So You Think You Can Dance Canada - Top 20 Results

The first So You Think You Can Dance Canada results show opens with a huge dance troupe – 3 dozen at least – that includes the show’s 20 contestants. That these 20 familiar faces are part of the troupe isn’t immediately evident because the troupe is costumed as members of a tribe of south sea aboriginals. The music is dull chanting, which the grass skirted dancers accompany with sticks they are knocking together while hopping around in a badly choreographed performance that is as inauthentic as it is insulting in the Canadian multicultural context. Hopefully the producers were suitably embarrassed.

The troupe exits and we go to commercial to give the contestants time for a quick costume change. When we come back they are brought out on stage in two sets of 5 couples to watch a synopsis of their performances and get the news. The 3 couples with the fewest votes will have to return for the Dance for Your Life round. But they will not dance as couples. Each of the 6 will have a mere 60 second solo to show why they should stay. One man and one woman will be eliminated.

The first group is Izaak and Kaitlyn, Jesse and Caroline, Francis and Bre, Danny and Allie and Lara and Myles. Jean Marc delivers the results. Of the 5, only ballroomer Francis and contemporary dancer Bre will have to come back for the Dance for Your Life round.

The group exits, Francis and Bre to warm-up, the others to celebrate. The second group of Kevin and Natalli, Vincent and Lisa, Nico and Arrasay, Dario and Rowina and Joey and Tamina is brought out. Of them, two couples will be left in danger. The results are delivered and Kevin and Natalli and Dario and Rowina will be dancing for their lives.

Bre, in her signature one sock and white Flashdance-style tee, dances to a slow tempo song of loss and anguish. Maybe not the best choice – she has to embrace mourning.

Natalli bursts on the stage in a snow-white dress of fringes. Tina’s Rollin on the River is pumping out of the speakers and Natalli shakes it hard. Her dance is nowhere near as accomplished as Bre’s, but far more captivating.

Rowina is the Yin to Natalli’s Yang; the dark hot latino to Natalli's thawed ice queen. Dressed in a revealing black dress, Rowina rips off a high energy salsa.

Francis starts for the men with a crazy fast jive to Johnny B. Good.

Kevin follows in burgundy silk short-shorts and the long sleeve top half of a pair of long johns. He does a mid-tempo contemporary routine to Jimmy Bondoc’s Wish You Were Mine. It’s like the Bre - Natalli contrast; likely a more accomplished performance than Francis but not nearly as captivating.

Contortionist Dario is last. His solos are the dancing equivalent of magical realism. You stare and then start looking for the wires. Dreamlike and haunting. I fear he will be sent home because his art does not lend itself to a partnered performance.
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The results are announced, ladies first. Jean Marc calls Rowina out and tells her she is safe. It’s down to Bre and Natalli. Speed and sex appeal trumps introversion and grace. Bre is gone.

Tre delivers the men’s results and confounds the usual elimination dynamic. Rather than tease and stretch it out for the sake of building suspense, she simply wants to get through this – you get the sense she finds this part of the competition more emotionally distressing than she had imagined it would be.

“Lets get this over with, “ she says. “Kevin, you are done.”
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The blow is struck so quickly that Kevin has had no chance to prepare himself. He wobbles and for a second you think he is going to faint. He’s pole axed. So am I.