

Mary thinks Cyrus delivered passion and drama while Eliana was on fire. Nigel tells Cyrus he deserves to be here, but he needs to lower his shoulders and straighten his legs. The Judges: Nigel thinks Eliana has secured her place in the industry. And Cyrus isn’t bad, but he never seems to be able to catch air during a leap - it’s like his legs are sewn together. The Dance: Eliana is, of course, incredible. I thought it was a matador and a bull? Is this the PETA friendly take on the paso double? She’s going to be the matador, and Cyrus will be the cape.

The Background: They’ll be doing a paso double by Jason Gilikson. Not that the judging matters, unfortunately. Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy and director/choreoprapher Rob Marshall will be our judges for this evening. Well, if you’re wondering how they’re going to fill two hours, there’s your answer.

Chehon is a remarkable dancer - and, unlike Cyrus, he’s worked toward that for most of his life.Ĭat informs us that we will get five opportunities to see each dancer perform. And while it does speak to privilege (I doubt dance lessons were in the budget for Cyrus), it also speaks to incredible determination and hard work. Cyrus is doing well despite a lack of training - but I suspect Chehon has done nothing but train from a very, very young age. That being said, it’s still hard for me to root for someone like Cyrus when Chehon is still in the game.

And, despite a total lack of formal training, he’s done remarkably well. I absolutely understand why he has such a following - he’s a nice guy. As a friend pointed out to me, Cyrus has the most Twitter followers of any of the four finalists (and beats them by thousands), and as we know, those who tweet, vote. Last week I had pretty much accepted that Cyrus will be one of the two winners picked next week. And truthfully, those are happier to think about anyway. There’s a lot of show to talk about first, complete with compelling performances and arresting solos. I’m simply not sure how I feel about what happened, as I felt that what was said was the honest truth - but absolutely calculated to change what happens as well. After the last few moments of the show, I feel I need to rethink everything I saw in this episode.
