America’s Next Top Model Review: Dancing With A Flaming Tray Of Tea

The T Theme danced throughout this week’s ANTM, as the episode required the models to embrace three important T’s: balancing a lit tea tray on their heads, sharing tea with an important client, and modeling H(ead) to T(oe).

The day following the last panel, Miss J. Alexander arrived at the Top Model Moroccan home to introduce the models to a very important client: Franca Sozzani, Editor-In-Chief of Vogue Italia, and last week’s guest judge.  While looking at each girl’s portfolio, Franco shared tea and had an intimate question and answer discussion with the models.  Although Alexandria initially played the perfect hostess by pouring everyone tea, Brittani kept the questions and conversations flowing with Franco while the other girls shrunk in the background.  After tea, Miss J. took the girls to meet Noor Talbi, a Moroccan Tea Tray Dancer, who taught the girls how to balance a tea tray on their heads while dancing gracefully.  The dance required grace, composure, and a fierce face.  Based on her rehearsal, Brittani, who had previous dancing experience, dropped her tray so many times it sounded like she’d taken up playing the tambourine.  While Alexandria, on the other hand, who boasts a flat-top head, kept her tray level and proceeded to come out of the model-esque mindset and “dropped it like it was hot.”  However, as the old saying goes, “first shall be last and last shall be first.” During the actual performance, the models would join other professional tea tray dancers to perform the tea tray dance with actual lit candles.  To their relief, the girls wore a turban on their heads, which helped to keep the trays balanced.  Arrogant Alexandria took the added challenge of the tray being on fire as child’s play as she flipped her hair and said, “Please, I was made to do this.”  As each girl entered the room and began her dance, they had to descend a flight of stairs.  Molly tripped on her skirt, dropped her tray, lost her composure, and never regained it.  Brittani, who thought she was going to burn the restaurant down from dropping her tray, did indeed ignite the room with her grace and elegance and ended her dance with her tray still intact.  While Hannah kept her tray in place as well, she forgot which continent she was on as her dance looked more Hawaiian than Moroccan.  Alexandria, though “powerful,” fun, and memorable, got a little too cocky as she again dropped it, brought it up, and flicked her hips triple time and then dropped the tray not once but twice.  Miss J. announced Brittani as the winner, who picked Hannah to share her prize of private runway lessons with Miss J. Alexander.  And, after watching the runway lesson, bless her heart, Hannah needed all the tips she could get.

While walking through the streets of Morocco, the girls decided to try the delicacy goat’s brain, which had Brittani’s health for the shoot matching the Moroccan weather – dreary.  To continue the theme of last week’s shoot in the desert, the girls met Jay Manuel in the marketplace who announced that they’d be modeling designs by Daniella Issa Helayel and shot by photographer Friedemann Hauss.  Hannah tried to portray the idea of going to meet her lover who was going to escort her throughout the city, but instead she portrayed the image that she lost her escort in the throng of the crowd.  Molly, who has the worst attitude, delivered the most beautiful editorial photos and attracted a huge crowd of onlookers.  Go figure.  Alexandria said she felt like “a princess disguised as a prince.” However, she looked like a spoiled, pouty princess who refused to relinquish control.  Brittani, who saw her destination on the camel, arrived at the door of an “inspirational” shoot.

With Daniella serving as the guest judge, the panel chose Molly’s photo as the most dramatic, high fashion photo, which gave her the best photo of the week two weeks in a row.  Brittani, who lost both her arm and the drama in her photo but not her spot, had the second best photo of the week.  Therefore, the bottom two models were Hannah, who apparently lost more than her escort in her shot and Alexandria, who was said to have looked like a flight attendant in her shot.  With Hannah’s portfolio being stronger than Alexandria’s, “Ding!  Dong!  The witch is dead!”

Cycle 16, Episode 11: “Daniella Issa Helayel” (originally aired May 4, 2011)

To look at this episode from a different angle, check out “The Final Four!” by Desiree Neall.

Get fierce with Tyra and the girls on America’s Next Top Model, Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW

Images courtesy of The CW