The next morning, as Jaslene irons her tank top (??????) Natasha blows her nose. She tells us, "Today, I woke up and I was having the fever, I have the stuffed nose and the sore throat to the point where it's really, really hard for me to swallow." Natasha feels a lot of pressure, because the competition is getting harder and there are not many girls left. She says, "I'm really scared that I'm not going to be a-rocking in this photo shoot today." And if Natasha's not a-rocking, well, the girls will still keep knocking her. She cries and looks generally miserable as we head to commercials.
When we return, the girls meet up with Jay at another outdoor locale. He tells them that today they'll be incorporating Aboriginal culture into their shoot, and will work with members of the Ngemba tribe to act out a story. Kane Skennar is the photographer for the day. Sharon Williams, a member of the Ngemba tribe, tells the girls that each one of them will be acting out a tribal legend. They'll also each have to learn a dance that they'll perform in the context of the shoot. Dionne, enemy of dancing with unparalleled vigilance, is not happy about this. The girls get made up and outfitted, and Natasha tells the makeup person that she is still really, really sick. The other girls probably gave her raw, salmonella-laden chicken and told her it was sushi. I wouldn't put it past them.
Jaslene is up first, and she has to learn the dance of the Red-Breast Robin. She tells us that it involved a lot of turning and shaking her knees like a chicken, and she doesn't plan on taking those moves home. She gets a lot of positive feedback as she shoots, but Jay tells her not to tilt her head up because he and Tyra can't use all the shots where they're looking up her nostrils. And believe me, you don't want to see what's in there. Jay tells us that he liked how Jaslene understood the spirit and the movements of the legend, and also that she brought her own beautiful, graceful interpretation to it.
Dionne is next, and learns a food-gathering dance that involves gathering berries, shaking some twigs around, and giving thanks to God. She seems okay with that, probably because it's not really dance-like. Jay reminds Dionne that she needs to stop making her mean face. He says that the group of women dancing with her in her shot have a beautiful energy about them, and he doesn't want her "scowly energy" to misrepresent who they are. The problem with Dionne is that when she doesn't look mean, she just kind of looks tense and confused. Jay loves her body language, but tells her to give more in the face. When she tries, he tells her that she got more mean-looking. Dionne tries to relax herself, and Jay tells her not to overthink it. Jay tells us that working with Dionne is really frustrating, because though she has a beautiful spirit, when she gets in front of the camera she turns controlling and mean. Jay has to coach Dionne through every single shot. Though this yields good results, he isn't happy about having to do it at this stage of the competition.













Comments