SYTYCD Top 8 Recap: All-Stars to choreograph their routines!

Week 8 kicked things off with a superb contemporary piece choreographed by Mia Michaels. I'm glad to see her again as it's been quite a long time since last time she created something for the show. For some reason when I watched this piece it made me think of Wade Robson's Ramalama Bang Bang routine. I actually thought it was Wade who choreographed it. I must say that I was quite surprised when I heard Mia's name. Thinking about it, It'd be bloody brilliant to see Wade Robson again, I think he was magnificent. I wonder what he is up to.

I knew what I'd be looking forward to for days before the show started. On Facebook SYTYCD's offical page announced that the all-stars would be choreographing their routines this week and it also announced the all-stars for the week. I was incredibly happy to find out Travis Wall among them! He doesn't enjoy dancing as much as he enjoys choreographing but I really missed seeing him dance ever since season 2. I was 100% sure that he'd perform at the end of the show and I was right, he really did perform at the END of the show... It was worth the wait though! (Not going to give away the whole performance now so here's a still to get you more excited :D)

Jenna Elfman was the guest judge for the evening. For her first time as a guest judge I think she was very interesting and quite funny at times. I particularly thought her crush on Dmitry was very cute :D She provided some useful insight about the dancers too and we also find out that she is a dancer herself.

After the judges are introduced  it was time to announce the bottom 4 dancers. In my opinion it was the worst bottom 4 ever. They sooo didn't deserve to be there. But who did? I've never felt like this for most of the dancers on this show before. Previous seasons I only had 1 or 2 at the most favourites. But this season is really different for me. I feel strongly about all of them and I want all of them to win. So I was quite upset by the elimination for this week. I'll reveal who had to leave at the end of this post. The dancers in the bottom were Fik-Shun, Tucker, Jenna and Hayley. As this is the last week for the judges to decide who goes home or not, they wanted all 4 of them to do their solos. They literally gave it their all. Fik-Shun was incredible and Tucker was breathtaking! Jenna was weak but Hayley was magnificent as well.

After solos it was finally time to see the performances of the dancers with their all-star partners. But this time the all-stars actually choreographed the numbers. I think this was a brilliant idea and I want to thank whoever thought of that. It was breath of fresh air and I didn't know that past contestants had this much talent. One can be a dancer but choreography is so much different than that. It requires something else. Contestants were asked to talk about their biggest inspirations before performing so the night was full of emotional stories. This week was just magnificent so let's get into it as there are so many performances to talk about.

First performance of the night was a Jive number choreographed by all-star Chelsie Hightower. Aaron partnered Chelsie in this highly energetic number. I thought it'd give him an advantage as foot work in Jive is similar to Tap but Nigel thought Aaron was awkward at times. Well I don't care about Nigel I think he did a great job and I certainly enjoyed the performance. Chelsie was a fireball too and I LOVED her choreography!

Then all-star Allison along with Fik-Shun took the stage for a meaningful contemporary piece. Allison is an incredibly beautiful person and a dancer and her choreography was in-one-word, perfection! It was about prejudice. But then after the performance we learn from the judges that it was actually about racism. Well racism is a prejudice too and I'm sick to my stomach that we are still faced with that problem to this date. I mean which century are we living in? Allison is obviously inspired by her real life as we find out from Nigel that she is getting married with Twitch. So she is probably facing racism issues from her friends and it's unacceptable. I hope this beautiful number will shut these people up. Fik-Shun certainly did his part brilliantly as well and I think he was incredible. This performance as a whole was perfect. I loved the use of lanterns as symbol if illumination too. I really want Allison to be a permanent choreographer on this show :D Twitch is a really lucky man I hope he'll be a good husband for her.

Up next was all-star Courtney and Tucker. Courtney's jazz piece was about... well... love. Romeo and Juliet kind of love. Boring story and I expected that of Courtney but I knew her choreography would be beautiful and it really was. Tucker became an all-star in this dance just like he did last week. I think he was perfect and for the past 3 weeks or so I reallly reallllllllllly started to love Tucker. (I loved Tucker's dad too as his inspiration, it's important to have family on your back.) He will be among the best male contemporary dancers that this show has ever seen that's for sure. After the performance we learn from Nigel that Courtney was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and her left eye was blinded for a month. I felt really sorry for her, all my thoughts are with her and I honestly hope that she will get better soon.

