TVSquad's Brett Love on Lacey and Neil's contemporary piece:
Now, I'm a big fan of Mia Michaels and what she has brought to the show, but this wasn't one of my favorite Mia choreographed performances. I had to go back and rewatch it after the judges comments to see if I just nodded off for a second or something, because they couldn't say enough good things about it. After another look, I still don't agree. That's not to say that it was bad. It was a well put together piece and I thought she got very good performances out of both Lacey and Neil, but "one of the great dance performances on television ever?" That was Adam's reaction. Maybe I'm just a heartless jackass, but I tend to think that if we hadn't been set up with the intro from Mia talking about her father, this performance would have been viewed much differently.
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Liza D at WaterCoolerConvo has a similar reaction:
The criticism seems to be that there was hardly any dance in it, and that it was designed to manipulate you into loving it from a purely emotional standpoint and that you can't fairly critique it. Mary Murphy didn't say anything - she just cried. I guess if you didn't know the backstory of the routine you wouldn't feel the same about it. Honestly, I liked it. I know it was simple from a technical standpoint, but dance isn't always about technique. It's art. It's about how it makes you feel. I do think the judges were over-the-top with their praise, though.
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Oscar Dahl at BuddyTV joins the chorus:
The dance was good, and emotional, but it didn't look all that difficult. I guess the dancers had to inhabit their characters and all, but I wasn't as impressed as everyone else. Still, a great routine.
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