SYTYCD Season 10 Top 16 Recap

I am sure SYTYCD season 10 week 4 is to be remembered till the end of the season. The show was packed with some outstanding performances. There were hardly any weak ones which is surprising. Yes there were weak dancers but almost all the performances were to be enjoyed.

The show started with a stunningly beautiful contemporary piece choreographed by Stacey Tookey and Peter Chu. It was a magnificent piece and I enjoyed every second of it.

After the group dance Cat as usual introduced the judges. Carly Rae Jepsen was the guest judge and I must say I honestly hated all her critics, not even sure if we can call them that. She simply made general comments about the piece itself. She obviously doesn't understand dancing and I think Nigel should be more picky about his choices for guest judge. The show is not just a competition but also a place where dancers can grow. In order for them to grow they need valuable critics especially about the technical side of things. Simple comments like I enjoyed that, that was beautiful, good job are not enough for dancers to actually learn lessons from. If you don't understand the technicalities then you need to bring something else to the table like Nigel says to a lot of dancers. Look at Jesse Tyler Ferguson for example. He doesn't understand technicalities either but he is my favourite guest judge cause when he talks he cracks everyone up. Anyway I hope to never see Carly on the panel of "experts" again :D

After the introduction Nigel gave everyone the good news about the Emmy nominations that the show got. Nigel announced that Travis Wall, NappyTabs, Stacey Tookey, Mandy Moore were nominated for Outstanding Choreography, Cat Deeley for Outstanding Host and the show itself for Outstanding Reality Competition. I am sure anyone who is following the show already knows about all these nominations. I know I do :)

After Emmy announcements, bottom 6 dancers were revealed: Makenzie, Bluprint, Alan, Curtis, Mariah and Jenna. Jenna was saved from the beginning, judges didn't ask her to dance for her life. I found Alan's Paso Doble solo boring. Boring as in he didn't do anything.... He kept posing and waving his cape. I felt increasingly uncomfortable as his performance continued. I can't believe he did that as "dance for your life". I'll share the eliminated dancers with you at the end of the post :)

There were many memorable moments in this week's episode as I've already said before. Nevertheless this didn't prove choosing favourites to be too difficult for me.

The first WOW moment was a fantastic piece by Emmy nominated choreographer Travis Wall. I ADORE Travis, I've been watching him ever since he took part in the show's second season. He was the runner up. I really wanted him to win though but still I loved Benji too. Season 2 was the best season by the way so if you haven't watched it before, you just have to. Anyway, the piece was really emotional that teared up Mary again :p It was danced brilliantly by Tucker and Jenna. Travis has the talent of bringing out the best in dancers. Someone who has been an underdog for the majority of the competition is elevated to a whole new level if he or she teams up with Travis and we witnessed that many times before. I knew this piece was going to be my top one in this week's episode but of course this was until I saw another performance that I'll be mentioning afterwards. Here is a video of this fantastic performance.

As I said, I was so sure that this performance would be the best one of the night. But no, it wasn't. But it will definitely be remembered throughout the season. Maybe it'll get an Emmy nomination next year. It deserves it that's for sure. In this piece I particularly liked the end where Tucker releases 3 of the bonds and after that Jenna feels strong enough to let go of the last one. It's got a nice touch to it. It shows the brilliant mind of Travis Wall for adding little but enchanting details like that to his pieces.

After this performance I started looking forward to see what my favourite dancer Fik-Shun would do. Not to my surprise he again gave the best performance of the night along with his partner Amy. I am not saying that because he is my favourite. But because he really DID give the best performance of the night. The jazz piece was brilliantly choreographed by Tyce DiOrio. We all know how magnificent Tyce's choreographies are. He is particularly strong for his broadway pieces but I just LOVED this jazz piece. Here is a video of the routine along with the first time rehearsal and judges' commentary.

I was also curious as to what my favourite female dancer Jasmine and her partner Aaron. They are a power couple as the judges say and they proved that once again with their Quickstep performance. The dreaded quickstep is like the downfall of many couples and when I found out that Jasmine and Aaron picked up the quickstep I was sad because I thought it would also be their downfall. Oh boy was I wrong.... They KILLED it! I don't know all the technicalities but when dancers are uncomfortable a viewer can easy say whether they are doing it right or wrong. But Jasmine and Aaron had a lot of fun in their routine and they also gave it their all and it paid off. I hate ballroom genre but I quite enjoyed this routine.

For me these 3 routines were the most memorable moments of the night. But I have to give credit to Malece for pulling of Hip-hop as well as she did. Her partner Alen was pretty weak but Malece was a beast which is a hard thing for me to believe because her face is well, just too sweet. She danced it perfectly and she also portrayed the character perfectly. I didn't expect that much "swag" from her :) Now let's take a look at our top 14.

Did you find out who is missing from the Top 14 picture? Unfortunately Bluprint and Mariah were eliminated from the show. Bluprint's solo was fantastic, his past performances were also decent so I don't understand why they chose him. Curtis is not doing what the judges and the choreographers tell him for like the 3rd week now and Alan's solo was soooooooo weak, his performance in Hip-hop was also weak so I just don't understand. I liked Mariah too but to be fair Makenzie's Hip-hop performance was up top so even the juıdges didn't want to let her go but it had to be done.