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...

SYTYCD: Thinning Out the Field

So You Think You Can Dance: First Elimination Show
My thoughts:
Wow, the celebration from Chelsie, Mark, Chelsea, and Thayne when Cat announced they were all safe was WAY over the top. I'm getting the feeling that the producers must have really impressed on the contestants that they have to act extremely excited at all times. It's beginning to look like a dancing contest between cartoon characters.

It just now just occurred to Nigel et. al. that pulling someone's pants down in the middle of a dance routine might have offended people?

Does Jessica have an ankle brace on or is she wearing just one sock?

I KNEW it was going to be Jessica and Will in the bottom three instead of Courntey and Gev! I think Will and Jessica got backlash from the viewers because the judges seemed so over-the-top in love with them.

Dan's correct: the judges were too easy on several of the dancers.
Dan's incorrect: Jessica was one of those dancers.

It's nice that SYTYCD is introducing us to different members of the dancing community every week. That's very educational. And much easier to sit through than performances by the Pussycat Dolls... (And, damn, the Pussycat Dolls are horrific.)

Bottom 3 Girls:
Kourtni, Rayven, Jessica

Bottom 3 Guys:
Matt, Jamie, Will

The solos:
Kourtni Lind: Looks like she's wearing a negligee. Hmm, well, that was all right. Nothing to write home about though.

Matt: Wearing long shorts. He's got to be scared after Nigel's stick/butt comment last night. I liked this solo--he has great technique and did interesting, beautiful moves. It reminded me of Danny from last season, and the judges went gaga over him.

Rayven: Wearing God only knows what... Looks like a evil doll or something. That wasn't my favorites solo either.

Jamie: Wearing a baby blue silk shirt. He performed a fairly standard male ballroom dancer solo, but at least he brought a certain gusto to it.

Jessica: Wearing a very short, but quite pretty, floral (?) dress. Other than the two back handsprings, she sure didn't do a whole lot of anything.

Will: Wearing manpris. Well, he's safe. His solo was head and shoulders better than anyone else's. It actually looked like he had planned out what he was going to do,and it was interesting, innovative, entertaining, and showcased some difficult dance moves. Go Will!

My picks:
Girls: Honestly, after these solos, they could kick all three of them out and I wouldn't mind. I did like Kourtni yesterday, though, so I'd get rid of either Rayven or Jessica.

Guys: Will's safe. I thought Matt's solo was great, so that means Jamie's got to go.

Judges' decision:
Girls: Kourtni's safe. Hmm, the judges don't seem to think Jessica's the girl to beat tonight...but Rayven's going home. So much for being the oldest competitor. Yeah, after reviewing her old footage, she should have gone for the point work tonight--that, at least, would have been different.

Guys: Will's safe (duh). Now the age-old debate between personality (Jamie) and technique (Matt). Matt stays. Good. Nigel makes it sound like the judges came dangerously close to making the wrong decision on this one. I don't really see how Matt has any less personality than Danny did at this point last season. What the hell does Nigel mean that only this one time they'll pick dance ability over personality? Last time I checked this was a dance contest--it's not called So You Think You Have a Personality.

Jamie looks considerably more sad to go than Rayven. Rayven still looks like she's having the time of her life...she must have taken the producer's "be perky" instructions very seriously.

SYTYCD: Congrats Sabra!!!

So You Think You Can Dance:

Wow! I really thought this competition was anyone's game, but I was still stunned that Sabra pulled out the win! Good for her! I'm glad that a girl finally won it this time around. And I think it's awesome that Sabra's only been dancing for four years. That means, four years from now, none of us will have an excuse for not winning SYTYCD.

Also, I think Sabra deserves the $250,000 for all the times Dominic dropped her (especially that really nasty time her head smacked the floor in the middle of the group number).

I was surprised that Lacey finished in fourth place. That means she ties her cousin Heidi's finish last year! I was really glad though that it came down to Sabra and Danny, because I thought they really deserved to be the top two. Good job on this one, America!

My highlights of the evening:

• the Pasha/Lauren Transformers hip hop routine
• the Pasha/Sara West Coast Swing routine
• the flashback to the audition when they made that one guy do a swing dance--that was the funniest, awesome-ist moment of the season
• the Sara/Jesus hobos routine (I'd kind of forgotten about that one. It's cool that Sara was in three of the judges' favorite dances.)
• the Danny/Lacey samba (or was it a mambo?)

