'So You Think You Can Dance' blog

The search to find the nation’s favourite dancer continued this week with performances from the final 6. The semi-finalists Tommy, Alistair and Robbie for the boys and Lizzie, Mandy and Charlie for the girls battled it out for a place in next Saturday’s final where one lucky dancer will walk off with £100,000 and the chance to dance on So You Think You Can Dance in Hollywood.

Kicking off the show, Robbie and Lizzie were paired together and performed a Broadway routine to ‘Hot Honey Rag’ from the musical Chicago. Once again, Lizzie demonstrated her dancing versatility, swapping her natural hip-hop flair for a smiley, slapstick routine full of cheese. The pair, dressed in American ‘bellhop’ uniforms, showed charisma and personality, using luggage and the baggage trolley as props. With many fun lifts and tricks, including Robbie performing a split in leapfrog over Lizzie (who was standing up!) their high-energy routine was a success, with the judges proclaiming both should be in next week’s final.

Dancing to Coldplay’s ‘Fix You’, Mandy and Alistair were the next couple to perform, with Alistair stating it’s one of the hardest things he has ever done and Mandy saying, “Everything is bruised…This week has been brutal!”. Their hard work paid off in a fluid performance, expressing an argument through a beautifully synchronised contemporary piece.

Nineteen year-old Charlie, the youngest in the competition, was partnered with Tommy for the third performance of the evening. They performed a Commercial Jazz routine to Britney Spears' ‘Circus’ starting in a 2 tier box and wearing tacky red outfits resembling something that you’d find in Ann Summers, though revealing Tommy’s impressive torso! While the routine started well, I thought the chemistry between the two was lacking somewhat. Individually, both dancers showed strength, though when it came to the synchronised choreography in the routine, the coordination between the two was slightly off, perhaps a consequence of what judge Arlene noticed as Charlie’s inability to keep in time with the music and “get the rhythm into the feet”.

Lizzie and Robbie’s creative second routine was a hip-hop piece to 'Mad' by Neyo, which begun in a vertical bed creating the illusion of the pair lying down. Though self-professed “gangly” Robbie received negative comments for his previous attempt at hip-hop, the couple received positive comments with judge Sisqo believing Lizzie to be the “front-runner” of the girls.

Dancing to the dramatic music ‘Dies Irae’ by Karl Jenkins, Mandy and Alistair’s disappointing Paso Doble lacked the key elements of a style modelled on the movements of Spanish Bullfights: passion and aggression. Alistair’s balletic roots prohibited consistency and sharpness in technical elements of the routine, such as heel leads, which lead to Nigel stating that it was the worst routine he has seen the pair of them perform in the entire competition.

Though Charlie and Tommy’s playful Quickstep to Basement Jaxx’s ‘Do Your Thing’ was a relief from the disappointment and drama (or lack of!) of the previous routine, overall the public must have agreed with head-judge Nigel placing Alistair and Mandy in the bottom four, along with my personal favourites Robbie and suspected ‘front-runner’ Lizzie. After each individual danced for their lives in their solo routines, and following a performance by Leona Lewis of her new single ‘I Got You’, the judges maintained their earlier allegation: that Robbie and Lizzie must be in the final, unanimously sending Alistair and Mandy home and out of the competition.

You can catch clips of Saturday’s semi-final or view the whole show here

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