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So You Think You Can Dance 7: Why Alexie Isn’t America’s Favorite Dancerby Erika Vaughan -- 06/21/2010
View Printable version of this article Here we are at the very first elimination and it was a shocker. As I sat there with my jaw in my lap, I couldn’t wait to run over to Foxes On Idol and find out why Alexie had been sent packing… and then I remembered that it was up to me to figure it out and write this article. Oh dear! To start to determine if this was truly a shocking elimination, we should review “What ‘So You Think You Can Dance 7’ Contestants Need to Know” to consider the rules by which we will analyze everyone’s exit. 
Before I get started (and yes, I’m procrastinating), does this all feel very abrupt to anyone else? I’m definitely thrown off kilter by the new format. Here we are at the top 11, but it’s the first elimination. It just seems as if the dancers aren’t getting the time to learn the difficult skill of dancing in a live television competition. Perhaps the cannon fodder of seasons past was a good thing after all if it gave us more time with the wonderful dancers that remained through those eliminations. In another season, we’d have seen much more of Alexie and I think that would have been a very good thing for all of us. But enough of that, let’s review those rules to see why Alexie left so soon. 1) Have Dancing Talent – Both Natural and Acquired This is the most important rule and Alexie certainly met this requirement. Not only was she an excellent dancer who obviously felt and reacted to the music, but we saw her improve season to season as she was cut in Vegas three times… finally making it in the Season 7 top 11 on her fourth try. She was an excellent and well-trained jazz/contemporary dancer whose audition in Los Angeles was stand-out. After a beautiful dance that gave me goose bumps, Adam said, "Oh, she's everything. She's gotten better." Nigel attempted to psych out Alexie, and us, by saying terrible things about her dancing and then saying, “and that is how you lie,” while Hi Hat called her "joyous" and a "pleasure to watch." During the exhibition dances the first week, Nigel pointed out her excellent technique although he cautioned her that she needed to find the fire in her eyes that the all-star girls showed. After her dance with Twitch the judges didn’t particularly praise her dancing, focusing more on her lack of swag and power. So, all in all, her dancing was good but her performance was lacking once she reached the show. 
2) Be Consistent and Able to Dance Different Genres We didn’t really get to see Alexie long enough to see how she would do at this rule. She consistently improved off the show, as her four tries at getting on the show demonstrated. But since this was the first dance we only know that she wasn’t great at hip-hop. All the judges called her out for being too cutesy and young. In her We’ll Be The Judge of That! comments, Terri thought she was adorable and smooth and that the routine was fun. I also pulled out the “adorable” tag but felt like there was something missing from the movements. It didn’t feel like a hip-hop routine to me. The upshot is that on her very first outing, she failed to meet a very important component of this rule by not shining in a genre other than her own. 3) Be a Great Performer, But Not Over the Top Well, the good news is that Alexie wasn’t over the top. The bad news is she wasn’t a great performer in her hip-hop number. Adam compared her sweetness to choreographer Tabitha Dumo, saying that Tabitha always dances with the sensuality of a woman but with the power of a man. As I said in Rule 1, every judges’ comment once the show started pointed out that her performance was lacking although her technique was lovely. 4) Shine During Your Solos (also Pick Great Music and Plan Some Choreography) Alexie didn’t fare well in her solo for several reasons. For one, she followed the amazing Karine Plantadit who schooled us all how a woman performs a sexy, jazzy dance. Alexie’s solo felt anemic after Karine’s intensity. I felt that her choice of “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” by Otis Redding didn’t end up being a good selection. It was soft and slow and if Alexie had dug into the emotional depths of the song, it could have been a moment that we’d talk about for many seasons. But she didn’t dig deep for that emotional tie to the music. She didn’t show us anything amazing in her dancing either and we know from her Los Angeles audition that she can bring us to tears with a one-minute solo. Why didn’t she bring all that passion and desire to succeed when she was “dancing for her life”? To me, her dance looked like it was the warm-up before her solo. It started nowhere and that’s where it ended up. There was no arc to it and even when the audience started counting down her last 10 seconds, she didn’t put any extra oomph into it. When it ended, it felt abrupt and unexpected. That was definitely not a well-thought-out routine. In all fairness, I have to point out that Jenn Brasler completely disagreed with me on this in her recap. She thought that not only was it a good solo, but that it would be a impressive audition piece. 1 2 Next-->View Printable version of this article
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