Top 10 night delivered five brand new partnerships – and some exciting new chemistry. Three couples soared – but only 4 dancers are safe – so some great dancers are going to be feeling very anxious on Monday night. Make sure you vote for your favourites – and don’t miss Australia’s first elimination vote of the season. TEN Monday night 7.30pm.
Top 10 Sunday Night Summary
Three couples got raves from the judges. Amy & BJ's Lyrical was “a match made in heaven” and the favourite of both Jason and Bonnie. Ben & Penny’s Foxtrot matched them for Bonnie and all three judges loved Charlie & Talia’s cutting edge Contemporary. Kat & Timomatic were “fantastic fun” in their Little Riding Hood routine but Gianne & Loredo had a tough night at the office. They didn’t “get” Travers Ross’s distinctive Hip Hop and it was their “low point of the competition”. Were the judges right? Let us know in the comments.
Brave New Top 10 world
Natalie reminded everyone that the rules have changed now. The judges no longer decide who goes home. You do! You also no longer vote for couples. You vote for individual dancers and the rules are very simple. From now on, the boy and the girl with the lowest votes goes home on Monday. Have you voted yet?
#1 Amy & BJ – Futuristic Hip Hop by Etienne
Amy teamed up with BJ – her third partner in three weeks – for a Futuristic Hip Hop routine choreographed by SYTYCD first-timer Etienne Khoo to “Dance wiv me” by Dizzee Rascal & Calvin Harris.
Matt was “loving this partnership”. He’d enjoyed watching Amy grow in Hip Hop and tonight she “hit it right on the head”. He wasn’t surprised BJ had “killed that” because was he was so “strong and versatile”. Bonnie thought they had “great chemistry”. Jason loved the Tutting, and the “fantastic unison” and thought they’d done a “brilliant job” – even if Amy still looked a little like “a Jazz dancer in a Hip Hop routine”.
#2 Gianne & Loredo – Sarah Boulter Gangsters
For the first time in the competition, Gianne wasn’t teamed with BJ. She was now paired with Loredo in a Sarah Boulter contemporary routine that had them playing gangsters to Max Sledgely’s remix of the “Peter Gunn” theme.
Bonnie thought it was a “really difficult” routine and that they’d been a “great match”. Jason didn’t think it was very hard at all because it had fewer beats than most routines, which meant they had to be totally committed. He felt Gianne had done that but that Loredo in his own genre hadn’t pushed himself hard enough. Matt saw no fear in Loredo’s eyes and congratulated them on “not breaking character”.
#3 Talia & Charlie – Jason Gilkison Quickstep
Early favourite Charlie and rising star Talia were dream-teamed with the maestro himself, Jason Gilkison, for a Quickstep to Amy Winehouse’s “Valerie” that had them starting in the audience.
Jason found it “entertaining, light and fun” but he thought that Talia had possibly “adapted to the Quickstep a little better” than Charlie. Matt’s “guts almost jumped into my mouth” when Charlie tripped at the beginning but he’d covered it well. Talia was “such a contender in this competition”. Bonnie had been worried about Charlie being paired with a technician like Talia but she believed that he had “met her”.
#4 Ben & Penny – Cameron Mitchell Broadway Jazz
Australia has totally embraced the Penny. But this week she was being embraced by new boy Ben in a Cameron Mitchell Broadway Jazz piece to “If you hadn’t but you did” from TWO ON THE AISLE. Ben’s challenge was to dance while acting dead.
Matt felt Penny’s lack of acting experience showed here, feeling she hadn’t found the character, while Ben was totally in his world. Bonnie thought Penny would struggle to take on a big character when she has such a large personality of her own. Jason said Penny had missed the gunshot at the opening and that she “hadn’t found the actor in the dancer”. Ben meanwhile had pulled it off because he’d simply played a “Broadway version of himself”.
#5 Timomatic & Kat – Sandro’s African Samba
Kat and Timomatic tackled a tricky tribal African Samba routine by Sandro Catalano to “Iko Iko” by The Belle Stars.
