SYTYCD Top 14 Performance Recap

July 1, 2009

Mia Michael’s brutal honesty + the emergence of Joey Dowling on the show + a wacky Brian Friedman routine = one awesome night! Did you follow us on Twitter?

Booked on the hot tamale train:

Team K&K

Kayla had some fab hair-whipping action and gorgeous leg extensions. Kupono’s sharp, milky movement was also enjoyable to watch. We also agree with the judges that this duo really compliments each other (Max an Ashley who?). Props to Sonya for her technical, quirky movement and provocative vampire theme.

Evandi

This was the biggest disappointment of the night—not that they performed poorly—but that they didn’t receive better praise from the judges. We loved the Fosse/Sweet Charity choreography (and want to see more from Joey Dowling, who will be in our September issue, FYI!), and thought the couple executed it pretty well. We’d even go so far to say that this was one of our faves of the season. Sexy and saucy!

Melissa and Ade

How many of you bunheads out there were pumped to see pointe shoes grace the stage! Go Melissa! She has become one of this season’s stars. Ade really got into character and held his own as her handsome leading man. We commend the show for featuring classical dance!

Taking a later train:

Brandonette

This number got Nigel screaming like Mary does, so we’d definitely say it was a great success. When Mary actually did scream, it was heartwarming to watch Brandonette jump for joy. They seemed genuinely ecstatic. Then Mia made Brandon cry, and it was really sweet. I bet we can all remember a time a teacher was hard on us, but it made us a better dancer in the end.

Jason and Caitlin

Dear America/Nigel/Mary/Mia,

We love this couple. They always have great chemistry, they’re easy on the eyes (eh?), and they can dance (which at the end of the day, is what the show is all about, right?)! Please don’t vote them off tonight. Yes, Brian’s choreography is weird and experimental. But it’s also extremely cool! And these two committed 100 percent to it—they went there. We pray that they make it through tonight and are given a pretty (Mandy Moore?) routine next week.

Love, DS

P.S. Who dreams up wilder concepts, Brian or Wade?

Philip and Jeanine

“She makes it look like every style is her style” —Nigel on Jeanine. You go girl! Right now, this is our fave Nappytabs routine of the season. Jeanine hit it hard, and Philip showed off his hip-hop skills (it was nice to be reminded of them since he’s been struggling lately). We were cracking up when Mia coined the term “chainography” because it sounds like something we’d discuss in a story! Overall, this number was powerful, smooth and fierce!

Missed the train:

Vitolio and Karla

He was charismatic. She didn’t seem totally in it, and it looked like she was thinking while dancing. Cool concept for a quickstep. Not much more to say on this one. Do you think they’ll make it through to the next round?

Some additional fun stuff: See what people are saying on Twitter!

NAPPYTABS
: This routine was so hard. We were lucky nothing went wrong. The chain was definitely a challenge. Hats off to Phillip & Jeanine!

Brianfriedman
: Mary Murphy…. Jump into the present sweetheart 😉

Brianfriedman
: If you’re on the west coast turn on so you think you can dance now. My piece is on very soon 😉 u may love it or hate it but u should see it 😉

adammshankman
: This us the most difficult season of sytycd

 

—Lauren Levinson