As we ended last week’s episode of SYTYCD there were 35 dancers left after a grueling Vegas callback round. Natalie and I had our picks for the Top 20 and last night we got to find out who made it. They were live (with their 200th episode) revealing the Top 20. Zooey Deschanel is in as the third judge – interesting… And remember that this season there will be two winners, one male and one female. So let’s see how the night went.
Here are your top 20:
- Alexa – we thought she’d make it
- George Lawrence II – we agreed
- Amber
- Will
- Nick
- Lindsay
- Whitney (3 ballroom dancers – awesome)
- Eliana Girard
- Daniel Baker
- Keian (3 ballet dancers)
- Tiffany
- Audrey
- Janelle – No surprise there and the shows first Belly dancer to make it into the top 20
- Matthew
- Darian
- Janea
- Amelia – We didn’t want her to make it. There’s something a little too weird about her
- Cole
- Devon
- Cyrus
They all premiered in group dances. Overall they were good, some better than others. All the dances are in chronological order.
Alexa, George, Amber and Will started off the night with a rousing performance that garnered praise from all the judges. It was a great opening number to the show.
Nick, Whitney and Lindsay did an awesome ballroom number to a J-Lo song. They were on fire. The two girls look like twins when they’re dancing.
All three ballet dancers performed a very tough ballet number. I thought the men overshadowed Eliana but she was great too. I’m not ballet expert but she’s supposed to be the graceful swan and not powerful. (Girly side note: Those dude have some bodies.)
Janelle was sitting out due to the doctor’s orders though the looked fine in the audience so Audrey and Tiffany did a Jazz routine.
Matthew, Darian, Janea and Amelia did a strong contemporary number.
Cole, Devon and Cyrus did an amazing number. It was baseball themed in a very shameless self promotion for the Allstar game on Fox (July 10th). It really played on all their skills and the music was even customized for them. It literally and figuratively hit a home run.
Then the Top 10 (9) females danced together. It was a well performed dance with some weird choreography that had a doorway and light. Not bad. The Top 10 males did their own dance that was also good and they had some weird costumes. There was a lot of male on male partnering that showed off all their strength. Cole had to life the really giant guy. The final dance was of course a combined dance of the Top 20 (19) which was really well done for such a large group. I thought the costumes were outstanding. Just great.
Wonderful start to the live season. The top 20 is very strong. Hats off to all of them as well as the 15 who didn’t make it. We don’t have any predictions yet and we’re waiting until after the first real week of competition to make them. I will say that I am 100% behind Cole (the martial arts dancer) and Cyrus (the animator) for the guys. I think I’m behind Janelle from the female pack, maybe Eliana though I very much reserve the right to change my mind later.
What did you think? Watch the first week of competition next Wednesday on Fox.