'World of Dance' 5th Judge: A 14-Year-Old Wows Jennifer Lopez and Dominates the Scorecards

Jennifer Lopez packs so many performances into the final night of the Qualifiers Round, nine of them can only be seen in their entirety online, as in right here!


"World of Dance" kicked off a two-night extravaganza with the final round of the Qualifiers Tuesday night before the show moves to its new night on Wednesdays.

While the show wasn't live, it nevertheless aired on Jennifer Lopez' birthday, and kicked off with a performer and routine that were like a gift for her. Like J.Lo, Victoria Caban's parents are from Peurto Rico and she feels touched by the ongoing hurricane recovery efforts there, so much so that she said if she were to win the million dollar prize, the first thing she'd do is donate some of it.



"I'm with you on that," Lopez said. The singer and actress has already donated a million dollars to relief efforts in Puerto Rico, as reported by USA Today. Lopez also raved over the teen's performance. Caban represented her culture with a flamenco-contemporary fusion which J.Lo described as "like watching art."

This was the last group of fresh faces we saw before the competition finally moves into the more competitive rounds tomorrow night, and Lopez lobbied for a bigger show by mashing together nine performances into a single montage before sending viewers to YouTube to watch them in their entirety. But don't worry, we have them all right here for you down below.

The gambit worked instantly as NBC is shifting "World of Dance" to Wednesday nights for new two-hour episodes. After a season and a half airing behind the top show of the summer, "America's Got Talent," Lopez and "WoD" have clearly proven themselves enough to the network to anchor their own night. Let's hope the viewers follow them.

Dancers are divided into four categories: Junior (17 & Under, 1-4 Dancers) and Upper (18 & Older, 1-4 Dancers). First up it's the Qualifiers, a free-for-all round, with no head-to-head competitions. But acts need to score 80 points out of a possible 100 to advance to the next round. Each act is judged 0-20 points in each of five categories for a possible total of 100 points.

A quick reminder about me: I spent nearly a decade of my life sweating and bleeding to the music as a dancer, all for this moment: armchair judging a dance competition. From a young boy learning a shuffle-ball-change to performing with the St. Louis Ballet Company, I experienced the ups and downs of one of the most difficult physically demanding sports on the planet.

Fair warning, since I'm safe at home, I'm probably going to be a little harsher than my colleagues Ne-Yo, Jennifer Lopez, and . But I might be nicer, too. Maybe.