PureDWTS Sharna Choreographs for SYTYCD; Lindsay & Rylee’s Sister Jensen Survives Another Week
It was week 2 of the live shows last night, and Sharna was one of this week’s choreographers – she choreographed a jive for contemporary dancer Genessy & hip-hop dancer Slavik:
I didn’t actually watch the show, so maybe one of you that did can interject here – but while the choreography was cute (and had far more content than the cha-cha Val choreographed last week), I don’t feel like either one of the contestants really nailed it. Genessy seemed to go off-time quite a bit, and the tricks felt labored. Nice routine from Sharna, but I think it just goes to show that it’s not nearly as easy for non-ballroom dances to pick up ballroom/Latin as some seem to think it is.
Meanwhile, Lindsay & Rylee’s sister Jensen survived the first week of eliminations – Mama Arnold, sis Brynley, and Jordan were on-hand to support her, while Lindsay & Rylee (who looked like they were tied up with rehearsals), campaigned for votes for her on Instagram:
Jensen & her partner, Jay Jay, did what I consider to be a pretty badass African Jazz:
In some less-encouraging news, the two other Latin/ballroom dancers on this season, Cole & Magda (who is a Chmerkovskiy friend) ended up in the bottom 2 last night, but didn’t get sent home. I’m thinking Jensen may be our only hope for a ballroom dancer in the finals this season!
I watched the show-I watch it every week lol I agree that Sharna put more content in that jive routine that Val has done in, I think, any of his routines on this show. I, actually, kinda thought there might’ve been too much content and that’s way both dancers, particularly Gennesy, fell behind Slavik in time and lost the beat in her steps. Otherwise it was a ‘cute’ jive. I think they got a standing O from the judges just for the simple fact that they were both able to keep up with the choreography as best as possible considering that they’re not ballroom dancers. And I do think Nigel, especially, was impressed by Sharna’s choreo compared to ‘other’ DWTS pros who’ve choreographed for his show and who’ve maybe watered down choreography for non-ballroom dancers, which I don’t think Sharna did.
I LOVED Jensen and Jay Jay’s dances!!! Their partnership and work ethic and chemistry is unbeatable this season!!! But, it’s funny, b/c during that African jazz dance, I swear but she reminded me of Jenna when she was competing on the show!! Jensen is not like Lindsay, in my opinion. I think she’s showing that she’s more fearless and willing to try anything thrown at her and adapt to it. Believe it or not, her sister wasn’t as much like that when she competed on SYTYCD. But Jenna was. At any rate, Jensen is proving herself to be so much more than a ballroom dancer and it’s looking more natural on her than it is on Magda Fialek.
Magda Fialek is a ballroom dancer-I’ll give her that. She was trained under Maks. From what I read about her, she and Kiki Nymchek competed with each other, as partners, for years. But as far as other genres go, there’s no way she can beat out Jensen. That Bollywood was a hot mess last night, in my opinion. Why the judges fawned all over it????? I don’t know? Unless they’re still trying to keep her in, as long as they have control to, to even out the ballroom dancers in the competition? We’ll see how long she lasts….
I loved the choreography from Sharna, and I’m really glad Nigel thanked dwts for sending them Sharna and would love to see her choreography every week if she could. It’s really great to see her getting recognized, but what I love most is she never makes it about herself (like Val does) she always makes it about her partner, and in this case the couple she choreographed for. I’m glad she stays humble, not all do. She gave them a cute solid jive routine full of content, and it was probably one of my favorite pieces from a dwts pro on sytycd.
You’re right Court, it really goes to show how hard it is to pick up ballroom in such little time. From what Sharna said, they had about 6 hours to learn and rehearse this routine, where dwts she has a whole week to clean it up. From a hip hop and contemporary dancers, it wasn’t perfect, but the energy was there and I can see why the judges were impressed that they pulled that jive routine off. I sure was!
