I think the concept of Russian folk dance is fine; as Nigel mentioned, Joshua & Twitch did a great job with it last year. But the choreography last night was weak – it looked like a kiddy dance recital. Real Russians might’ve made it look exciting, but Phillip could barely do some of the moves.
Nigel walked a very fine line, coming as close to slamming the choreographers as he could without actually mentioning them.
The cool thing about this show…I know doodly squat about dance, but I now have a list of favorite choreographers, and Wade Robson is at the top. In my household we’re still talking about the zombie dance he did in Season 2. (And he must really like Roisin Murphy – he’s done 3 numbers to her songs over the years, which may be the only time I’ve ever been exposed to her music.)
Janette’s the one with the fantastic legs, Jeanine is the one with the amazing rack. 
Maybe it’s being paired with Evan or her body type, but I’ve always get the impression that Randi is really short, so it’ll be interesting to see if there are some height differences to contend with when she’s partnered up with someone new.
Wasn’t Jeanine phenomenal in that?
I agree! I loved the zombie dance in Season 2, and also the Good and Evil dance that Lauren and Neil did in Season 3 or 4. I think Wade lives on a completely differnt planet from the rest of us, but he’s a brilliant choreographer.
This is so true. 
Like everyone else, I absolutely loved both of the Brandon/Janette routines. Janette is far and away my favorite of the girls - not only is she the best dancer, but she’s also the one with the most charismatic stage presence. I’m still not quite sure which of the guys is my favorite, other than to know that it’s definitely NOT Kupono.
Wade is definitely one of my favorite choreographers, but there are so many great pieces put together by so many different people on this show - that’s probably my favorite part of it, actually. I really enjoyed the opening to tonight’s show as well, by the Napoleon/Tabitha combo, probably my favorite of the group efforts this season.
Not happy with the results at all–I wish the utterly redundant Jason had gone home instead.
I dunno, it was a complete tie between him and Phillip for me, as far as “what’s he doing still on the show?” I’m guessing Jason will be next week.
Well, there’s no question that the guy’s title is down to Ade and Brandon. Evan and Kupono are both very lucky to be in the top ten. I think Evan goes next week after being exposed with another Salsa or hip-hop number.
I think Evan might be able to buy another couple of weeks, just because I think as weak as he is, Jason and Kupono are certainly no stronger. Agreed on who the top two pretty clearly are for the guys, though.
Was away for an extended weekend, so just saw the Results show.
First of all, the right two people went. I think Jason may have had Caitlyn as a bit of an anchor, but he really needs to deliver the goods in developing more of a discernible personality. But he can still dance rings around Phillip; heck, I’m not very impressed with Kapuno, but he still deserves to stay more than the pop-locker (though he wasn’t on the block this week). And Ade’s solo was fantastic.
Melissa was ballet-y, but not nearly as much as Caitlyn tried to be (tutu and all), and while Jeanine’s solo wasn’t as good as last week’s, the blonde had been on the cusp for weeks and was lucky to last that long (again–thanks to Jason?).
Now, the final 10. A rough ranking (admittedly kneejerk)
GUYS
1 & 2 are admittedly fairly interchangeable, but I think Ade’s still a bit under the radar, and Brandon will show his true colors when partnered with someone beside the female front-runner. Jason is vulnerable but still has more competitive legs, what with Evan’s partnering and stylistic limitations, and Kapuno is lucky he’s still around (Vitolio might have gotten the shaft in how previous voting played out).
GALS
Personally, 2-5 are pretty fluid and not as spread out as the guys, though I think #1 is still on the mark. How much did Melissa benefit from Ade? Evan was a terrific match, but can Randi shine brighter without him? Will we see Jeanine’s full potential tapped now that she has more experienced partners? And can Kayla live up to the hype now that the judges are out of the decision-making process? This, I think, is where the real surprises lay in store, and how the partners pan out will be truly critical.
We’ll see…
I’m way hong the show right now but I have to say that Jason and Jeanine’s contemporary was amazing, my favorite of the season. First of all, it was to a Jason Mraz song that I love, and I really liked Travis’ choreography. It was just perfect.
I liked Phillip but he was dragging Jeanine down.
And it is very obvious that Jeanine wants to fuck Jason.
Sorry for the double post, but that is supposed to say “watching.” “I’m watching the show right now…”
Damn iPod.
Jason & Jeanine - Maybe a little too jumpy/jerky for my taste, but undeniably appealling, emotional, technically complicated, and immaculately executed. Incredibly, Jason kept his shirt on for the solo, and Jeanine is a force to be reckoned with. Both upped their game now that they were partnered with someone closer to their own skill set. Safe.
Ade & Janette - Another terrific routine, though I think Janette stole the show with her convincing characterization and effortless charisma. I had to remind myself to look at him once in a while, but he was always very good, too. She’s still #1 (from my ranking above), though I would bump Ade down a notch simply because Brandon’s solo was so much better tonight. Safe.
