SYTYCD: NAAAATALIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

So You Think You Can Dance: "Vegas Callbacks #1"

Wow. I don't think I've ever been this royally cheesed off by an episode of SYTYCD. (I'm sure I've been pretty upset with the show before, but nothing springs to mind to match how I'm feeling now.) I'm peeved at the judges' decisions and how they all were acting like butts just to increase the drama. I'm peeved at how they seemed to be making up the rules as they went along. I'm peeved at how the show was edited in such a way that when the final 32 contestants were revealed, I found myself wondering who at least half of the people were. I peeved that they only tended to show people right before they got cut, which made the whole thing fairly predictable. But, above all, I'm peeved (and "peeved" is not a strong enough word) at how they treated Natalie Reid, who was my favorite dancer last year during the auditions and callbacks and was my favorite this year. (Plenty more ranting about that situation can be found in my play-by-play...in fact, I'm going to put it in bold so that it is more noticeable and more obviously angry.)

This episode has to be the show's most discouraging night. We had to watch person after person get cut, but we didn't get to end the night on the happy note of seeing the Top 20 get picked. So, it was a whole lot of sadness and no light at the end of the tunnel.

My (cheesed off) play-by-play of the night's events:

• So we must narrow 172 dancers down to 20... That sounds like it's going to be tough.
• Lil C! Oh, thank goodness.
• Alex Wong = way cooler in this opening solo that he was during auditions.
• I'm already annoyed with Mia and her "woooooooooooooooows."
• Tony's got a pretty high concept hip hop solo going here. There wasn't a whole lot of dancing, but there sure was a lot of Nigel's face.
• There was some pretty fantastic stuff in that montage of solos. (And a lot of contemporary.) But Nigel must have been watching different solos that then ones they showed us because he's all bent out of shape and cutting people (whose solos we didn't get so see). The judges wittle out 45 people for reasons unbeknownst to us.
• The people who were cut included Travis (son of football coach), Talia (the widow) and Chimezie! Noooooooooooooo! (The silver lining here is that I guess I won't have to memorize the spelling of Chimezie after all.)
• How much does Fergie pay SYTYCD to plug every single song she makes?
• Geez, Mia, just shut up; "I love cutting people, because I like to see people who aren't good at what they do go home." What? So, if Mia was an elementary school teacher and a 6-year-old couldn't read well, she'd like to see him just leave school and go home?
• Gabi Rojas got to stay based on the merit of her initial audition solo, and I just had to remind myself who Gabi was: she's the girl with rheumatoid arthritis and who grew up in the circus.
• Whoever that Russian-looking guy was who was dancing with Gabi was killing it though ;-)
• 97 dancers left after day 1.
• Ohh, Philip is not a waltzer.
• Wow, all six of those dancers got sent through, but we only watched Philip? Thanks, SYTYCD editors/producers...
• I was kind of surprised that Ariel made it though the first day, but I was really surprised that she got cut after waltz, which I thought she did pretty well. It was not until later in the evening that I realized that the quality of your dancing does not necessarily correlate with whether you get cut or not.
• Receiving accolades during the waltz were non-ballroomers Kayla and Priscilla and ballroomers Maksim, Asuka and Ricky.
• Nobuya was rocking that waltz ;-) Good for him. I've realized that one of his main strengths on this show is that something about him makes you think that he's going to be ridiculously bad and then he dances and turns out to be so much better than you were expecting.
• Oh no, that one kid kicked himself in the face? That's actually kind of impressive.
• Ohhhhhh nooooooooooooo. Natalie's performance before the judges wasn't as good as the one she just did in practice for Sonya.
• OH MY FREAKING GOD! I CANNOT BELIEVE THEY JUST CUT NATALIE!
• Her performance wasn't fantastic, but it certainly wasn't bad either. It should not have been enough to get her cut, especially since she's earned the benefit of the doubt by now.
• The judges totally just did that to prove the point that they're willing to cut anyone. But, why do they need to prove that point? Of course people are going to get cut--everyone except 20 people are going to get cut! I'm sure everyone understands that.
• I am seriously pissed off. I bet Sonya's pissed off too. Sonya should boycott the show unless they bring Natalie back. I would threaten to boycott the rest of this season, but I know I can't not watch this show.
• So, do we think Natalie will try out again next cycle? Or will she tell them to go screw themselves (like Katee threatened to do if they cut her last year)? Personally, I love her, so I would love for her to come back, but after this horrendous treatment, I would not blame her one iota for never coming near SYTYCD again.
• So, basically, Natalie and Brandon are getting screwed over because the other judges over-hyped them? It's not their fault that the judges over-hyped them! This is all so upsetting.
• Nigel: "Damn. My favorite unique dancer is not good."
  Well, damn, Nigel, my favorite unique dancer IS good and YOU CUT HER ANYWAY!
  