@Lex – Sharna’s choreo is how ballroom/Latin on SYTYCD SHOULD be – a lot of content, but still very entertaining. I have found that most of the ballroom & Latin on SYTYCD has gotten SEVERELY watered down over the seasons – and I almost have to wonder if Nigel might have asked the ballroom choreographers to “tone it down” a bit, so the non-ballroom dancers aren’t thrown so off their game. But I’m glad Sharna didn’t go easy on them 🙂
@Mary Ann – I remember when Lindsay was on SYTYCD – she was a brilliant technician, but wasn’t quite as charismatic on stage as Witney. Definitely more reserved, and I think the turning point for her was her “comeback” season as a pro on DWTS, when she partnered Alek. SO MUCH GROWTH. I think Jensen is lucky in that she had someone (her older sister) to walk her through how everything was going to be.
The main bit of cognitive dissonance I have as far as Maks & Val’s choreo is concerned is that they seem to tout their ballroom & Latin “purity” as somehow superior, and then go and choreograph a dance that has a ton of time-wasting, walking-around or futzing-with-props nonsense. And most of their acolytes (like Kiki and Magda) are very well-trained in ballroom, but they’re ONLY trained in ballroom – and right now, the extensively cross-trained Utah crew is absolutely mopping the floor with the orthodox ballroom & Latin dancers from back east. Which is why I unfortunately think Magda & Cole are probably goners, and Jensen stands a decent chance of actually winning this whole thing – you’ve gotta be well-rounded. Just look at the junior pros – ALL OF THEM dance multiple styles, and then you look at at the regular pros, and a few of them are still trying to scrape by on ballroom & Latin alone. And two of the three teams on DWTS Jr. that are consistently topping the leaderboard are mentored by pros with extensive cross-training – kinda makes one wonder why the Chmerkovskiy brothers are so insistent on the purity of their ballroom & Latin being so superior.
@Courtney Could not agree more about Lindsay! I think the longer she’s been on DWTS, the more she’s grown in terms of her choreography and her creativity as well. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Jensen does follow in her footsteps and ends up on the show in the near future lol
As for her status on SYTYCD I definitely agree too that this season can be Jensen’s to win, of all 3 of the ballroom dancers competing. Jensen, honestly, shouldn’t even be listed as ‘ballroom’-she is so cross-trained in other genres that there really should be a category listed as ‘cross-trained’ or something to that effect LOL
I agree, too, that Magda and Cole can’t be lasting too long compared to the other contestants. Being trained in ballroom only gets you so far and even faking it can only get you so far as well-that’s when I see a BIG difference between when Val choreographs a ballroom/Latin piece and somebody else does. With Val you see all the fluff/too much acting/too many props-when somebody else choreographs, you see content. Kinda ironic considering HE won blackpool?????????
First thing I love Jordan is still close with the Arnold family, I always enjoy seeing friendships that go beyond DWTS.
Second @Courtney thank you for pointing out the fact that even pro dancers don’t always get the technique of the jive. To the people that always complain about the ringers and people with experience : dance experience can only get you so far. Some of the ringers like Jordan, Lindsey, Corbin, Nicole just have natural talent.
As for SYTYCD, I feel like the level of difficulty is low and the execution isn’t so great. I feel like the level of difficulty on SYT should be much higher than on DWTS and for right now, I don’t feel like it. The step routine and the jive really weren’t that great. And Nigel is pissing me off so much. He overpraised the sh*t of that jive like it was the greatest thing ever. The standing ovation was so not needed. The step was just cringy. And I agree with all of you, Val cha cha last week was way too easy and lacked off content, Sharna’s choreo was much more interesting.
Also I was so pissed of for Chelsea, she didn’t deserve the treatment she received from Nigel, of course she said she could tap, the purpose of the show is to try every style, she wasn’t going to say no.
And am I the only one feeling like Nigel is already chasing for next year Emmy noms ? He was being a bit much with the choreographer, none of the dances were that great.
I’m happy for Jensen, she should be in the top 2 women and she has a lot of stage present but feel like either Darius, Slavik or Jay Jay.
PS : Sorry for the super long post.