SYD 11

SYD #11

I spent the first twenty minutes of the show with no signal because the government is stupid.

That’s right. The government is stupid. And TV is stupid. I hate digital TV.

I saw enough of Cat’s hair to know that it was straightened this week, and enough of the guys to know it was Evan, Ade and Brandon left. I only saw Jeanine of the girls, but she was the one I was most afraid would be eliminated anyway, so that was good.

P.C. stood at the TV holding up the antenna so that I could see these things, and eventually little digitalized bits of Kayla, who’s my favorite girl…though probably not the winner, if I read the audience right.

There was a flash of Adam Sandler, I assume as part of a commercial, and it reminds me that I didn’t see Katie Holmes dance last week (in her one annual outing allowed by Tom). I feel about as bad about that as I do about never having met Adam Sandler in person, which is to say, not bad at all.

Melissa is still there, which means Janette – who didn’t have a good dance last week – went home.

Melissa’s paired with Evan, which is just silly. They got Tyce Diorio for a Broadway routine, which Evan loves. He points out that he gets to use “jazz hands.” (Groan.)

Melissa is wearing something like what I imagine a naughty nurse would wear as lingerie – so two steps up (or down, depending on how you look at it) from a nurse’s uniform. Evan’s in his underwear, a dress shirt and sock garters. It was as silly as it sounds.

On the up-side, Lil C is the guest judge this week. He starts to critique Evan, but gets digitalized, disappears, and speaks gibberish the rest of the time. (But maybe that was just on my TV.)

Mary says something digital and everyone claps. “This was really fun and entertaining for me, and it’s hard, Evan, taking you seriously in your underwear and whatever that thing was holding up your socks, I’ve never seen that before” and she says she never wants to see it again. She gives Melissa a great review.

Nigel points out that Melissa’s able to adapt to “every routine” she’s been given, while most ballet dancers (i.e., the ones trying out for season 6) can’t. He says Evan did bring enough personality to the routine for him, despite it not being a very technically challenging routine.

Ade solos to a Blue October song, but a slowish one. He’s wearing a shirt, but it’s open, and his contemporary choreography has the manic/unchoreographed feel of many mediocre contemporary routines, but the tween-girl fans squeal anyway.

Why don’t contemporary dancers do more with space and pauses? Is it because 30 seconds isn’t long enough to cram in all their skills-of-an-artist if they do that, or is it that they can’t choreograph themselves?

I hear from Cat that we’ve already seen a samba, and I don’t feel too badly that I didn’t get to see it. But with P.C. standing at the antenna, there had better be some awesome routines tonight – Nat and Tab slow hip-hop, Mia contemporary, group dance like we’ve never seen: everything – and Kayla’s partnered with Brandon, so that’s good news. Brandon points out that Kayla’s been on the “Hot Tamale Train” the whole time, and says he’s like to get on that with her.

They’ve got a contemporary routine in which Kayla is Brandon’s mistress and can’t leave him. Whatever, Stacy. This should be a hip-hop routine so she CAN leave him in the end.

They remind me a bit of Katie and Joshua, and then the signal goes out again.

Lil C says some stuff, including that Kayla has finally been “equally matched” with her partner. Mary says the dancing was brilliant and that they’re riding in first class. She says “Kayla, you are as exquisite as anything. You have never taken a wrong step for me.”

Nigel starts out complimenting the choreographer, then points out that the girls have had it really tough this season – Kayla has been an addict, a zombie mistress, and now she’s an abused mistress – but that they did a great job.

Melissa dances to “I Put a Spell On You,” which is okay. It’s not very ballet-y, but she is, making for an interesting contrast.

Jeanine talks about her success and there’s a montage of her in various underwears she’s worn throughout the competition. Ade talks about it too, but not in his underwear.

They get a Nap and Tab routine, about them being friends who are being evicted from their apartment. Jeanine is probably the best girl left at hip hop. The song choice (“Move (If You Wanna)”) is clever, but I don’t really like it. They dance with their feet inside boxes at one point.

Lil’ C says “I wish moving was always that fun. I’d relocate every day.” He says Ade has “a really dirty kind of groove about yourself…and it’s really earthy. This time you kind of sunk into it, and just sat in it. I feel like you pulled [her] down into the depths of the dirt. It was buck, it was buck.”

Mary says she thought that in the samba “you were really terrific, the whole time through, and I just want to say that to you,” and then she dissolves into pixels. Mary comes back to say “you two will not be getting your eviction notice after that performance.”