The lowlight of the evening: there was a Pussycat Doll in a box! Eeeeeeeew! I can't watch that!

And, speaking of gross musical acts, what in the hell has happened to Ryan Cabrera's hair? It used to be kind of suspect, but now it's hideous!

I'm bummed that another season of SYTYCD has wrapped up already! This show is so much fun; even though I wasn't as engrossed as I was last season, I'm really going to miss it. It's sooooooo much better than Dancing with the Stars, but somehow that show does multiple cycles each year, while SYTYCD is only on in the summer.

SYTYCD: Finale! It's decision time.

It's part one of the finale of So You Think You Can Dance!

Here's my commentary on the whole (too long and drawn-out) shebang:

Opening: Yep, even after the opening montage, I'm still pretty bored with these four dancers.

Random. Commercial for Nashville. If FOX is so proud of bringing us The O.C., why did it cancel it in the fourth season in favor of "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?"

Group number: Broadway. That was ok, I guess, but that was no "Sexy Back," the fantastic final four group number of season 2 (btw, how did Wade Robson go from this to little foxes in less than a year?!). The camera work bugged me because they were showing only one or two of the dancers at a time and you couldn't grasp the whole picture.

Lacey's solo: Judging from Nigel's comments, I can tell he doesn't want her to win. I guess he's of the school of thought that two Schwimmer winners in a row would be bad.

Sabra and Neil: Hip hop. It was danced ok, but it was just not the coolest routine ever. There was a lot of bouncing, but it wasn't very hard-hitting (which seems to be the idea of hip hop, at least according to this show). Not nearly as cool as Pasha and Lacey's hip hop routine last week.

Lacey and Danny: Viennese waltz. Not another Viennese waltz... and why do we have to waltz to Avril Levine? Ugh. Now Danny seems more like a big dork than a snob, which is a huge step up in my book. This was a very lovely routine. The best part was Danny and Lacey getting into an argument over whether she was telling the truth about putting the Popsicle stick in her glove. That was hilarious. She's telling this long, detailed story and Danny just flat-out says she's lying. HA!

Neil's solo: What I like best about Neil are his jumps--the amplitude and extension on them are sick.

Lacey and Sabra: Jazz. Foxes? Really? I'm confused: why are the foxes wearing kimonos and holding scarves in their mouths? The foxes seemed a little hard-hitting and spastic. Ha ha, despite that, I liked it. I thought Sabra and Lacey did a great job of performing it.

Danny's solo: Nice series of leaps. Sheesh, Travis was completely beside himself over this... Oh well, if Travis liked it, I like it. Ok, whoa, I just rewatched it and Danny did so many consecutive pirouettes that I couldn't even count them. It was ridiculous. Give Danny the title just for that. I would like to see Danny relate to his music a little more, though, which is something that I always thought Travis did really, really well.

Danny and Neil: Contemporary. Is this favoritism? The two girls have to do something about foxes and the boys get to do contemporary, which is basically both their specialty? Ooooh--dance fighting! Fun! Neil plays a disturbed/paranoid monarch frighteningly well. Hmm, maybe this performance was believable because they really don't like each other...they certainly don't seem to enjoy standing next to each other to hear the judges comments.

Sabra solo: Probably my favorite because you could really feel the passion behind what she was doing. I love that she's only been dancing for four years.

Lacey and Neil: the Lindy Hop? This looks dangerous. But, that was a fun routine. It was great how they were scared out of their minds, but kept their faces looking like it was super easy.

Danny and Sabra: Cha Cha! Yea! There hasn't been enough Latin lately (other than the Pasa Doble, which I've had enough of). Why wasn't Danny wearing shoes to practice with sabra when she's wearing spike heels? The beginning of this routine didn't stun me, but the end was really nice. They seemed like they were in a little over their heads with the cha cha, but they ended up making it work. It makes me giggle when they make Danny wiggling his hips; you can just tell it's not quite what he wants to be doing.

Hmm, well, I'm at a loss. Any one of them winning is fine with me. I would like a girl to win, but I'm not sure that Lacey or Sabra did enough to pull it off. I guess I'll finally climb on to the Danny bandwagon because of that insane solo pirouetting and the cha cha hip-wiggling. And I don't mind that his personality doesn't totally translate in a reality show format. That's probably a good thing.