Episode 7: “Beautifully Awful and Odd”

As always, the first thing we find out is which dancers went home the previous week. This time around, it’s Michelle and Craig. I really don’t remember Michelle, so that doesn’t shock me, but I admit I’m stunned about Craig. I remember him very clearly – I can’t believe he went home on the second week of competition.

According to Nigel, Craig is exiting because his dancing was impressive technically but lacked performance. Ok, that critique is fair enough. But Nigel doesn’t stop there. Instead, he delivers a long speech about how America doesn’t care about the technical beauty of dancing. Americans would much rather watch Melody shaking her booty and doing a penchée than watch Melody perform an excerpt from Swan Lake. And anyhow, according to Nigel, we uncultured Americans probably thing a penchée is something Spanish people wear around their shoulders. So thanks, Nigel, for your patronizing comments. It’s a good thing I’m too stupid to understand your condescension, otherwise I would be rather irritated.

So finally we can move on to the performance show, judged this week by Nigel, Mia, Mary, and Brian. They are only picking 2 bottom couples this week, although they don’t explain why.

The dancing is pretty lack-luster this week, so I’m just going to touch on a few highlights (or lowlights, depending on your point of view). Blake and Ashlé pull the dance style “Rock and Roll” out of the hat. That’s right – apparently, rock and roll is now a dance style, not just a style of music. I guess Nigel thought Americans were too ignorant to understand the difference between a type of music and a type of dance. In reality, this is a jive/swing fusion with so many lifts that there’s barely any dancing.

The bottom two couples this week are Ryan and Snow (who performed a clunker of a Dan Karaty routine that completely lacked sync) and Allan and Melody, who drew lyrical. I feel rather badly for the latter couple; they were just screwed from the beginning because of the size difference. Melody is like 1/3 of Allan’s size, and it’s really hard to see past that. Melody is superb, of course, but Allan doesn’t have the technique to pull it off, although his performance is emotional. Mia’s complement sums up the strange viewing experience: “That was beautifully awful and odd, all at the same time.”

The solos make it pretty clear that Snow and Allan will be going home, because Melody and Ryan hit it out of the park. Seriously, Ryan spends most of the time on his elbows – it’s awesome. So boo for Allan leaving, because he remains one of the most likable contestants to have ever been on this show – but dance-wise, it’s clearly time.

Where Are They Now?

Craig DeRosa:

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find much information on Craig. All I found out is that he used to dance with Rasta Thomas’ Bad Boys of Dance. It’s a company that actually seems fairly well respected. Other SYTYCD alums who are or were with the company: Jacob Karr, Robert Roldan, Nick Lazzarini, and Danny Tidwell.

Michelle Brooke:

In contrast to Craig, there’s loads of information out there on Michelle. According to her wiki page (which I somehow suspect she keeps updated herself), she’s been on tour or in music videos with a number of hip hop and pop artists. She also teaches and choreographs. You can see her website for more details here.