SYTYCD: Almost There

So You Think You Can Dance: "Top 8 Performance Show"

So, what's the deal with there being a 6-person finale next week? I don't like the sound of that at all. They should have shown us one fewer week of auditions (which seemed endless this fall) so they could have had an extra week of the actual contest. Or we could have not had that "everyone dances in their specialties and no one gets kicked off" week. It was kind of nice at the time, but not worth screwing up the finale over.

There was no Ashleigh during the intros. Uh oh, her arm's in a sling. She dislocated her shoulder earlier in the day. That sucks. Ok, but we can vote for Ashleigh even though she's not dancing?! I know it's not her fault that she's hurt, but how is that fair to the people who are dancing tonight and opening themselves up to mistakes and criticism?

Kathryn and Ryan (Doriana Sanchez disco):

• The featurette: Aw, crap! I was hoping Kathryn would get super popular partner this week like Russell or Jakob. And not have to do something lame like disco. And maybe not have to go first.(BTW, has Kathryn ever gotten to do a contemporary partner routine? She and Legacy did a jazz routine once, but that's all I can remember.)
• The dance: Wow, Ryan's pants are hideous. They're black and have silver sparkly swirls on them. Wow, Kathryn's black dress just got ripped away to reveal a really skimpy sparkly number. Looked like there was a flubbed lift there towards the end. Well, it was fun enough, but I don't see lots of people voting for it.
• The judging: Adam loved it and thinks Kathryn could not look more beautiful. Mary's trying to pimp Kathryn for votes too. Nigel thought the style suited Kathryn and that her outfit is hot. Nigel thinks Ryan was too stiff and they show a recap clip of Ryan looking absolutely ridiculous. Mary disagrees and says that the in disco style you're supposed to be stiff.

Mollee and Jakob (Jason Viennese waltz):

• The featurette: Son of a bitch! Jakob's going to pull Mollee through to the darn finale. According to Mollee, the winners of all of the other SYTYCD seasons have gone onto spectacular things. Has anyone heard from Sabra since she won? I know the other winners have been around, but I'm not sure I'd necessarily deem their follow-up work to be "spectacular."
• The dance: Seriously bland costuming. So, I'm convinced: Jakob can make anyone look good. Not really getting the "Mollee's lost her mojo and Jakob's helping her get it back" story line here. Especially since Mollee was grinning in the beginning.
• The judging: Adam could have watched it for two more hours. Season 5's Kayla is sitting behind the choreographer. Mary says Jakob's partnering work was fantastic. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard Mary say, "You were there for her every step of the way," I'd be a very rich girl. If Lil C gets ridiculed for overusing his thesaurus, Mary could sure stand to borrow it. Nigel thought they had a constant flow of movement that was beautiful.

Ashleigh comes out to chat instead of performing a solo. She could have done a solo just with her legs/feet or something. Poor Ash is sad that she can't dance tonight.

Ellenore and Legacy (Travis Wall contemporary):

• The featurette: The dancers are married assassins who were hired to kill each other (so it's Mr. and Mrs. Smith). This dance is dangerous.
• The dance: Nice jump/catch lift there. Ellenore's outfit is pretty awesome--and holy moly so that leg extension she just pulled off was amazing too! Whoa, Legacy just cleared the table with a flip! So did either of them end up "dead" at the end of the dance? I don't think so. Legacy was trying to strangle Ellenore, but she was sitting on him and looked ok. This is not my favorite Travis choreo ever, but I definitely enjoyed it. It was interesting.
• The judging: Adam (paraphrase): "I appreciate any choreographer who understands the close relationship between dancing and murder." He thought they murdered the routine. Mary: "Oh, come on, Adam, it wasn't that good. ...Of course it was!!!" Um, worst fake out ever. They agree that Travis used the couple he had very well. Nigel thinks this routine might get Travis an Emmy nomination (like the last table routine got an Emmy nom for Mandy Moore). Uh, personally I think Travis has showed better routines this year, Emmy voters, but whatever. Maybe Emmy voters just love tables? I've heard stranger things.

Jakob's solo: Wearing a hoodie and short bike shorts. Definitely an interesting look, and it kind of distracted me from the dancing. I'm sure his dancing was superb as always, though. Cat (to Jakob): "We have to stop meeting this way."

(Ashleigh) and Russell (Shane Sparks hip hop):

• The featurette: Shane: "This is not a lyrical routine. This is a street hip hop routine." Hells yeah! Um, who does Russell have to dance this with? Shane's assistant Rachel. Russell's making quite a career on this show out of dancing with non-contestants.
• The dance: Russell has no problems whatsoever with street hip hop. His moves are great and his expressions are classic. Russell should give classes on hip hop facial expressions; he comes up with literally the best faces ever.
• The judging: Adam was disappointed that he didn't get to see Ash do more hip hop. He says that Russell's performance level was very high. Nigel starts talking about Shane's Season 2 routine for Benji and Donyelle and said that Donyelle "had a lot of booty to shake." Wow! That was uncalled for, creepy old man! Shane and the other audience members looked uncomfortable. Nigel (to Russell): "I have a feeling we're going to see you in the finale, sunshine."

Mollee's solo: For a second there, I thought this solo was going to be really awesome, but then she seemed to trade in dancing for a lot of wiggling that approached looking stripperish. Super classy.

