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SCALE
10 out of 10: Quest's Hip Hop Decathalon
0 out of 10: Any of Sass x7's performances.
The show started off with We Are Heroes. They got "Single Ladies", and their challenge was to implement strobing into the synchronized grind move in the video. They're (and by "they", I mean Hiroko) shown struggling with the heels that they decide to perform in and tripping a lot. Of course it doesn't happen in their real performance. I thought they were one of, if not the best performance of the night. They did some great ticking and the strobing was natural to them; it's what they do. Overall I'd give this performance a solid 7.5 out of 10.
Up next was Rhythm City. Their song was "Nightmare" and their challenge was to update the Charleston. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed with this performance. I had seen last weeks performance before; they did that exact same performance on a different stage already, so they were really just recycling their choreography. With this song, they had to come up with new choreography, and I really wasn't impressed at all. They DID, however, have a very nice story line where they had one crew member sleeping in a bed with a bunch of "faces" (I put the quotes there because they were clearly hands, but according to the judges, they were supposed to be "faces") poking out above the slumbering person, simulating a nightmare. Then, they crew danced, as if they were dancing out the nightmare. I personally thought the best part of the entire performance was the shoutout to Michael Jackson; they did a simple move from Thriller when the song said "night-mare" and it was beautifully timed. I liked this performance, but not as much as WAH's. 7 out of 10.
Following RC was the Massive Monkees. Everybody seems to love the Monkees...I don't see it. They're great breakers, sure, but they ARE exactly what JC thought Super Cr3w was before they proved him wrong; great breaking crew, no choreography. Anyways, their song was Work it Out and their challenge was to implement hula hoops into their routine. They were decent in this week's performance, but the only thing that really stood out was - GASP! - a trick that involved one of their members jumping through 4 hula hoops and another member jumping over them at the same time. Amazing, yes. Dancing, no. I feel like the judges are soft this season, because in the words of JC in OTHER seasons, the "prop owned" the crew, the crew didn't "own the prop". I was definitely expecting to hear that line from him, but no mention of it. They did have some nice tricks, but like I said before, a major lack of clean choreography. 5.5 out of 10.
After the Monkees was the Beat Ya Feet Kings. There really isn't anything memorable about this performance whatsoever. I'm extremely underwhelmed by the BYFKings. Their song was Crazy In Love, and, of course, their challenge was to implement the booty popping "uh oh" move into their routine. They did it, but briefly. I feel like WAH and RC were the only crews to really take their challenge to the next level and not get burnt in the process, and BYFK was just kind of boring. They did a little bit of their Washington style (I call it crazy legs, not sure if it actually has a name or not) and the rest just felt trivial. 4 out of 10.
Following the Kings was a dark horse favorite of mine, Southern Movement. Their song was Jumpin Jumpin, and their task was to jump and pop, and they did just that. They had some very good, very clean choreography. They really hooked you in from the start; the first thing they did was an explosion (think SoReal's intro to "Love in this Club" in season 2) and went straight into their choreo. They displayed some very definite "levels" like Lil Mama told them to try working on; they threw the girl in the crew 10+ feet in the air and caught her cheerleader style. The entire performance was extremely clean, and according to Shane, they haven't given him a "reason to not like them yet". I think the open level of bias in this competition is pathetic. Shane doesn't WANT to like SM. Lil Mama LOVES VE. It's ridiculous, but hey, we watch the show anyways. Gotta love the definition of a "guilty pleasure". Isn't something that you do despite negative consequences actually considered to be an addiction...? (6.5 out of 10)
Anyways, up next was Vogue Evolution. Leyomi personified Beyonce. She was flipping her hair, running from guy to guy getting flipped around, it was fun to watch. That's probably why so many people like this crew; they're one of (if not the only) the crews who brings energy to the stage. My only problem with them is that they are EXTREMELY sloppy. If what they do is even considered to be choreography, then they are some of the sloppiest dancers I've ever seen. Their song was Deja Vu and their challenge was to implement AFRICAN DANCING into their routine. African dancing is a very strong, bold, and synchronized dancing. They looked like they were nothing more than...well, they looked like they were nothing more than voguers trying to do an african dance for the first time. It almost looked like a mockery in my eyes. Maybe they want some season 2 film so they can learn from Super Cr3w in the episode before the finale. Regardless, they had the highest energy of the night, so I'm giving them a 6 out of 10.
Now for the first crew in the bottom two...Artistry in Motion. They killed it. Their song was Diva and their task was to perform in chains. It definitely did hold them back a little bit, but they did it, and took it to the highest degree possible. They popped, they locked, they had some great illusions, they just had a great overall performance. They looked very clean, their choreography was on point, everything made sense, and most importantly, they absolutely destroyed the challenge. On top of all that, they had great energy, and even had a really great story line. Honestly, I thought this was the best performance of the entire night. 8 out of 10.
Final crew of the night. Afroborike. Their song is Beautiful Liar, and their challenge was to be themselves. What? Yeah. Their challenge was to implement sexy and exotic moves from the video like Beyonce and Shakira did. So...be themselves. Sure. Tough challenge, Randy Jackson. Way to stretch on that one. *sigh* regardless, they came out and did a sloppy 6 hand illusion. The guys were all topless and the girls were all wearing a super short tight dress with tiny undies on underneath them. They did a move where the girls jumped up with their crotches in the guys faces and did a body wave down and backwards. Sexy, sure, but honestly, I would've been uncomfortable watching this performance with close family. They took the sexy over the top. It wasn't so much sexy as it was lewd. Honestly, I have to give this a 3.5 out of 10. They weren't better than BYFK; just more memorable.
At the end of the night, the judges made the horrible decision to keep Afroborike around and send Artistry in Motion home. I just don't get it. Are they really THAT desperate to push the diversity card that they had to stoop to sending home a crew just because they showed flashes of being a great choreography based crew in order to keep around an overly promiscuous latin crew? It's really bad. I'm starting to think the members of Afroborike are getting down with the judges behind the scenes, because there is no way they deserved to stick around, diverse or not. I feel bad for the leader of AIM, because when Mario asked her to comment, she clearly looked like she was ready to say "WTF IS GOING ON HERE?! YOU KEPT THEM OVER US?! THIS IS OUR SOB STORY COME TO LIFE!" - unfortunately she decided to be better than that. Oh well. Maybe next week somebody will call the judges out.
