So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation has officially kicked off live shows this season!
On the special episode, the Top 10 contestants – Tate McRae, Ruby Castro, Emma Hellenkamp, Jordan Nata’e Wandick, J.T. Church, Jake Monreal, Sheaden Gabriel, Leon “Kida” Bruns, Tahani Anderson, and Daniela Avanzini — had the opportunity to perform for America’s votes for the first time with the series’ all-star dancers.
The evening began with contestant Kida and his mentor Fik-Shun. Their robotic dance was choreographed by Christopher Scott. Jason Derulo claimed the dance was ”fly,” while new judge Maddie Ziegler said she thought their “performance quality was so amazing together and could tell they were having so much fun.”
©2016 FOX Broadcasting Co. Cr: Adam Rose
Contestant Emma’s short performances tapped her way into your heart and then showed her skill in her second performance by sliding down a ramp all while keeping her balance in her tap shoes. Meanwhile, Tate’s emotional butterfly contemporary piece with mentor Kathryn pulls on your heart strings as well as her solo.
Tahani broke it down in her solo to a Chris Brown song after a hilarious 30 second interview with mentor Comfort. She later tore up the dance floor with her mentor to the song “Cut It” by O.T. Genasis, twirling a piece of Comfort’s cut off hair at the end.
Jake spiced up the dance floor in his solo and with mentor Jenna as the judges were amazed how much control he was able to maintain. Jason Derulo went as far as to say “America. Welcome to the next generation” after his performance.
J.T, showed his sassy side with his witty responses to mentor Robert’s interview questions and then flipped his way across the dance floor to Olly Murs song “Dance With Me Tonight.” He later held nothing back and let every emotion show during his dance with mentor Robert.
Sheaden lost his all star mentor Joshua, who was replaced by all star Marko, and the two took on characters during the performance, with Sheaden playing the boogey man who was there to scare Marko. Paula Abdul credited for Sheaden for coming out of his shell since he first auditioned and learning how to be a showman which he certainly showed during his solo to “Look At Me Now” by Chris Brown, Busta Rhymes and Lil Wayne.
©2016 FOX Broadcasting Co. Cr: Adam Rose
Ruby tricked mentor Paul into saying who his SYTYCD crush is and then stormed the dance floor with her performance. She later brought the fire in her performance with her mentor. Jordan tapped into her emotion and leaned on mentor Sasha for support as she performed for the audience and the judges and then searched for “Freedom” in her solo performance.
Daniela had no shame making mentor Jonathon feel old after saying she’s never seen Armageddon and then rolled through her performance dancing to “Rollin’ On The River”. She later conquered her fears and trusted Jonathon as they performed an intense salsa number.
The top 10 all stars finished off the show with a group hip hop dance to Mims “Move (If You Wanna)”. With all of the amazing performances, it’s hard to tell who will be knocked off of the top 10 in the following week.
Keep up with your favorite dancer by watching So You Think You Can Dance every Monday night @ 8PM ET/PT on FOX.
