‘So You Think You Can Dance’ 18 episode 7 recap: Were the top six ready for their closeups in ‘Challenge #3: Movies’?
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On “So You Think You Can Dance” season 18, “Challenge #1: Music Videos” led to the ousters of two female finalists: Avery Gay and Olivia Alboher. Then in “Challenge #2: Broadway,” two male contestants got the boot: Roman Nevinchanyi and Braylon Browner. That left six contestants to compete in “Challenge #3: Movies”: Madison Alvarado, Anthony Curley, Mariyah Hawkins, Easton Magliarditi, Jaylin Sanders and Dakayla Wilson. So what happened when they left the stage behind and headed for the big screen?
“It’s time to pull up a chair and grab some popcorn because it’s movie week,” says Cat Deeley at the start of the episode following a “Breakfast Club”-esque cinematic hip-hop dance routine with the top six portraying students in Saturday detention. But just barely escaping detention last week were Anthony and Dakayla, who were in the bottom four but survived the dance-off.
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“So how did it feel dancing against your love interest,” Madison asks Dakayla, continuing last week’s budding showmance between Dakayla and Anthony. It was “terrifying” for her. Cut to Anthony bringing Dakayla hot cocoa and cuddling with her to console her, and Dakayla admitting, “We have a little thing going on.” Ah, nothing like young love — er, well, I guess it’s too early to call it love. Nothing like young kinda like.
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Jaylin is especially excited when they meet up with Cat and she tells them that their theme this week is movies. “I grew up watching the movie ‘Breakin’,” he says. He wanted to do some of the moves, and his dad taught him. But Anthony’s the one who looks like he’s about to have a heart attack when they’re introduced to this week’s two choreographers: Chris Scott and Jamal Sims.
Jamal’s team is Anthony, Dakayla and Mariyah — like there was any doubt they’d be putting Anthony and Dakayla on the same team.
That means Chris’s team is Easton, Madison and Jaylin.
Chris’s team will do a routine inspired by “In the Heights” to the song “When the Sun Goes Down,” which is usually a duet but is being done for this challenge as a trio. Easton and Madison will portray a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers type couple dancing on TV; Jaylin is watching them on the coach, and when he falls asleep he dreams of them with him on the couch. Easton sees himself working in movies so he’s excited to learn a lot from Chris. Madison, meanwhile, sees herself as more of a theater dancer. In theater, if you mess up you have to keep going, but in film you have to nail it for the take to work. And Jaylin wants to keep adapting, but he’s got to do a lot of threading and partner work he’s not accustomed to.
Jamal’s team is dancing to “Footloose,” but in a “Frankenstein” context. It will be the two women dancing as the mad scientist and his assistant putting together the perfect gentleman. “I think he’s the perfect gentleman,” Dakayla swoons. She’ll be the “Igor” of the dance since she’s shorter than Mariyah. “I wouldn’t be in the top six if I wasn’t capable,” says Mariyah, who has been called out by the judges for a lack of confidence, “so I’m just throwing caution to the wind this week, and I’m just going to try to sustain this feeling hopefully to the end.”
Of course, the next day just so happens to be Valentine’s Day, and in comes Anthony with a vase full of flowers for a giggling Dakayla. I can just picture a producer going, “Psst. Hey Anthony, here’s some flowers. Go give them to Dakayla so we can get the shot!” I may be a bit of a reality TV cynic.
But let’s go on with the show. Chris asks his dancers on day two of rehearsals what they hope to accomplish for themselves. Jaylin wants to improve his technique. Madison wants to act convincingly because Maksim Chmerkovskiy told her she wasn’t emoting well enough during her Broadway routine — “We’re coming for you this week,” Chris tells Maks into the camera. But as they prep for one of their scene’s big moments, stepping onto a couch and tipping it over, the team struggles with their timing and applying enough force to the furniture to actually tip it.
Jamal, meanwhile, is “seeing three amazing dancers, but they have never really acted and danced together in a film.” Mariyah needs to take command more with her body language since she’s the mad scientist running the show. For Anthony, “the Kevin Bacon classic step is going to be your challenge. You just have to really embody that step. That’s the step everybody knows.” But he’s having trouble adapting his style to a character whose movements are supposed to be stiff and robotic at first. And Dakayla worries about getting her posture right as a character with a hunchback.
