I don't care at all about National Dance Day. There, I said it. That felt good.

Group Dance/Dimman Kryperer Sakat In – Why is Malece all up in my grill from the very beginning? That’s unfortunate. This dance is very Cirque up in here at the beginning. And so much fog. I can’t even see the kids. But once the fog clears, ooh, twisted ballroom. Wonder who the choreographer is. Dmitri, maybe? Umm, Paul was turning it all the way out. He was crazy sexy in that boy’s triangle. Other Jasmine was also amazing during her time at center. Alan and Nico (whom I still don’t enjoy all that much), I see you. Nobody else made that much of an impression. That opening dance seemed really short. But enjoyable. Bravo, whoever. Yep, Dmitri, with a little help from Sonya for the Cirque-ier elements.

Side Note: Cat’s lipstick is way too dark for her coloring. Discuss.

Another one bites the dust? Dammit, show! Poor, Curtis. Ah well, he was slated for the chopping block this week anyway.

Guest Judge: I love Anna Kendrick. I think she’s as cute as a button. And she’s probably sassy and clever. Plus, she was wonderful in Camp, an underrated classic of the cinema and I think she can probably dance. Upgrade.

Dance Ins: Malece and Alan look well together. I’ll take it. Amy and Fik Shun are still favorites. Jasmine and Aaron are still the cutest.

B3 Jasmine Alan Alexis Curtis Mackenzie Nico

Oh, hell no, America. Jasmine in B3? Y’all are on that monkey crack. I’m assuming that the judges asked to see her solo so that they could drum up support for her.

Alexis/Stand by Me – Yep. I’m all the way over her. All the way over the tip toe tap. Her upper body is still weird. And she is a heavy dancer in every other style. And the outfit is an abomination before the lord. Go home, girl.

Jasmine/Endangered Species – Look at the plié in second. Suck it, bitches! That said, this solo was a little sloppy. She was kind of all over the place. The last turn sequence into the heel stretch was very well timed, though. It was alright. I like her much better in choreography.

Jenna and Tucker/Hip Hop/Slight Work/Wale feat. Big Sean - Jenna and Tucker get hip hop again? Damn. Who did they piss off? Well, Luther Brown can do some solid choreo when the mood strikes, so I’m hoping this will not be another MJ hot mess. They looked good in rehearsals. Let’s hope they didn’t leave it all in the studio. Jenna had some impressive hairography going and the twerking section on top of the speakers, she was kinda giving me booty, booty, booty, booty, shaking everywhere. And while she got into the hip hop character better, it still wasn’t quite right. She was trying too hard to bring the swag. Tucker was just way too goofy white boy to pull off this routine. It was like watching Ryan Gosling try to dance hip hop. Awkward. His movements were too pulled up, too big and too smooth. He looked like a cheerleader. It was a decent routine. Not that hard, but it was real hip hop, not storytelling lyrical hop. Nigel got it just right. Not convincing. Tucker was way too pulled up and Jenna was a try hard. Also, I don’t want to hear Mary say ratchet ever again. Go ahead, Anna. Just say it. It wasn’t good.

Alexis and Nico/Contemporary/Ashes/The Bengsons - Nico should do well with Sonya’s choreo. I hate Alexis, so I don’t care how she does. I like the costuming here. Well done, wardrobe hos. Alexis was better in this than I thought she would be. The two “I’ve been running” sections looked awful, but aside from that, she handled the choreo fairly well. I did not like the face. The pain was a little over done. She looked constipated. But, you know, good toe point, decent turn out. I still thought she was dancing a little heavy. On a couple of those lifts, it looked like a struggle for Nico. And yes, he’s a kind of slight guy, but I think a part of it was just that she is still learning how to hold her weight in a lift. Needs more work on her center. Nico was good here. Nice leaps, lots of amplitude. He is a great little turner. Lovely center and he danced in and out of those turns well. I don’t know, he just doesn’t do it for me. He still seems like an immature dancer and he throws some moves away. Mary seemed to like it much more than I did. Mary is on the sauce, though, sooooo.

Hayley and Curtis/Tango/Este Es El Rey/Juan D’Arienzo - Sans Curtis and she gets to dance with Leonardo? Lucky. I bet Leonardo and Miriam upped the difficulty once he went out. Gorgeous. Simply gorgeous. I rewound and watched it again right away. Twice. But it’s really kind of not even fair because Leonardo is a phenomenal partner and that makes such a huge difference for the lady in ballroom. Watch how he is leading her with just the smallest pressure of an open palm on her back. Look at how close they get in their closed hold sections. Watch him place those ganchos in just the right spot. Don’t get me wrong, Hayley was lovely. Her legs are a rival for Other Jasmine. And she really did get the technique down, or so it seemed. I just feel like it’s kind of grading on an enormous curve. Oh, and once again, well done, wardrobe hos. The dress is gorgeous. Also? I love that Anna Kendrick is a true fan. I, too, remember that they tried to sell this girl as a sexpot and from the jump, it was clear that she was more than that.

