‘So You Think You Can Dance’ 18 episode 6 recap: A showmance started to take shape in ‘Challenge #2: Broadway’
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It was out of the frying pan and into the fire last week for the 10 “So You Think You Can Dance” finalists for season 18. In “Challenge #1: Music Videos,” the hopefuls were thrust into new choreographed routines for reimagined visuals of Justin Bieber‘s “All Around Me” and Lizzo‘s “Juice.” Unfortunately, Olivia Alboher and Avery Gay‘s performances in their videos and during their final dance-off solo routines weren’t enough to keep them to the competition. So what happened to the top eight in “Challenge #2: Broadway”?
The finalists coming into this episode were Madison Alvarado, Braylon Browner, Anthony Curley, Mariyah Hawkins, Easton Magliarditi, Roman Nevinchanyi, Jaylin Sanders and Dakayla Wilson.
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The episode began with a group routine choreographed by Al Blackstone to Sammy Davis Jr.‘s “If My Friends Could See Me Now” as judges Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Allison Holker and JoJo Siwa watched from their seats in the theater.
From there, we flashed back to the contestants preparing for their stage debuts. “Being in the bottom week one, I am never going to let it happen again,” Braylon told Easton, who was also in the bottom but they out-danced the aforementioned Olivia and Avery, who were sent home. Easton would have thought the experience would make him lose confidence, but “I have more motivation because I felt the other side of the feeling of almost going home.”
That was going on in the boys’ house. The girls’ house was a little quieter as last week’s eliminations cut the distaff contestants down to three. “Let’s pray that none of us go home,” said Madison, as she held hands with Mariyah and Dakayla. “It’s us until the end,” Mariyah proclaimed.
Then it was off to the studio where the contestants were greeted by host Cat Deeley. “Have any of you dreamed of seeing your name up in lights?” she asked them. “Well get ready because this week is Broadway week.” The top eight erupted with excitement. “I’m thrilled that it’s Broadway. I love acting and dancing,” exclaimed Madison. “I absolutely love everything about theater,” Anthony revealed. Anthony has seemed especially capable among these finalists. He was a choreographer’s pet in “Music Videos” where he proved that he could adapt to hip-hop. and Maksim called him an early favorite during the audition rounds.
For this week’s challenge the dancers were working with 2020 “SYTYCD” Emmy winner and “Wicked” alum Al Blackstone (he of the episode’s opening number) and “Almost Famous” and “Shucked” choreographer Sarah O’Gleby. Among the challenges they point out about performing in a Broadway show are that you do have to act as well as dance — Madison seemed enthused about that — and that you only get one shot at the main event. There are no second takes or reshoots on the Broadway stage.
Randomly selected for Al’s group were Anthony, Dakayla, Jaylin and Madison.
That meant Sarah’s team was Braylon, Easton, Mariyah and Roman.
I was more worried for that second team since it included both of last week’s surviving bottom dancers and also Roman, whose ballroom background seemed like it could be out of step — pardon the phrase — with a Broadway routine. We also hadn’t seen that much outward emoting from him on the dance floor up to this point.
On Sarah’s team, Roman indeed confessed that he’d never seen a Broadway show. But he had to learn fast because they were doing “Cabaret,” though a different spin on it where Sarah wanted to showcase each dancer’s individual personalities, “so we’ll be investigating all of that together.” Braylon and Mariyah were visibly excited, to say the least. But Braylon was torn between giving the choreographer what she wanted from him as a professional dancer while also giving the judges what they wanted to see from him. Be a team player, but stand out! Tough balance to strike.
“Try and be human,” Sarah told the dancers as she tried to find their unique personalities in their movements. But “I struggle a little with Easton,” she said. “I feel like he’s used to being told exactly what to do. He’s obviously an extraordinary technician. I’d just be interested to see if he can digest what I’m asking of him.” Second week in a row Easton got some flack from his choreographer. Neither time has it ever had anything to do with his technical skill. When you work so hard to hone your technical craft to such a sharp, precise point, it must be difficult to open that up and let some individuality and spontaneity in. Roman also had some difficulty, for similar reasons; as a ballroom dancer he’s used to playing a character to the audience, so it’s hard to express who Roman actually is underneath.
On Al’s team, everyone was playing a different specific character. Anthony and Jaylin would be song-and-dance men at a nightclub trying to entice people to come in. Dakayla and Madison, meanwhile, were tough sailors who only had 24 hours to party before returning to their ship. “Jaylin is all enthusiasm all the time,” Al observed, “and chatty, a little bit unfocused, but there’s this balance between being entertaining and also really dancing well.” Meanwhile, “Madison means business and strikes me as very nervous.” But Anthony was “calm” in a way that Al hoped would play well with Jaylin’s energy.
Back at the girls’ house that evening, there were sparks of a showmance. “Did you hear about Anthony and Dakayla?” Madison asked Mariyah. Dakayla admitted that she had a “baby” crush on him because he’s a “tall, beefy man who can lift me up and throw me around in the air.” Earlier Jaylin had intimated that there was something going on between them too, but I’d tried to ignore it. I don’t want this show about dancing to descend into relationship drama. Also, “beefy” doesn’t seem like the right descriptor. I’d classify Anthony as more of a twunk.
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The next day it was time for stage rehearsals. Al warned his dancers that things would change in the transition from the studio to the stage, and he noticed that they started feeling that pressure: “Jaylin stresses out. He really wants to get it right.” He also noted how much “chemistry” his group had — nudge, nudge, wink wink. Showmance!
