SYTYCD: To the Nines

So You Think You Can Dance: Top 9 Performance Show

Cat is wearing a shiny one-shoulder mini dress. Hair down. Again seems a bit drunk...

Tonight we've got:

• Lauren with Neil
• Melinda with Pasha--again?!?
• Billy with Kathryn
• Ashley with Ade
• Robert with Courtney--again?!?
• Jose with Anya--ha
• Kent with Allison--yea!
• Adechicke with Lauren
• Alex with TWITCH--yeah! Ha ha ha.

They've gotta get Twitch on the show somehow, I guess. But, seriously, it's the third week and we're already rehashing two partnerships? Does anyone really want to see more ballroom from Melinda?

Adechike with Lauren (Dave Scott hip hop routine):

• The featurette: Adechike was inspired by Desmond Richardson. Adechike and Lauren are "muscles and cushions."
• The dance: More personality from Adechike in the first 4 seconds of this dance than in his two whole routines to date. Ok, and now they're just stripping. It was a fun routine, but I'm not sure it was anything especially difficult or earth-shaking. It didn't seem like a wow-they're-so-amazing-because-that-was-so-hard moment.
• The judging: Nigel says Dave Scott brought out a different Adechike than we've seen before. Mia says welcome to Mr. Personality. Mia says it was a solid performance. Adam tries to give a Mary Murphy-esque shriek and then gives Adechike a standing O in an early bid to win Overreaction of the Night.

Ashley with Ade (Dee Caspery contemporary):

• The featurette: Ashley is inspired by her dance teacher. Ok, ok, ok: so Nigel was complaining that Ashley's jazz last week was too similar to her contemporary in week one, so they have her do contemporary again?!
• The dance: Ashley is supposed to have no backbone, and Ade's lifting/pulling her around a lot. This routine is lovely and has some very cool moments. Well danced by Ashley and Ade. I'm liking Dee Caspery right now; more please.
• The judging: Nigel acknowledges that we're seeing more of the same, basically, but says she looked like a different dancer and moved fluidly from one move to another. He thought it was beautifully smooth. Mia says it was like a hurricane and a summer breeze. Mia thinks Ashley is a cut above the other female dancers (all two of them). Adam's beside himself again. Mr. Hyperbole says it was one of the best female contemporary performances of any season. Oh puh-LEEEze.

I'm interrupting the flow here to say that I HATE it when the contestants start talking in the middle of the judging. I realize the judges are just spewing out a whole lot of nonsense, but shut up. Contestants shouldn't get to sway voters with chit chat. You get the featurette and the dance--and that's all I want to hear from you, personally. Especially since 90% of the things the contestants say during the judging is worthless and cliche.

Billy's solo: There's something spidery about his legs in this solo. Rather cool.

Robert with Courtney (Sonya Tayeh jazz):

• The featurette: Robert is inspired by his mom (and lists an array of horrible things that have happened to his mom). Sonya's goal is to show the world how good Robert is. Hey, brilliant! Shouldn't that always be a goal of the choreographer: showcasing the contestant well?
• The dance: Ok, no one's going to pay attention to Robert now that Courtney's in those weird pants (sparkly, different color patches down the legs, sparkly and sheer-looking at the butt). See, I just spent the entire dance describing Courtney's pants and didn't really see anything in the dance that distracted me from the pants.
• The judging: Nigel thinks Sonya's choreo suits Robert like it suits Mark. Sorry, Nigel, just because Robert looks vaguely like Mark, it doesn't make him Mark. Hey, speaking of Mark, it's not cool that he's not dancing tonight! Mia wants Robert to take ballet, which will give his movement weight and solidity and take him to another level. Adam says it was the most wonderful thing he's ever seen in all his life. Just kidding, but you totally believed me. Seriously, Adam's tip is to not "jump down" which seems like a good lesson for us all.

Best news I've heard all night: Courtney G. tweeted that she and Mark might be dancing "The Garden" again tomorrow! Oh please let it be so!

