To win the million-dollar grand prize on “World of Dance” you can’t just excel in your field. You have to bring new and innovative dimensions to well-known styles of dance in order to stand out against the best of the best from around the globe. That’s what the Junior Division duo of Avery and Marcus brought to the dance floor in the eighth and final week of “The Qualifiers.” They performed ballet with a rock-and-roll twist set to “Jungle” by X Ambassadors.
However, the judges thought they needed more “finesse” in-between their impressive tricks. Do you agree? Watch their performance above, and read what the judges had to say below.
Jennifer Lopez: “First of all, talent on 1,000 — you guys are super talented! Overall, a very strong performance, a lot of great moves and really strong dancing. But I feel like I really felt your nerves right from the beginning, which is normal. We all have nerves when we’re performing. It’s about learning how to control that. That comes with experience, but also to know how great you are. Just believe how amazing you are.”
Ne-Yo: “The strength is impressive. The agility is impressive. The scale in talent is clearly there. But I agree with Jen. I could feel your nerves a little bit. You’re already great, walk in your greatness. Now level up to the one-million-dollar version of your greatness.”
Derek Hough: “The fusion of traditional ballet, but had an edge to it — I loved that. That 540 at the beginning, Marcus, was unbelievable. It was incredible. I loved the song choice, the energy in the performance was there. I think in the transitions I saw some of the struggle. So for me it just needs that finesse.”
Despite those somewhat mixed reviews they scored 85 from Ne-Yo, 83 from Lopez and 84 from Hough for an average of 84, which moves them safely on to the next round of the competition, but they’ll have to clean up their act if they want to survive the head-to-head single-elimination “Duels.”