First hip-hop of the night was performed by Comfort and Paul. I think Comfort's choreography was really interesting and fun to watch. She's a pretty funny person too so I loved the humour behind it. I believe classically trained ballroom dancer Paul was INSANE in it as well! As Comfort and Nigel said, he really got down and dirty! I loved it, I thought I'd watch Comfort throughout the performance but I watched both of them, my eyes seemed to keep going to Paul all the time. I thank Comfort for bringing out the monster in him haha :D

Dmitry and Hayley's Rumba was a very notable performance as well. I wonder if anyone was surprised to see him with an unbuttoned shirt :D We've seen plenty of that in season 2 :p Joke aside the performance was really HOT! I never thought in a million years that I'd actually enjoy a rumba. Hayley was great and I missed seeing Dmitry dance again and I thought this choreography was one of his best works to date. I "think" Jenna Elfman liked it too. Jenna's crush on Dmitry shouldn't be missed, I laughed a lot to be honest :)

I was really excited for the following performance because of Mark. He was always quirky in his own way so he was one of my favourites in season 4. He's also grown a lot ever since he started dancing for Lady GaGa. I've never seen him choreograph before so I really didn't know what was about to happen. Well what happened was probably the BEST jazz routine on the show EVER! Mark was paired up with Jenna and Jenna really did this piece justice. I really loved watching the two of them dance together. The music, the choreography everything was just perfect. I really loved the costumes too. I am a "vegetarian" but I  thoroughly enjoyed this "bloody" dance, making a reference to what Mark says in rehearsal. It was genius. I really hope that we'll see Mark more frequently now. Sonya Tayeh won't be able to satisfy my appetite for odd, enjoyable jazz pieces anymore, it has to be Mark! :D

I feel sorry for whoever would follow this one. I was somewhat hopeful when I found out it was Twitch paired up with Jasmine. Twitch is a magnificent dancer, we all know that now but his choreography despite having an interesting story was not enjoyable at all. I loved his solos in season 4 but I honestly didn't like this performance at all. Jasmine was great in it though but I just thought it could have been much better. I guess Twitch is a better soloist rather than choreographing a number for more than 1 person. I'm afraid I was rather disappointed, sorry Twitch lovers... 

And now the moment that I'm sure everyone has been waiting for! (Is there even a single person who doesn't like Travis Wall out there?) Especially after he took a long break from dancing, I was dying to watch Travis in action again! Especially in a piece that he created! Whoever Travis was going to be paired up with was ONE LUCKY dancer! And that was Amy! I'd have wanted it to be either Amy or Jasmine anyway so I was quite happy that it was Amy. The story of the dance was about the games that people play when they first start a relationship. The pulls and especially the jumps were incredibly magnificent. This dance was just PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT and again PERFECT! (Audience needs to SHUT UP!!!!! JUST SHUT UP!!!!!) After the end of the show I was still affected by it, I didn't want to do anything at all I just stood there thinking about its excellence. (This is where my WoW friends would tell me to get a life.) I probably stood still, completely frozen for about more than 15 minutes... I am not an emotional person at all, some would actually consider me to be a robot or a rock but Travis always leaves cracks on my imaginary shield that I put up to protect myself! I hate him for that! If I was a dancer, Travis would be my inspiration I'm 100% sure of that! In fact I am going to watch this dance once again now! So while I do that, here is the video so you can enjoy it too!

After this performance I knew I had to apply myself because it was time to find out who would get eliminated. While I was watching their solos I was thinking to myself "Damn, I love Fik-Shun but Tucker has been great for the past 3 weeks, I really don't want Tucker to go. But... It's Fik-Shun, I don't want him to go either!!!! But... but... I think I'd prefer it if Tucker stayed." Well I'm sad to say that Tucker left. He really didn't deserve it. But did Fik-Shun? NO, this season is NOT fair! I really wanted Tucker to go to the finale. But I want Fik-Shun to win too. It's a horrible dilemma. I know Tucker has got a long way ahead of him now. From the females Jenna was eliminated. Jenna was incredibly strong this week, especially in Mark's choreography but her paso doble solo was the weakest solo. But of course the judges take a lot of other factors into consideration too. Sod it, I'm still upset about Tucker! :(

Next week the elimination will be completely up to America as the judges won't be sending anyone home anymore. The dancers that have the lowest vote will automatically be eliminated from the competition. So vote carefully!