What World of Dance viewers experienced on Wednesday night was the performance of a lifetime. The art of perfection was delivered in The Duels round by Charity & Andrés — and, by the way, they are only 18 years old. (They were 17 when the show was taped.)
Charity Anderson and Andrés Peñate hail from Springville, Utah and have been dancing together since they were eight years old. That lifelong bond was evident on the World of Dance stage in a piece that required trust with some of those elements-of-surprise moves. If you are wondering who their choreographer is, look no further than Charity & Andres.
"We do our own choreography, but we do have someone watch us, so they can tell us what looks good and what needs work. We have the same strengths; we are both really athletic," explained to Charity to Dance Dish.
"We try to do something different," chimed in Andrés. "We might see someone do a certain move, but we try to morph it and make it our own."
Andrés knew that World of Dance was the right place for them after experiencing Season 1 with the 801 Squad.
"We both knew we were going to be turning 18 in the coming year. This was our last year in the Junior Division. It felt right, and we knew we could be competitive in it," Andrés said. "Knowing everything that happened the year prior... we looked at videos of what scored well, what scored poorly, what the judges were saying, what notes they were giving out. We used that to help us out."
The duo even strategized how their Duels performance would look much different than what they showed the judges in The Qualifiers.
"We wanted to do the opposite. We didn't want anyone to expect anything. We wanted to surprise everyone," she explained. "In the first round, we were a lovey-dovey couple, the first time you meet the love of your life. The second time, it's about the fight. We had this story going for us that continues [into The Cut]."
"We felt like it was to our advantage that we came in with a softer routine because a lot of the other routines were very powerful in the first round," said Andrés.
When it came to deciding on a competitor for The Duels, it was anything but an easy decision. Soloist Vivian Ruiz turned into quite a formidable opponent.
"When we had to choose, we took so long. We were second-highest scorers [from The Qualifiers]. Sean & Kaycee chose their competitors (3Xtreme) and we were so indecisive," he said. "It was such a tough decision."
"We didn't want to pick a low-scoring competitor to make it look like we were trying to take the easy way out," shared Charity.
Vivian was selected because she was in the same style as Charity & Andrés, so it became a battle of the contemporary dancers. The best part of The Duels is that all of the contestants delivered, but the dynamic duo was having a moment of perfection. All three judges gave them a perfect score of 100, the first perfect score in the show's history.
"It didn't feel real at all. No words were coming to my mouth and yet all of the words were coming to my mouth. It was insane," laughed Andrés.
That perfect score did put a target on their back. The pressure was definitely on as they moved in The Cut.
"We were really nervous going into The Cut because we had a huge reputation to uphold," revealed Charity. "We were only in the second round of World of Dance with that score. Once you get the perfect score, how can you grow from that?"
Viewers won't find out what happens next until The Cut round begins on Wednesday, Aug. 22. In the meantime, World of Dance fans can gear up for the fall tour, which Charity & Andrés are participating in. The 29-city tour kicks off in Toronto, Canada on Oct. 1.
Beyond World of Dance, the duo has some decisions to make because Andrés wants to serve his LDS (Latter-Day Saints) mission — which is a two-year commitment — but he still wants to dance.
"It's difficult to find the timing for that," said Andrés. "You work all your life to have an opportunity in dance and now to have it play out like this [on World of Dance]. We will just see what happens."
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