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...)

( continues...) the table while Twitch danced. In a night of really stellar dances, it was just OK. That could be trouble next week. I agreed with Miss Debbie Allen that I was watching Twitch more than I was watching Hayley. That’s never a good thing and we have seen people hold their own with him in the past (Sasha comes to mind). I don’t know. As Nigel noted, she’s never been B3 before, so somebody in America must really like her. And I did love how Nigel kind of broke down what it really takes to be a working dancer. So good for the kids to hear.

Jenna and Neil/Contemporary/I Can’t Make You Love Me/Mark Masri – Mandy contemporary is also nice but the Hunchback is never going to be my favorite. And is it just me or does he not even look like the same person anymore? I swear, I wouldn’t have recognized him if they hadn’t said it was Neil. The intro package also seemed perfunctory. Jenna didn’t even get to say anything. Yeah, I’m sensing that she’s no longer a Nigel favorite. I will say that Jenna is one of the most versatile ballroom girls that they’ve ever had on the show. Probably right up there with Lacey in terms of her technique in contemporary. I thought this piece was exquisite. The running lift where they traveled the whole stage and then he picked her up into a turning shoulder lift with one hand? So difficult and beautifully executed. I thought the staging didn’t help out much as there were too many shadows and sometimes the dancers got obscured stuck in a dark corner, but the lifts were on point. Both showed lovely lines and extensions.. I noticed that there wasn’t a lot of cheering from the audience though, even on some of the big dramatic lifts that usually get the teens rallied. And Nigel agrees with me about her versatility. I don’t know how I feel about being in agreement with Nigel. He’s right in this case, so I’ll take it. I can’t tell whether they’ll save her over Mackenzie but they should. She really is a beautiful dancer.

Jasmine and Marko/Jazz/Blurred Lines/Robin Thicke – Ray Leeper is very hit or miss for me, so I’m interested to see whether good Ray or bad Ray shows up. OK, I was already almost all in just with the song choice. I love that ditty and I love Robin Thicke. I don’t care what anyone says about it being potentially kind of rape-y. I also appreciate the whole Janelle Monae vibe Jasmine’s costuming is giving off. I must give it up to the make up, hair and wardrobe crews. Did they fire all the hos and crack monkeys? Hmm, so I wanted to love this piece and just wound up kind of liking it. I liked the really stylized movements, all the bent knees, the isolations at the hips and shoulders and neck. I liked the characterization (on both dancers). I thought some of the bigger tricks seemed out of place in such a stylized piece. However, I was super distracted in that I didn’t think the two of them matched up at all. It’s tough because Jasmine is such a tall drink of water and Marko is like a compact, pocket dancer. It just wasn’t right between the two of them, His movements were much more staccato and cut off and hers were much more groovy and in the pocket. I don’t know which of them was doing it “right” but they weren’t doing it the same way and with so much side by side dancing, that became a huge distraction. Eh, I still love Other Jasmine and I think she put in work here, but I didn’t love this routine. I think the judges were confused by it too, which is why they defaulted to saying their eyes went to Jasmine more than Marko. This was a miss as a pairing.

Mackenzie and Jacob/Broadway/Too Darn Hot/Ella Fitzgerald – Jacob Karr. Oh, y’all know I think he is everything. And I usually quite enjoy Spencer’s Broadway pieces. This should be fun. If Mackenzie does well with this, it might vault her up over Hayley and her mediocre hip hop for a change (provided she even survives the week). And the routine was heaven. What did I love about it? Everything. Everything. From the opening on the table where she lays out that develope ending in a perfectly pointed through the pinky toe (continued...)

( continues...) foot (clad in red) – work! These children came to work. The choreography was stunning. I want to see this show even though I know it doesn’t exist. I think my favorite moment might have actually been the mirrored developes that were held and then the little kick at the end. It was such a “Toma, bitch! What?” moment. But then again, I also loved the break down at the end when it switched from remix Ella to pure Jazz Ella and they were doing all the glorious turn sequences and kicks across the floor and it felt all MGM Classics dazzling. Mackenzie was amazing in this piece. It’s the first time I’ve seen her sparkle. She was good in her partnership with Paul, but he kind of overshadowed her, I felt, and Hayley was there every week just being a shinier version of her. But this week she definitely flipped the script.

Nico and Comfort/Hip Hop/Get Ur Freak On/Missy Elliot - Nico gets a NappyTab hip hop? Yeah, they are ready for him to go home. Comfort is good at dancing down to her partners’ levels but she is not great at bringing them up to hers. NappyTab earns one point from me for using the old school Missy jam, but then they lose it right back with the whole reptile concept. Just let them dance to a hot track. We’ll get it. Oh, how the judges just lied to this kid (except Nigel). Comfort totally destroyed him on that dance floor without even really trying. Her reigned in was 100 times more hype than his full out. He was just too pulled up still. Too tall and not nearly sunk down enough into the ground, especially for a routine where they were supposed to be reptiles. Everything need more entrega…and I’m so upset that he’s making me speak Spanish because that routine could’ve been fire. It’s one of the better choreographed NappyTab pieces I’ve seen, requiring some actual skill with hip hop dancing. For that, at least, I’ll credit Nico. They did not give him some watered down lyrical hop pablum and he took a run at it. I don’t think he was successful at all. I only wanted to watch Comfort. Any time he was mainly in frame, I just wanted him to go away and let me see more of her. And can we pause to say WTF, camera people? I know it must be hard to get all those shots and angles just right but y’all can’t just run across the front of the stage all through the shot. Come on. It’s like the lighting and camera folks stole all the hair, make up and wardrobe hos crack and just went completely balls out crazy this week. Stage is consistently too dark. Wonky camera work. Meanwhile, the costuming has been a home run. Weird.

Tucker and Robert/Contemporary/Medicine/Daughter – God bless Peanut for bringing the same sex coupling. Even if Robert is not my favorite All Star. Soooo, let me get this straight. Nico gets a dance totally outside his comfort zone while Tucker gets a contemporary piece with one of the all time favorite contestants and choreographers on the show and it has the emotional Dead Daddy Dance/Cancer Dance angle? ‘Cause that’s totally fair. I mean, I shouldn’t complain because I want Nico to go home anyway, but come on. They should at least have a more level playing field on which to do battle. Once again, I’m just . . . I don’t have the words. Normally, I can’t stand these emotionally charged dances because I find them not only manipulative but also I find that it takes away from the actual quality of the dance but this piece was just phenomenal. I didn’t even care that the last series of leaps was not perfectly in synch (well, it was noticeable and they were perfectly in synch in the rehearsal footage, but I didn’t even care). The male assisted lifts were incredible. I really loved that one point where they had clasped hands, facing each other and broke down from shoulder, waist, down through the knees and then Robert had that flexed foot low kick. Ugh. Gut punch of beauty. They were breathing that piece. I felt my own self getting a little teary eyed. Not gonna lie. What a way to cap an outstanding night of dancing. And now I need to go and immediately find out what the deal is with Danny because (continued...)