While music videos revealed a lot about the dancers and Broadway was tough to bring to life, the movies challenged the Top 6 to dance and act on screen. This week, the tough rehearsals for the “On Tour” challenge. Ahead of a new week of challenges, the Top 5 opened with a BLACKPINK all-out stage performance choreographed for by Kyle Hanagami. Complete with sparkles, platform boots, and a ton of energy, the opening number elicited well-deserved cheers.
While all-star choreographers are a staple of SYTYCD, for the first time ever, the show featured a celebrity guest for the challenge. For the “On Tour” challenge, the Top 5 tried their hand at being backup dancers for T-Pain. To pull this off, the dancers worked with choreographers Fullout Courtland (Doja Cat, SZA, Chloe Bailey) and Kyle Hanagami (BLACKPINK, J. Lo, Alicia Keys, Dove Cameron). Kyle shared that he wanted dancers who could build community and work together to make a tour happen while Fullout wanted “smart” dancers that are aware of their space and the quality of the production. Previous challenges separated the dancers into groups, but this challenge was a group effort to perform a two-song medley that included props, set pieces, and a quick change.
Rehearsals
The first half of the medley featured T-Pain’s “Church” and was choreographed by Fullout. Mariyah was chosen first for a solo moment with T-Pain that would incorporate steps on the stage, but it would be up to her to hold that spot. While Fullout worked on sharpening Mariyah’s moves, he encouraged Easton to groove more. After their first rehearsals, he did tell the Top 5 they would be “fantabulous,” so thing seemed to be looking up for the first half of the medley.
Kyle pushed the dancers into a genre shift for his contemporary fusion choreography for “Dreaming.” Kyle shared that Anthony “is so good at everything,” but wasn;t giving enough star quality. Madison on the other hand impressed him by being fullout during rehearsals. While this was to her benefit, it didn’t help the hip injury that became obvious during practice. Kyle’s choreography was their first introduction to the props they were working with, light poles that the dancers would need to operate manually.
By time stage rehearsals came around, the dancers had a lot to lock in. Kyle wanted more emotion from Anthony. Fullout wanted more punch from Dakayla. Moving from the studio to the stage added a new level of challenge. Their time to tighten up their moves was running out, and last-minute changes were making that more difficult. “I need all squats to be the squats. I need all grooves to be the grooves. I need in the box for everything.”
The “Tour”
The dancers didn’t rehearse with T-Pain, so outside of meeting him backstage before showtime for a group pump-up session where T joked that he “need[ed] you guys’ help ’cause I plan on doing absolutely nothing, okay?” Add being starstruck to challenges to overcome this week. After a week of dancing, would they be able to show they could work together, put on a sharp performance, and stand out to make it to the next challenge?
Allison praised all of the dancers for their awesome performances and thanked Kyle and Fullout before delivering individual feedback. Starting with Madison, Allison complimented her for working with her injury. Unfortunately, Allison didn’t think Madison was a standout during the first half of the medley. Maks called himself Mariyah’s number one fan and said he was starting a fan club, but that Mariyah only had one standout moment and seemed to be falling behind the music.
It wasn’t all negative! JoJo praised Anthony for his chemistry during his partner work (and also teased him for his budding relationship with Dakayla). Dakayla was next to receive feedback. Maks said she was peaking at the right time and was the standout dancer of their tour production. “I do think any tour going out right now would hire you,” JoJo told Dakayla. Finally, Easton was up for debate as Maks and Allison argued whether he was lacking confidence or full of fire.
The Bottom 3
All of this led to the results of the night. In the bottom this week were Anthony, Mariyah, and Easton. Easton delivered a sad but ultimately powerful solo to Stevie Wonder’s “Lately” which had the on-the-nose lyrics “This time coud mean goodbye.” He was followed by Mariyah who chose to lip sync part of her solo (which she also did last week) and communicate with the audience instead of taking up major space on stage. Anthony performed the final solo, a hip hop contemporary fusion that wasn’t as neat but showed more.
The Elimination
This week’s solos seemed to leave the judges in a fierce debate about who to send home. When Anthony, Mariyah, and Easton returned to the stage, “This is such a hard decision for us,” Allison said ahead of the reveal. “The two dancers moving forward in the competition are Anthony and Easton.” Mariyah’s last words on Season 18? “This has been such a beautiful experience and I did exactly what I came here to do. Thank you so much.”
Next week, the Top 4 return for the SYTYCD Season 18 semi-finals Monday at 9 pm ET on FOX.