So You Think You Can Dance: Live Show 3 review

With Lizzie and Drew’s VT package, we finally started to see a relaxed Drew. Of all the dancers he seems the one most likely to regard the VTs as extensions of his work, which is maybe why he’s previously come across as a bit aloof compared to his fellow competitors. This more relaxed Drew reveal that he’s a big Judy Garland fan (who’d have thought?) — and indeed, as you can see from the video below, he choreographed a group routine to a selection of Garland’s music at a recent Cloud Dance Festival:

But back to the show, and choreographer Karen Bruce — the woman who makes Arlene Phillips look like a pussycat — was back to create a lively disco number. And very lively it was too, with Drew in particular embracing the mood of the era. However, there were several spins where Lizzie ended up flung into a heap on the floor. It may well have been danced as choreographed, but the resultant effect didn’t look as clean as the rest of the routine.

The solo routines kicked off with Charlie, whose performance was okay. Which I don’t mean to sound derogatory in any way, for it demonstrated why she’s accomplished enough to win through to the finals — but it didn’t do much more than that for me. It maybe suffered by being followed by Robbie delivering a typically exuberant performance that meshed perfectly with the audience, and managed to convey a lot more emotion to the audience.

Next up, Mandy and Mark had a contemporary routine devised by Henri Oguike. As the judges pointed out, his feet and hands didn’t have the sort of extension and posture that someone trained in contemporary dance might have, but for me that didn’t really matter for this routine, which had precious little opportunity for Mark to exhibit those sort of poses anyway. There was a little bit too much running about for me, but that’s possibly down to my personal taste. I liked the connection between Mandy and Mark, and for someone who’s neither partnered nor worked in a contemporary style before this competition, I thought Mark acquitted himself admirably.

Solo routines from Hayley and Alastair demonstrated what I’m fast believing is a characteristic of this entire series, and that’s that the male dancers are much more interesting (and no, not just because Alastair danced with his top off). With these solo dances, I’m left feeling “Okay, fine, you’re good, seen enough now” after a girl soloist, but each guy’s routine has left me wanting to see a full-length version. Hopefully, as the numbers get reduced further, we’ll be able to see longer solos. If so, hopefully the girls will be able to demonstrate that spark which doesn’t quite seem to be there yet.

The third couple to dance were Yanet and Tommy, dancing Yanet’s speciality, the Salsa, devised by Richard Marcel, who also works on Strictly Come Dancing ec each ah year. And to be honest, the disparity of experience showed throughout, looking very much like the sort of pro-am dance that we see on Strictly, albeit near the end of the series with celebrities who have proven their dancing skills.

That’s maybe a little unfair, as Tommy’s skill and ability are far in excess of an amateur — but still, it wasn’t the sort of dance where you could watch and think that both dancers were skilled in salsa. His hip-hop background came to the fore a little too much for me at times. While Marcel may have put some of those moves in to appeal to Tommy’s skillset, but they didn’t work for me.

The third set of solo routines featured Lizzie’s hip hop mime artist that we saw a little of during the auditions show. It seems to be quite technically accomplished, but for me is a little too saccharine. Drew’s musical theatre number on the other hand (danced to another Judy Garland track), produced a likeable piece, but not a loveable one — all spins and leaps, but very little heart.

The penultimate couple to dance was a hip-hop routine, devised by returning choreographer Simeon Qsyea of Birdgang Ltd, who devised Tommy & Charlie’s Show 1 routine on the bench. In the VT, both dancers struggled with hip-hop, it being different from their normal disciplines (Alastair’s ballet, and Hayley’s musical theatre). However, a subtantial chunk of the VT was taken up with Hayley’s self-doubt. Which, I felt, was slightly unfair: everybody should be allowed to express dissatisfaction with themselves or the work they’ve been given, as long as they can demonstrate that it’s a passing feeling and they work through it. Alastair was simiarly downcast, but benefited from a home visit that ended his portion of the VT on a positive note.

The start of the routine saw the dancers separated by a wall, which then required them to move in unison while out of sight from one another. And while they were generally in sync, the effect wasn’t perfect, being just off by that little bit to accentuate the difference. Once they moved downstage and danced together, the routine picked up immeasurably.

In the next pair of solo dances, Mandy, like Charlie and Hayley before her, did a good routine but to be honest, again, it felt like a sequence of moves with no audience connection. Mark’s routine on the other hand, connected with the music and attempted to tell a story to the audience. Although my favourite moment of the whole show was the shot of a member of Mark’s family waving a sheet of paper with the words “GUEST OF MARK”, obviously used to reserve her seat, as if it were a banner of support. Bless.

The final couple to dance were Charlie and Robbie, with a routine that stole the show, but also generated the most amount of chatter on Twitter and on various message boards well after the programme had finished. American choreographer Tyce Diorio, who has worked on the US version of So You Think You Can Dance, recreated one of his most famous routines from the US show, a contemporary routine danced by Melissa Sandvig and Ade Oboyami in the American Season 5.

Inspired by a friend’s fight with breast cancer, the routine had Charlie in a headscarf, railing against the world, including the man who is supporting her in her fight. And it was both beautiful and emotional, helped by impressive performances by two dancers who clearly trust each other — Charlie’s flying leap into Robbie’s arms would not have been possible otherwise.

Asking two young people to express that sort of level of emotion, in what is generally considered to be a cheesy, Saturday evening shiny floor show, is always going to be controversial. When your choreographer has to fly back to the US because his mother is ill with cancer undoubtedly heightened the emotion around the routine. But that should not detract that it was the most accomplished, most beautiful, couple performance of the evening.

With the couple dances out of the way, the final solo dances of the show came from Yanet, with a solo salsa routine that produced the first feeling for me from any of the girls of a routine that needed to be longer. And out of all the boys, I was least impressed with Tommy’s breakdancing, which I don’t feel demonstrated his range of ability as well as it could have done.

As the main show drew to a close, it was time for the boys to do their group dance, a raucous version of Jet Song from West Side Story choreographed by Tyce Diorio. It was a scrappy routine, all told, trying to highlight each dancer’s particular skills and ending up not really working as a group number. In contrast, the group number opening the results show (to the Black Eyed Peas’ Pump It) had a flow and a sense of ensemble to it that was much improved.

When the lowest scoring four were announced, it was Hayley versus Mandy, and Mark verses Tommy. In the end it was no surprise, given the judges’ comments throughout the show, that Mark and Hayley ended up going home. But from hereon in, it’s going to be incredibly hard to differentiate between the bottom two dancers. But then, there are only three weeks left!

As a postscript, several of the choreographers involved with So You Think You Can Dance, including Simeon Qsyea and ZooNation’s Kate Prince, held a series of dance classes at Sadler’s Wells yesterday in order to raise funds for the disaster victims in Haiti. If you weren’t able to attend, they have now set up a JustGiving donation page — so if you can support DANCE2HELPHAITI, please do so.