megan swings and she scores. Thanks!

Well, I have just watched all 9 seasons.

Two Princes is Danny and Neil from Season 3.

My write-ups with favorite clips of Seasons 1-9 are here: [link]

This YouTuber has playlists for every season but 2: [link]

They are mostly backwards, which is annoying, but almost every dance is there.

Neil! and he was on tonight! D'oh!

I don't want to like him, but man Fik-shun has a real star quality. Personality Plus.

SYTYCD: the upper body on Brandon....*meow*

the ballroom (Jean-Marc) choreo was kind of fucked. The breaks in the dancing really looked bad. Paul looked okay, but the all-star (Whitney) looked BAD and I can only attribute that to the choreo. Her legwork was really choppy. Way over-praised.

I thought Melanie and Fik-Shun were spectacular - they seemed to inspire each other to be better. I missed some of it, due to a storm coming through.

I do wish they had people changing partners earlier in the season - sometimes it seems that someone good gets paired with someone who's not up to their level and both suffer.

Oh, I hate not chatting with y'all every week about SYTYCD because after a missed week, I always write way too much, so I apologize in advance. Also, I thought this was one of the best weeks of dance they've had in a long, long time. I thoroughly enjoyed it. So here goes.

MISS DEBBIE ALLEN!!!!! It’s about frikkin’ time.

OK, on to our regularly scheduled dance chat.

Cat looks gorgeous with the hair all sleek and flat ironed but that nude color washes her out a little bit. Discuss.

Top 10 Group Dance/Contempo-Jazz-Hip Hop-Ballroom-Fusion/The Gravel Road/The Village – It really doesn’t so much matter what genre the opening dance is supposed to be. The choreographers just go for the grab bag approach so that they can highlight everyone at least once. Love the opening with everyone in rockers. Eerie and evocative. Wow. So, I thought this piece was genius. Full stop. One of the best group dances on the show pretty much ever. All the work with the chairs was amazing. And all these children know how to point their feet. Hallelujah! Aaron and Other Jasmine were ruling that center. The moment with the girls on the floor kneeling while the guys stood behind the chairs and everyone was rocking back and forth in time was just so, ugh. And the girls were giving me some lovely ballet technique in their solo group section. I have to give super props to Fik Shun. He wasn’t as polished as some of the other boys, but he definitely brought his A game to something that was probably really foreign to him. And the section featuring Jenna made me remember why I used to like her so much. Gorgeous. Chris Scott is the man.

Fashion Side Note: I love that Cat is wearing a Wonder Woman cuff. I want it.

MISS DEBBIE ALLEN!!!! It cannot be said enough. And the weave is kicking. You go, Miss Debbie Allen. You go.

Solos – I totally forgot that Aaron is on the show primarily as a tapper. He’s so versatile. Other Jasmine is a beast. Still hate Nico. He just reminds me of every competition kid ever. He lacks maturity and just, ugh. Go home. Paul, on the other hand, is love. This kid has charisma. The others were just kind of there.

I normally don't even pay attention to the recap but I really did love last week’s show, even though I didn’t write about it. Damn out of town guests.

Bottom 4

Tucker

Mackenzie

Nico

Jenna

Mackenzie is just there for not being Haley. Apparently, America just hates Jenna. How long can they keep saving her? Pleasantly surprised that Nico is in the B4. Well done on that one, America.

Amy and Brandon/Disco/I Will Always Love You (Hex Hextor Radio Mix)/Whitney Houston - If we must have disco, I couldn’t have asked for a better couple. Brandon and Janette’s disco routines are still some of my favorite disco numbers on the show. Maybe only Nick way back in S1 has been better at Disco than Brandon. Doriana. Obviously. OMG, amazing. I could not have loved that more. They had a little bit of funkiness on the hand connections at the beginning, but once they got into it, the whole thing was fire. First of all, props to the wardrobe hos and the crack monkeys in hair and make up because the kids looked fabulous. I want that dress on my body right now. And the kids brought all kinds of attitude and fierceness. Brandon was giving me total Ben Vereen realness. They did a lot of dancing in this, not just lifts, which I appreciated. And I agree with the judges that Amy is magnetic. The smile, the hairography, the energy. . .it was all there. And the lifts themselves were spectacular. As Mary pointed out, the arabesque lift was insane. And the final death drop, ummm, BAM! 10s across the board.

