Yeah, I wasn't really sold on it being completely hip hop, but I loved it. They had great chemistry, and the routine was just so much fun.

I liked The Cure routine, but I do not think that was hip hop.

With you and Amy on this.

Travis Wall is an amazing choreographer.

Also, with Vortex on this.

I'm voting for almost everyone tonight.

I liked The Cure routine, but I do not think that was hip hop.

Yeah, I think that one of the judges said that.

Why are there not pretty Buffistas eating yummy Mexican food in my living room as I watch SYTYCD tonight? That ain't right!

So, I think I'm finally getting how this is going to work this season. Not quite sure why they need to stay in established partnerships from the very beginning if we are voting for individuals all along. I'd rather they go back to partner swaps every week. And these kids are so talented, that could really make for some spectacular pairings.

Cat's fly aways are out of control. Hair and make up crack whores clearly present and accounted for.

Group Dance/Christopher Scott/Lyrical Hip Hop - As soon as it started I knew it was someone from LXD. It reminded me of Inception - very dream within a dream like. And those kids were serving. Did y'all see Dragon House holding down that center? Work! And Bad Feet hitting that crazy turn sequence in the corner? What? I loved, loved all the slow motion movements and just in general the kids brought it. I will watch that another eleven million times or so. That's the hotness.

Dance In impressons - the guys have it all over the ladies thus far.

Why are there not pretty Buffistas eating yummy Mexican food in my living room as I watch SYTYCD tonight?

Because I haven't won the lottery?

Group Dance/Christopher Scott/Lyrical Hip Hop - As soon as it started I knew it was someone from LXD.

Oh, I know -- FABULOUS!

Because I haven't won the lottery?

The universe needs to get on that.

First batch 'o dances - I haven't hated anyone yet. Well, I kinda hated Alexa, but that's a given.

Whitney and Chehon/Samba/Jump: The Cube Guys and Lucianina – This could be a good couple. And they got Louis and Latin. Lucky Chehon. The choreo was really challenging. I appreciate that Louis didn’t water it down too much for these kids. And Chehon gave it that old college try. Really, he had a lovely top line. Good through the upper body. But poor booboo, he did not get the hip action. Like at all. And he and Whitney had no chemistry together. She is indeed a little firecracker and I thought she was sizzling here. She was trying to sell this routine for all she was worth but not really able to generate any heat with him. Did y’all see Louis’ face? He was not pleased. Good critiques from Nigel about the turned in feet and bowed legs. Also from Mary. I don’t think either of these kids is going to be in trouble next week. This was pleasant to watch and a fun, high energy opener to the night. And they are both so well trained that when at least one is dancing in his/her style, they are never really going to look bad . . . but Chehon better hope they get contemporary or something next week or he’s gonna get lost amongst the more compelling personalities. He’s still a pretty motherfucker, though. At least he’ll always have that.

Tiffany and George/Contemporary/Turning Page: Sleeping List - This feels like a total red shirt couple. I don’t have any recollection of this girl from previous rounds. But Sonya and contemporary could go really well for them. She does well with the romantic routines. I still remember that piece to Beautiful she set on Mark and Chelsie. Ooooh, I loved the opening of this routine. Just the simple walk and the melting body rolls. Gorgeous. George is kind of everything. And again ooooh, the handstand and then Tiffany went from straight legs/pointed toes down in to the bent legs and flexed feet! That was just . . . murder. And a girl who can do a clean triple turn in attitude? What? These two turned that routine out. I retract any thought of a red shirt couple. C’mon babies, indeed! Yep, will watch that one several times tonight as well. Dancing through the tippy toes! Sing it, Nigel!

Jenea and Brandon/Hip Hop/Take Care: Drake featuring Rhianna - Hmm, seems like it could be another red shirt couple. NappyTab already? I do not want to see this after the wonderful Christopher Scott group dance. Sooooo, I didn’t buy the little story at all, but Brandon was breaking it down. He was hard hitting and precise, just really on top of the beat . . . that was hot. The girl is like a Toothy Blonde Cheerleader re-mix, way too bouncy and too soft a lot of the time. She was trying to fake it ‘til she makes it, but overall she was exposed as just not that great of a hip hop dancer. (Disagreeing with Nigel feels so right) The judges were definitely doing everything they could not to critique her, but really, she just wasn’t good in that. I mean, the choreo was typical NappyTab crap, but she didn’t bring it the way it should be broughten. Cheerleader hip hop.

