#thegreatestdancer

Me:

🙏🏿💔🕊💕🕺🏿🎶 #ArtIsAWeapon Lawrence Smith, Jr. #TheGreatestDancer Peaceful journeys my friend. You are loved and missed immensely, but we will forever feel you on the #dancefloor. Hug @marjorysmarth.forever @mrvoodooray #CharlesHill and the rest of our best dancers and guides.

Speaking prayers of peace to my sis @lisagottagetitin and everyone who knew and loved him. Lawrence, Until we meet again… when I won’t be scared to dance with you.

#MusicMadeUsFamily #HouseMusic #Dancers #HouseDancers #DancingIsFreedom #NYC #NJ #ATL #HouseHeads #Shelter #Paradox #ATLWKNDR #HITP #LiveTrueDanceFree #MarjorySmarth #DancingAngels

What an amazing opening sequence with all of the acts involved with their team captains, certainly opened the show with a bang.

The viewing public get to decide who will be ‘The Greatest Dancer’, as well as a prize of £50,000 a performance on the next series of strictly come dancing awaits the winner of the show.

The Live Challenge Shows, what are these challenges? Creativity, Technicality, Versatility, each week each act will be set a brand new challenge which they have to incorporate into their choreography, They can get to interpolate these challenges within their performance anyway they want. The challenge can be from a theme to a specific prop, could be anything from a chairs to boxes and the team captains have no control over which challenge they get.

‘James and Oliver’ first challenge was a staircase and when asked, what is the first thing that comes into your mind the answer being Broadway. Matthew gave them a tough choreographed routine with lots of tricks and kicks. Their routine scored a 88.2% with the audience.

Alex, Ryan, Gilly, Reece otherwise known as ‘Frobacks’ first challenge was classical, this put the boys in a predicament because this didn’t fit with their normal urban street style. The audience really enjoyed their interpretation of the challenge with a massive 95.7% score. The choreography remain truthful the Frobacks style being inventive, strong and with a sense of fun.

Company Jinks being a commercial dance group face the task of elevating themselves to the next level and braking through the ceiling that will make them something extra special, the challenge set for them was Chairs. In rehearsal one member came crashing to the floor, gashing his head with blood oozing from his for head. This programme is really about blood sweat and tears.

The routine performed to the track from X Ambassadors ‘Unsteady’ was challenging to say the least, with chairs constantly being moved with precision and intricacy without the feeling of it looking messy. The audience scored 88.2%

The Globe Girls challenge was sport. Seeing the boys out of drag was a shock within itself, although their auditions was done with a tongue firmly in their cheek, they what to be foremostly to be taken seriously as dancers. That was proven with an 80.9% rating from the audience.

Prospects Fraternity challenge was colours with the first part of the routine dancing to the track ‘A Sky Full of Stars’ by Coldplay and finishing with MNEK ‘Colour’ (Cahill Remix) This group of young people are full of stars and covered the stage with a colour beyond any rainbow scoring 95.5% with the watching audience.

Dane Bates Collective is an amazing group of girls whose first challenge was doors. This performance was packed with emotion with a simple stage set, but had a fantastic visual impact, closing the doors to shutout our insecurities then bashing them down again. The audience did not shut them out with a 93.5% approval, even Simon Cowell approved.

KLA from South Wales first challenge was carnival, considering their tender years they showed and preformed a tremendous mature polished performance. Packed for of movement twists turns lifts and coordinating sequences. The 90.8% of the audience agreed with what I saw.

Ellie the 14 year old dancer from Livingston Edinburgh is creative talented and hard working. The challenge set for her was Fairy Tale. Normally you would associate fairy tales with light, innocent portrayal of this subject, but not Ellie, it was dark mystical and sinister, although Cheryl would have preferred a more less sinister approach. Being a sole performer meant Ellie had to move around the stage so that she could command that space, it would have been so easy to get lost, a very impressive performance with a 95.7% audience rating.

17 year old Harry and 18 year old Eleiyah a contemporary duo from Liverpool challenge was Doctor Who. What a powerful performance with these two with split jumps with extensions pirouettes and summersaults all done with emotive technicality with the highest score of the night of 96.4% they are going to go a long way in this competition.

James’s is a member of AWA ‘Autism With Attitude’. Kim, James mom said James has high functioning autism and was a solitary person growing up, but dancing has opened his eyes to a lot in the outside world. Through dance James is able to express different feelings such as, passion, excitement and happiness, these were emotions previously you never saw from him, all of the members from AWA are on the autistic spectrum. Jonathan Baron spotted the possibility of using dance as a way of allowing people with this condition to be able to express these emotions thus the formation of AWA.

More and more doctors are now prescribing exercise, social and other activities instead of medication.

Not only was the back story inspiring getting people to wake up to the benefits of exercise and group interaction, but also the performance delivery was also brilliant.

James and Oliver clearly have talent and if this show was as it’s name  suggests on the tin then these two would be in the running, but hopefully people can see that this is much more than just roar talent.

Dadson Thing with their funny Street dance routine didn’t hit the spot with the audience. Dance is an art form that can be expressed in all sorts of ways, humour being another one of those areas in which it can be used, sadly not for Dadson Thing on this occasion.

Kieran Lai Permed hair, hat wearing body popping street dancer who was looking for praise from his father, why you should need to go to these lengths in order to achieve this a mystery, but as a consequence of his performance it achieved a positive result with both the audience and his father alike.

Fever, with jobs as diverse as Paramedic, Hairdresser, Pharmacist and a Scientist amongst others gave a very polished routine and achieved the 75% with ease.  

Fiona, Rhiannon mom said that Rhiannon went to her first dance class when she was only two and loved it from the very start. She is a shy person with no confidence at all, but when the music starts she becomes a totally different person. If you can dance in front of an audience like Rhiannon did shows what a strong person there is under that shy exterior.

Prospects Fraternity ages ranged from 10 to 17 years, preformed a strong choreographed routine with attitude.

75% AWA (Street), 75% James & Oliver (Contemporary) 64% Dadson Thing (Street) 34% Dans Chinese Dance (Traditional Chinese) 75% Kieran Lai (Street) 75% Fever (Latin Formation) 75% Rhiannon (Freestyle Disco) 75% Prospects Fraternity (Street)

The dance captain’s now have the job of witling the acts that had the mirror opened for them down to the final nine.

Team captains final three were:-

Cheryl: Frobacks, Harry & Eleiyah, Dane Bates collective.

Matthew Morrison: Company Jinks, James and Oliver, Prospects Fraternity

Otlile Mabuse: Ellie, KLA, The Globe Girls.