My Thoughts Immediately After the Next Two Contestant/All Star Pairings Were Announced: OK, just from the initial pairings, we’re getting a sense of who the favorites are. I mean, not all All Stars are created equal. Amy gets Brandon and disco which he is famous for on the show. Fik Shun gets Melanie, one of the best winners they’ve ever had. And Aaron gets Kathryn, high (continued...)

( continues...) talker extraordinare and movie star. You know, it doesn’t matter that they’re not in the pimp slot when the favoritism is still this blatant right out of the box. They’ll probably stick Mackenzie with the Hunchback and give Nico a hip hop with Mischa Chan.

Aaron and Kathryn/Contemporary/I’m Kissing You/Des’ree – And they get Stacey Tookie, too? Also, spectacular song choice. Well, they should blow this out of the water. Oh, so glad to see Miss Debbie Allen back. “You took us somewhere.” Yes, you did, Stacey Tookie. That was…I can’t even. Aaron was a revelation. But on the whole “You’re just a tapper” front, yeah, no. Clearly, the bitch is trained. The stretch through the arms and fingers, the toe point, the flow in and out of the lifts. You don’t get that in a week. And those lifts were insanely difficult. What can I say about Kathryn? She’s glorious. And I watched him just as much as I watched her. Glorious. This one will leave a mark.

Fik Shun and Melody/Jazz/Feeling Good/Jennifer Hudson – I think this will be a good pairing for him and good that they got Mandy and Jazz. She likes quirky movement and she has set lovely pieces on hip hop kids before. I really liked her jazz piece with Courtney and Gev. Oooh, and it’s not 80s Mandy. She has been really trying to bust out of that bubble. Fik Shun is one of my favorite hip hop success stories on this show and I think it’s because much like with Gev or with Legacy, I do get the sense that he has not had much experience outside his genre. And he’s killing it. Killing it. Was this perfect? No. Does still need to stretch more through his legs and feet and some of the lifts were a little squirrely – you could see him still getting set and adjusting his feet and such. But much like Miss Debbie Allen, I didn’t care because he was giving it. The pair of them were working like the rent was due tomorrow. He committed to everything and I was thoroughly entertained. Melanie is ridiculous. That first lift where she bent over into a back bend and then turned it all the way over and slid between his legs all slinky style – ugh. From that moment, I knew that they were going to throw down. And Fik Shun is still just ridiculously adorable.

Wow. I am loving the choreography tonight.

Paul and Whitney/Cha Cha/Live It Up/JLo - They are letting Paul dance in his style. Whoop whoop. Whitney is one of my favorite firecrackers, too. Oh, this should be grand. Bring it Jean Marc. Although, JLo was immediate points off. You have two ballroom specialists. Let them dance a proper cha cha, dammit. Shut it down. These two shut it down from the very first pose. So hard to do all that on that little bitty platform. And watch the feet on these fools. If you are wondering what cha cha should look like, well, there’s that. I think they had one mishap on a lift when he slid her down to the floor. She hit kind of hard and you could see them readjust, but the technique on these two was just insane. They looked like what they are . . . two ballroom professionals out there putting on a show. That was fire. And yes, Miss Debbie Allen, the dress was working. The wardrobe hos are officially on it tonight. I see why Paul won SYTYCD Armenia and I see why he could win this SYTYCD. It will be close between him and Aaron.

Hayley and Twitch/Hip Hop/Locked Out of Heaven/Bruno Mars – Chris Scott likes LXD style hip hop (obviously) which can be kinder to the contemporary dancers than other styles/choreographers plus she’s paired up with one of the most popular dancers in the show’s history, so I’m thinking this worked out really well for Hayley even though she pulled a dance outside of her style. So, I thought this was a cute routine. A little derivative of the Sabra/Neil table dance but not as good, which is never a good thing on this show. I thought Hayley was more than passable. The tutting was cute and she did get into a decent groove. Some of the robotic stuff in the middle didn’t sit as well on her as on Twitch. I also think she got Cedric-ed a little, just standing on top of (continued...)