"Only the best of the best remain!" Cat tells us before introducing the top 20 again, each doing their own little moves. I admit to being more than a little excited. I wish they would all do backflips. I briefly wonder how Cat decides to introduce some of the dancers with a "Heeeeere's....." before their names, and am briefly outraged that Twitch didn't merit one. "These are the girls, and here are your guys!" I love the advancing wall of dancers, segregated by sex. They are coming for us!
Cat strides out, avoids getting felt up by the boys, and introduces the "jidges" -- well, she cops out by getting the crowd to say it. Dan Karaty is joining the judges, and Cat asks him, since he wasn't in Vegas, what he expects. Dan says he doesn't know, because this season, unlike the other seasons, in which there were clear frontrunners, the title is up for grabs this year. I don't still have last year's tapes, and I didn't watch the first two seasons, but I feel confident in saying that every year the title is supposedly up for grabs. Why must they lie to us? Mary talks about the growing pool each season of dancers from Vegas, meaning the Top 20 is really good. Nigel tells Cat that she is the frontrunner, and leers at her legs. She handles it with her typical aplomb. I mean, he does sign her paychecks.
And then it's off to a montage of the current Top 20. "I just fell in love!" Mary tells Joshua, and Tabitha yells at the Vegas would-bes that, due to this being So You Think You Can Dance, easy it will not be. Some acoustic song, probably being used at a high school graduation at this very moment, plays. Things are in slow motion as we struggle to remember all the way back to May of this year. Look how young they are were! What a long, strange trip it's been.
First up: Rayven and Jamie. Rayven is the oldest competitor. She's studied in New York, but dropped out to help her mom through a rough year. West Coast swing dancer Jamie auditioned with his girlfriend auditioned together. She got cut in Vegas though, which shocked him.
They're doing a hip-hop routine from Tabitha and Napoleon. Jamie seems to realize he's not very gangsta, and starts throwing gang signs to compensate, and bought himself a hoodie that he figured was plenty bad-ass even before he found out that it has a boar's head on the hood. Represent wild swine, y'all!
They dance to "American Boy" by Estelle feat. Kanye West. Rayven seems to be spraypainting Jamie into life. There's some finger-snapping and chest-bumping. Huge smiles; they're very agreeable hip-hoppers, even whilst grabbing their crotches. Hey, kids! Do you like the hip-hop! Well, here's some of that hip-hop for you! It's safe as milk, despite a move in which Rayven yanks Jamie's pants down.
I figure it's going to underwhelm the judges, but Nigel says he likes where hip-hop's going. Because it's softening, see. A little less inner-city and a little more Up With People, right? Mary says the exact same thing, more or less. She calls it cotton candy hip-hop. Keep in mind she means this as a good thing. "It wasn't quite there," says Dan, pointing out the lack of funk. I'm thinking he actually hates it but was a little reluctant to slam it so explicitly. "Not bad but not great," is his assessment.
up: Susie, who I think is what, 13 years old? Must be older than that, because she's a high school teacher, and she hopes to inspire her students. She will prove that it is possible to keep your eyes open despite trowel-applied eye shadow. Marquis is her partner, and he had family issues with dance as he was growing up, which could mean his mom yanked him out of dance in hopes it would make him not gay. But now she's proud of him.
They're dancing a Hunter Johnson-choreographed waltz to "Dark Waltz" by Hayley Westenra. Out of the gate, to my untrained eye, they look a little less fluid than they'll need to be by the end of the season, but it's the first week of performances, and they seem to settle down by song's end, at least until Marquis struggles with a lift, and they finish behind the song.
Nigel points out the difficult choreography, particularly the lift. He says he knew they missed up the lift, but he's not sure the audience did, which is awfully insulting of a dance-show audience. And I posit that if I could tell, then everyone else watching picked up on it. But overall he's positive about their performances, particularly Susie's lines. Mary refers to the dance's degree of difficulty as well, since the movements are slow, and necessarily controlled, but the pulled it off. She says she was "blown away." Dan felt like he was watching an "almost-perfect ending to a love story," adding that it was sexy, romantic and smooth.