Alexa and Daniel/Jazz/Hey Hey: Dennis Ferrer – This is a good pairing for her. Nigel is really trying to get America to fall in love with her. I still have pre-hate. Sean Cheesman is very hit or miss, but his choreo never leaves me cold. They’re guaranteed to get a routine that will have people talking, love it or hate it. So in short, pimp on. Bah. This girl truly is a carbon copy of the horse faced blonde girl from last year. Such a heavy dancer. The technique is there, but everything looks labored. And she is always about a beat behind her partner. It’s really distracting. He was quite good in the piece, but I felt like I couldn’t even pay attention to him because she really pulls focus (and not in a good way). And yes, the smiley smiley was awkward. And Kenny comes through with a (continued...)

( continues...) relevant critique – technically, there wasn’t a lot wrong with the routine but I wasn’t feeling it.

Amber and Nick/ Viennese Waltz/Nights in White Satin: Tina Arena - Ewww. Somebody has it in for the cute blonde black girl. Paired with the one ballroom boy who got absolutely no coverage pre-top 20? That ain’t right. He got his own style at least. But what’s this? Jason thinks he’s not great? Whatever, show. It’s season what? 9 now. We all know that means he’ll be fine on show night. I really liked that the opening lift started before the music and by the time the lights kicked in, they were already dancing. And total side note, kittens, but the crack whores in hair and makeup must’ve picked up a heroin addiction during the off season because who did that to this girl’s hair? Horrid! I thought the dance itself was pretty but boring. I also found it kind of content full and content free at the same time. They didn’t do a lot of actual waltz in that waltz, which is odd because Jason is not normally a trick factory. There were a ton of lifts. There was lots of side by side work, but very little time spent in closed hold and little time spent actually, you know, waltzing. So yeah . . . the best thing about the dance was finding out that Nigel watches Dance Moms. Ha! Much like the very first dance of the night it was pleasant enough but ultimately forgettable.

Amelia and Will/Hip Hop/The Lovecats: The Cure - So this was a jazz routine, not hip hop. Let’s go ahead and get that out of the way from the jump. And it wasn’t even terribly challenging jazz at that. When you put this beside Sean Cheesman’s piece from earlier in the show, there is no comparison. There was a lot of posing, a lot of standing around, a lot of vamping. I suspect both of these kids can do much more than they were asked to show here. That said, Amelia is just as cute as a button. NappyTab promised a lot of character work and they delivered. It was a fun routine and Amelia really is a star. She’s got charisma times a million. I didn’t really notice Will that much. There’s just not a lot to say. It was an easy dance. Speaking of Abby Lee, her little dance kids could’ve done it. It’s kinda bullshit that they didn’t actually have to do hip hop, but that’s not the kids fault.

Janelle and Dareian/ African Jazz/Jungle Highlight: Tribe - These two are both personality plus. I think this will be a good pairing. I have had this struggle with Sean Cheesman since he first came on the show because African Jazz is just . . . not a thing. At the same time, I really like him and I like the jazz routines that he choreographs in this made up style. What to do? What to do? Well, at least he put in a ton of authentic African dance (mainly West African) in this routine. It was original and challenging. Dariean did a good job with the African movement and bad feet are much less problematic when there’s so much flexing going on. Janelle sucked at most of it. She needed more release through the back. A lot of those moves, she was just flinging her hair or tossing her arms to give the illusion of the type of movement required of the style when really her whole back and chest should’ve been contracting and releasing. I would’ve rather just watched Bad Feet dance a solo because he had some lovely work in there. I wonder if Janelle is still injured. And as for Kenny describing the dance as primitive? Bitch, you really need to pull back. Never again on the judges panel, please.

Eliana and Cyrus/Broadway/Run and Tell That: Hairspray Cast - Tasty Broadway. Oh, god. Why does the show hate these kids? That choreography was booty. Tasty Broadway is always fairly bad, but on a few rare occasions when he’s not totally ripping off Fosse, he can turn out something halfway decent (think the Godspell routine for Joshua and Katee in S4). Tonight was not one of those occasions. And I haven’t seen such outrageous Cedric Treatment unleashed on the SYTYCD stage since Twitch and the door dance. Did Cyrus dance at all? Because it looked like he just kind of stood around, did a few of his own signature popping moves, and did a lift or two and then walked and or ran to his mark while Eliana did turns and actual choreography in between posing prettily with Cyrus. All the same, while he wasn’t really asked to do anything, he delivered that nothing with a lot of gusto and spunk, but still. These two better dance next week because as Nigel noted, Eliana has it all over most of these girls and she was buried there running around and doing the booty shake. Boo.

