Live to Dance Semi-Final Round 3 — Recap

On tonight’s Live to Dance, the last 6 of the semi-finalists competed for a spot in the finals which begin next week. I’m seriously scratching my head here, as yet another curve ball was pitched at us. While last week they said only one act would move through, in fact the process tonight was the same as before: One act moved through by the experts, and one act to be voted through by America. Here I thought I had poor math skills, but they couldn’t even follow their own math! This does present complications for next week’s finals, and more on that later.

First up was the result of America’s votes from last week, and the winner was Twitch, the group of kids whose dance I just didn’t understand, but apparently America gets it. On to the breakdown of tonight’s performances:

Dance Town Chaos (Miami, FL) — A group of 12 young men intent upon convincing their detractors that their masculinity as dancers is on par with athletes. Not coincidentally dancing to This is a Man’s World by James Brown, this group of half dressed men showed us a well synchronized and executed gymnastic ballet. The three experts curiously all used ‘beautiful’to describe their performance (which doesn’t help their self-image issue), with Travis even reassuring them of their masculinity. There’s a joke in there but I’m not touching it. Paula: gold star; Travis: gold star, Kim: gold star.

Jill & Jacob (Los Angeles, CA) — The teen ballet couple Paula affectionately deemed her ‘problem child.’Jake was adamant that their performance represent Jill & Jacob and not Jill, Jacob & Paula. That attitude toward Paula’s mentoring may have contributed to his poor showing in their hip hop/ballet piece to Save Me by Nicki Minaj, given the experts’criticism. While Jill was out of her comfort zone with hip hop, she in fact fared better than her partner. Giving props to Jill’s hip hop debut, the experts felt there was a disconnect between the two. Whereas their previous performance in the auditions told the story of a young couple in love, this performance was more like a divorcing married couple. Still, Paula felt they had come a long way. Travis: red star; Kim: red star; Paula: gold star.

Roosevelt Anderson (Brooklyn, NY) — A young talent with a unique style of dance he calls ‘sky walking’, this young man actually did walk through air to Rocketeer by Far East Movement. All three experts agreed he was innovative and passionate in his style, with Travis noting his magnificent body control. Kim wanted to see him do more with the sky walking. Kim: red star; Paula: gold star; Travis: gold star.

Tap Sounds Underground (Los Angeles, CA) — Male teacher and student tap duo who had been previously encouraged by the experts to breathe new life into this old form of dance. Using a prop slide they built themselves, they incorporated some updated dance moves into their tap dance to a funky 80s R&B medley – Every Little Step I Take, Bobby Brown; Whoomp, Tag Team; and It Takes Two, Rob Base. While the experts agreed they paid homage to an important part of the dance world and considered them professionals in that field, Kim wanted more updated nuances brought into the routine. Paula: gold star; Travis: gold star; Kim red star. Incidentally, Kim’s red star brought out a fierce mama bear reaction from Paula.

Shore Thing (Cape May, NJ) — 19 preteen and younger-aged girl gymnasts who tumbled and cart-wheeled to a song that I am only guessing is from Alice in Wonderland. Readers please comment and help me out if you recognized the song. All three experts were impressed with this group’s tumbling passes, especially for their young age and noted their excellent theatrics. Kim: gold star; Paula: gold star; Travis: gold star.

Kendall Glover (Phoenix, AZ) — Pre-teen ballerina who previously wow’d us in the auditions, and noted for us tonight that so far, no soloist has made it to the finals. Tonight Kendall added more hip hop to her routine, set to Katy Perry’s Firework. Enhancing her performance were the motion-to -still shots of her dance captured on the screen behind her and this was a very beautiful effect. The experts all tried to find synonyms for firework to describe her ‘˜effervescent’performance while noting she had to focus more on her lines. This was the same criticism they noted to her previously, so the implication was clear that she didn’t heed their advice. Travis: gold star; Kim: gold star; Paula: gold star.

After the performances, we learned that the experts’choice for tonight was Dance Town Chaos. So going into the finals, we have White Tree Fine Art, The Vibe, D’Angelo & Amanda, Twitch and Dance Town Chaos, with 5 acts from tonight awaiting their fate at the hands of America’s votes. Now back to my earlier grievance; if the finals begin next week but 5 of tonight’s acts do not know if they are in it, and have to wait UNTIL the finals to find out who America chose, do they all prepare just in case? Or are they splitting the 6 up over two nights? I’m so confused! Tune in next week to Live to Dance to see how they solve my conundrum, February 2, 8 p.m. (EST) on CBS.