SYTYCD Top 17 Recap: Elimination Concept Change

In my post about SYTYCD Top 18 recap, I mainly talked about how cruel and unjust the elimination system was and I laid out 3 viable options to change this. I am glad that the producers listened to the shows fans ' complaints and changed the concept. They are actually using my 3rd option which was also my preferred one. They announce the bottom 6 and then they ask them to dance for their lives. Then the judges let the bottom 6 dance with their partners and decide who will leave at the END of the show which I believe is the best thing to do.

It was nice to see Paula Abdul on the judging panel but I am sure it was even nicer for Nigel Lythgoe as he admitted that he's been trying to get her to be on the show for 10 years. In addition, it was his birthday so obviously he couldn't have gotten a better birthday gift I guess.

Now let's talk about this latest episode. The show kicked off with a very strong and powerful Jazz number choreographed by Sonya Tayeh and one of my favourites Christopher Scott. I could clearly see Chris' influence with waves and sharp animation moves and Sonya is just out of this world. I just love her pieces as well. This routine clearly proves that Chris and Sonya make a fantastic team. I hope we'll see more routines from these two in the future.

During this piece I immediately realised that animator Jade was missing. Later we find out that he has been injured and needs surgery. Doctors said that he wouldn't be able to dance for 4-5 months so he had to step out of the competition. This was fitting because in fact he was in bottom 6 anyway. So as he had to step out the judges decided not to send the remaining 2 guys home. The 2 guys who were on the bottom was BluPrint and Curtis. I don't understand why Curtis was in the bottom, his previous performance was strong and he's got a nice personality. As for BluPrint, I love Dragon House and Remote Kontrol very much and I also love animation as a genre but I don't think he got used to the show yet. He's got so much talent and I hope he'll start to grow more into the show as time passes. I quite enjoyed his performance in the starting number but he occasionally did his own thing as he was probably instructed to do so by Christopher Scott. The bottom 3 girls were Alexis, Jenna and Jasmine Mason.

First couples performance of the night was by Amy and my favourite male dancer Fik-Shun. They took on the Paso Doble. This was not the usual paso doble though, girl wasn't the cape and the guy wasn't the bullfighter. This was full on war between the two dancers, they practically turned the stage into a battlefield. Amy and Fik-Shun are always goofy and fun to watch but this time it was nice to see them to take on a more serious role. They did manage to do that perfectly too. Their performance was believable but I didn't like the piece itself. It is not the dancers' fault though. I just thought they were way too separate at the start, but as the routine went on they became more unified. It wasn't bad at all but the choreography could have been much better. This routine proved that Amy and Fik-Shun could deal with whatever genre they picked. Week after week they are getting stronger and stronger. I'm pretty sure that these two will make it to the finale. You can watch the performance below.

The second performance of the night was by my favourite female dancer Jasmine Harper and my second favourite male dancer Aaron. They did a fantastic Broadway number choreographed by Spencer Liff. I particularly liked the soundtrack of this routine. It was a soundtrack in the musical TV series called Smash. The song is sung beautifully by the magnificent Megan Hilty who is my favourite character in the show. It has been known from the start of the show that Jasmine H. and Aaron were a power couple and they went on to show that again. These two will probably make it to the finale too. You can watch the full performance including the judges' comments below.

The rest of the show was filled with other brilliant routines but I thought I'd talk more about my favourite couples. At the end of the show contemporary dancer Jasmine Mason was eliminated, and as I stated before, no male dancers were eliminated as Jade, who was also in the bottom 3 this week, had to step out due to his injury. The talent among dancers in season 10 is unbelievable. I can't wait to watch the full season.