So You Think You Can Dance Canada: Top 14!

So here we are for the Top 14!

Our judges tonight are Mary Murphy, Rex Harrington, Tre and Jean Marc. I might get struck by lightning for saying this, but it’s kind of nice to see Mary again. I feel like I should know who Rex Harrington is. But I don't. So I looked him up, but don't feel like I know much than I did 3 minutes ago.

Leah (in her very sparkly shoes) recaps the rules and prizes, again, and then we get straight to the dancers!

Side note from Carra - so... lesson learned. I am not allowed out on Wednesday or Thursday nights any more. While I definately had my times right when I set my VCR - yes, go on, chuckle all you want, have a laugh at my expense - my VCR had other ideas this time. I guess it got all ready for falling back an hour, a week before the rest of us. So I missed the first 4 dances - AND - can you see what's coming next? I completely missed the results show. All I can say is thank god for youtube.com and CTV.

Lisa and Vincent are up first. This week they’ve drawn the Samba with Dmitry Chaplin! Yay! I love it when we get past SYTYCD’ers back. They’re dancing to ‘Skip to the Bip’ by Club Des Belugas featuring Brenda Boykin. The dance starts up with some rather...odd...close ups of each of them. Lisa’s legs look all sorts of wrong in the start. Vincent seems to get the feel of it and plays the part really well. Lisa looks reeaaally awkward to me. Yep. Lisa's legs were all turned out at funny angles, I think in fear of falling off her heels. Awkward landings, awkward stances, just awkward all around.

Mary is back with the hot tamale train. I may have to retract my previous statement. She does tell them that they screwed up a few tricks but I think she’s basing much of her judgment of them tonight on their previous performances. I hate it when they do that. Rex says the dancing was hot and totally gives Lisa a pass for her screw ups because she had to wear heels. Ugh. This is not making me happy. Tre hits on Dmitry then compliments both Vincent and Lisa. JM says they did fantastic and they had a very difficult pick. Then Lisa blathers on and we find out they didn’t even get to do the actual ending of the dance. I listen to the feedback with my mouth hanging open. Yes, they normally do really well. Yes, they are both the most technical dancers on the show this season. Did they hit it tonight? No. They did not. I completely agree with Kim that their screw ups were glossed over in a way that seems to contradict the concept of "judging".

I’m going to take a minute to rant for a bit. Please do. That was way too much positive praise for a dance in which they didn’t even complete the choreography. Yes, they had a tough pick this week, however, so did Allie and Danny last week and they managed to do really well. At this stage of the game, I expect much better from dancers who thus far have been at the front of the pack. Lastly, I loathe that they gave Lisa a pass for ‘having’ to wear heels. If you make it into the Top 20, you know you’re going to have to take on all sorts of different dances and many require you to wear heels. If it was you, wouldn’t you spend some time in between the semi-finals and Top 20 practicing wearing heels? Hear, hear. Pay attention, ladies.

Alright I’m done. Up next we’ve got Lara and Miles who’ve picked the West Coast Swing with Benji! Yay! He says the lifts are crazy, Miles gets hit a lot and Lara gets dropped a lot. They’re dancing to ‘Livin’ for the Weekend’ by The O’Jays. Okay at first I thought ‘this is a little too mellow for me’ and then Miles ripped Lara’s shirt off. Well...that’ll turn things up a bit. They seem to have gotten the lifts down pretty well although there’s a point where Lara looks shocked that they made it! Fun dance. I've really liked Miles from the beginning, but I have to say that I wasn't completely sold on Lara. However, she has really grown on me over the weeks, and I totally think she's been pulling it off. They partner so well together, and always look at ease with what they are doing, no matter the shoes, or how are out of their genre they are.

Mary is totally flustered after Miles does a hip thrust toward her. I love when she said that we Canadians were a friendly bunch... Once she gets herself together she tells them they nailed it. Strangely she then goes on to pick apart bits and pieces which sort of contradicts her ‘nailed it’. Rex thinks it was fun and tells them to watch the in between bits. Lara and Miles pretty much steal Tre’s speaking time, which I don’t mind. JM gives us a definition of West Coast Swing, and says they met the definition.

Arassay and Nico are up next. They’ve got Hip Hop with Luther. Arassay is really going to have to toughen up a bit for this. The song choice is ‘Don’t Touch Me’ by Busta Rhymes. They seem really together and are hitting it hard. We only get one small flash of Nico’s abs this week. Unfortunate really. I know, I KNOW! That small glance seemed like such a tease! It looked really good (the dance, not just Nico’s abs). Arassay did much better than I expected.

Mary agrees that Christmas did come early this year and calls it buck. Rex says it was beyond buck. He praises their connection and may have (may have?) made a slight pass at Nico. Tre thinks they were fantastic and JM says it was great. JM salutes them.