Audrey and Matthew/Contemporary/Unchained Melody: The Righteous Brothers - Peanut!!! Y’all, it was so good I totally forgot to take notes the first time through. That was amazing. I needed to watch it again to even catch all the technical things that they were doing because I really did get all caught up in the emotion of the piece. Gorgeous. Just gorgeous. Matthew was excellent here (and he really is kind of a hottie patottie mini-Ryan Gosling which is whoa!) but the little neck farter was a revelation. Yes, the big leap of the couch was dramatic, but there were so many little moments where I was just blown away by her. The moment where they were on the couch and he raised her up into a standing position with back arched – man, doing that smoothly on a surface with lots of give like that couch was just awesome. And that last spinning lift where there was just one moment where she let him take all the weight and her flexed her toes, hands and arms out that required so much control and trust from the both of them. Awwww, Peanut. Now I want to watch your show even more.

Lindsey and Cole/Paso Doble/Unstoppable: E.S. Posthumous – I’ve watched it four times already and I am sure I’ll watch it many, many more times. Jason Gilkison put his foot in that Paso. Oh my word! I cannot even. Cole was everything in that number. As Mary said, the shapes and the lines were perfect. He was giving me fire and intensity and passion. Heaven! And first shirtless man flesh of the season. Let the church say “Amen”! I loved it a really lot from the opening pose to the end. Lindsey was quite good as well and I’ve not been a fan to date. But this kid Cole blew my whole entire mind. His carriage was insane and he nailed the character. My, my, my. I’ll echo Cat’s faaaabulous. Now that’s the way you close a show!

That was an amazing Top 20 show. Some of the kids were boring, but none of the kids were really bad. The show is loaded this season.

Top to Bottom Boys (since we’re not voting couples this season)

Best boys of the night and nobody else was even really all that close:

1. Cole 2. Matt 3. George

These kids were good (or in Will’s case decent) in bad routines:

4. Dariean 5. Daniel 6. Brandon 7. Will

These kids were forgettable, which is the worst sin of all on Top 20 night:

8. Chehon (couldn’t nail the style and went first) 9. Cyrus (not asked to do much more than stand around and smile) 10. Nick (not great in his own style)

Going Home

I think Nick will go home for sure. I didn’t even know who he was before tonight and that waltz was one of the weakest dances of the night. You can’t be bad in your own style right out of the gate. The second boot is harder. I don’t believe Cyrus will go anywhere. His fan base is too strong. I kind of think he should go, though. I’m afraid of the Cedric arc to come. I think Chehon might be in trouble. He danced first and while he wasn’t terrible, he wasn’t great and he got a lot of critiques from the judges. I sincerely hope I get to keep Eurotrash Danny for more than a week. Will might be a good candidate as he really didn’t do much of anything, but he was in a really fun routine and he might pick up some overflow votes from Amelia, who I think is pretty popular. I’m gonna go ahead and tag Brandon as boy boot #2. He did all he could with that tired NappyTab choreography but that routine was second worst of the night (after the waltz); it was buried in the middle of the show; and his partner danced like crap and I had no clue who she was. I just pray he doesn’t step for his DoD.

Top to Bottom Girls

Most of the girls all melded together into one long haired uber-contemporary dancer, but a few stood out from the pack:

1. Tiffany 2. Audrey 3. Amelia (no thanks to NappyTab)

These ladies were in the messy middle:

4. Lindsey 5. Eliana 6. Whitney 7. Alexa

Either bad or forgettable or both:

8. Amber 9. Janelle 10. Janayiah (continued...)

Going Home

For sure Janayiah is on her way out the door. She was bad in that hip hop. Janelle was not great in one of the better mid-pack routines and she didn’t dance last week either, so she might be going home, but she really does have a presence so I’d like to see at least one more week of her. Alexa looked heavy and slow in that Sean Cheesman jazz, but the show is pimping her hard so . . . she could last a while. I’m afraid I’m gonna lose my sassy blonde black girl next week. Amber was not that great in a bad routine and even though we are not voting couples this year, I’m banking on the jidges not wanting to break up partners this early in the season and since I already called Brandon and Nick as my boy boots, well, it follows.

And I’m done. Whew!

I don't think either we or the show have mentioned it, but Daniel is Alex Wong's buddy from the Miami Ballet and a bunch of goofy videos, i.e. [link] and [link]