• Why does Gabi get to dance for her life, but Natalie didn't? Didn't Natalie earn that right after being one spot away from the Top 20 last season? Let's just make the rules up as we go to fit our own personal agendas, shall we, judges?
  
• Come on, judges, if Gabi can't do ballroom and she can't do jazz, how is she going to do this competition?
  
• Look, folks, I like Gabi's solos too, but this is not fair. How many second chances are we going to give this poor girl?
  
• Oh, but meanwhile Sammy gets cut without a second thought. This whole process sucks massively. I do not remember the Vegas selection process pissing me off this much in the past. (Maybe I didn't watch them? The Vegas episodes usually coincide with my vacation.)
  
• I don't know how I'm going to make it through another hour of this!
  
• Hey, it's Silky! I bet we're checking in with him to see him get cut too. Poor Silky had some serious group issues. In their defense, they didn't have the easiest song to choreograph to--if you're not a swing dancer, it's probably not easy to whip out a swing routine.
  
• Lil C: "The buck stops here." (So Lil C does use the word "buck" in the conventional expressions and not just as a hip expression of awesomeness.)
  
• Brandon's group was good. Their opening "huddle" choreography was cool.
  
• If Jason is "just so So You Think You Can Dance" according to Adam, could we maybe see him dance for more than 2 seconds?
  
• Why does nerd hip hop always seem to go over so well?
  
• We still have 68 dancers.
  
• Silky's dancing for his life dance was not nearly as cool as his original audition dance. That's a shame. Bye, Silky.
  
• What? Now the judges are making Tony repeat the choreography? They ARE making this up as they go along!!!
  
• Why can Mia judge people doing her own choreo? Maybe if Sonya was on the judging panel, she would have saved Natalie.
  
• Oh nooooo, poor Nobuya just got cut. Keep at it, buddy.
  
• Megan Kinney made it through with that contemporary performance? I didn't think she was very good.
  
• Now Caitlin Kinney has to dance for her life immediately. (Another example of the judges totally winging this whole competition.) She did a great leap and a nice spin, but the stuff in between wasn't all that exciting.
  
• I like watching Ryan better when he's not dancing with a whoopee cushion.
  
• Evan's really good. I'm definitely buying him as a contender now.
  
• Again this "Jason" advances to the next round without us getting to see him actually dance.
  
• I think Cat's got a crush on Tony now. She seemed really into hugging him ;-)
  
• Oh no, it's Tyce.
  
• Bianca is better at other (non-tap) styles of dance than I was expecting.
  
• Oh no! Priscilla just did a face-plant at the end of the routine!
  
• And now they cut Bianca! WHAT?! They only show people right before they cut them. I don't blame Bianca for feeling indignant about getting cut. I'm pissed on her behalf.
  
• So much for my prediction that there might be three tappers in this season's Top 20. Looks like there's going to be zero again.
  
• Wow, now Priscilla, Gabi and Megan Kinney are all out too. I thought Priscilla might make it further.
  
• Some of these girls in the top 16 look completely unfamiliar to me. That seems like a problem.
  
• Hey, what a shock, the group of guys full of people we've ever heard of or seen before got cut.
  
• The top 16 boys also include people we've never seen before.
  
• Um, geez, they could have shown us more of those solos.
  

As I suspected, the promos for tomorrow's episode suggest that they arrange it so that either Ryan or Evan get the last spot, so as to pit the two brothers against each other (like the pitted best friends and roommates Katee and Natalie against each other last season). How very classy, SYTYCD. And extremely predictable.

So, are we going to get to see any dancing tomorrow night? Or will we just watch a bunch of people sitting in a room and the judges trying to fake everybody out? I would at least like to see some footage of the dancing of the 15 or so of the top 32 who I don't remember ever seeing before...

BTW, what happened to Peter, the buff tapper guy from Philly? What about the dude with the really long Hawaiian name that started with a K? Did Adam Wong make it to the top 16 boys? Seems like the least they could have done was end the show by running down the names of all 32 dancers who are left.