Man alive, what a great song to kick off the show -- "Higher Ground," by Stevie Wonder. The dancers are lined up on the stage, surrounded by a ring of stadium lights that turn on in sequence. The dancers are in blacks suits with tribal facepaint. They vibrate from side to side, and when the music kicks in, they dance in unison, stepping, waving their arms in circles, elbow thrusts and leg kicks. They go loose-limbed, hunched over, heads rolling, like marionnettes abruptly hung up and abandoned. Then it's back to the kicks and squats, and the men, in the front of the group, sit down on the edge of the stage while the women have a go, clenching their fists, pinwheeling their arms. The men join back in, and everyone stomps forward, jerking their shoulders, cascading into a foot stomping finale. You know, going into that, I knew it was a Mia Michaels' routine, and I still loved it.
Cat comes out in a white suit. She looks like one of Charlie's Angels! I love her so much. It's a good thing I know how the show operates, because I can't pay attention to what she says as she babbles about the format of the show.
Anyway, then Cat tells Lil' C that he was in "rare form" last night, and we move into a montage of Lil' C's pseudo-profundities, which made me uneasy, but only until I saw they were paired with baffled reaction shots from the audience and the choreographers. Shane Sparks looks right at the camera all "wuzzah?" Hee. Lil' C enjoys the montage too, and Cat bows down and says, "Respect! Respect!"
Then Cat's all "enough silliness!" because the dancers are in agony backstage, so she brings out the first three couples, to much cheering from the audience. Melissa and Ade, who did a Sonya jazz routine that the judges really liked, so much so that Mary did one of her patented blatantly obvious fakeouts. The voters loved it too; Melissa and Ade are safe, and Ade dances off with Melissa following close behind with her walker.
Then there's Jonathan and Caitlin, who danced a Shane Sparks routine. The judges weren't wild about it, and it was clear that Shane had to soften his normal style to accommodate the non hip-hoppers. Lil' C actually called it a nightmare. Are they safe? They'll find out after we talk to Jeanine and Phillip who did a Tony Meredith tango that the judges weren't impressed with, technique-wise, although Nigel thought it was good entertainment and Mary thought Jeanine danced well.
After last night's votes, the first couple in the bottom three is Caitlin and Jason, which means Phillip and Jeanine are safe, and I'm already only one for two on my predictions.
Mary says she expected Caitlin and Jason, both contemporary dancers, to handle the slow hip-hop just fine, so she was disappointed in them. "You guys both dance marvelous, so bring it on tonight," she advises.
When we come back, Janette and Brandon revisit their high-energy disco routine by Doriana Sanchez, which the judges loved, as did the voters. They're safe. Karla and Jonathan did a contemporary routine by Stacey Tookey that brought Mary to tears, and Lil' C thought was "buck." "Does the buck stop here?" asks Cat. First, Ashley and Kupono are reminded that their Shane Sparks shadow hip-hop routine underwhelmed the judges. Karla and Jonathan both danced solos last week, but they're not going to have to this week: it's Ashley and Kupono who are in the bottom three.
Cat asks Lil' C to be brief. He says he's shocked, because they started out with a bang doing the Wade Robson crash test dummies routine, but they didn't hit it this week. "It's up to you guys now," he says, and Cat brightly says she's looking forward to their solos.
Coming back from the break, Cat gives us a little preview of this fall's Season 6, which features a familiar face: Cut to a Los Angeles audition of Evan's brother Ryan, dancer No. 21 in Vegas for the current season, ripping up the stage with his tapdancing last week. Adam Shankman says he's not a dancer but a freaking artist, and Nigel hands him a ticket to Vegas. Spoiler alert, you guys! Outside the theatre, Ryan's jumped by the Other Brother, who even has his Other Brother T-shirt on, if you look closely. Aww. And there's Ryan in the audience, getting a big cheer from the crowd. [It seems like they are going to HAVE to put Ryan through to the Top 20 season after all this hype. Right? -- Angel]
So anyway, back to the remaining three couples (after Cat pimps the current round of auditions). Randi and Evan did a Louis Amstel jive, and we revisit the "fun" counter, that the judges enjoyed (with Nigel saying he thought Evan would be a little bit better). The voters liked it too; they're safe.
