During last week's
So You Think You Can Dance Top 20 performances, we only saw 19 contestants
perform. Contemporary dancer Noelle Marsh was allowed
to sit out the performance show because of a knee injury. It
seemed slightly unfair to me that Noelle was given a bye, while
a dancer who had put it all out on stage was eliminated. And it wasn't just me, when asked nearly 60% of you said it wasn't fair that Noelle was allowed to
continue in the competition after not dancing last week.
Not so says Nigel Lythgoe, who in spite of invoking fairness during
Brandon Dumlao's elimination, insists that Noelle's situation is just
following the rules of
So You Think You Can Dance. Nigel took to
Twitter early Halloween morning to defend the shows decision to give
Noelle a free pass, saying that "the rule is 'if advised by a Dr. not
to dance, you get 1 weeks grace.'"
Of course, we've never seen this
rule implemented or stated on any other season of
So You Think You Can
Dance, so how were we to know? And if there were such a rule before
Noelle's injury, why wouldn't have Nigel said that when explaining the
situation? I'm certain it would have helped clear up the cries of "no
fair" and possibly sweeten the sour taste left in so many of our
mouths.
However, as I'm sure you can tell, I'm not convinced the rule did exist
before Noelle Marsh. Take the case of Season 3's Jessi Peralta. Nigel
alluded to Jessi during last week's performance when he said a
professional had had to dance with a contestant before to fill in for a
sick partner. During week three of the competition, Jessi had to sit
out a performance after being hospitalized for shortness of breath,
chest pain, and dehydration. Jessi defied doctor's orders and
discharged herself from the hospital, so she could dance with partner
Pasha Kovalev. However, the
So You Think You Can Dance legal team felt
that allowing Jessi to dance against doctor's recommendations was too
great of a liability. That evening her partner Pasha danced with
choreographer Melanie LaPatin, just as Russell did last week.
Here's where it gets interesting (and
very different from Noelle): since Jessi was unable to dance in the
performance show, she and Pasha were asked to perform their routine during the result show. As BuddyTV user
SummerGlitch noted, "she did so wonderfully." However, because she did not complete the dance during the performance show, she was automatically placed in the bottom three
couples and had to dance for her life. Based on that solo, she was
eliminated. Viewers, who were angry that Jessi had been placed in the
bottom three without being voted there, began a petition to reinstate
her into the competition. The petition and viewers please were squashed by Nigel who said, "some action had
to be taken on the part of the show to account for the fact that Jessi
did not perform."
While Jessi's circumstance was different -- exhaustion versus a knee injury, some big questions remain. Now that
Noelle is apparently well enough to dance, will she be given the same sort of treatment as Jessi Peralta? Will she be placed in the bottom two tonight to dance for her life, no matter how well she and her partner Russell dance? Or will we learn the grace period rule only applies or was created especially for Noelle Marsh? Tune in to
So You Think You Can Dance tonight to find out.
--Abbey Simmons, BuddyTV Staff Writer (Image Courtesy of FOX)