Watching Heroes of Cosplay. How do you do all that work and not have extra batteries?

Wish they'd actually FOCUSED on a few of the top 20 during the vegas week stuff--I have no idea who most of them are.

Totally. Who are these people? I guess I will find out next week. Other than Ricky who is glorious and Marcquet who seems delightful (although anytime he is on screen I just keep trying to remember who he reminds me of, it is driving me nuts that he looks so familiar). Oh, I do like the tappers, especially after their ballroom round, but I'm biased towards that style. Everyone else is kind of a blur.

Disappointed about Jaja and Johnny Waacks - they both were impressive out of their styles, I thought. It would have been fun to see what they could do on the show.

Sonya Tayeh is fucking amazing. That is all.

Yes she is.

So maybe Stanley is my new favorite? As a person/dancer.

Also, I was glad to learn that Malene is foreign and not just oddly-spelled.

(Am waiting for Kat to tell me what to think about the dances...)

Yay, show! I may have been a little bit over-excited, so there will be lots of notes. Forewarned is forearmed.

It’s Top 20 night. What? And Cat has more flyaways than an LAX runway, so that means it’s on!

Top 20 Group Dance/Some type of Hip-Hop-Contempo Hybrid/Sonya/Stalker Ha/Kingdom – Just from the way the kids are dressed and the first few beats of the music, I can tell this is Sonya. She does have an aesthetic, does she not? Why are there so many of them? Why are they all in hats so you can’t tell who anyone is? I don’t remember skinny black kid at all. But I do remember Ricky. Ruling that center already. He’s so everything and then some. Fun choreo. Sonya seems to have expanded her movement vocabulary in interesting ways. It’s still her, but more varied. She was getting a little bit stale towards the end of last year. Love the weird stag leaps. Love the turn section from Ricky and his back up Rickys. The only girls I recognized were Tanisha and Jourdin who were both lovely here. Fun way to start the show. Not the best top 20 routine ever, but it gave some shine.

Dance Ins – Bridget is still boring. Casey is still a nobody. Brooklyn is still not very good. Emilo is still someone I don’t know well despite almost making the show last year. Carley is still a contempo Brooklyn. Marcquet is still adorable. Emily is still another indistinguishable contempo girl. Nick is still a little cheesy. Jacque is other ballet girl. Ricky is everything. Jessica is still annoying. Rudy needs to stop doing that one move. Jordin is yes. Serge is more acceptable with more hair. Marlene still looks like everyone’s mom. Stanley is a nice surprise. Tanisha is still a firecracker. Teddy is still not a very good hip hop dancer. Valerie is still cute as a button. Nick is no Aaron.

First impressions all done.

There’s a new production of On the Town hitting Broadway? Well, now I need to go to New York. Now first impressions all done.

Serge and Brooklyn/Cha Cha/Dmitry/Hell Yeah/Midnight Red – Dmitry’s choreo always brings the sexy. Brooklyn is very unsteady on her heels. It’s like she’s never danced in heels before which is strange for a ballroom specialist. She has a nice upper body, good arms and supple back. But the footwork is awful. Serge is amazing. Very strong and framing her very well. And he’s really having to work because homegirl is on the edge of falling all the time. And what is on her butt? Is it paper? Is it a bandage? It’s super distracting. I did not like it at all. Brooklyn is terrible. What is with Cat and the sweat? It’s so wrong. Poor Serge. I think she secretly hates him. I love that Mary brought it to Brooklyn like it should be broughten. Not grounded. Exactly. Ballroom Expert Mary is the best! Jason DeRulo did not have an auspicious start as a judge. The show is not about you and your concert tour. Boo. Nigel was also right that Brooklyn was not giving anything to Serge. All her energy out to the audience. I am definitely not a fan. She’s dismissed.

