SYTYCD: Picking the Top 20, or Who Are These People?

So You Think You Can Dance: "Vegas Callbacks #2"

I'm still cheesed off about Natalie, but let's see who the Top 20 are...

• So, are we seriously not going to see more of everybody's final solos? Nope. They are being generous enough to show us brief recaps of some people.
• Janette: Without much ado, Nigel says she's in. That's good, because I want to see that flip/split thing again.
• Diana: Curly hair. I think she's the one who was dancing with Nobuya the other day. But she's not in the Top 20. That's a bummer. But it means there are only 5 more girls left to cut.
• Victolio: I believe they interviewed him a couple of times last night, because I remember his beautiful accent. Dude, this guy's got a better story than a lot of the ones they told us about during auditions (grew up in Haiti, mother died, raised by his grandmother, something about dancing on the street?). And he's got a fantastic straddle leap. After a lengthy monologue from Lil C, Victolio's in the Top 20! Nigel tells him that the producers think Victolio's got a great personality, and I'm thinking there's a correlation between that and his making it into the Top 20.
• Some Asian dude (whom I don't remember) got cut. Now some guy named Henry (whom I don't remember) got cut. Now a girl in a yellow tank top (whom I think I vaguely remember) got cut.
• Kayla: The one with the grandfather who worked the night shift and took her to dance classes and slept in the waiting room. She's in the Top 20. That's cool because I like her grandfather.
• Mia: "I love male dancers. ...It's very rare for me to connect to a female dancer." Uh, thanks for sharing, Mia. First everyone thought Nigel was being homophobic and now Mia's being sexist?
• Kopono: He is in the top 36 (and has cut his hair), as was pointed out to me by an astute commenter on my post about last night's ep. Lol, Kopono's to-do list is hilarious. Kopono is in the Top 20! I hope he shows us all his to-do lists from now on.
• Paris: I do remember her from auditions (former Miss Washington who danced to Yael Naim's cover of "Toxic"). She's in.
• Jeanine: I do not remember her. She's in.
• Ade: Didn't quite catch his name. I guess it was Ade, but I heard "Hideo." Not sure if I remember him. He's in.
• A girl whose name I missed (it seems to be Karla): I don't remeber her. She's in.
• Jonathan: Not sure If I remember him either. He's in.
• And then came the saga of Brandon, which started with Mia telling him, "As an artist, what you bring to the floor annoys the shit out of me." Boy, am I confused. She just said that she likes the power of a male dancer, and now she says she doesn't like Brandon, who seems to be a powerful male dancer. What the hell ever, Mia. And what exactly qualifies Mia to judge other people's personalities anyway? The saga continued with Debbie saying that she thinks Brandon's great (after Nigel finally prevailed on Mia to shut up). Lil C says he's not that impressed by Brandon. Then Mary puts a stop to all the negative comments on Brandon's alleged personality problems and almost bursts into tears at the sight (well, sound) of her beloved dancer being maligned. Nigel finally ends the madness by telling Brandon that he got four votes (Nigel, Mary, Debbie, Adam) out of six and is in the Top 20.
• I'm glad Brandon made the Top 20, even though I didn't start out as the hugest fan of him. I thought his audition was really good, but it didn't bring me to tears like Mary or anything. But after watching the poor kid get dragged through the dirt throughout the entire Vegas callbacks process, I now sympathize with him and hope he kicks some ass. Are the personality issues that Mia has with him similar to what they used to bitch at Danny Tidwell for? As in, he's shy and it comes off as cocky? I honestly wasn't getting "cocky" from Brandon at all. If anything, he usually just seemed confused at all the ruckus coming from the judging panel. I'm befuddled.
• Tony: He suddenly decides to tell us about his brother who is serving in the military in Afghanistan. Nigel basically tells Tony that he's not a good dancer and then puts him in the Top 20. This pisses me off.
• Maksim: He's in. Yea, we've got a ballroom boy!
• Caitlin Kinney: She's in. I'm kind of surprised about this one. I like her, but I don't think she's that great. She is blond though, so she's got that going for her.
• Melissa: She's wearing a tutu-esque thing, and she's in.
• Jason Glover: He's in. I guess we'll get to see if he really is "so So You Think You Can Dance."
• Ashley: It's her third time auditioning for SYTYCD. She's in.
• Randi: Seems to really like this strange, blue unitard-with-shorts thing. Even Mia points out Randi's love of unitards. Her unitards have gotten her into the Top 20. (Maybe Natalie should have worn more unitards? There must be a lesson here...)
• Recap: So far, we already have 9 girls and 8 boys? There are going to be a lot of cuts coming up.
• My predictions: Asuka for the girls, Evan and Philip for the boys. (Poor Alex Wong. And Ryan.)
• Alex Wong: Nigel says they think Alex is one of the strongest dancers, but he's under contract with the Miami Ballet, and the dude in charge of that won't let him out of the contract. So, um, why is he even here? Shouldn't they screen people who have previous commitments out before they get this far? It's just like when they let that Nathan kid tryout, knowing that he was too young to compete in this cycle. (I realize that the reason they do this is to cultivate interest for futures seasons by brining back familiar faces, but I still find it annoying.)
• Four unnamed dancers got cut: ballroomer Ricky (boo, I wanted him in), the girl with short hair who was involved in the debacle with Silky and the group dance, and two other dancers whom I didn't recognize at all.
• Philip: He's obviously in the Top 20, because there are only two spots left and they obviously have to pit the two brothers against each other for the last one.
• I'm sure Evan and Ryan knew this was going to happen. I know I sure did.
• Have we seen the blond girl before? Her name is Deana, and she's apparently really been making an impression in Vegas, although I don't think we've seen any of it up until now. She's cute; that's all I can really say about her, having seen so little.
• Deana: She's out. It's been nice not knowing you... I think they thought they already had too many blondes.
• Asuka: She's in.
• Ryan and Evan are already bawling backstage. This is awful. I'd actually fall off the bed if they pick Ryan. The things Ryan just listed (he's short, bald, a tapper) are EXACTLY what's going to keep him off this show. The only thing that's gotten him this far is that he has a good brother and the producers can milk the "two brothers" storyline. If Ryan was a bald tapper with no brother in the competition, I sincerely doubt that he'd have made it to the final cuts. Yes, he's a fantastic dancer, but SYTYCD is superficial, and there's no denying it.
• So, we've got two ballroom girls and one ballroom boy. I guess SYTYCD did not learn its lesson about having too many contemporary dancers in the Top 20 last season.
• I thought there could be three tappers in the Top 20 (and there really could have been four, if that's what we're classifying Ryan as), and there are none.

