SYTYCD Top 14 Recap

The show kicked things off pretty strongly with an amazing Jazz/Ballroom group number. Sonya Tayeh and Dmitry Chaplin choreographed this beautiful number. I never thought they could make such a brilliant team. Liked the costumes, LOVED the song even more. SYTYCD is my prime source for new songs so I always pay extra attention to the songs that are picked for each routine. Group numbers are becoming so much better don't you think so? I never liked each and every group performance until Season 10. It is hard to believe that ALL the group performances so far have been fantastic! There were only a handful of numbers in the past seasons that I liked but Season 10 has passed beyond my expectations. The only thing I didn't like about this routine was the use of smoke. I think it was way too excessive at certain times and it made it a bit difficult to enjoy the performance of the dancers in that smoke; however, I like that mystery added to this performance.

Curtis damaged his shoulder in rehearsals so he wasn't in the group routine, his doctor also said that he wouldn't be able to dance for the week.

Cat Deeley says something about "mini group routines". I was immediately excited when I heard this. At the end of the show 2 mini group routines were performed. Each routine consisted of 7 dancers. I will also share these mini group numbers with you as I believe one of them to be the BEST moment of the show EVER in all of 10 seasons!

The actress making her debut as a guest judge was Anna Kendrick, I just adore her. And I think it was a fitting decision to take her on. She didn't make useless comments. She didn't know the technical details so she remained silent about that but she was quite funny with her comments and I quite enjoyed her take on some of the routines. She made me laugh quite a lot.

After the judges were introduced it was time to announce the bottom 6 dancers: Alan, Nico, Curtis, Jasmine, Makenzie and Alexis. I just don't understand why some dancers just can't click with the public because I seriously can't understand why Jasmine and Makenzie were in the bottom.

Guys wasn't asked to do solos. Makenzie was saved, she was great in her last week's performance that's for sure so the judges wanted Jasmine and Alexis to do solos.

Don't you just wonder how suddenly they are asked to do their solos and suddenly we see them do routines with an already picked song. This boggles my mind. I wonder if the dancers are already told before the show whether they are in the bottom or not or are they all asked to pick a song in case they are in danger of elimination. I really can't understand this. A dancer finds out that he is in the bottom 6 and suddenly he starts dancing in harmony with a song without even a commercial break. So I guess they have to know before it is announced to the public.

I don't believe Alexis' choice of song during her tap solo was appropriate. I thought the dance she did and the song she picked were way too different and I think they didn't go well together. Jasmine's solo was all about the legs. She was fantastic and her legs were even more :P

After the solos, footage from National Dance Day was shown. I believe my country Turkey needs a fun holiday like this as we only have boring, cruel or nonsense ones that I don't even find worthy enough to celebrate... I couldn't help but feel jealous after watching people having all the fun in the world while celebrating dance in that footage.

The contestants were asked to talk about their first dance performances. I think it's nice that they let us know more about the dancers now. For the past 3-4 seasons or so they only showed first rehearsals and nothing else. But in the earlier seasons they asked them stuff like what did they like the most or didn't like the most about their partner, or secrets that their partners were hiding, just some funny trivia like that. I am glad that they are slowly returning to that format again.

I usually talk about 3 routines I thought were the best in the show but this week I'll be talking about more of them because this week's episode was filled with excellent performances alongside excellent routines. So this post will be even longer than usual and filled with videos of all the fantastic performances.

After the first routine of the night which was a disappointing Hip hop routine danced by Tucker and Jenna, the second performance of the night was an impressive Sonya Tayeh contemporary routine performed by Nico and Alexis. I especially thought the ending was really good. I believe Nico and Alexis played their part perfectly.

I fell in love with the Argentine Tango with Hayley and Leonardo that also got a standing ovation from Mary Murphy and it really really really deserved it. It was the best tango in all of the 10 seasons so far and this is coming from someone who really dislikes ballroom. But this was perfectly choreographed and danced, I loved the music and the lifts and I never thought I'd actually get to enjoy a tango for once cause I usually fell asleep during most of them but this one had me mesmerised. Everything about the performance screamed excellence. Anna even thought that she could solve world hunger if she had Hayley's body. As Curtis was injured Hayley couldn't do the routine with him but if she danced this with Curtis, this wouldn't have been a memorable performance in any way. So however cruel it sounds like in a way I am glad he was injured for the sake of this beautiful performance :P Here is the full performance including the first rehearsal as well as the judges' commentary.