Nigel says “you’ve taken the notes, and you’ve gotten down, we could have been applauding Tabitha and Napoleon’s routine.” But they weren’t – the pair was great, he says. He asks Jeanine if she’s ever been evicted.

Brandon’s solo is done to an opera aria that had been used for a paso doble earlier in the season. He’s in his underwear. It’s a blend of ballet and contemporary, it seems, and people really like it. Cat says “yeah, very average. Just average, really.” The judges give him a standing ovation, which I can’t remember seeing for a solo before.

Melissa and Evan are doing the quickstep, which pretty much guarantees they’ll be sent home, unless “nonthreatening boy” is still the name of the game for winning this thing…but I think Twitch and Joshua blew that out of the water last year, trumping Benji’s obvious win in season 2.

Melissa and Evan talk about how it would be to be in the top 4, but they don’t say anything very interesting except that Melissa is the oldest person ever in the competition. Melissa is significantly taller than Evan and so will be leaning back to give the illusion of height for him.

They’re wearing elegant eveningwear, but it’s still the quickstep. Lil C says “Evan, I’m going to commend you for dancing bigger than you’ve ever danced on the show before. Now comes the tough love…you were told when you did the jive about your retractions, and you didn’t take heed to that. Melissa, what can I say? You’re fabulous.”

Mary starts talking about the choreographer, which is not always a good sign from her. She says it is one of the toughest dances to do, but that as it went along, “everything started to crumble down…I’m sitting here just a little disappointed right now…it did not live up to my expectations tonight.”

Nigel says Melissa makes herself sound so old at 29, and that the only time it lost energy for him was the lindy hop section. He says it wasn’t one of the best routines tonight. “You are now getting the country to go ‘who are we going to vote for tonight?’ Cause you two are two of the favorites.”

Jeanine dances her solo to a Janet Jackson song, which is interesting. She’s wearing hot pants instead of just plain underwear, and at least she does something a little different than the ordinary contemplative-contemporary routine.

Evan’s solo starts with a flip, and he does look reminiscent of Benji while dancing to “Lady is a Tramp.” I still hope – in fact, I hope even more now – that he goes home this week.

Kayla and Brandon talks about what being in the top four would mean for them. Brandon says he would be convinced he’s actually a good dancer, and Kayla says it would mean “absolutely everything” to her. They’re doing disco, which should be fun and probably a good ender. Kayla says “we came in here expecting an ordinary disco, and it’s more like a circus.”

Doriana is a crazy woman.

They’re dancing to “Dance (Disco Heat)” and it’s pretty fun. They’re both in silver sparkles, though Brandon’s outfit is mostly white cloth. Kayla does a death spiral, and then Brandon does one, which is fun. Brandon flips at the end off of Kayla’s hands, which is also awesome. Cat actually chastises Doriana for the number of stunts there.

Lil C says “when faced with certain challenges, like being out of your comfort zone...[and concludes with] and when you see with your ears, there is no darkness in your routine, and there was no darkness. Kayla, I saw your little groove at the beginning, and I was like ‘that’s what I’m talking about’ – and Brandon, thank you for coming for Kayla right there. You being there is inspiring her to reach another level. You guys make each other better.”

Mary starts out by saying “holy shamokeys… holy smokes, you knocked it out with a homerun tonight!” She stands up to yell at Brandon for having self esteem problems: “You’re going, you’re first class, you’ve got it, what’s your problem??? And Kayla – still on the train, what can I say??”

Nigel says “I think we’ve got to be sensible about this now because we’re asking people to vote…so let me critique this professionally now [and he stands up and screams, throwing himself around in disco style]. Good luck the pair of you, good luck. My fingers are crossed for you both.”

The three girls dance together as the finale to the show, and it’s a Sonya contemporary routine about superheroes.

It’s obviously a Sonya routine, with a few weird movements and a lot of robotic unison, and it’s cool.

Lil C says they have to “bring the collage of movements to life, but you still have to shine…you still have to eat, and the stage is your bowl. I feel like all of you didn’t really go for the gusto there – I feel like you were being too courteous. I gotta see some buckness. I thought you danced it amazingly, but I need more than amazing right now.”

Mary says “amazing is amazing! Superheroes like you – you guys are the epitome of [string of good adjectives ] dancers. I will say that Kayla had a couple of moves that were tougher than the others, so as a result you stood out to me.” She says they should have performed this for Comic-Con.

Nigel says they were all fantastic, and that he loves the fact that Melissa has a mini-tutu on her costume and points out Jeanine’s strapped-up chest.


Next week: Finale!