Welcome to my first So You Think You Can Dance powerlist for the season. Since they’re being eliminated separately, I’m going to rank them by Teams for now, instead of an overall ranking. Maybe when we get down to like 10 dancers, I’ll combine and see who will win. I’m starting with Team Stage, since they reportedly drew the most votes last week.
TEAM STAGE:
1) Jim– I’m giving the frontrunner status to Jim, who connects with the audience both as a dancer, and also on a “we can root for this guy” level. He had an interesting backstory in his audition, about being adopted, needing surgery, and the general “overcoming adversity” that gets people to want to vote for you. Plus, he’s a great dancer, and seems like a genuinely nice guy.
2) Gaby– Another standout from the auditions. She seemed to get a lot of fans to root for her, plus she’s the only tapper. She gets points for basically dancing out of her style every week, because they’ll never force an untrained dancer to do tap with her. Her best bet is maybe getting to do a tap duet with an all-star. Maybe. If she makes it far enough. No tapper has ever won the whole shebang, can Gaby overcome?
3) Hailee– I like Hailee as a dancer. I think she’s fun and has an incredible understanding of who she is as a dancer, which allows her to really own the sexy performances more than other girls who might still be questioning their overall body image. I think Hailee also did a great job recovering from Darien’s lift fail this week. So, points for that.
4) Edson– I somehow feel like Edson is being marginalized in screentime, but I know that’s hard. I feel like I don’t really know Edson very well anymore, like everyone is reserving their comments on Edson as to sort of make you forget he even exists. I think he’s a good dancer, and the fact that he wasn’t in the bottom three says a lot about “being noticed”.
5) Alexia– First week, I really had no idea who Alexia was. I assumed she was cannon fodder. This week, I realize she’s a dark horse. I saw her this past week, and I started really taking notice. I think she might steamroll a couple of early favorites. America loves an underdog, and in a lot of way Alexia is making up ground from the lack of screentime she got during auditions/Vegas week.
6) Marissa- My gut instinct tells me Marissa is not long for SYTYCD. I feel like she’s a mid-pack performer. I think she’s a solid dancer, but she’s not a star. She somehow has to figure out how to get all eyes on her, and outperform her dance partners. In order to win, she can’t just do the choreography well enough, she has to be the first dancer you notice on stage. That just has a lot to do with stage presence and confidence. Maybe she’ll get there.
7) Moises– There was a lot of twitter chatter about Moises this past week, and it got him saved. I was trying to pay attention to the twitter votes as much as possible, and while the Street dancers were pretty close, I don’t think Team Stage was close at all. Moises was winning in some kind of landslide victory. Hopefully people remember to vote for him again and keep him out of the bottom three. Unlikely. He’s probably just going to be a Rayvon.
8) Kate- Kate’s solo on Tuesday night was lazy. It was literally the only solo, out of 17 solos, that I was like “really? thats your 10 seconds?” She needs to make up for a lack of screentime, which basically means she needs to astonish. I’m not astonished.
9) Derek– Like I said, Moises seemed to win in a landslide. If Derek and Moises are in the bottom three again, I think Moises will be pushed again to safety, and Derek will be left for the judges to decide again. Unless his next dance is amazing, going twice against the judges will probably send him home.
TEAM STREET:
1) Jaja– Jaja walked into this competition benefiting from the idea that she was robbed last season of a top 10 spot. So, she’s already got fans. She’s already got people rooting for her. And voting is so easy now. I think Jaja’s safe for a while. Even the show loves Jaja now. She was one of only a few dancers to actually dance in her style last week.
2) Virgil- This little ball of energy is also one to watch. I think he’s a strong dancer who (because of his background) picks up choreography better than the editors would have you believe. That will allow him to go the distance. Eventually these street dancers will be thrown a curveball, but Virgil might be able to hit his curveball out of the park.
3) Megz– The year of the hip hop girls continues. I was worried about Megz doing contemporary, but she slayed it. Good for her. I think she’s definitely one of the most interesting dancers we have on stage. Can she dethrone Jaja?
4) Yorelis- Again, the year of the female hip-hop dancers continues. Yorelis made a smart move to switch to Team Street this year, because it means she’s now a Team Street dancer with some knowledge and background of Contemporary dance. She’s got training, and attempts to throw her off her game will likely fail.
5) JJ- We’re still on the year of female hip hop, where most of Team Street’s chances of “going the distance” belong to female dancers. They were already on a 6/4 ratio when we started, and other than Virgil, the male prospects are low. For JJ, I just don’t think she’s as strong as Jaja, Megz, or Yorelis either in her dances, or in her choreo. Once the riff raff is gone, it’ll be about time for JJ to go.
6) Burum- The B-Boy to root for. Yes, he’s struggling. Yes, he’s having a really hard time picking up choreo. But he’s doing it with a good attitude, and not this defeated look all the time like Asaf. If Burum ever gets to “dance for his life” before an elimination, it’ll probably save him.
7) Ariana- I voted to save Ariana. I thought she showed promise this week, that I didn’t feel from Lily. I’m glad we get to see Ariana for another week. I hope she grows. If she doesn’t she might go home.
8) Neptune- Another dancer who might go home, if seen again in the bottom three. Yes, he did get the twitter save, but unlike Moises, I didn’t see a sweeping victory from Neptune. It was pretty even. His only saving grace would be being in the bottom two with…
9) Asaf- I feel like a vote for Asaf is a vote to troll the show. His editing was so awful, then he was brought back… and continued to get awful editing. Maybe this kid is really nice, and he just offended a producer somehow, but he’s getting such a raw deal that I can’t imagine him being in the bottom two and the judges keeping him around. His attitude every week, or what we see of it, is obnoxious. I can feel sorry about the bad editing, but at some point you have to say “Stop giving them moments to edit.” The sad thing is, if he was in the bottom three against Ariana and Neptune, America might save him.