Jose's solo: A little "Super Bad" by James Brown. Remember the time Will dressed up like James Brown for her solo? That was great. Anyway...this routine opens with a long head spin, but then he works in some other holds and other b-boy stuff. It's was ok but not the best b-boy moves I've ever seen on the show.

Melinda with Pasha (Fabian Sanchez salsa):

• The featurette: Melinda is inspired by Dr. Harold Cromer. Yes, we know, Melinda. Everything she tells us in her featurettes is old news. Melinda is Colombian, so she's used to doing the salsa at parties.
• The dance: Um, if Melinda's used to doing the salsa at parties, this should be a little better. There's something weird about her footwork--leading with her heal instead of her toe maybe? Whoa, Pasha just kind of jumped over her, took her head with him on the way down, and she ended up in a back bend. (It was intentional.)
• The judging: Well, Cat and Nigel think she looks amazing. That's the nicest thing they've come up with to say, I guess. Nigel doesn't see fluidity in her movements. Mia thinks she danced as hard as she could and her shakes and shimmies were on-target, but there were moments where it looked like she had bricks on her feet and was sinking in water. Mia thought there were moments that made her regret that they sent Christina home last week. And Adam says after he watched last week's show again, he thought they'd made a mistake too. Well, DUH. That's what most of us thought last week. (And that's why America keeps putting Melinda in the bottom three.) Please try to keep up, Mia and Adam. Geez. Or just let America pick who goes home. Either way, there's no use talking about it now.

Kent's solo: Kent does a nice leap and a nice tumbling series, but he needs to come up with some more impressive things to do in his solos in the future.

Alex's solo: Dancing to music from the Planet of the Apes soundtrack, Alex, meanwhile, has plenty of firepower in his repertoire, but could stand to relate to the audience more. Does a cool leap series straight into rolling on the ground.

Lauren with Neil (Joey Dowling Broadway):

• The featurette: Lauren is inspired by her Student Council advisor.
• The dance: Neil's really selling his reading-the-paper intro acting. Lol at Neil's knickers and socks--that outfit is just as distracting as Courtney's pants were. Whoa--the strap of Lauren's dress totally broke, but the top of her dress managed to stay up and she kept on going! Eeesh. I guess the top of the dress was fortunately taped on to her, because I don't know how else it was staying up. Anyway, aside from the clothing, I thought the dance was good, but it seemed like it was just missing a little something, although I'm not sure what.
• The judging: Nigel: "Needless to say, I enjoyed that tremendously." Mia: "I'm sure you did." Ha. Neil's being sweet and trying to help keep Lauren's dress up while they're listening to the judging. Mia wants Lauren to dance a little more sexily. Adam thought she was great.

Ashley's solo: Wastes too much time in the beginning just kind of standing there, but then picks it up and does a pretty cool solo with some nice moves and good musical interpretation.

Billy with Kathryn (Stacey Tookey contemporary):

• The featurette: Billy was inspired by Legacy when he saw him in a show when Billy was 12! That's cool.
• The dance: Billy's doing a good job of holding his own in this one and not just letting Kathryn steal the show, which she is apt to do. The routine is very well constituted in that it gives both dancers moments to shine. Legacy's in the audience and he looks like he's in tears!
• The judging: Nigel doesn't think Billy partners that well and needs to work on connecting to his partners. Nigel says Billy is a sensational dancer though. Mia thinks that sometimes Billy gets too caught up in his lines and we lose him. Adam thinks that Billy's "going to see it all in playback." STOP SAYING THAT! If the only critique is that the dancers should watch themselves on tape and they'll see what was wrong, then why do we need judges? Just sit the dancers in a room, having them watch the tape and tell us what they think. Anyhow, that critique was a bit harsh. Billy looked mad.