Bonnie thought Timomatic had been “such a gentleman”. He just needed to be more accurate with his feet. Jason found it hard to adjudicate because “the costumes clashed with the music clashed with the steps”. Matt liked seeing Kat “totally transformed into someone that’s not Kat” and this was the first week where Tim hadn’t looked like a Hip Hop dancer out of his genre.
#6 Amy & BJ – Marko Lyrical Contemporary
Second time up, Amy and BJ were right in their genre with a Lyrical Contemporary piece by Marko Panzic to Beyonce’s “Halo”.
Jason “loved it, loved it, loved it” and it was “my favourite routine so far”. Amy had “great feel, great lift and great unison”. He loved BJ’s dance break near the end because it was “big, hard, fast and perfect”. He thought “the other dancers should look out”. Matt loved Amy’s “crazy” layout and BJ’s pirouettes were just “amazing”. In his opinion, they’d had “a moment”. Bonnie thought it was “a match made in heaven”, and it was also her “favourite number of the night”.
#7 Gianne & Loredo – Travers Ross Commercial Hip Hop
Gianne & BJ had rocked to Tiana Joubert’s Hip Hop in Top 14 week. Could she do the same with Loredo in Travers Ross’s intricate Hip Hop style to Counting Crows’ “Mr Jones”?
Matt wasn’t sure they had pulled off the choreographers “brave” vision, and the routine was “a square peg in a round hole” for him. The style “didn’t sit” on Gianne and Loredo “went too far” with his character. Bonnie said that sometimes you don’t get the chorey you want but they’d both been committed. Jason said “it wasn’t good enough”. There was “nothing Hip Hop about it”, “the acting wasn’t coming from truth”, and it was their “low point of the competition”.
#8 Talia & Charlie – Larissa McGowan Abstract Contemporary
The versatility of Chucky Cheese and our Brisbane Ballerina was tested in an abstract (very) contemporary piece by Australian Dance Theatre’s Larissa McGowan to “The Battery” by Boyz Noize.
Bonnie said it was “smokin’ shit hot” - she really did - and a “brilliant combination”. Jason thought Talia had an “amazing line” and was an “incredible beautiful technician”. He thought Charlie might have been outdanced but “you owned that”. He again, “loved it, loved it, loved it”. Matt said they “absolutely killed that”. Talia had “the most attack” he’d seen and Charlie had been a “forklift” – but a “dancing forklift”. The choreographer had been lucky to get two great technicians.
#9 Ben & Penny – Jason Gilkison Foxtrot
Dressed in bridal wear, Ben & Penny looked a picture of recent matrimonial harmony, but how would they go in the bridal foxtrot? Fortunately they were being guided by Jason G to Frankie Knuckles’ remix of Michael Jackson’s “Rock with you”.
Jason “latched onto it” from the moment Penny walked past Ben, and thought they had danced it “beautifully”. Matt thought it was “mesmerising”. Penny was “so elegant” and “perfect partner” Ben had “framed” her so well. For Bonnie, it had matched Amy & BJ’s routine for her favourite routine of the night. Jason added that, like Fred & Ginger, they’d made it look “effortless”.
#10 Kat & Timomatic – Project Moda Little Red Riding Hood
For the closing routine of the night, Kat was able to pour her great talent for character into Little Red Riding Hood to Timomatic’s Wolverine. They were dancing a typically quirky Project Moda routine to “Killjoy” by N.E.R.D.
Matt thought it was “a really cute concept” and “fantastic”. Bonnie thought there was a little too much chasing at the beginning but Jason disagreed. She thought they’d had a problem with the somersault over the back but covered it well and Timomatic was “a brilliant wolf”. Kat was “everything a big bad wolf could want” according to Jason, and he was glad that they’d “got to do something that really popped”.
Who’ll make Top 8?
Since you’re voting for individuals for the first time, who knows how Monday night will turn out? Penny & Charlie have been hugely popular, but has one of them been getting more votes than the other? Everyone else has been in the Bottom 3 – and no one wants be there again. If you want to save your favourite dancers, make sure you vote!
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