That leaves Asuka and Vitolio, who danced an Amstel waltz that was built around Vitolio's life story that made Mary cry. Lil C' talked about Asuka's "dominant submission" and Nigel loved it too. And there's Kayla and Max in Brian Freedman's pop-jazz routine that the judges really liked, with both dancers getting singled out for praise.
Last week, Asuka and Vitolio were in the bottom three, but they're safe this week, which means Kayla and Max are in the bottom three.
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Nigel says the bottom three couples are quite different, which means that there's no great following of any of the couples, and so a lot depends on the routines, and he can understand why some viewers might not have appreciated the "esoteric" routine by Brian. Then he's decided he's talked about the dancers enough and tells Mary how great she looks.
So while the dancers prepare the solo, Cat introduces us to Amrampali Ambegaokar, who comes out to dance a Bollywood routine. What the hell? This isn't "Jai Ho!" At first, it's less the high-energy Bollywood routine and more the graceful, fluid arm movements. Then she spins around the stage forever, and then moves into some of that vibrating-foot routine that must be absolute exhausting to do. [She was on that Superstars of Dance show that only I watched and she was amazing! She was also in that stupid episode of Heroes where Hiro and Ando went to India, but that was less amazing. Glad to see her getting the spotlight for something cool. -- Angel]
After the break, it's time for the solos: First up is Caitlin, who dances thirty seconds worth of plies and jetes and flips and what-have-you to Adele's version of "Make You Feel My Love." up is Jason, who pirouettes and prances around to Robin Thicke. Cat says it's selfish, but she really enjoys watching him perform solo. Ashley dances to Coco Rosie, starting off by writhing around the steps and railing at the back of the stage before doing her contemporary in the middle. Kupono comes out to do some arm-waving, head-bopping hip-hopping contemporary. You know, if you add thirty seconds to each dancer's solo, they could get a little more into it, and it would add three minutes total to the run time, which could easily be made up elsewhere. Thirty seconds just seems pointless so often.
Anyway, there's a commercial break, and Kayla comes out to do more or less the same arabesques and leaps that everyone does, and then Max dances to "Footloose," a lot of quickstepping that at least wasn't the same thing everyone else did tonight. Cat sends the judges backstage, and then reminds us that Katy Perry, OneRepublic and Lady Gaga made their first major television appearance on this show, but rather than apologize for that, she introduces Kristinia DeBarge with her hit "Goodbye," and I'd really rather have Kristinia's uncle El DeBarge to sing "The Rhythm of the Night." God, this song is awful. I hate that I hate EVERY song that gets performed on this show.
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Anyway, after the break, we're dealing with the women, and Nigel tells us that the decision wasn't unanimous, which just proves how awesome everyone is or whatever. Caitlin steps forward first, and Nigel says she had great quality of movement and control tonight, and it's amazing how she has grown after her hip operation. Ashley had Hollywood glamour tonight, but her solo approach was wrong because it had no substance. Kayla's great but she has to prove it to everyone, and her solo was crowded because she tried to throw too much in there. It's THIRTY SECONDS. Anyway, going home tonight is Ashley, which doesn't surprise too much, based on how much most of the judges have loved Caitlin and Kayla so far.
And now the guys. Jason had what Nigel says was the best solo they've had to date, and he doesn't even bother pretending Jason's in any danger; he sends Jason off the stage and moves on to Kupono. Kupono's solo wasn't any great shakes, but he's an intelligent dancer who brings something different to the table. Max is someone who works harder than anyone else, but may be limited by his ballroom, and Max is the one who's leaving tonight, which means Kayla and Kupono will be partnering week. K2!
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