Huh. Pole dancing on So You Think You Can Dance. I’d’ve never thought …
Anyway …
We’ve got four contestants left: Tiffany Maher, Eliana Girard, Chehon Wespi-Tschopp and Cyrus Spencer. While each one deserve a spot in the Top 4, one gal and one guy stand out above the others.
Tiffany — while completely deserving with her tidy adaptations in the various genres as well as her own special abilities — plays second fiddle to the brilliance of Eliana. There’s little comparison there. And Cyrus is a definite fan favorite, regardless of the expertise Chehon so easily displays. In a nutshell, there it is. There are your winners: Eliana and Cyrus.
The fact of the matter, however, is that there was still a little bit of dancing to commit before the whole thing got wrapped up. Let’s simply toss out the solo performances — we all know they showed the strengths of each of the four. We belabor what we already know?
Eliana and Chehon: Ballet from a couple of finalists who do ballet? It doesn’t get more fortunate than that. Unfortunately, the routine didn’t showcase anything from Chehon outside his physical strength. It was a piece that shown its light primarily on the female lead … not that Chehon needs any help in that department.
The hip hop routine with Tiffany and Cyrus was frantic and somewhat violent. Interestingly, there were a lot of lyrical elements within it that could have gone very, very wrong for either of the two, but they put on the routine pretty well.
The classical mish-mash that was performed by all four was a bunch of drivel. Sorry Tyce DiOrio, but the choreography — good as it may have been — just didn’t gel with the stuttering music. Too, too much corny-ness to be taken seriously. It was one of those routines that never should have seen the light of day — it was pointless.
Chehon and all-star Alison’s lyrical piece was incredibly strong and powerful. It showcased Chehon in light of everything we’ve seen of him previously to be.
Both the guys, dancing together to a Sonya Tayeh routine, were strong, masculine and both were not only in their genres at times but were given opportunities to step out of there elements a bit, too.
Eliana and all-star Alex did indeed got lost in their Travis Wall routine as Nigel mentioned. Beautiful stuff, elegant lines. Eliana was every bit the feminine epitome of a ballet dancer the dance asked from her.
The rumba Tiffany and Chehon did was utterly emotionless and lacked even the slightest amount of connection. Was it the difference in height between the two that helped contribute to that? Probably. They tried, but it was a moot effort.
Twitch and Cyrus do an animated piece “the whole world has been waiting for.” The kicker here was the aftermath stirred up by Nigel and his comments post-performance. If there was any doubt about Cyrus winning the season as the top male dancer on the show, that doubt has been removed by Nigel’s comments. Voters will take their choices for Chehon and offer them Cyrus’ way. Unintentionally, Nigel did one a huge disservice to the ballet dancer while handing one monumental gain to the dub stepper:
The proof of my predictions will be in next week’s pudding.
And … huh. Pole dancing. Go figure …
Notes:
Quote:
“The last time I saw anything like that it was with (American Idol judge) Randy Jackson … but we won’t go into that …” — Nigel commenting on Tiffany and Eliana’s Broadway pole dance routine
Clacked by Michael Noble 
on Sep 12, 2012 @ 08:53 EST5EDT
Well, maybe the show might have some redeeming qualities after all…
McSnort™
I wasn’t a fan of Nigel’s comments. Every time I watched recent episodes, he kept praising Cyrus and telling him how he deserved to be there, when he really should’ve criticized Cyrus. But, after Cyrus does a dance that showcases his strengths, Nigel pulls the air out of the balloon. I like the honesty and, like Nigel, I’m torn. I love Chehon as a dancer, but I love Cyrus’ personality. All the same, I would’ve preferred if Nigel incorporated more realism in his comments earlier.
I was very dissapointed in Nigel. I believe he has done the very thing that he did not like about American Idol. The choice is up to America and so he just should have critqued his performance and not added any additional comments that would sway America’s votes. I have not voted one time this season.. but his comments sparked me to vote for Cyrus for 3o full minutes. Cyrus did not deserve that. None of the other judges stated who they would be voting for and neither should Nigel. I stop watching American Idol because they did just that..swayed votes with injust comments.’
uughhh so disappointed.
P.S. I am inlove with Cyrus’s spirit. He just glows.
Nigel is such a prick sometimes. If you’re going to say something like that to a dancer, do it off the air, in private. First, I do agree that those comments sway the vote. We’ve seen it time and again, especially on American Idol, when someone gets a bad critique or some negative comments, they get a ton of sympathy votes. Second, does he not have any clue as to how that could make someone feel standing there in front of a live audience and millions of TV viewers to hear that you’re not getting his vote because you haven’t “paid your dues”? It was the same when he told Eliana that she was his favorite dancer on the show. It’s just tactless, but it’s his show and he just doesn’t care.
Oh, and by saying he’s going to vote for Chehon because he’s a “real” dancer, that completely contradicts the concept of the show — to find America’s favorite dancer. There have been plenty of times over the course of the series where the best dancer didn’t win. But if Nigel didn’t think Cyrus had what it took to win, why even put him on the show?