Kourtni graduated from high school when she was 16 so she could pursue her dance training. Matt came from an athletic family whose dad signed him up for dance lessons. The gigantic duo (who are 5'9" and 6'3", respectively) do a jazz routine from Mandy Moore. Mandy says the challenge with tall dancers is executing the moves properly, because it'll look really sloppy if they mess up.
They're dancing to "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell. They're in leather, and Matt's holding a crystal. Do you want that crystal, Kourtni? Do you? I'll dance you for it! They play off each other's bodies nicely, and the synchronized moves are pulled off well. And as you might expect from black-clad dancers performing this version of the song, with its early-'80s AIDS resonance, Matt is grinning from ear-to-ear.
Nigel says Matt needs a little more personality, and that it's like someone took a broomstick and shoved it where the sun don't shine. "I'd like to see in future weeks, if you're still here, for you to relax a little bit," he tells him. As for Kourtni Nigel and Cat talk about Blonde Women Whom Kourtni Looks Like. Thanks for the dance advice! Mary thought they did a great job. Then she starts yelling. She said the only time they seemed heavy was when Matt seemed to struggle with a lift. Cat pokes the sleeping bear by asking if the dance was good enough for the hot tamale train, but Mary demurs, saying it was not quite there. Dan says the concept and choreography and everything was great, but it was a so-so performance. "You gotta attack it," he says. On the other hand, points out Cat, she feels normal-sized to Matt.
up are Chelsea T. and Thayne. Chelsea's parents are from Jamaica, and she knows they're going to be psyched for her. She seems really sweet. Thayne says when he was younger he got made fun of for dancing, so he quit, because his self-esteem wasn't strong enough, but started up again six years ago.
They're dancing the cha-cha, choreographed by Tony Meredith and Melanie. Chelsea and Thayne are both contemporary dancers and, judging from the sweat in their first rehearsal, are working their asses off.
"Oye Como Va," some kind of trance mix by Celia Cruz. You have to work to make the cha-cha sexy, but the dance itself meets you halfway, doesn't it? These two take it the rest of the way and then some, sizzling all over the floor. They snap their movements. Chelsea smolders right through the television. Thayne does too, although he clowns it up just slightly more than she does. I could do with a lot less grinning, seriously. It's a thing I have. But at least with these too it looks involuntary, like they're having an absolute blast out there. They're fantastic, which means I start to dread the judges' comments, fearing a shriek from Mary. Nigel loved it, saying he wondered at first how Matt was going to contain this "creature" to him, but he pulled it off. He mentions a dance move that I can't even begin to spell. There is talk of standing on the platform of the hot tamale train. Mary laughs and yells and lavishes praise on them. Dan: "Damn, girl. I mean, come on. Sex-ay. She's hot." He jokes that Chelsea made eye contact with Nigel and then he didn't know what do with himself. I imagine Nigel had a few ideas, though.
Chelsie H. and Mark are up . Chelsie talks about relying on dancing to help get her through the vague hard times she had growing up. Mark grew up in Hawaii, and for some reason growing up on an island means you have to find "your own little voice," says he. They'll be doing a contemporary piece choreographed by Mia Michaels. She says she's choreographing what Tim Burton's wedding would be like. Mark struggles early on, and Mia frets that he's not "getting it."
They dance to "Beautiful" by Meshell Ndegeocello. They are wearing much more white than I'd imagine at Tim Burton's wedding. Oh, he's a bird. He flits about. So does she. There is a lot of flitting. Then they sit down, and he rolls her down his legs and then somersaults over top of her. Nice. He does a bunch of lifting of her in which I can't really make out anything that's going on, because her skirts flap all over the place. Mia Michaels, love her or hate her, or, like me, remain utterly bewildered by her.