Emily and Casey/Contemporary/Travis/All of Me/John Legend – These two got Peanut so clearly somebody up there likes them, but honestly, could they be more generic? I think I remember liking Emily once, but Casey…it’s like every time I see him is the first time. I have no memory of him once he’s out of my direct line of sight. Also, this John Legend song is completely played out now. You can do better, Peanut. So, I hate choreo that maps directly to the words of the song. On mouth, grab her mouth. On kicking me out, kick him. Why? It’s so cliché. Also, she is all tipsy tumbles every time she picks her feet up off the floor which lets me know that she does not have a solid center. Nope. All over them and we’re maybe 10 seconds into the song. I did enjoy the move where he brought her leg up into an extension and then she hooked his neck. But of course she could brace against him so less need to hold her own weight. And why are they competition smiling through this entire routine? Casey has nice technique but he is completely forgettable. She was again shaky on that last hold where she was in plié and he laid his whole weight on her during his back bend. Yeah, no. Uninspired choreo from Peanut and so so dancing from the pair of them. And hot air from the judges. All over no.

Valerie and Zack/Tap/Anthony Marjorato/Sing/Ed Sheeran – Anthony Marjorato is such a baby face. He looks like he should be in an Our Gang short. These two are just as cute as a basket of kittens and puppies. And while I know very little about tap, the routine seems ridiculously difficult. Nick kind of transforms when he is tapping. He is all kinds of geeky goofy in normal life and then he becomes cool and almost sexy when he’s dancing. Crazy. And he seemed to be dealing with the stairs much better than Valerie. She kept looking down like she was afraid she was about to fall which I would have totally been doing, too, but it kinda defeated the purpose of making it look effortless! The paired work when they were both on the same side of the staircase looked really cool, but again, Valerie kept looking down. It was distracting. He just seemed much better than her. There was something labored about her performance here. She’s still cute as a button though. And I liked the performance. I just didn’t love it. It’s fun to hear Nigel talk about tap since he so clearly knows his shit. And Jason DeRulo was a tapper. Huh. Who knew?

Stanley and Bridget/Contemporary/Bonnie Storey/Doesn’t Mean Goodbye/Jon McLaughlin – New blood in the contempo choreographer pool is always welcome. But she’s given us a table to signal to us longtime fans that she knows what’s up on this show. Thanks, Bonnie Storey. This Stanley is a little piece of heaven. Those running stag leaps into the switch split leaps. Ugh. Yes, children! Also the double turns into arabesque? So solid. Bridget is giving me a little something something I didn’t really know she had. The technique on these two is solid. That said, they have no chemistry to speak of. I don’t at all buy that they are in love with each other. But the dancing is very pretty. And Stanley is maybe doing a little too much with the facial expressions, but these kids are on point with the movement quality. They dance down into the floor really well, which makes it all the more impressive when they pull those leaps or the turns like the ones in the second extended sequence. Clean quadruples? I will take it. Good debut from Ms. Storey. I would like to see more of her work. And more of these two. They were lovely. Good Mary has shown up to judge tonight. Nice. Jason DeRulo is a useless judge. Go home, and take your Mr. T chain with you.

Jacque and Jourdan/Ballet/Marat Dalkiev(?)/Pas de deux –Black Swan/Tchaikovsky - Russian balletomane? Yess! And did you check the hug at the beginning. Look at the feet on ballerina #1. God, y’all. I love turn out so, so much. Fouette turns, bitches! Eat it. I think I just died and went to ballet heaven. Oh, Jourdan totally fell off her center right after that, though. That was unfortunate. And both of them got behind the music. They were not hitting their marks right on the beats. Apparently, those fouettes took a lot out of them. And then, oh, my. The synchronization on those turning jetes was just…not what it should have been. Oh, ladies. And sadly, the one who was late and seemed the most off on timing was Jourdan, and she was my fave going into this, but she was outdanced here by Jacque. I secretly think that Jourdan’s technique is a little bit stronger than Jacque’s but Jourdan seriously lacked the stamina to get through this routine. It was tough. Marat did not take it easy on them, but she should have been able to push through more than she did. I am going to say that she got knocked off her game when she could only make it to demi-pointe on that one move and hope for a better showing from here on out. That was disappointing. I think Eliana was a better ballerina than both of them. Jason DeRulo didn’t even try to judge this. Worthless.

