I finally picked up a copy of the performance and elimination episodes. Some TV pirate was asleep at the wheel last week =P

Guest Choreographer Chuck Maldonado gave us a fairly average group routine. Sorry Chuck, this was kind of boring. I enjoyed the BladeRunner eye makeup though. Some of the girls were near unrecognizable.

Meh. Nothing memorable here. Since I’m posting this so late, I’m going to go heavy on the pictures and light on the jibber-jabber.

Toni Basil did enough jabbering already. Yeah we get it, you’re from the streets. Suuuuuuuure.

Let’s reminisce about the dances this week before we kvetch about how crazy all the other voters are. First up, cutie Courtney gets paired with America’s most technically skilled SYTYCD star, Will.

They rocked out a Jean Marc Samba to “I fell in Love with the DJ”. It was high-energy, but a little frantic if you ask me. Might have been the first dance of the night jitters.

I think SYTYCD must be having a fabric shortage and they’re taking it out on poor Courtney.

It’s no Courtney-Gev chemistry but they made it clear they were having fun. Their performance was entertaining.

Legs Legs Legs in case you forgot.

They also tackled a Tabitha and Napoleon Hip-Hop. Smooth/slow hip-hop is always a crapshoot on this show. Great choreography can make the dance, but this one was sort of lacking, and I think the dancers had nothing to grab onto.

Frankly, I barely remembered this routine the next day.

Courtney’s Solo:

Courtney was one of my favorites when she was dancing with Gev, but her solos are starting to wear on me. She managed to hit every single contemporary cliché in her 30 second solo.

Will, on the other hand, brought the freaking house down by channeling James Brown.

The judges have been leaning into him about showing personality for so long now; he finally does it, and America doesn’t respond. What the hell America?

Haha best solo of the season.

*****

Twitch and Katee picked some lucky routines out of the hat. Mia Michaels found yet another prop to use for their contemporary routine, but for some reason I didn’t hate it.

Katee makes everything look fantastic and this dance showcased her a lot more than Twitch. Twitch’s part was mostly acting and walking around, with very little actual dancing going on.

Loved that part ^

This pair also got a fun Tyce Broadway routine.

Katee’s red dress was smokin’, and this sort of costuming makes a visual impression on the audience. Lucky pick, but great job bringing it to life anyways.

I think they look Gorgeous. Does Katee have a shot at winning this whole thing over Joshua or Twitch?

Her solo at least convinces me she is the best girl left in the competition.

It’s a little too sappy and contemporary but she still manages to put some of herself into it. Twitch on the other hand,

turns in his most boring Solo to date. He does the same moves over and over and basically walks around mugging to the audience. I betcha he won’t be taking his solo so lightly in the future.

*****

Mark gets stuck with double-chance girl, Comfort, but their first routine isn’t bad. TabNap choreo a fun little piece about two kids stuck in detention.

Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eater

Mark manages to hang with Comfort. I didn’t think he looked out of place. I guess Hawaiians can be “street” too. Sure Toni.

Nigel agreed that Mark held up his end of the deal; Comfort practices her stank-face like usual.

Despite a decent first routine, they manage to pull Foxtrot from the hat

It was pretty awful. It was a succession of moves and poses strung together poorly, and everyone could tell how hard they were thinking just to get through it.

I had it’s moments, but by the end I’m sure Mark is thinking,

Please get this woman off of me.

Comfort’s solo is an arm flapping, crotch grabbing copy of all her other solos.

Sorry Comfort, I don’t dislike you, you’re just not versatile enough to hang with the remaining dancers.

Mark’s solo is an enigma to me like usual. It’s not particularly graceful, skilled or interesting. It includes two identical leaps from the stairs, and some bizarre chicken clucking arm thing. Why are people still voting for him? What am I missing?

*****

Wunderkid Josh and hips hips hips Chelsie got started with an Argentine Tango.

YAY Dmitry is back to instruct! Hello gorgeous!

I wouldn’t say this is the best Tango ever done on the show, but it was pretty spectacular, at least as far as hitting all the moves.

There was no actual chemistry between the two, but they still manage not to make it look fake, which happens often with new pairs.

PS. Legs Legs Legs.

Josh and Chelsie also got to close the show with a Dorianna Sanchez Disco-extravaganza!

Josh nearly falls on his ass in the first 20 seconds, but none of the judges even mentioned it.

Dorianna gave them this fantastic lift, and Chelsie manages to flip over and face upwards in mid-spin. Amazing.

I was getting a little scared for Chelsie that Josh might be getting tired. The rest of the routine actually lost a little umpph after this. Having to do this routine last of the night, after one other dance and a solo too, was really asking a lot of them.

Nice finale to the night.

Haha. Turns out Joshua is human after all.

Chelsie’s solo suffers from Latin Ballroom “I don’t know what to do without a partner” disease, but she can really shake those hips.

She tries a little something extra at the beginning. I don’t know what more you can ask of these ballroom dancers.

Josh just keeps on turning out the goods. It wasn’t his most thought-out solo but he kept it fresh, hit it pretty hard and was definitely entertaining.

*****

The results show was once again, WACKY!

I enjoyed the guest dancers from the Los Angeles Ballet.

I was most struck, however, by how close to this skill level Will and Katee were able to perform doing their Pas De Deux last week. I’m sure some ballet aficionado could jump down my throat, but this professional performance made me appreciate Will & Katee even more, for what they were able to accomplish in 3 days.

Who knew LL Cool J was still relevant?

My husband said he knew that LL had a new album, but that in no way does that actually make him relevant.

LL loves Cool James.

First surprise of the night - Mark is SAFE

And nobody is more surprised that Mark!

Seriously, are people voting for him just to catch him making insane faces?? Because I’m down with that.

Twitch is in the bottom two and absolutely freaks out and becomes human for a moment. I think he realizes he’s not going to slide through without some serious effort.

So Comfort went home, as was proper, but what the heck happened to send Twitch and Will to the bottom two? Over confidence in your favorite, maybe? Like people just expecting everyone else to vote for them, and voting for their second favorite instead? Or did Will just never connect with the audience? We’ll never know I guess, but I fear this competition is heading too far towards a popularity contest and losing it’s dance reputation.

See YA

*****