choreography, 4. Performance, 2.
And in hip-hop. Choreography, 8. Performance, 10.
A sappy waltz to Journey’s "Open Arms"? Tough-girl Comfort is not the right gal. But the real and obvious problem for her and fellow hip-hopper Twitch is technique. Clunky, choppy—do we really need the judges to tell us this? Both Twitch and Comfort try to show breath by hunching their shoulders, and Comfort holds her leg like a dog peeing on a fire hydrant during her painful best approximation of an attitude derriere. So here’s to redemption in Dave Scott’s hip-hop number, where both groove and move and playful one-upmanship reigns. Nigel says it all: "It didn’t look choreographed. It looked like you were dancing for the joy of it." Doesn’t change the fact that neither Comfort nor Twitch don’t stand a chance in the overall competition, but it sure was good to see hip hop done right.
Twitch’s solo: Wow. Signature toe-stands and slides. The man has style. Prediction: really doesn’t belong in this league, but he’s so damn likeable he’ll probably be safe.
Comfort’s solo: Ho-hum. She’s a strong woman with a great attitude and a great body. But I’ve seen plenty of other better female hip-hop dancers. Prediction: in danger.
-- Katee and Will in a Broadway routine. Choreography, 5. Performance, 9.
And in what the show is calling a pas de deux. Choreography, 7. Performance, 8.
Will is set free alongside his dancing equal, Katee—so forgive me for wanting to see this pair unleash their full talents in something more rewarding than Tyce Diorio’s "Rock the Boat" routine. It’s cute, and Will and Katee give themselves to it completely, but all that prancing around inside that little boat—there were no juicy dance phrases here. And now, for a completely new level of achievement on the show, the So You Think You Can Dance producers at last bring in artists from the non-commercial, concert dance world, with Desmond Richardson and Dwight Rhoden, co-founders of the dance company Complexions Contemporary Ballet . Can it really be luck that matched Richardson’s choreography with Katee and Will, possibly the only two dancers on the show who could do it justice? And yet, with higher achievement comes higher expectations. Richardson’s duet scores a little lower in choreography for me because, looking at it as art, I find it emotionally a bit treacly; all those artful twistings and twinings ride the expected wave of high emotion of the John Lennon song, rather than add another layer of more complicated emotion on top of it. Similarly, are the higher expectations for Will and Katee. These two are without doubt among the show’s top three dancers. Will is a wonder of technique in service to expression, even getting to fly through grandes pirouettes; Katee is gorgeous in that huge arabesque penchée plunging to the floor. But Katee is smiling the whole time, when I think there could be a deeper undercurrent of longing and even regret in the song and the movement. She’s adorable—but she could be an artist.
One more thing: I say Will and Katee are among the top three dancers on the show because the other contender is Chelsie. However, Chelsie’s an unknown when it comes to truly challenging contemporary technique. Could she have mustered the balletic stretch and strength for Richardson’s pas de deux? That’s what I want to know. Please bring on more of this caliber of choreographer so that we can find out.
Will’s solo: Wow. He goes for boldly simple choreography. Look at the beautiful way he moves through all levels of space, shaping swirling arcs of movement. Prediction: safe.
Katee: Ho-hum. Such swift, precise legs, but the after-image is of prancing and smiling. You’re a better artist than you know, girl. Prediction: safe.
-- Chelsie and Gev in contemporary. Choreography, 5. Performance, 7.
And in a jive. Choreography, 10. Performance, 8.
I love choreographer Sonya Tayeh’s classy choice of music in Otis Redding, but I’m not as big a fan of the choreography. It starts out at high pitch and doesn’t feel like it has anywhere, emotionally to go. But perhaps Chelsie and Gev are to blame for that. Without Mark by her side, Chelsie doesn’t sculpt as much of a dramatic arc—Mark has been really undervalued, I think, for his quality of quietness. Gev astounds me with his versatility, stretching through those barrel turn jumps as though he’s been training in modern dance for years. Both are fine actors in this piece, but they don’t have a great connection. Nigel says he "got basically the routine I would have hoped for," a kind of damning with faint praise that echoes my sentiment. But then that jive—whoa. As my TV-watching companion exclaimed, "now that’s dancing." Chelsie alone would have won a 10 for performance, with her "legs like lightning," as Lil’C put it. But Lil’C also has it right when he tells Gev: "She outstepped you." Well, with her strength and confidence, she would just about outstep anyone.
Gev’s solo: Ho-hum. Clever tricks, ripping off the shirt during the flip, and I like the side splits with his arms slinking above. But not the eye-opening demonstration of control that he gave us during the eliminations show a few weeks back. Prediction: safe.
Chelsie’s solo: Ho-hum. The challenge for ballroom-trained dancers is to come up with solid solo material, and Chelsie’s seeming freestyle doesn’t overcome this, but, man, what a dancer. Prediction: safe.
My leading dancers: Will, Chelsie, Katee Best Technique: Ditto above.
Best Personalities: Courtney and Joshua.
Send Home: Comfort, again—but what a way to go out!
Then send home: As much as I like him, Twitch.
Rachel Howard is the dance correspondent of the San Francisco Chronicle. Her website is www.rachelhoward.com.
