Audrey and Matthew/Contemporary/Unchained Melody: The Righteous Brothers - Peanut!!! Y’all, it was so good I totally forgot to take notes the first time through. That was amazing. I needed to watch it again to even catch all the technical things that they were doing because I really did get all caught up in the emotion of the piece. Gorgeous. Just gorgeous. Matthew was excellent here (and he really is kind of a hottie patottie mini-Ryan Gosling which is whoa!) but the little neck farter was a revelation. Yes, the big leap of the couch was dramatic, but there were so many little moments where I was just blown away by her. The moment where they were on the couch and he raised her up into a standing position with back arched – man, doing that smoothly on a surface with lots of give like that couch was just awesome. And that last spinning lift where there was just one moment where she let him take all the weight and her flexed her toes, hands and arms out that required so much control and trust from the both of them. Awwww, Peanut. Now I want to watch your show even more.
Lindsey and Cole/Paso Doble/Unstoppable: E.S. Posthumous – I’ve watched it four times already and I am sure I’ll watch it many, many more times. Jason Gilkison put his foot in that Paso. Oh my word! I cannot even. Cole was everything in that number. As Mary said, the shapes and the lines were perfect. He was giving me fire and intensity and passion. Heaven! And first shirtless man flesh of the season. Let the church say “Amen”! I loved it a really lot from the opening pose to the end. Lindsey was quite good as well and I’ve not been a fan to date. But this kid Cole blew my whole entire mind. His carriage was insane and he nailed the character. My, my, my. I’ll echo Cat’s faaaabulous. Now that’s the way you close a show!
That was an amazing Top 20 show. Some of the kids were boring, but none of the kids were really bad. The show is loaded this season.
Top to Bottom Boys (since we’re not voting couples this season)
Best boys of the night and nobody else was even really all that close:
1. Cole 2. Matt 3. George
These kids were good (or in Will’s case decent) in bad routines:
4. Dariean 5. Daniel 6. Brandon 7. Will
These kids were forgettable, which is the worst sin of all on Top 20 night:
8. Chehon (couldn’t nail the style and went first) 9. Cyrus (not asked to do much more than stand around and smile) 10. Nick (not great in his own style)
Going Home
I think Nick will go home for sure. I didn’t even know who he was before tonight and that waltz was one of the weakest dances of the night. You can’t be bad in your own style right out of the gate. The second boot is harder. I don’t believe Cyrus will go anywhere. His fan base is too strong. I kind of think he should go, though. I’m afraid of the Cedric arc to come. I think Chehon might be in trouble. He danced first and while he wasn’t terrible, he wasn’t great and he got a lot of critiques from the judges. I sincerely hope I get to keep Eurotrash Danny for more than a week. Will might be a good candidate as he really didn’t do much of anything, but he was in a really fun routine and he might pick up some overflow votes from Amelia, who I think is pretty popular. I’m gonna go ahead and tag Brandon as boy boot #2. He did all he could with that tired NappyTab choreography but that routine was second worst of the night (after the waltz); it was buried in the middle of the show; and his partner danced like crap and I had no clue who she was. I just pray he doesn’t step for his DoD.
Top to Bottom Girls
Most of the girls all melded together into one long haired uber-contemporary dancer, but a few stood out from the pack:
1. Tiffany 2. Audrey 3. Amelia (no thanks to NappyTab)
These ladies were in the messy middle:
4. Lindsey 5. Eliana 6. Whitney 7. Alexa
Either bad or forgettable or both:
8. Amber 9. Janelle 10. Janayiah (continued...)