I’m off to World Trivia Night tonight and the lovely and hilarious Bibliomama will be joining me! I’m awfully excited. And I’m sure the six bags of candy I bought are really going to help with that.

In the meantime, let’s take my mind off of trivia night with a little Dance! Show! Update!

This week I was all about the love. And the hate. The love-hate. Oh dance show, you do play with my emotions!

Loved It

Ashleigh and Jakob are totally clicking for me. I can see why some people really don’t like Ashleigh — there is something wooden about her in her everyday life. But I like her dancing, and I adore Jakob (he’s my fave right now), and they continue to get better every week. I loved their hip-hop and thought they kicked ass. Nat didn’t like it, though, so I may have some Jakob-love bias here. When I get that job as a judge on SYTYCD Canada, I better bring Nat along with me to provide counterpoint.

I also loved Legacy and Kathryn’s Paso Doble. The Paso is my favourite ballroom dance, if done well, and only the most committed dancers can do it well. I watched this one twice — the first time I was totally transfixed by Legacy, so I had to watch a second time to see Kathryn, but she was fantastic as well. This couple is strong and have The Chemistry and I hope they will go far.

I really enjoyed the Channing and Victor bird number — I think this may be my favourite Tyce choreography ever. I agreed with the judges that this was the first time I really felt I could see what Channing had to offer. I don’t think they deserved to be in the bottom three at all, and it’s a shame that Channing’s spark of personality came a little too late.

Lastly, I think I liked the contemporary by Ryan and Ellenore. This couple is still lacking some sort of magic for me — they need to work on The Chemistry, I think. But they both danced this piece well, and man, do I ever love Travis Wall as a choreographer. Often times, you go to the movies and you are struck by an actor’s great performance, or maybe the beauty of the cinematography. But it’s rare that you notice, during viewing, how awesome the writing is — I basically only ever feel the power of pure writing when I’m watching a Charlie Kaufman movie. I feel the same way about Travis — usually dance performances rest solely on the shoulders of the dancers, or maybe you’ll notice a great costume. It’s rare to feel the raw power of the choreography — to appreciate the originality of the movement and the idea of the choreographer himself, during the actual number. I feel that with Travis — I’m always blown away by the beauty of his ideas. So this number, while perhaps missing a little something, still blew me away.

Man, am I ever rambling today, eh?

Hated It

Mollee and Nathan are really going downhill. I understand why the judges gave them a second chance this week, but they just don’t seem to have the maturity and discipline to put together a powerful, moving performance. I love Laurieann Gibson as a choreographer so I put the blame on their crappy jazz number squarely on the shoulders of Mollee and Nathan. Nathan, in particular, I see as one of the weakest men and he’s on my hit list.

And what was up with the judges slobbering all over Noelle and Russell’s foxtrot? Noelle did show a lot of sparkle in her face and I like that they both seemed very confident and relaxed. But still, the movement was messy at times, they didn’t always seem to click as a couple, and I don’t know, it was just blah overall. They should have been in the bottom three for sure.

Lastly, Karen and Kevin…oh how sad you have made me. Their Broadway routine was the only one I really had no interest at all in watching twice. I think the Broadway style in general is quite impossible to hit — people always groan about the quickstep. but I can think of exactly one Broadway-style number that I have enjoyed, and that is Kayla and Jason’s from last season (she wore a gold dress and they danced around a stool — it was a Tyce, I think). I don’t know, something just isn’t working for this style, and the show needs to do something about it.

Anyway. I’m so very, very happy the judges decided to keep Karen this week, but Karen and Victor together does not seem like a good match, so I’m worried for them for next week. I think they should have kept Kevin, really — Victor is just a low-rent version of Jakob, and Jakob is AWESOME.

In any case, things are definitely heating up on dance show. I enjoyed this week’s dancing much more (also loved the Wade Robson group number, but that’s just obvious, isn’t it?), and I felt that the camera work was greatly improved. Keep going, Nigel!