Mackenzie and Paul/Jazz/You’ll Find a Way/Santigold - I enjoy Jazz Sonya. Paul is a wonder. Where did this ballroom boy come from? OK, I have to start where the dance left off because that ending pose was to die. Toma! Paul was great in this piece. He was giving me a little Mark from Hawai’i there (including a little bit of the dead fish feet, which was unfortunate). He really got into that character. Wicked kid. And Mackenzie is lovely. Gorgeous feet and really grounded technique. I think she’s not clicking because she lacks a little bit of that star thing. I get her confused with Hayley all the time and then I remember that I like Hayley more. And Paul just has that star thing, so he maybe overshadows her a little bit. I can see why he won SYTYCD Armenia. I will also eat my hat if ballroom is the only thing he’s ever trained in. With those leaps, that solid double turn and that flexed foot, grounded jazz walk? The bitch is trained. I am loving Nigel having to eat a little crow because he was not checking for Paul at all early on in the season. He must have a substantial fan base. Anyway, good routine from Sonya. I much prefer her in jazz mode. She tends to use fewer Sonya clichés than in her contemporary pieces.

Jasmine and Aaron/Contemporary/The District Sleeps Alone Tonight/Birdy - I do not think I know Justin Giles. Yay for fresh meat! Story dance and prop dance? Ambitious! Shame that the choreographer does not seem to actually be familiar with the story of The Giving Tree. The tree would not fight to keep its apples. It would freely give them to the boy. That’s kind of the whole point. But oh, well. You tried, fresh meat. You tried. So the routine was really interesting. The opening moves with all the flexed feet from Jasmine were great. The flexed feet were giving me life. And I did appreciate the sharpness and quickness in a contemporary piece which can tend, on this show, to be confined to flowy and ethereal. The piece was giving me a kind of Lester Horton thing more than Martha Graham and that jazzier side of modern was nice to see. I was afraid that the apple was going to be a bit gimmicky, but I have to agree with Mary that after a while, I didn’t even notice it was there. It just seemed like an extension of the two dancers. And the little bit where Aaron kicked the apple out of Jasmine’s hand, over her head, and then he walked over and caught it? Genius. Good debut.

Amy and Fik Shun/Hip Hop/Let’s Get It On/Marvin Gaye - More story dancing. Great. And let me just say that I do not support the use of Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On in any reality TV environment. The use of this song on a reality TV show cannot not be cheesy. So these kids had better bring it because I’m already inclined not to like the performance based on bad song choice alone…and dammit if the routine was not more adorable than a basket of puppies and kittens. These two have chemistry for days. And up until the little stumble, I’d say they were close to perfect. Fik Shun was totally rocking both the choreo and the character and I just don’t think there is anything that Amy can’t do. She was sharp and snappy and sassy and in character her damn self. I think the water pour got away from Fik Shun and got not only on the menus but also on the floor and that’s why she slipped, but she did recover like a total pro and the rest of the routine was spot on. Excellent choreography from Chris Scott. Great execution from these two. For my money, they haven’t missed a beat all season. I can see Nigel’s point about the similarity of the characters they’ve played, but that is more a function of the choreo than of them. I thought the one angsty modern piece they were given, they did fine. I’m still all about them. And Chris Scott avoided my wrath on the use of MG by embracing the cheese.

Malece and Alan/Salsa/Pa’ Los Rumberos/Tito Puente and his Orchestra - I’m so concerned. I do not think Malece has the heat to bring it like it should be broughten. Alan will be amazing. Seems like luck (Read: Nigel) continues to look out for this one. And who is Jonathan? More fresh meat. He’s young. He looks like he could be on SYTYCD himself. It’s been a long time since they had a good salsa choreographer. So, the routine was a total trick factory and it’s annoying that this is what most salsa routines come down to on this show. I get why choreographers do it. Salsa technique is actually really, really hard (one of the few ballroom dances that I’ve actually tried to learn so I know how hard it is!) and you can’t pick it up and dance a true pro style routine in the two or three days that these kids have. But still, there were so many tricks in this piece. And although Mary tried to pretend otherwise, lots of the transitions into and out of those lifts were clunky as hell. And most of that had to do with Malece. I could feel her hesitating just a tick going into some of those big tricks and that threw a lot of the piece off for me. The dancing just felt like set up for the lifts, a couple of which were truly spectacular. The flip with the kick out? Amazeballs! Alan was great here. On the sections that they were actually dancing as opposed to lifting and throwing, I thought he was extremely rhythmical, good hip action, the right feet and he really had to work to partner Malece through that. Her hip action was terrible most of the time and she was often behind the beat meaning he really had to lead. It sometimes looked like he was pulling her along. Oh, also, they have no chemistry and I definitely don’t see them making babies. Other than that, I thought it was great? Umm, let’s see . . . something nice. . . something nice? I spotted Alex Wong in the audience and I let out a little scream. That’s all I got.

