Sean Lew, 15, and Kaycee Rice, 16, took the World Of Dance stage with incredible passion and stellar choreography. In the season 2 premiere episode, the junior pair won over the judges in the first few seconds of their dance, which they performed blindfolded, to Khalid and Marshmello‘s “Silence.” Not only did they receive a standing ovation from judges Derek Hough, Ne-Yo and Jennifer Lopez, but Jennifer was actually struggling to speak as she wiped away tears following the performance. “That moment when we finally finished our dance, removed our blindfolds, and we saw the reaction from J.Lo and how she had tears in her eyes…we were completely shocked because that amount of support and the reaction that we got was nothing compared to what we ever thought we would receive,” Kaycee told HollywoodLife in an exclusive interview. “I think the automatic feeling of having a standing ovation is very unexpected. The moment we finished the piece, it was more just like a relief for us, because we were like, all that stress is gone,” Sean added.
The pair, obviously, were unable to see for a majority of their routine, which not only made for a difficult performance, but also made it all the more powerful. “The idea of not being able to see in a relationship, but being so close to somebody, then taking that off and allowing them in,” Jennifer said through emotions, “It was very beautiful.” “Our main goal in the competition, from the very beginning, was just to portray our way of storytelling and impact the audience with the way of our dancing, and it was really cool to see the fact that everyone else understood what we were going for and they were supportive,” Sean said to HL. “The fact Jennifer was crying from it and she genuinely understood what we were trying to go for, that meant the most to us.”
Sean and Kaycee added that starting off their dance blindfolded added to the nerves, since they had no idea how the audience was reacting! “It was very, very scary. I was panting before and Kaycee just kept giving me a look to calm down,” Sean reflected. “The blindfold was definitely risk, but at the same time it was the one little extra boost to really clarify the story of the piece.” “It was very tough and a risk that we had to take because it was “World of Dance” and I’m very happy that we were able to pull it off,” Kaycee added.
We cannot wait to see more of these two! Of course, they received an amazing 96 from the judges, moving them on to the Duel round of the competition! Be sure to tune in to World Of Dance every Tuesday at 10 PM ET on NBC!