‘So You Think You Can Dance’ 18 episode 4 recap: ‘The Final Audition: Top Ten Revealed’ showed who could handle choreo
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Many dancers auditioned for a chance to compete on “So You Think You Can Dance” for season 18. Dozens were sent through to the choreography round by judges Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Comfort Fedoke and Allison Holker. But only 10 can advance from here.
“Dancers, are you ready? Judges, are you ready?” asks host Cat Deeley to enthusiastic cheers at the start of “The Final Auditions: Top Ten Revealed.” Allison then tells the dancers what they can expect, including the fact that this round of auditions will only last one day and will end with the selection of the top 10 dancers moving on, which seems to take many of the contestants by surprise. “Those 10 of you, who move forward will experience the challenges of actual working dancers, and let me remind you, only one of you will win $100,000.”
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The dancers showed off their own styles in their first auditions, but now they’ll only have one hour to learn a routine alongside their competition to perform in front of the judges. “You’ve got to bring that fire and that heat,” Allison adds before introducing their choreographer Galen Hooks, who has worked with the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Usher and Justin Bieber. Hooks doesn’t plan to take it easy on the dancers, either. They are looking for a dancer capable of starting a professional career immediately, after all.
“I haven’t trained in, like, jazz or lyrical in a long time,” says Jaylin Sanders about the challenges of the choreography. “It’s stressful, but we’re going to keep it pushing.” It’s also “hard” for ballroom dancer Roman Nevinchanyi. Ali Deucher thinks she’s having trouble “because of the quickness and everybody around me.”
The judges’ first task is to whittle down the 35 remaining contestants to just 16 who will advance to the duets portion of the choreography round. The first group of five dancers performs, but only one of them moves on: Easton Magliarditi. Which means standouts from previous episodes Lihi Catriel, Jainil Mehta and Kenidee Allen are done for the season. Just like that. Brutal.
From the next group, Ali Deucher and Mariyah Hawkins make it through. Then Julian Carmolinga advances. So does Roman. Anthony Curley and Madison Rogue Alvarado pass with flying colors — Anthony already looks like a front-runner, according to Maks. Dakayla Wilson, Avery Gay and Braylon Browner are in. The last group of five is pretty disappointing to the judges, but there are still two who make it through, including Jaylin Sanders, but the judges warn them not to disappoint in the duuets.
With the field narrowed down to 16 competitors, choreographer Galen returns and instructs them to form eight pairs for their partnered dances, and then it’s straight into another intense set of choreography for the dancers to learn. Avery is dealing with some foot pain. Andrew Park is struggling with the speed of the transitions; he’s dancing with Madison, and they met for the first time in this round, so that could be its own challenge. But “it’s game time, y’all,” Galen tells them. “This is your final chance to be part of the top 10.”
After the first two pairs perform for the judges, though, Maks complains that there’s not enough partner work between the dancers. “This is not a duet,” he says. “They literally just danced next to each other. No emotional connection.” I wonder if that’s more to do with the choreography, which is heavy on side-by-side elements. Either way, Allison disagrees with Maks, arguing that there was “great connection” between the dancers. “This was jazz choreography, and they smashed it.”
The judges agree on the excellence of the next two pairs, though: Easton, Anthony, Avery and Dakayla look like safe bets for the top 10. The third group seems to do well also, though the judges notice that choreo doesn’t necessarily come naturally to Jaylin. Fourth and final group closes things out, but Roman wasn’t as solid as Allison was hoping for. This is going to be a rough cut because they’re only eliminating six out of these 16, so we’re going to see some serious disappointment.
After the judges finish their cryptic deliberations, Cat calls the first eight dancers in to get their results: Easton, Braylon, Olivia, Mariyah, Anthony, Dakayla, Madison and Roman. They all hear their pros and cons, and you can tell the judges are stretching to identify any cons for some of the dancers. Seriously, they tell shoo-in Anthony that they don’t really know him as a dancer yet, which is a little vague. The judges keep them in suspense, as reality show judges are wont to do, and it kind of telegraphs the punch: all eight of them have made the top 10. Great news for them, but that means only two of the other eight have made it.
The final eight go in to get their results, and I’m thinking, it’s going to be Julian and Avery, right? When it came time to critique Julian, all Maks can come up with is, “But was it enough?” And the biggest complaint about Avery is what she does with her hands. Turns out I was wrong about Julian. He’s one of the first four dismissed from the lineup. That leaves Jake, Ali, Avery and Jaylin. And going forward are … one more commercial break!
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Okay, for real now. The last two advancing to the top 10 are Jaylin and Avery. So I was half right. I’m a little surprised they brought Jaylin through. It looked like he was on the struggle bus during some of his choreography. But I’m guessing they want to diversify the top 10 and make sure there’s a hip-hop specialist in there. That might also be why they put through Roman, to represent ballroom.
So our top 10 are officially Olivia Alboher, Madison Rogue Alvarado, Braylon Browner, Anthony Curley, Avery Gay, Mariyah Hawkins, Easton Magliarditi, Roman Nevinchanyi, Jaylin Sanders and Dakayla Wilson.
For the first time ever the top 10 dancers are moving in together, though I hope we won’t get too much manufactured “Real World”-style interpersonal drama. I much prefer talent-based competition shows to be about the talent. The dancers will then perform in routines that mirror a real career in dance, from performing in music videos to working with brands and backup dancing on a concert tour. And joining the judging panel is “Dancing with the Stars” runner-up JoJo Siwa.
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