"Hell of a wedding reception that was, wasn't it?" asks Nigel, and suggests Mia has some strange relationships. Perhaps Nigel doesn't know who Tim Burton is? I don't know how you judge such interpretive things. I would be awful on a judges panel for Mia's dancing. Then again, a lot of the comments for her pieces are vague approximations of feelings about intangibles, right? Nigel loves it, and so did Mary, who praises the timing on the lifts, since those are hard to do. Dan says it must be an experience to take a trip inside Mia Michaels' head. He thought it was amazing.
About one year later than we should have, Twitch is going to take the stage. He talks about how last year it came down to him and Hok. In some of the interviews, he's shaved off the facial hair, which makes him look about ten years younger. He's dancing with Kherington, who missed her high school graduation to be here. They're doing a Tyce Diorio Broadway joint called "Too Darn Hot" from Kiss Me Kate. Very sleek and sexy, Twitch tells us, who keeps getting kicked in the face by Kherington.
She climbs up his back and falls to the side, him catching her. They dance around each other, while she kicks, managing to miss him. I normally hate this kind of dance, but she's great, and he's revelatory for a hip-hop dancer, and they end in an embrace on stage.
Nigel loves them, and I wish for once he could praise specific dance things a woman does, at the very least before he goes on about his boner. He praises Twitch. Mary yells at everyone to look up at the ceiling because the sprinkler system is about to go off. This would be bad news for Mary, because since she can't keep her mouth closed, she'd soon drown. She hollers at Kherington about how good she is, and screams at Twitch that she's proud of him. Dan adds to the compliments of Kherington, and says Twitch ain't exactly a traditional Broadway dancer, but he's never been much for tradition. Let's hear it for Twitchington!
Comfort and Chris are up , she of the hip-hop. She talks about partner-dancing with her brother before, but couldn't handle looking at her brother all sexual. Is that a requirement? And if it is, isn't faking it a large part of partnering anyway? We revisit Chris being told by Nigel that sometimes he has the personality of a tree. I'm not sure why that's a problem; there are some funny-ass birch trees in my backyard.
They're dancing the jive by Tony Meredith, and Chris talks an awful lot about Comfort's booty. But I guess when the executive producer of the show you're on is in the habit of openly salivating at the female contestants, you might as well follow suit, right? "Boom Boom" by Big Head Todd and the Monsters. They dance under individual spotlights and strobe lights. She's in a white beaded-fringe bikini and he has on a rhinestone-studded vest. They nail the jive, although certain elements come off slightly corny -- you know, like strumming her leg like a guitar.
Nigel, naturally, thanks to some unwelcome prompting from Cat, starts off going on Comfort talking to him about wearing a bra and panties. Savvy move on Comfort's part; Nigel says Mary's sprinklers -- now they're her sprinklers -- are going to go off. "You set yourself on fire," he says, and praises Chris for keeping up with her, saying his personality kept up with her, which it'll need to. He advises Comfort to use her knees more when dancing in heels. He says the technique could stand a little improvement, but the personality is a hundred percent there. He reveals that Comfort's dancing with a shoulder injury; it was dislocated in rehearsal, but she got it all click-clicked back in place. Mary screams about how she was kicking it, and also points out that Comfort has legs. "Respectable job," she says. Dan addresses Chris, saying he did a great job keeping up with Comfort, since she's larger than life, and they have to demonstrate a chemistry together, since they're packaged as a couple now.