Brandon & Melissa - Thankless material, but both were wholly believable in the number, easily selling the hippie vibe while still fully indulging their own style and talent. Brandon’s solo was top-notch, and she’s still radiant. Safe.
Evan & Kayla - I really liked the waltz, and though I take Mary’s points about Evan’s footwork, they were so fluid and organic in their movements from the waist up that I didn’t notice the faults much. Well-partnered, and he has a monopoly on the safe Boy-Next-Door vote. It certainly didn’t hurt that he was a good sport in the group number and, unlike Philip, never seems out of his depth when dealing with a style not his own (which is most of them), despite some inevitable technical drawbacks. She was fine too and they made a good match. Both probably safe.
Kapuno & Randi - Toast. By far the worst of the couple routines, and that’s even before you compare them with the high standard set by most of their competition tonight. Neither has much evidence of a strong or loyal fanbase (I’m guessing Randi rode Evan’s coattails in previous votes), and neither of their solos were anything to write home about (plus I also thought she was a standout in her group number, and not in a good way). I will be really, really surprised if either survives the night tomorrow.
Do any of you feel that this season has given us any pieces that were a powerful as some of the pieces from past seasons? I’m talking about the Neil/Sabra dance to “Sweet Dreams”, the one from last season with Mark & (?) where he’s a businessman and she doesn’t want to let him leave for work, the Neil & Sara disco number, etc. In each of the previous seasons there have been several numbers that really resonated, and I can still remember them. This season there have been many that I’ve enjoyed, but not with the staying power of past seasons. Just wondering if anyone else feels the same way.
Agree that Randi is toast – sad, she came across as likable as Evan’s partner, but that was good chemistry in general. She is absolutely the weakest of the remaining women.
Kapuno is also probably at the bottom of the list, but not by as dramatic a gap as Randi.
Re: solos – I say it every season, and I’ll say it again – I fucking hate the herky-jerky, frenetic solos these people do to cram as many tricks as possible into their 30 seconds. The music is not served, dance is not served, by moving that fast. I thought that was particularly true of Brandon last night, and would describe his solo as anything but “top notch.”
Some thoughts on some of the pair dances:
Evan and Kayla’s waltz – it was funny that the tallest girl got matched with the shortest boy (and vice versa, as it turned out). Quite a challenge for the choreographers – and the costumers. Tony and whatsherface (the choreographers) did a brilliant job of choreographing a waltz in which they were actually standing, erect, next to each other for a minimal amount of time – it was striking, almost distractingly so. Overall, I liked the number – but pouffing his hair up into a pompadour to give him an illusory extra inch was just not necessary.
I liked Brandon and Melissa’s Hair number, but the soundtrack to the original b’way show was the very first album I ever bought for myself (back in 1968, when I was in 7th grade), and I’m very fond of the Milos Forman film version choreographed by Twyla Tharp (which I’m going to try to get onto the list the next time we resuscitate the musicals group). [Geez freaking louise, where was I going with this? rereads very long first sentence of this paragraph] Anyway, I liked the number, and liked very much the way the choreography played to each of their individual strengths and styles while also communicating the vibe of the song and the show.
Jason and Jeanine’s pairing with Travis was phenomenal – I think that will turn out to be one of the top numbers this season. (How fun it was to see Travis again! and my god, he’s turned into a hell of a choreographer!)
Re: the group dances – did they do this in previous seasons? I have no recollection of it, but my memory sucks for this kind of thing. (Y’all’s ability to remember names and particular numbers not only from previous seasons but from earlier this season, for fuck’s sake, regularly astonishes me.) I liked both of these numbers, and liked that they made an effort to make each one roughly as difficult as the other, in terms of the dances involving kinds of moves that no individual dancer already had in his or her repertoire – though obviously the African somewhat more so. High energy, a lot of fun, a good showcase for how versatile most of these dancers are.
Damn, I love this show …
I thought the African group dance was fine, but the choreographer was apparently going for something that was aggressively masculine. I don’t think he’s going to get it with this remaining group of guys.
And I couldn’t take my eyes off Evan during that number. He was like a light bulb.
I think the group dances are a first this season. I mean, they’ve always done them on the results show but not on the Wednesday night show.
I can already tell you that I’m not going to like how they are taking the judges out of the mix. Having the judges pick who goes home was one of the reasons I liked the show.
I rarely go there, but for the hell of it I took a look at what DialIdol had to say about last night. Here are their numbers:
Randi 9.606
Jeanine 0.764
Janette 0.489
Melissa 0.253
Kayla 0.000
Evan 7.512
Ade 1.52
Brandon 1.309
Kupono 0.227
Jason 0.000
Huh??? Randi got the highest score?? Maybe she was carrying Evan rather than vice versa.
I’ve got two theories:
There are so many fewer people voting (compared to American Idol, I mean) that it’s a rarity for any of the phone lines to max out, and so random chance plays a huge role in the counts.
The judges were so uniformly negative about Randi that they fired up her base, and again, with a smaller number of voters overall, it doesn’t take that much for a splinter group to have a big impact.
What’s DialIdol, and what do those numbers signify?