Curtis/Malece/Alan/Jenna/Nico/Hayley/Mackenzie/Broadway/Come Together/Joe Cocker – Thank heavens they are letting Spencer Liff handle the Broadway this week and not Tasty. Also, it seems almost everybody got the memo about prop week. What the hell? Step away from the props, SYTYCD choreographers. Y’all are just chasing Emmys now and it’s embarrassing for you. Loved seeing Spencer dance. Very cool. Loved the whole Greasers vibe of the dance. I actually thought the props worked well. Hayley totally pulled focus in a good way in this dance. She’s a little star. It was interesting that Malece got pulled out of the little turn sequence with pool cues. Was she missing it? Not sure. I agree with Mary that Nico’s work continued to be a little juvenile in the piece. He pulled focus in a bad way. Alan was solid but not spectacular which makes sense since his forte is ballroom and Spencer was putting in work up there. Jenna grabbed me early in the routine when she was up center stage right as well. I really liked the piece. I would like Broadway on this show to be like that all the time. *cough*No More Tyce Broadway*cough*

Aaron/Jasmine/Fik Shun/Amy/Tucker/Paul/Alexis/Contemporary/Tears of an Angel/Ryandan – Bonnie Story. More fresh meat. I am actually loving all the new choreography a really, really lot, even when I don’t like it, you know? And speaking of that, I didn’t expect to like this piece. It seemed like it would be very much in the vein of the Dead Daddy Dance. Wow. So this was seriously the heavy hitter group. I thought they all did wonderfully well and the piece was a lot stronger than I had imagined it would be. I love that fresh meat Bonnie didn’t sideline any of the dancers. She expected everybody to step up and put in work – leaps, turns, strong grounded movement, lots of stretch. They all were asked to dance it all. Aaron, Amy, Jasmine, Paul, Tucker were all good and I expected them to be. Fik Shun was better than I expected him to be. His legs were bent in some of the leaps when they shouldn’t have been and his toe point wasn’t as complete all the way through the arch and toes as some of the others, but he really hung in there and was not a distraction at all. I thought he was remarkable for (I assume) not having that much modern dance training. And even Alexis didn’t pull focus in a negative way. Well, done, kids.

I liked the mini-group dances. I hope they continue that.

Going Home

Alexis and Curtis. That was obvious once the B3 boys and girls were announced. I think the right folks are going home. Awww, kids. Tappers and this show, man. They just don’t mix.

So Nico and Hayley, now? I think Hayley might bring out something good in him.

Who should be B3 next week? Tucker and Jenna both. Malece. Nico. I don’t know about the other two. Everybody else was pretty darn good. Maybe Alan is the third boy? He doesn’t seem to have much of a fan base and I thought that salsa was perhaps the worst routine of the night. For the girls, I’d probably go with Mackenzie again just because I don’t think she sparkles, but seems like America is not as much in love with Other Jasmine as I am, so it might be her again. I can’t call it. Aside from Malece who I straight up just don’t like and Nico who just dances too young, I’d say it’s a very evenly matched group now.

Tappers and this show, man. They just don’t mix.

The other thing is that their solos don't endear them to the audience. If they've been in the bottom more than once, you feel like you've seen it before. Although Alexis' outfit was TRAGIC and pulled focus for me. Not just jeggings, but RIPPED JEGGINGS. Ugh!

The fugliness of those pants was burning my retinas.

Y'all, new salsa choreographer was apparently actually a contestant on SYTYCD in S5! Jonathan Platero. 1) I have no memory of this kid. 2) I was totally right when I said that he looked young enough to be a contestant on SYTYCD and I love being right! 3) I love that the show continues to let former contestants come back as choreographers. SYTYCD family forever.

Y'all, new salsa choreographer was apparently actually a contestant on SYTYCD in S5! Jonathan Platero.

He looked familiar when they showed him, but I have no memory of him during his season. And I just rewatched most of it.

Kat, I think you will be pleased to hear that when I was writing up Season 6 I realized there were actually Broadway numbers I liked. So I went and looked them up, and to a dance they were the ones not by Tasty. And then I went back and realized he had done almost all Broadway to that point and maybe that's why I had nothing to say about it.

megan, this does not surprise me at all. When it comes to Broadway, Tasty ruins everything!

I don't think I even realized that next week, we will get our Top 10/Tour dancers. This is going to be a big B3! If anyone other than Malece or Mackenzie goes home for the girls, I will be miffed. For the boys, I would love it if it were Nico, but he's young and pretty in a very pre-pubescent friendly way so he might escape. That makes me scared for Alan.

My Top 10 would be:

Girls Amy Other Jasmine Hayley Jenna Mackenzie

Boys Aaron Paul Alan Fik Shun Tucker

And that is in order of preference. The boys were a surprise to me. Paul leapfrogged a ton of folks! Sadly, I think America will mess up and put the wrong folks in the B3 again next week, allowing Nigel and Co to swap out Alan for Nico and Malece for Other Jasmine or Mackenzie. I will be sad, but then I will remember that getting to top 10 means getting to All Stars and I will magically become very happy again!

bah! Malece is going to stick around longer than she deserves ... for some reason the judges like her (cough*Nigel*cough).

And watching the tango (loved it!) I realized that it's playing off slow and sensuous moves with fast sharp moves.

SYTYCD: Oh, wow, I really enjoyed the ballroom-ness of the opening group number.

I'm fine with Cat's lipstick. Yeah, it's dark, but it's a good color