by Michelle Spigner

On tonight’s episode of America’s Next Top Model the girls learn to work their bodies to communicate an emotion and create a stunning picture.

After the last elimination, the remaining nine girls return to the house and receive a Tyra mail that reads, “Now that you’ve learned to smize, lets see what you can do without your eyes.”

The next day the girls arrive at dance studio and are greeted by Benny Ninja, posing extraordinaire, who explains that their lesson today will be all about expressing emotions through dance movement. To help him in the lesson is Lil’ Mama. She asks the girls to come out one by one and come up with different movement to convey the emotions, happy, sad and angry. Sundai and Nicole are the first to go and struggle through some awkward movement that conveys more club dancing than anything. But lucky for them the Jabberwocky dance crew pops out to show them how it is done.

The crew shows the girl just how to portray the different styles through their movement and physical expression. For their challenge, they will be placed in groups of three and will have one hour to come up with a dance routine that has movement that conveys happy, sad and angry. They will perform these routines in front of a live audience with the Jabberwockys and will have to wear masks as well so that all of their expression comes from their bodies and not their faces.

Ashley, the dancer, is thrilled with the challenge, anxious to finally put her talents to good use. But she is placed with who she feels are the most awkward of all the girls Nicole and Erin.

Once the girls have constructed their routines they go out and perform them in from of the live audience for Benny Ninja and Lil’ Mama to judge. The winning group will receive $17,000 in jewelry to share.

Jen, Kara, and Rae perform first. The judges think they were very together and worked the steps into a true modern dance. Laura, Brittany and Sundai are the next to perform and the judges think they conveyed the motions well, but they didn’t use as much dance as they would like. Ashley, Erin and Nicole perform last. The judges are confused with their routine and didn’t see the distinction between the different emotions. Jen, Kara and Rae win the challenge.

Early the next morning at about 4:30am, the lights turn on in all the girls rooms and they are awaken by the voice of Jay Emanuel who greets them from a video message. He tells them to pack their bags because their photo shoot for the day will take place in Las Vegas. The girls are ecstatic. They pack their bags, hop on a plane and arrive at the Treasure Island Hotel where the Cirque de Soleil show takes place.

The girls walk into the auditorium where the Cirque performers have taken stage. Acrobats fly from the ceiling, a rainbow of lights sweep across the floor and huge under-the -sea props are carried onto stage from the wings. A little man in a pink suit and top suit walks out on to the middle of the stage; it is Jay Emanuel. Their shoot will take place on the Cirque de Soleil stage and they will be posing with the acrobats - in groups of threes. They will be shot in mid-air on a hanging platform. So they will have to use their bodies to really work with the props.

The girls are not dressed as acrobats, but in normal boring champagne-colored dresses with huge teased hair and dark smoky eyes. But it proves harder to shoot in groups than the girls think. In every group of three, one of the girls is just really off. In the first group it was Jennifer. According to Jay, she just didn’t bring it and forgot to apply everything she had learned in the past weeks. Nicole struggled in her group and Sundai and Erin outshone her. Ashley felt flat in the last group while Laura came alive and Kara looked effortlessly stunning.

The next day the girls meet with the judges and 5’6” supermodel Josie Maran is the guest judge for the week. The judges give great critiques for the first group (Brittany, Rae, Jennifer), well for Brittany and Rae at least. They think Jennifer was all over the place in her film, she didn’t know where the light was and brought the picture down.

The judges think group 2’s picture is strong (Laura, Ashley, Kara) mainly because of Laura’s great pose and confidence. They think Kara lacked the oomph in her shot and they want her to work it more. They like Ashley least of all; she looked weak and really pulled the other girls down.

In group 3’s picture (Erin, Nicole, Sundai) Tyra could not stop raving about how wonderful Sundai’s shot is and her film in general, saying it was one of the best she had seen all season. The panel thinks Erin is average because of her pose but her face is still very strong. Nicole just missed the mark.  They think she looked short and was upstaged by the other girls.

This week, not one girl but a whole group will be called first as the best picture and it will be displayed in the house as digital art. Group 1 is called first and even though Jennifer had a poor shot she is saved by Brittany and Rae’s strength in the photo. The rest of the girls are called in the following order Laura, Nicole, Sundai and Erin.

Kara and Ashley are in the bottom two. The judges like Kara but they feel as a model she is just resting on her beauty and not working it to make a stunning shot. They feel Ashley has gotten lost and it is a shame that she has a natural ability to move her body but doesn’t use it in her modeling. Kara stays and Ashley is sent home.

America’s Next Top Model airs Wednesdays at 8pm on the CW.

(Image courtesy of the CW)

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