The emotions of the dancers were put to the test this Sunday with the announcement of the new stage, the ultimate choice. A third of them were released after this ordeal.
“There was an emotional surge when Sarah-Jeanne broke the news,” said Samuel Maurin Bonte, content director for the show. They were all confused and confused. In the dancers’ room there was then an enthusiastic response from those selected as essential, and the others quickly got back to work.
This is especially true for Mikaël St-Hilaire, who didn’t see this new obstacle coming on his way to the final.
“I was really surprised because I thought I had a little more time to recover from my back injury,” said the 21-year-old dancer. But the following week I had to start creating a whole new issue. It’s always a lot of work.”
In particular, the Masters asked him to go further in his quest for movement, to dance more.
“I understood that sometimes my concepts take up a little too much space in my choreography, but this time I danced 100%. I couldn’t make any more movements. But I still kept a central idea with the rose. During the face-to-face meeting, Laurent gave me a red flower, I decided to reuse it in this number.
Mikaël St-Hilaire, who previously took part on the show with the Five Alive troupe in Season 2, had a plan in place prior to participating in Revolution.
“I planned everything I would do on the show up until the finale. This new surprise move unsettled me a bit, but it didn’t challenge the whole plan I had come up with. I just had to add an idea.”
After his performance, the masters highlighted his research work and boiling creativity.
“It proves to me once again that I have my place and can go far in the competition. But the further we get, the more good dancers there are. I know I have to differentiate myself to get as far as possible.
Mikaël wants to show his talent to further his career as a dancer.
“The show brings me a lot of visibility. There are several choreographers who have contacted me to participate in projects, it’s really encouraging for the future. That’s what I came for and it works pretty well.”
The six girls from Clique were happy to once again perform on the stage of “Revolution”.
The champions wanted to see them get out of their competition moves to go more into the emotion. You have been served.
“The day before the shooting, my grandmother died,” Zanna said. It was a big shock for me and for the girls in the group. It created a tougher climate for our performance, but at the same time more real, more tangible. It was really a strange situation. We were all in a state of great vulnerability. It was very destabilizing, but as we narrate the grief from the beginning to the point of decreasing in the number, it helped us get through it.
The number impressed the masters and the audience.
“It’s like a reward for the tremendous work we’ve put into this phase,” confirms Anaïs. The selection shows us that we made it.” You even feel that you have matured through all this ordeal. “It feels like this move has opened a new door,” Zanna said. We have many new tools to experiment with in the future.”
Not being selected as essential left Sunny Boisvert with a bitter taste. “Even though I won, I felt like I lost my head-to-head race because my competitors, The Renegades, went straight into the next stage. I was disappointed in myself, not in the result. I understood the choice of the masters. To be honest, I didn’t like my one-on-one performance any less. I was thinking too much, I was in my head too much. For the final selection, Sunny returned to what he does best, pure and hard krump.
“We’re always up for a challenge, even if revolution is never easy to find, especially solo. I had the chance to speak to Laurent from Les Twins, he advised me to be true to myself and just choose a highlight of my number that could stand out. I do that and it works well.”
After being eliminated at the Revolution event last season, the TNV squad hoped to make it through this stage without incident this year. “This final choice particularly destabilized us because we had really calculated our competition,” explained Loïc. We knew in advance what we wanted to do for the different rounds leading up to the final. We were so prepared that we all planned a vacation down south with our families.
By adding choreography, they worked even harder and faster.
“We had a month for this phase, but we developed our act in just two weeks,” added Jianna. Her mission was to work on her musicality and push herself to do something beyond her level.
“We were able to do an exercise with Laurent that helped us a lot,” explained Jianna. You had to listen to a song identifying the rhythms, the lyrics… The real challenge was to show the nuances of our musicality without forgetting the technique.
They delivered the goods, and the force said they grew from the exercise. “We understood that it doesn’t really pay to stay in your comfort zone,” explained Loïc. We always have to show new aspects in our work.”
ADB, 15 to 21 years old, Quebec
Antonina and Denys, 32 and 37, New York
Jessie and Jason, 33 and 30, Laval and New York
Joanne and Anton, 49 and 42, Toronto
Marie-Josée and Jason, 28 and 20, Montreal and Saint-Sauveur
Sebastien Leroux, 17, Orleans (ON)
The Renegades, 18-24, Toronto
Angelyk Delisle-Hevey, 18, Montreal
Clique, 14 to 20 years old, Saint-Basile-le-Grand
Eclectic, 16 to 22 years old, Quebec
Ann-Florence and Ophélie Begin, aged 14 and 16, Quebec
Mikaël St-Hilaire, 21 years old, Bécancour
Sunny Boisvert, 25, Saint-Lin-Laurentides
TNV, 16 to 20 years old, Montreal area