Kathryn and Ryan (Jason cha-cha):

• The featurette: Wow, a disco and a cha-cha. Those are big vote-getters.
• The dance: Kathryn's dressed for Moulin Rouge. Kathryn looks pretty much like a natural at this style to me. Nice routine; not my favorite SYTYCD Latin ballroom number ever, but it was quite good. And that end pose/lift was awesome! The crowd loved it.
• The judging: Adam says that was one of the best ballroom routines on the show. Adam says Kathryn is surging. Keep selling her, Adam! Vote, people, vote! (I might have to break down and break out my voting phone tonight.) Mary says the whole floor was on fire and the routine was on fire from beginning to end. Mary said Kathryn made it look effortless and she looked like a genuine ballroomer. Mary says there's only one thing left she can do, and gives them two first-class tickets on the Hot Tamale Train. Mary's going to be in Jason's "Burn the Floor" show in January. Nigel: "Kathryn went everywhere she should have gone."

Legacy's solo: Dancing to Chromeo's "Fancy Footwork"--hell yeah! That's so much better than last week's Jordin Sparks or whatever that was. He has a prop phone. Cat: "Who is it?" Legacy: "It's America."

Ellenore's solo: Dancing to James Brown's "I Got the Feeling." The song's great, but I'm not sure her routine totally went with it. Travis tweeted that Ellenore has some sort injury and I'm thinking that may have played a role here.

Russell's solo: RUSSELL IS DRESSED LIKE SANTA AND KRUMPING!!!! Just give him the damn SYTYCD title now. He krumped right on out of his shoe and then put it back on, mid-dance! Then he pulled an adorable teddy bear out of his Santa sack and sat on the chair with the bear on his lap to end the solo! Too freaking cute to stand!!!

Jakob and Mollee (Joey Dowling Broadway):

• The featurette: In this number, Jakob is the mastermind and Mollee is "ditzy and doesn't really know what's going on." Well, no kidding.
• The dance: Jakob needs to lose the trench coat--it's ruining his lines. Ok, there we go. Mollee's little green outfit is cool. I pity anyone who has to do side-by-side leaps and leg extensions with Jakob. I'll continue my tradition of saying that any non-Tyce Broadway routine was better than the usual SYTYCD Broadway routines though.
• The judging: Adam thinks Joey did a fantastic job, and that the dancers gave a good performance. Adam says the best thing that happened to Mollee was that she got Jakob--uh, duh. Adam thinks Jakob is one of the best dancers they've ever had on the show. Uh, Mary, Ellenore could have matched those leg kicks. Nigel says Joey Dowling is a beautiful woman. Uh, relevance? Can Nigel get through a minute without making comments on people's appearances?

Kathryn's solo: No props or gimmicks, just lovely dancing. And she didn't rely on fancy tricks or pop-tart shimmies. 1-888-836-7607

Ellenore and Legacy (Napoleon and Tabitha hip hop):

• The featurette: Um, didn't Legacy do hip hop last week? And, come to think of it, he did contemporary last week too! So he did the same two styles of dance two freaking weeks in a row! He can do other things, folks, we don't have to coddle him. In this routine, they're portraying aliens. Because Nigel loved that so much when Jason and Caitlin did it last season.
• The dance: These outfits don't look alien-ish to me. Um, in my opinion, this routine was weak. Kinda looked like I could do most of this choreo (aside from Legacy's tricks). Shane's street hip hop routine kicked this hip hop routine's ass. Legacy's post-dance antics might have saved them though; he was cute.
• The judging: They take a long break to talk in alien language. Adam says it wasn't his favorite routine of the night because it didn't push them. He says the dancing was "good. It ain't bad, but it ain't great." Ellenore says something in her alien language and Mary says, "I had a feeling she was going to say that." Mary was left a little disappointed, and she doesn't think the costumes were helping. Nigel insulted NappyTabs, but tried to make it sound like he wasn't insulting NappyTabs. And he and Mary think that their dancing was not always together. (So, did NappyTabs really just screw the pooch on this one--which, frankly, I would believe because I'm rarely impressed with their work--or did this get watered down to accomodate Ellenore's secret injury?)

Ryan's solo: I'll say this solo was better than last week's solo because at least he's wearing ballroom-appropriate clothing and using ballroom-appropriate music, but it sure wasn't anything special. And then when he was supposed to give his phone number, he said for vote for #1, who is Ashleigh, and fought back tears. Thanks for that sweet, selfless display, Ryan. Now Ash and Mollee will make the finale and one of the more-deserving Kathryn and Ellenore will get the boot. Aces.

(Ashleigh) and Russell (Nakul Bollywood):

• The dance: Russell with assistant Alicia. Wow, Russell's got glittery purple parachute pants. Well, Alicia's darn good, as you'd expect. Russell's making it work too. He kind of abandoned his awesome facial expressions part of the way through though and just went with an omnipresent maniacal grin.
• The judging: Adam says that Russell "blew joy out of every pore." Mary gives Russell props for having to dance with three different partners in the last couple of days. She says he nailed the steps and made it look like so much fun. Nigel says even though Russell was dancing with a Bollywood specialist, his eye went to Russell because he's magnetic.

For the recaps, they showed practice footage of Ashleigh doing the two routines. Too bad they couldn't have figured out some way to show us more of that. I'd feel better about people being able to vote her through to next week if we at least had a general idea of how she would have done in these routines.

Let's not lose Kathryn in the shuffle, folks! Please!

Overall, most of the routines were good tonight, but there wasn't much that was OMGWOW!

My favorite routines: Russell's hip hop, Kathryn and Ryan's cha-cha, and Ellenore and Legacy's contemporary

My Top 6 is Russell, Jakob, Kathryn, Ellenore, Legacy, and... well, I have a bit of a problem with voting someone through who didn't compete, but I'd gladly send Ashleigh through instead of Mollee if that's what it comes down to.

Nigel says that now it doesn't matter about technique and that we should vote for who we love. Well, then, that would be Russell.