Robert's solo: I think it's better than the one he did last week, but I'm not blown away. Something about it reminded me of Huck Finn. And the best part was that he didn't do the old fake-barf-and-flash-the-number-of-fingers thing.

Jose and Anya (Dmitry Chaplin samba):

• The featurette: Jose was inspired by Bruce Lee and has supposedly applied Bruce Lee's philosophy to breaking. DMITRY! Just let Dmitry and Anya do the dang samba!
• The dance: Anya is fierce and Jose is..trying. And they are using the table to try to hide Jose's lack of skill, I think. He's not completely terrible anyway. He was certainly trying. Bruce Lee's daughter is in the audience.
• The judging: Nigel thinks Dmitry brought out the man in Jose. Nigel says Jose is not the best dancer, but that he has a charisma that no one can teach and he brings it to all his routines. Mia says he's not a great dancer in the different genres, but he gets away with it because he brings humbleness and joyfulness. He just makes them happy and not care about the flaws. Adam has forsaken full sentences and just lists works like "joy" and "ego-free." And it's time like these where we miss Mary Murphy because she at least knew what ballroom technique should be and usually pointed out what was right/wrong.

Melinda's solo: Tapping to "Empire State of Mind." It seems like she's trying to tap too fast for the slowness of the music. So that might have hammered home Nigel's point about her maybe not feeling the music.

Kent and Allison (Mandy Moore jazz):

• The featurette: Oops, I was out of the room and missed what Kent said inspires him. I'm sure whatever he said, it was adorable.
• The dance: Well, this is probably the most boring Allison's looked so far this year...but she's still awesome. Well, the dance was fine. Kent's shirt situation is weird--he's got suspenders twisted around the front of him or something. The whole thing was just kind of unremarkable, really, which is annoying because the Kent/Allison pairing had a lot of potential.
• The judging: Nigel thinks Kent's expressions are starting to get a little fake. Nigel thought he was playing to the audience instead of playing to his partner. Mia thinks Kent gets caught up in the television personality of it instead of the integrity of the dance. She thought the way he translated the dance was a little green. Adam says Kent has to lose the "hungry jazz face" because he's better than that. And he'll "see that in playback." Argh, Shankman!

Adechike's solo: Wearing camo cargo shorts. He's doing a good job of interestingly interpreting the music, but he didn't get much floor coverage or do many "wow" moves. Kinda looked like a martial arts display at times.

Lauren's solo: Lol at Lauren holding a strange opening position during Cat's whole intro. Lovely little routine to a slow "Unchained Melody" cover. Not a ton of playing to the audience, though, which the judges would probably pounce on.

And now on to the main event...

Alex and Twitch (Napoleon and Tabitha hip hop):

• The featurette: Alex was inspired by Edward Villella of the Miami Ballet. Alex's biggest problem is not going to be hip hop or dancing with Twitch...it's going to be dancing a NappyTabs routine.
• The dance: Ha, Twitch is Alex's therapist. Lots of couch dancing at first. Once they get off the couch, I gotta say, Alex did a pretty darn good job of matching Twitch. And, holy crap, most hip hop dancers can't do extensions like that. Oh, that dance was fun! Go Alex. He had so much personality in that dance, but in his solo it was like meh. But the best part was that the routine wasn't 'lyrical'! The audience loses it.
• The judging: Nigel says it was the best NappyTabs routine ever on the show. I think Nigel just said that a ballet dancer just did "the most incredible hip hop ever" and that the routine should be nominated for an Emmy. That was a last-ditch attempt to take the Overstatement of the Night title away from Adam, no doubt. I mean, best hip hop ever? Perhaps I misheard. Mia says Alex has defied everything about the ballet world. Mia says Alex held his own next to Twitch, the best in the business. Adam's finally found a routine worthy of his hysterics and he's going all out.

My favorite routines of the night:

Partners:
Alex and Twitch's hip hop
Billy and Kathryn's contemporary
Ashley and Ade's contemporary

Solos:
Billy, Ashley