On performance day, Maksim is joined by fellow judges Allison Holker and JoJo Siwa. Allison has danced in movies and choreographed for movies, so she’s especially looking for character performance. JoJo points out that they’re at the point of the competition where they need to be extra “critical” and “picky” to separate the good dancers from the great ones.
Chris’s team is first, and the judges immediately notice how Madison stands out. However, while she looks at ease when dancing with Easton, she appears a little less sure of herself when partnered with Jaylin. Easton also has maturity in his movements and demeanor. But Jaylin needs to get it together and connect more with his partners and his character. “He just doesn’t have a knowledge of his own body yet,” Allison says. So while he keeps improving each week, there’s a certain quality of movement that just isn’t there yet. I have a feeling he’ll be at the bottom this week.
Then that damn couch tip comes, but after one miss they nail it on the second try. The judges are impressed overall — by some more than others, according to Maks. But Easton looks like a leading man, Madison seems to have really come into her own, and Jaylin’s very specialized movements still seem to be working for him, though I still suspect he’ll be in danger.
Then it’s time for Jamal’s team, and immediately JoJo can see, just from the setup, how high the production values are, and how character-driven the piece will be, if the dancers are able to pull it off. When they start shooting, they’re impressed by how dialed into her character Dakayla is. Anthony’s choices are “phenomenal,” Allison points out, and JoJo is surprised how “poppy-locky” he’s able to be. Mariyah, however, could be going bigger with her performance. But how do you compare the two dance routines? They’re drastically different from each other. Maks thinks, “Because of the level of difficulty of both of these pieces, if you underwork, it will stand out.” So he’s eager to see the end result so the judges can say who’s in the bottom and who’s safe.
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Results day comes, and JoJo loves watching Chris’s team on screen together in their finished movie. But while Jaylin stood his ground, Maks thinks the other two kinda showed him up. Allison says Easton is exactly who he needed to be for his character, but she doesn’t feel he’s shown them something new. Madison gets a rave, though, from Maks, who tells her she made a big jump from week to week in terms of her character performance.
Jamal’s team’s movie is next. Allison says Anthony was a star in the routine. “I loved your choices,” she adds. “This is what we needed to see from you.” JoJo tells Dakayla she committed to and “nailed” her character despite getting a difficult hunchback role. But Allison wishes they had seen character development from Dakayla after the special red boots went on Anthony. But Mariyah seems to be disappointed with how it turned out. “I was really proud of the work that I think I put in,” she explains, “and I suppose that I think I’m a bit deflated with the result because it felt so much different than it looks.” But Maks tells her that he too once saw his own performance and got so depressed he almost quit. She’s a “megastar.” I have a feeling she’s going to be at the bottom too, though.
And I’m right. Allison calls three dancers forward — Madison, Easton and Anthony — and tells them they’re all safe from elimination, leaving Jaylin, Mariyah and, once again, Dakayla in the bottom. “I don’t know what to say,” says Mariyah. “I wanna go cry.” The good news is only one of them will be going home tonight, instead of two.
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Mariyah’s solo to stay in the competition is first up, and it’s surprisingly lowkey given the high stakes. JoJo and Allison think she held back. “This isn’t the time for you to cry, this is the time for you to fight,” says Allison, and she doesn’t think Mariyah quite did that. I kinda agree. Roman and Braylon were eliminated last week with solos that I think probably would’ve beaten this Mariyah routine.
Jaylin follows, and his number is also kinda subtle, though it’s harder for him to go big with his movements in his very technical, precise brand of hip-hop. But judged on the basis of his own style, I’d say he’s slightly ahead of Mariyah. But the judges think the performance was a little small, his body position didn’t change much, he didn’t use the wide stage to his advantage.
No offense to those two stellar performers, but if Dakayla achieves only half of what she did in last week’s solo, she’s a shoo-in for the top five. And indeed she does the thing, as “SYTYCD” alum Ariana DeBose might have said. Maks raves, saying it was “beyond expectation.” Allison thought the costume got in the way a little, but that’s a faint critique. If you’re only sending one dancer home this week, it ain’t gonna be Dakayla.
And yes, the next dancer moving into the top five is Dakayla. That leaves Jaylin and Mariyah, with the judges deciding to send home Jaylin! Whoa, kinda didn’t see that coming after those solos. I thought they’d err on the side of keeping him since he’s the only hip-hop specialist left in the competition. “I loved my time here. This has been an amazing experience,” he says in his exit interview. “But there’s a lot more up my sleeve that people don’t know I do. This is just the beginning.”
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