Roman’s challenges were clear on Sarah’s team. “I feel like mentally and physically I’m always struggling with something,” he admitted, leading into a brief clip package about his experiences in Ukraine, when a strict college teacher led him to take up boxing — I felt like some context was omitted there, I hope that professor is alright. Either way, “I have fighting spirit. People in Ukraine motivate me so much. They don’t give up. Why should I? … I want to make my country proud.”
Braylon also found Sarah’s choreography to be more difficult than he anticipated; he would lose sight of who he actually was when he was playing a character. “Mariyah, I think there’s something in your being that’s like, I’m not ready yet. Nobody’s ever ready,” Sarah told her. It seemed very much as though Sarah’s demands for her dancers were as much psychological as physical.
Yet more indications of potential romance that night when Anthony was asked if he thought Dakayla was cute. He said yes and the other dancers squealed like schoolgirls. Okay … it was kind of cute. I have to remember that most of these elite dancers are teenagers. Stay tuned for more high-pressure dance challenges this season: “Challenge #3: Seven Minutes in Heaven” and “Challenge #4: Spin the Bottle.”
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On performance day, Maks explained what he was looking for as someone who himself performed on Broadway in the dance show “Burn the Floor.” First of all, “projection: you’re not performing for the front row. There’s people in the back too. It’s so important that you land it every time, and when stuff goes wrong, we don’t know what it’s supposed to be like, don’t show it to us, just camouflage it.”
Al’s team performed first to BBC Big Band‘s “In the Mood” and Bobby Darin‘s “I Got Rhythm,” and they got a standing ovation from the judges. I couldn’t spot any obvious flaws. Anthony had a side leap that wowed Allison, but he got lost in the crowd a bit for the rest of the routine. I dunno, it’s a weird criticism to say someone blends into the routine too well, but maybe it was hard to find anything to critique him for. Dakayla started “dialed in,” according to JoJo, but there was a moment where she was off and it showed in her performance. Maksim thought it felt like something was holding Madison back, she wasn’t emotionally as connected. Allison felt Jaylin’s personality “shined,” but he needed to avoid going “too goofy.” In the end, all four of those poor perfectionist dancers felt like they might have let down the judges.
Sarah’s team was next dancing to “Willkommen” and “Money” from “Cabaret.” And there was one big mishap with Braylon literally running into Mariyah when crossing the stage. The rest of the routine went off without a hitch, and the choreography felt more elaborate and abstract than Al’s, but that mistake … no bueno. Another standing ovation from the judges, though. Braylon made strong character choices as far as Allison was concerned, though she generously likened his mishap to “spatial awareness issues.” JoJo praised Easton for going so hard that he split his pants, but criticized Mariyah for timing issues following the bump with Braylon. Maks told Mariyah she had true star quality, though, and just needed more confidence. And Allison was impressed with Roman, though he needed to work on matching his upper body to what his legs were doing.
Mariyah kept her chin up while facing the judges, but she cried backstage thinking she put herself in the position of potentially being eliminated. But would the judges put her in the bottom four, Braylon, or maybe both of them for the bump?
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The following day it was time for results: Allison called dancers forward: Anthony, Dakayla, Roman and Braylon. Those four were in jeopardy, but that seemed like a pretty random assortment of dancers to me. Anthony? Really? Roman after the praise he received but not Mariyah whose timing was off after the bump? Not saying this was an easy choice, but this result just didn’t seem totally consistent with the judges’ own critiques. And we didn’t see the judges confer with the choreographers about how the dancers did during their rehearsals. So it was hard to understand why these four were singled out.
Braylon’s dance-for-his-life solo was predictably impassioned, a showstopper, but Maks wondered how and when he would deliver at the same level with a group. Roman really lit up the stage with his charisma, though the routine didn’t measure up to Braylon’s for me simply because showcasing ballroom dance without a partner is much harder than captivating with a contemporary number. You can’t quite compare the two. The judges were impressed by all the technique he brought to his cha cha, though.
Dakayla had a really dynamite performance unlike anything I’d seen from the other dancers — camera cut to smitten Anthony’s reactions of course. The judges agreed she’s a unique dancer, unlike the others in the competition. She had a heart-to-hear with Anthony backstage before a solo that turned out to be beautiful yet brutal, quite different from Braylon’s contemporary routine in that Anthony kinda looked like he was kicking his own ass, punching himself, sweeping his own leg, throwing himself to the floor with a grace that would be the envy of a pro wrestler. And of course, a big hug between Anthony and Dakayla to finish things off after he was done.
Maks gave Anthony a standing ovation, and they were all surprised by his maturity after they thought he was too goofy in the group routine. We never heard them say that to him, though, they said that to Jaylin, so that was confusing. Also, they wondered why Anthony couldn’t bring this intensity out in the group routine … but that wasn’t at all the kind of group routine it was! Did they expect him to deliver Daniel Day-Lewis energy in what was basically a rom com dance number? These judges had me scratching my head at times this week.
The judges revealed their results, though, and those made more sense to me. Anthony was in. Dakayla was in. That meant Roman and Braylon were out. Which, honestly, fair. Braylon bumped into another dancer during his group number, and Roman seemed to struggle with the choreography during rehearsals, though I’m not sure if that factored into the judges’ decision. It’s possible that it’s just impossible to compete with what Anthony and Dakayla were doing with a partner-less cha cha.
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