After an outstanding Top 16 night watched by special guests, Jack and Kate, who knows who’ll be leaving Monday.
Early favourites, Penny & Charlie, Ben & Gianne and Kat & Danny again delivered stellar routines but other contenders are now nipping at their heels. Ben & Pania krumped their way into the leading pack, Emmanuel left his b-boy behind and Amy was guided by Jason Gilkison to a “defining moment”. Who will you save? Who will they cut? Have your say and vote!
#1 Chanelle & Loredo – Aladdin and his Genie
Dancing out of their genres once more, Chanelle & Loredo opened the show with an Aladdin-themed Hip Hop routine by Andrew Sears where Chanelle “again had to be sexy”. Genie Chanelle rubbed the lamp and wished she could produce a killer routine that was the best of the night. Would her wish be granted?
Matt didn’t think being sexy could be difficult for Chanelle when she was “so gorgeous”. However he wanted her to stop thinking and lose herself while Loredo had “hit everything”. Bonnie said Chanelle was “just a beautiful dancer” and she should “stop worrying”. A couple of moments of unison troubled Jason, and he felt Chanelle might have been pushing too hard. He said her partner had a lot of “performance mojo” and that she should be careful he didn’t outdance her. “Loredo, you owned that!”
#2 Penny & Charlie – Touching without touching
Everyone’s been waiting to see whether Penny & Charlie could translate their high energy appeal into a more sensitive genre and tonight we found out. Dancing a Kelly Aykers’ Contemporary routine to The Fray’s “You found me”, they had to be touching without physically touching.
Bonnie thought their floorwork was “beautiful” and felt “quite choked” with emotion. Penny was “so not just a cheergirl” and it was “intoxicating”. Jason C had a minor technical criticism for Penny but “loved it, loved it, loved it” and “so embraced the Penny”. Matt “totally felt it” and said this couple hadn’t failed once. Penny had impressed him so much and Charlie was “just killing it”.
#3 Gianne & BJ – Spicy Salsa
They won last week’s McDonald’s moment. But could Gianne & BJ deliver again with a Csaba Szirmai-choreographed Salsa that required 19 year old BJ to play a sexy macho man - and included a mammoth final lift?
Jason could see his own determination in BJ’s eyes but felt that the young dancer had harnessed it well. He thought it “fabulous – up until the last 10 secs” when the final lift seemed “laboured”. Matt totally agreed, feeling the style suited Gianne, but he’d crossed his fingers during the lift. Bonnie said Gianne was like Salsa – spicy and saucy - and they’d done a “great job”.
#4 Kat & Danny – The assassins kill it
This week, Kat had to leave her natural bubbly energetic personality behind and join partner-in-crime Danny as lookalike assassins in a routine by old-boy Marko to “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes.
Matt felt she’d succeeded in taking on the character but for Danny to do well in his own genre he would need to be exceptional – fortunately he was. Bonnie loved that Kat was as physical as Danny and found it “pretty brilliant”. Jason commended Marko on the routine, loved the surprises, and thought that individually they were “fantastic”. He wondered whether Danny had overbalanced on the ponche but said they’d had “great commitment to a great routine”.
#5 Talia & Emmanuel – Broad smiles on Broadway
Having struggled with Hip Hop last week, Talia & Emmanuel took on a genre entirely foreign to both of them. Talia had to forget about technique and Emmanuel had to leave behind his b-boy roots in a Broadway Jazz routine by Adam Williams.
Bonnie found it “really expressive”. She warned Emmanuel that he had to “watch those counts” but his “comedy and flair” more than compensated. Talia was “the loveliest dancer” but Bonnie wanted more “face”. Jason “slammed these guys last week” and his expectations were high because he’d seen David Atkins perform the same piece, but thought they were “both fantastic”. Emmanuel had “crossed a line” and was no longer just a b-boy. He also felt highly-trained Talia needed to be acknowledged for having to work with untrained Emmanuel.
Matt thought Talia “redeemed” herself and that if the show was So You Think You Are Committed, Emmanuel would win hands down. He “totally bought it”.
Jack’s plans and Mary Murphy’s surprise return
Nat found Jack and Kate in the audience and last year’s champion revealed he now had an apartment in New York and would be moving there to live – and fulfil his dream – in April. Nat also revealed that our guest judge next week would be original Hot Tamale train driver, Mary Murphy. Can’t wait!
#6 Amy & Damien – Defining Moment
When he pulled Ballroom from the hat, and scored Jason Gilkison as choreographer, Damien thought it was his chance to shine. But it was a very different sort of Rumba and ultimately it was his partner, “Amy from Gosford”, who seized this heaven-sent opportunity.
Jason C declared Jason G “a genius” for an “amazing” routine about an addictive love danced to Duffy’s “Stepping Stone” that didn’t leave a dry eye in the house. He took Damien to task for saying he was “just an 18 year old boy” and said he’d been outdanced in his own genre. Amy “owned the routine” and was “amaaaaazing”, “exquisite” and “fantastic”.
Bonnie thought the routine “was in a class of its own” and “just the best ever”. She was “entranced” by Amy and disagreed with Jason’s assessment of Damien. She had seen a man not a boy. Matt agreed that he was “very masculine” but warned him not to just tell us what he thought we wanted to hear. He thought the routine was “Wow … wow … wow … wow-wow-wow-wow-wow” and that for Amy this was her “defining moment”. (Read why Jason Gilkison found it so rewarding to work with Amy & Damien on this routine)
#7 Ben & Pania – Hunk of Krump
Pania had been thrilled to pull Hip Hop from the hat but devastated to learn she was dancing a Krump routine – a style she’d never danced before. But with Nacho Pop pulling the strings, and hitting to “Show me the Money” by Petey Pablo, they wiled out and got one of the best crowd reactions of the night.
Pania had said she wanted to hit like the boys and Matt said she had. He’d been nervous for Ben but he’d risen up and “got ghetto” on him. Bonnie felt Ben had grown “a new skin” and “reinvented” himself while Pania had given Australia an opportunity to get to know her better. She thought they’d “nailed it” but that Ben – the Jazz dancer – had been “just a little bit better”. Jason said their unison was “fantastic” and said that Ben physically had looked like a different person. It had been a “Nacho routine that went Pop”.
#8 Lamb & Timomatic – All that jazz
Having survived the Bottom 3, Lamb & Tim got the chance to win Australia over again with a Jazz routine by Squared Division to Kelly Clarkson’s “My life would suck without you”.
Bonnie felt Lamb was putting the effort in but that it wasn’t necessarily coming across. She identified some technical flaws for her but felt Tim was “doing so good”. Jason said they had delivered a “Hip Hop Jazz” but that just showed they were putting themselves into everything they did. He warned Lamb to watch her line but thought they’d done a “great job”.
Matt said this made it 8 fantastic routines on the night. Lamb was “really impressing” him even if she did have some technical flaws. Tim was “amazing”, had totally encompassed the character, and was becoming a more versatile dancer. “Congratulations to both of you”.
Who won’t make Top 14?
How do you separate those couples? There wasn’t a single low-light and some, like Amy, pushed their way into Top 10 calculations. It’s going to be close, so if you don’t want to see your favourite dancers in tears on Monday night, show them you care in the only way that really counts. VOTE!!!
click here to see where to watch or .
Ready to Watch So You Think You Can Dance Australia, Season 2, Episode 11?