Paul and Makenzie's jazz piece choreographed by Sonya Tayeh was also one of the memorable performances of the night. I think Paul is a powerful dancer but Makenzie is like she isn't from this world. She is on a whole other level. She is one of the strongest female dancers in the show and I believe she has got a great chance of making it to the final. And as Anna points out, she is extremely attractive too. Here is a video of the performance.

One of my favourite routines of the night was Aaron and Jasmine's contemporary piece. This was actually my second favourite performance of the night. It was beautifully choreographed by Justin Giles, we also find out that it was Justin's first work on SYTYCD and after watching this number I hope Justin will be choreographing many more because it was superbly done with a unique story. I wonder why it didn't get a standing ovation but whatever. I thought the story behind the routine was original because I am sick and tired of all these choreographers doing numbers about "boy meets girl". I am glad there was a great story to be told this time and it showed how greedy mankind is and how he doesn't care about who gets hurt in the process in order to take what he wants. Prop work, which was an apple, was also done brilliantly. I am sure it must have been nerve-wrecking for them to constantly try and catch the apple after it was thrown. Here is a video of this beautiful performance. I also loved the tree story that Nigel shared with everyone.

After this beautiful contemporary piece, it was my favourite Fik-Shun's turn to dance. I think he is quite lucky with the genres he picks because it's already 4th week and he picked Hip-Hop for the second time. But of course he already proved that he can do other genres too. Fik-Shun was in his home turf with Hip-Hop but I think Amy deserves credit too. I really felt for her when she slipped and fell but she picked herself up and kept dancing like nothing happened and she never dropped her character not even for a second. And I really appreciate it and applaud her for that. She danced brilliantly too and she always kept up with Fik-Shun. I really love this couple! The danced was choreographed by Christopher Scott, one of my favourite choreographers in the show. While the story was boring "boy tries to take the girl" type of thing, I loved the choreography as a whole. Chris Scott is a master.

Last couple performance of the night was another ballroom genre that really captured my attention the whole time. Malece and Alan danced Salsa. I completely despise salsa, I just hate it. I find it boring but this one was INCREDIBLE. Alan is already a ballroom dancer so I expected him to be good but Malece was also brilliant in it. The pace of the dance was quite high so she had to catch her breath once in a while especially toward the end but I thoroughly enjoyed the performance and I thought Alan was incredible. The partnering this number required was immense and he did his end of the bargain perfectly well. I loved the lifts and the flips and the whole package. The dance was choreographed by an old contestant Jonathan Platero. I just love it when previous contestants join the show as choreographers. 

After all the couples danced it was time for the mini group numbers. This idea excited me a lot at the start of the show and when I saw just how brilliant the group routines were I wanted more of them to come. So I really hope that the rest of the episodes in Season 10 will keep having these mini group numbers.

The first mini group number was a Broadway piece choreographed by Spencer Liff. As Curtis was injured we got to watch Spencer dance in his own choreography and to be honest I couldn't take my eyes off him. His moves were fluid and danced the number how it was meant to be danced. I really enjoy the choreographers taking part in their work. Especially Christopher Scott comes to mind in Season 9 finale in his fantastic Animation number with Cyrus, Twitch and Comfort. This number was fun and I enjoyed watching it.


As for the second mini group number which also was the final performance of the night, it was by far without question the BEST routine of SYTYCD in ALL of the seasons, not just 10. The story was meaningful, it was about bullying, the pain of its victims and how everyone turned a blind eye when witnessed. It was quite emotional and I must admit I had to fight off the tears at the end of the performance because I myself has been subjected to bullying starting from primary school to high school but it all stopped when I decided to fight back instead of remaining silent. So it is a personal matter for me and I understood how the dancers who portrayed the victims felt. I also liked the colour distinction of the dancers' clothes. The dancers who portrayed the bullies wore dark coloured, mainly black, clothes while the dancers who portrayed the victims wore light colored, mainly white and light blue, clothes. I thought it was a small detail and a nice touch. This incredible piece was choreographed by another SYTYCD first Bonnie Story. I really hope that we will get to see her more in the competition cause if she creates pieces like that then Stacy Tookey, Travis Wall, Sonya Tayeh and Mia Michaels will have a tough competitor. Because I believe that Bonnie's this number easily beats all of the other choreographers' works combined. The choice of the song was superb, the performance by the dancers was excellent. Simply anything about this dance was just perfect. You really should take the time to watch this performance and lose yourself in its beauty. I am 100% sure that it'll get an Emmy nomination next year and if it doesn't win it then I will be questioning the sanity of the voters.

Here is a photo of next week's Top 12!

Did you find out who is missing yet? Curtis and Alexis were eliminated at the end of the show. I wish them the best of luck in their future.