Katee and Joshua are , and we're reminded how she's BFF with Natalie, but skip over the whole thing where Katee almost blew her spot in the Top 20. Joshua talks about playing sports growing up, and how his mom kept him sheltered from hard times growing up. They're dancing a Napoleon/Tabitha hip-hop routine in which he's a soldier going off to war. ["Do you think that they purposely put unlikable people, such as Katee, with huggable people, like Joshua, so that you are forced to vote to keep annoying people on the show in order to get your favorites to stick around? Or is that just me?" -- Angel]
It's set to "No Air" by Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown, and it begins with the two of them on stage, reading a letter, which, judging from Katee's anguished response, is either a letter from her doctor saying they need to discuss the results of her STD test, or Joshua's heading off to war. Katee dances a solo spaz, and then he dance-comforts her. She throws him aside, and then appears to pull him back by one leg. Nicely executed, especially by him. Of all the dancers, I figured she'd be one grinning the whole time, but her face reads: misery. And the dance ends with a spin that takes the jacket off him and onto her.
So: interpretive hip-hop. I liked it better than Napolitha's first piece, certainly much better than I would have figured I would. Nigel liked it, saying it might be his favorite piece of the evening. He wasn't sure about Katee at first, but was convinced when they started dancing together, saying they were really good as a couple. Mary praises the effortless movement by Joshua, which she wasn't expecting from him. She says it got her, because she's got a loved one in Iraq. Dan talks about how they killed the unison parts. "That is not easy. You guys both killed it." He says Katee held her own, even though he didn't think she had a chance, and says Joshua comes across as a humble, unassuming guy, and becomes a different person on stage.
Contemporary dancer Jessica King questioned her own abilities, at least until she won a ticket to Vegas. She's the one who was so excited she misspelled Vegas as "Veags," but it might be because like such as some U.S. Americans they don't have maps in the Iraq. She's dancing with Will. They're dancing the tango, choreographed by Hunter Johnson. Jessica's excited about dancing such a sensual dance with such a good-looking guy. They make a handsome couple.
They dance to "Tango" by Cirque de Soleil. He drags her across the stage. They seem slightly sloppy to me at first, but then settle down towards the middle, which featured a lot of twirling, and pull off a nice finishing move, a hands-clasped two-handed lift of her behind his back onto his shoulders.
Nigel praises the choreography, noting Hunter's throwing some tough routines at the dancers. He calls Will "majestic," and says Jessica was wonderful, although he notes she had some wobbles on her heels. Mary does her thing where she talks all sternly, pretending like she's about to criticize you, and then starts screaming about how awesome you are. I don't know why she bothers with the charade; she's completely transparent. She largely echoes what Nigel said -- Jessica a little less comfortable but overall excellent. Dan says they were hot like fire up there.
Finally, it's Gev and Courtney G., who danced for the New York Knicks. Not at the Gold Club, one would hope. She says you need to have heart and determination to be on this show. She's partnered with Gev, who's from Kazakhstan, where he says there's no opportunity, and no Borat-esque commentator to highlight its problems.
They're doing disco with Doriana Sanchez. People think disco is easy, but is it, Doriana? No! It's really fun! Fun like wearing a T-shirt with an Abu Ghraib prisoner on it, I suppose, hey Gev? "Boogie Wonderland" by Earth Wind and Fire is the soundtrack for the arm-twisting and entwined bodies. They twirl in yellow and white. He spins her a million times, and then lifts her and spins her some more, then lifts her above his head and spins some more. The way they keep their balance after all that spinning is amazing to me. My inner ear exploded just from watching them. Towards the end, he lifts her, throws her up so she can twirl and he can catch her again. They don't exactly stick the landing.
Nigel's not enamored, even though he loves disco and Doriana Sanchez. He says it looked more like Disco Duck. "There was no feel for it. It was just like, 'we are choreographed and here's the music,'" he says. Mary starts off her remarks by screaming about disco queen Doriana Sanchez being back, and she is also in favor of Courtney. She yells at Gev about how he was good dancing a tough routine, and Dan says the same kind of thing -- good, not great, could have been tighter -- in an indoor voice. It's a bit of a downer on the end of the show, with this dance getting easily the most criticism of all the routines. Courtney looks stricken, wondering if she should have wasted her money on a summer pass for the Hot Tamale Train.
For more hot fun in the summertime, check out our gallery of new shows and SYTYCD videos.