Comfort Fedoke picked our next contestant, Mark Villaver, which meant sending Deja Williams back to the drawing board.
Mark and Comfort showed off their stuff to some Luther Brown choreography. While Mark was impressive enough, it was just impossible for him to match Comfort in her own style. Don’t worry, Mark: It’s not you. It’s Comfort. She’s just in her own league.
“Never get on Comfort’s wrong side or back side. Never do that! It could all go horribly wrong…I still want to be you when I grow up,” said Cat Deeley, who was not at all wrong.
Judges’ comments: Vanessa Hudgens said Mark was “just, like, killing it!” And then she compared Mark to Rufio from 1991’s HOOK, which made me feel old for realizing that 1991 was 26 years ago…and I vividly remembered watching HOOK on VHS at least a million times.
Mary Murphy was a big fan of Comfort and Mark’s chemistry, and she was just about 50 words over saying it was “lit” on the dance floor.
Starting up the so-called old man step in his judges’ chair, Nigel Lythgoe brought SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE down from Mary’s youth-speak and back to the geriatric ward…just before breaking out of the Shady Pines to dub Mark Villaver “Bruno Mars’ little brother.”
What I’m saying here is that there was much less dance talk than pop culture chatter here. But hey, Comfort’s “still dancing brilliantly,” per Nigel.
Marko Germar wished he could have selected both Sofia Ghavami and Koine Iwasaki for the top 10; but the rules allowed him to only pick one. Ultimately, Koine Iwasaki was the dancer who earned a shot at SYTYCD season 14’s top prize.
Marko and Koine performed a light, lovely Stacey Tookey contemporary piece, which highlighted the dancers’ natural chemistry. At one point, there might have been a little bit of an unintended lean in a turn; but mostly, this duet featured great partnering and cleaner technique than the only other female contemporary dancer shown up to this point (Kaylee).
Judges’ comments: Mary thanked Stacey Tookey, aka “the goddess of delivering beautiful routines to this show” before complimenting the dancers’ effortless movement quality. She loved the way Koine and Marko simply melted into one another’s arms. Nigel said the performance was “just brilliant” before proving that, in addition to being a tap fanboy, he was also a closeted shipper. He told the pair, “you just suit each other,” before asking Marko about setting wedding dates.
Weird? Sure. Entertaining? Oddly, yes — but not as much as that thing Nigel and Mary do.
But then Nigel stepped over the line with this one: “No hope for you, Mary. No, sorry.” Yeah, ok, Mr. I Have A New Pacemaker Because My Girl’s Back At Work.
Vanessa was in the somewhat unenviable position of bringing SYTYCD back to, you know, dance. Somehow, she pulled it off, adding plenty more praise for “a gorgeous dancer” in Koine.
Ballroom all-star Paul Karmiryan’s choice came down to Kristina Androsenko, who struggled with choreography at The Academy, and Sydney Tormey, who’s “versatile in everything that she does.”
The easy answer since Paul wanted to be successful on SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, a series known for pushing dancers’ versatility to the max, was Sydney Tormey.
Sydney and Paul were (hashtag) blessed with choreography from Val Chmerkovskiy (of DANCING WITH THE STARS fame), which actually highlighted the contestant, rather than the all-star — unlike in the evening’s previous ballroom number.
As in, either the choreography was better, Paul and Sydney were a better match than Jenna and Kiki, or both.
Judges’ comments: Nigel took a few moments to fanboy over the cross-series, cross-network support of it all. He was kind of excited about Val’s presence, in particular.
(All jokes aside, it really is nice to see dancers supporting one another like this.)
For Sydney and Paul, the SYTYCD EP had nothing but praise. Nigel told Paul that he chose his partner wisely before admitting that Sydney was originally under his radar, but he’d learned his lesson: “After tonight’s performance, I will never forget you, darling.”
Vanessa wanted “a little more pizzazz, a little more umph” out of Sydney; but she knew there was no doubt that the girl could dance.
And then, the only voice that matters when it comes to ballroom commentary on SYTYCD had her chance to weigh in: “I thought it was fun, fast, and furious. And I did love it.” Mary also complimented Sydney’s seemingly never-ending legs, as well as her feet and ankles. (Amazing how those things totally make sense in a dance-related context…but not really anywhere else that isn’t creepy.)
With only two more all-stars left, it was finally time for Robert Roldan to reveal his selection for SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE season 14’s top 10.
Given the choice between Jonathan Wade and Taylor Sieve, Robert chose Taylor.
Smart guy.
Taylor has already proven she’s capable of winning big competitions, having won Senior Female Best Dancer at The Dance Awards Las Vegas’ 2016 showing. Her studio, Larkin, also happened to win Studio of the Year at that same competition. No big deal.
(It’s kind of a huge deal.)
Taylor and Robert won the choreography jackpot with Travis Wall, whose contemporary number was just as amazing as everything else he’s done. And these two dancers? Wow.
Robert and Taylor are so very well-matched, and there’s absolute trust between them, even this early in the competition. Throw in some amazing control, unparalleled suspension — even in some tough acrobatic moves — and Taylor’s ability to even just stand and breathe with amazing intent; and this was easily one of the best showings of the night.
This has the potential to be a formidable partnership, folks.
Judges’ comments: It all started with a standing ovation, and then Vanessa Hudgens fangirled so hard, she almost managed to get me: “I’m a mess. I’m a mess. I Am. A. Mess.”
Same, girl. Same.
A very choked up Mary Murphy vowed that we’d remember Taylor and Robert’s first performance at the end of SYTYCD season 14, as well as 10 years from now. “On a show, Cat, where the history is so rich…that’s pretty amazing, Taylor. Pretty amazing.”
Nigel complimented Robert’s ability to find a great partner in Taylor, following up on his winning partner from last year’s competition: J.T. Church, who was hanging out in the audience with some of his fellow “Next Generation” contestants.
And that brought us to learning the identity of our tenth, and final, dancer. Jasmine Harper chose hip hopper Robert Green, rather than contemporary dancer Howard Johnson, as her SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE partner.
Side note: I’m not sure how I missed the part where HoJo’s only been dancing for three years? But I’m thinking it might just be time to cry a little.
Robert and Jasmine’s performance of Christopher Scott’s choreography was just delightful. There may or may not have been some squealing when Robert strutted out of his chair. (If we’re being honest here, there absolutely was squealing — the sass was just that amazing to watch.)
The personality, the precision, the p-…hairspray choreography! Team Jasmine closed off SYTYCD’s top 10 reveals with a ton of fun, exactly how Fik-Shun and Dassy opened it up.
Judges’ comments: Mary and Nigel both wanted to call 911. Also, this: “Robert, I love your sass, I love your style, and I love that personality. Keep it up, kid. Fabulous!”
Vanessa Hudgens admitted that she’d loved Robert since his audition, and then she went back to rambling about shining.
Side poll: Which was more epic tonight? Jasmine’s blue lipstick or the green shade worn by Comfort in the clip of her team’s “Green Mile” moment? I need answers, people.
The final number of the night featured the SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE top 10 dancers and their respective all-stars, performing choreography by Wade & Amanda Robson and Tony Testa.
The group dance was a nice way to close out the show, but it wasn’t exactly “Ramalama” — a comparison that wouldn’t even be getting made right now, if only Cat hadn’t constantly brought up the iconic piece.
Join us for the next all new episode of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE on FOX, Monday, August 14 at 8/7c.