Snoop looked as disinterested in the Jason DeRulo performance as I felt. Enough said.

Malene and Marcquet/Samba/Louis Van Amstel/Morning Drums/Gregor Salto – I’m glad Louis is back. I’m confused about where the “R” sound is coming from in this girl’s name. And now to the dance. But first, the costume is amazing. I want to be wearing it right now. In fact, the costuming tonight on the kids has been very much not-cracktastic. Well done, wardrobe hos. Here’s hoping y’all can stay on the wagon this year. I thought their dance was overall pretty freaking fantastic. I got to that good place where I wasn’t even taking notes, just watching. His footwork was phenomenal. Hers was good, too, but she seemed to be slipping a little just like Brooklyn was at times (although she dealt with it better because she is a pro) so I’m wondering if the floor wasn’t just a little bit slippery for ballroom heels last night. They had much more chemistry and played to each other more than did the first ballroom pair (although I still would’ve liked seeing less playing to the camera from the pair of them). The samba rolls were lovely. I do think it kinda looked like Marcquet was out there dancing with his mom (or his dance teacher). Malene just looks a lot older than the rest of these kids. The close ups on her face were not kind. Crow’s feet at 26? Leave those tanning beds alone, kids. She’s got a case of sun old. Now we’ve got hot rolls instead of hot tamales from Mary? OK. That’s maybe better?

Rudy and Carly/Contemporary/Stacey Tookey/Take it Easy/Jetta – Rudy kind of wears me out, y’all. I think maybe I’m too much of a curmudgeon to enjoy that level of aw shucks. Thank the gods he’s not like that when he’s dancing. Loved the intentionality of this routine from the very fist pose with her arms up and his head on her shoulder. The push/pull of it was captivating. Loved his power matched against her fluidity. Loved how his movement was kind of raw and almost unfinished in the hands and feet (Point all the way through the baby toe, Rudy! You can do it) while she was all refinement and flow. And the lifts where she wrapped her legs around his waist and then he lifted her up into a pike position twice? So difficult from both of them and beautifully done. I think they have the best connection with each other that we’ve seen tonight. I believed them together. Rudy definitely needs to work on refinement and finish, especially those feet. Dead fish feet are never cute. But, I really enjoyed that performance. I felt it from both of them. Carly was lovely but forgettable. There are much better contempo girl dancers than her this season. I’d definitely put Bridget above her right now. Did DeRulo say 4 are going home next week? Brutal! Then Nigel said only 2. Who is right?

Emilio and Teddy/Hip Hop/Christopher Scott/Night Shift/The Commodores – So I tried not to pay attention to the intro packages but these two managed to be incredibly unlikeable in theirs to the point where I couldn’t ignore it. Teddy, especially was giving off Robin Thicke vibes and that is an all over hell to the naw. Don’t be that guy, Teddy. I will say that I think it was unfair that Teddy was made to dance in his secondary style (He’s primarily a tapper, no?) because he was really exposed here. His performance looked like what it was – a better than average attempt at hip hop from a non-hip hop specialist. But even then, he wasn’t even as good as Alex was in the Alex and Twitch hip hop or someone like Mark in the hip hop he did with Comfort, and so I was left severly underwhelmed. I thought Emilio was owning it, as he should have since this was actually in his style. And Chris Scott is the man. Night Shift? Genius. He’s always so clever with his choreo. I am grateful to SYTYCD for bringing this man into my life. On second or third watch back, I gotta say that Emilio was killing it. Killing it. He was so smooth when he needed to be, hard hitting when he needed to be. The judges went on and on about his tricks, but he nailed that choreo to the wall. And he got the laid back old school vibe of the piece. I could totally buy him as an old black (continued...)