Now we’ve got Allie and Danny and they’ve got Contemporary with Paul Becker. I’ve been eagerly awaiting a contemporary from them. I just can’t wait to see what they do with it. I am nonplussed that there is a personal story attached to it as it always sways the judges and impressions of the dance. They’re dancing to ‘Someday’ by John Legend. They’re really synchronized when they need to be. They’ve really got the feel of this down pat. The last jump that Allie does into Danny’s arms is awesome! Compared to the last piece that Becker choreographed, this one was day and night different. That Joey and Tamina jumping on the bed in jail thing didn't do anything for me.

Mary’s almost teary and says that Danny and Allie are stars. But also says she can't properly critique it becauses of the whole personal story behind it - and I think that's wrong. Every time the dancers get one of these, it's like they've gotten a 'get out of jail free' card. Not that these two need it, but it just seems so incredibly stacked when this happens. And then she screams. Rex loves Allie and says Danny partnered her beautifully. Tre doesn’t think the stage can contain them and says they’re brilliant. JM compliments their emotion and artistry.

Francis and Natalli have got Theatre this week with Sean Cheesman. The story’s all about break ups and Natalli’s playing the scorned lover. They’re dancing to ‘Cell Block Tango’ by the Countdown Singers. Francis does really good with that weird crawl through move. Oh look, Natalli gets stripped...she seems really comfortable with that. The comment made in my house was "so.... when she's using him as a pole..." I don’t know if it’s that I’ve seen so many dances to this particular song before, but I’m kinda bored.

Ugh...Natalli’s making another acceptance speech. It almost seems like they've given the dancers the job of creating the filler, cuz they don't seem to be discouraging these "I'd like to thank my mother" monologues...

Mary tries to fake them out and does a lousy job. She doesn’t really critique the dance, just compliments the dancers. Rex agrees with Mary (?) and then raves about their Paso Doble...ummm...dude...that was a few weeks ago. Tre loved it and calls them brilliant. JM says they both fit the profile and took it to another level. Then he mentions something about his VID List which I originally heard as his ‘VD List’. That grabbed my attention.

Now we’ve got Caroline and Jesse with the Hustle led by Benji. This could be fun. The song choice is ‘Womanizer’ by Britney Spears. Oh yippee. Jesse looks a little stiff but Caroline’s pretty hot. I get the feeling that she’s really gotten comfortable the last couple of weeks. She just seems more memorable now. There’s some pretty clear flubs here and there, but no worse than, say, Lisa and Vincent’s. Ummm... did Jesse fall right at the beginning? I think he did (I rewound it a couple of times to be sure) and I don't think that was part of the routine.

Mary says it didn’t work and Jesse let his partner down. She nitpicks all the flubs, which is irritating considering previous judging tonight. Rex carries on in the same vein as does Tre. JM compliments the choreography and the entrance but says it wasn’t good enough. I’d say they’re probably going to be in the bottom and Jesse could be seriously at risk. If that fall was for real, then I think that is what sunk the whole thing.

Finally we’ve got Izaak and Kaitlyn. They’ve got Jazz with Blake. It looks like Kaitlyn is playing the sultry waitress and Izaak is a business man. They’re dancing to ‘Breakin’ Dishes’ by Rihanna. Is anyone else completely over Rihanna? I am. Aaanyway, right off the bat, Izaak seems stronger than he’s ever been. Kaitlyn's fully into it. They do a crazy leap off the table, flip thing that makes me scared for her. That leap was amazing! It wasn't so much the leap, but the crazy spin thing right after - loved it! Oh and they’re kissing. Is every couple going to have to do that this year? It’s getting a little old. Hey - he kissed a girl! And he liked it! Our little Izaak is growing up...

Mary thinks it was a great way to end the evening. She raves and screams. Rex thinks they’re at their strongest. Tre congratulates Izaak for giving personality and says Kaitlyn is magnifique. JM loved it and yells a lot. He adds them to his VID list, which he needs to stop saying because I think something totally different than Very Insane Dancer.

So there we have it. I think tonight was the clearest example thus far this season of imbalanced judging. The flubs made by the favored dancers were completely overlooked while those of the lesser favored dancers were harped on. I hate it when the judges are this blatant about it because it makes me bitter, and I don’t like feeling bitter about this show.

Ultimately, I think Caroline and Jesse are a sure thing for the bottom 3, along with probably Natalli and Francis and, I’m hoping, Lisa and Vincent.

Carra’s juggling a bit this week, so her comments might not appear for a bit. She’s also heading up the results show this week (Really, she is. We made sure she got the right time this week! (Hey - and I DID get the time right! It's just that... my VCR had other ideas for me.) ), so look for that later Thursday or early Friday as well.

Cheers!