Top 20:

Girls: Janette, Kayla, Paris, Jeanine, Karla, Caitlin, Melissa, Ashley, Randi, Asuka

Boys: Victolio, Kopono, Ade, Jonathan, Brandon, Tony, Maksim (who was announced as "Max" in the final listing), Jason, Philip, Evan

I, for one, am underwhelmed, esp. by the girls. I said that unless the top 10 girls were bloody fantastic, I'd be even angrier about Natalie's early ouster, and I'm well on my way. It's hard, though, to judge how fantastic they are, since we didn't get to see much (if any) dancing from half of them. I know we saw auditions from Janette, Kayla, Paris, Asuka, and Caitlin. I don't remember seeing anything (except the tiny final recaps) from Jeanine, Karla, Melissa, Ashley and Randi. The only one of them of whom we saw any extended Vegas coverage was Caitlin, and what we saw of her (the contemporary routine and then her "old-fashioned" dance for her life) was not all that good! Yes, now that I think about it, I am even more pissed off.

As for the boys: For the most part, I guess I'm happy with them. I like Kopono, Philip and Evan. I will support Brandon because they gave him such a hard time for unknown reasons. I don't know much about Ade, Jason, and Jonathan. I'm glad Maksim made it and there is at least one male ballroom dancer (although I would have preferred more). I'm not currently thrilled with them including Tony while admitting that he's not that great of a dancer. I understand that personality always factors into this, but--and this is a point I've made before--the name of the show is So You Think You Can Dance and not So You Think You Have a Personality. And, even if we're picking people because they have great personalities, why not take Ryan, who has a nice personality and is a exceptional dancer? Someone commented on the EW recap that this show should be called So We Think You're Cute and You Think You Can Dance, but adding the personality aspect into that, I suppose it should be So We Think You're Cute and You Think You Have a Personality and Can Dance or So We Think You're Cute and You Think You Have a Personality (With Dancing!).

Oh well, we'll see. Yes, I'll be (begrudgingly) watching...