He is so full of it!

I missed the first hour because I forgot it started at 7 in central time, but this is why I have a TiVo.

I'm so bummed that Alain was injured! I liked him.

I can't form opinions on this show without Kat!

Seriously.

Kat, we need you! Otherwise I don't know how to feel! (I'm finally watching the first hour, and half an hour in...yeah, so far not impressed--my biggest reaction was "oh, Stacey Tookey's hair looks nice").

OK, I will say I'm fairly impressed by this jazz routine, but it is probably more about the choreo than the dancing specifically. Though DAMN, kipping up onto six inch heels? Damn. I don't love the long blonde hair, but the other two are OK.

(OMG, Nigel just told them to leave something to the imagination?!? I'm shocked he doesn't want them more naked)

The brunette looks so much like someone on a CW show or something. Not sure who but...

(Also, on a separate note, Jaja is my favorite...and I suspect that supergay Megz is not long for this show)

SYTYCD Top 20 Thoughts

Opening credits this season are gorgeous. I loved, loved, loved them. Just seeing dancers stretch and warm up is so awesome. Ballet boys on the stairs for the win!

Opening Group Number/Chris Scott and Jessica Lee Keller/LXD Style Hip-Tempo - Even though they are pushing the black haired girl from Japan super hard, I can’t hate. She’s captivating and a really good little dancer. She was holding down that girls’ center from the jump. That said, JaJa is a beast. She was sharper and crisper than any of the other girls on that opening hip hop section and really drew the eye. Contempo girls are all super interchangeable for me at this point. I do enjoy the little tapper. She’s very versatile and she held down that center back. I also really like the blonde pixie. She is a muscular, meaty dancer and her plié in second was all of all of all. My least favorite is actually Travis’ pet, Kate. She seems very light, I mean, she’s well trained, but I wasn’t seeing much attack from her. Blonde long hair was attack times 11. She could stand to reel it in a little bit. I loved that Megz was in there holding it down with the b-boy moves just at the start of the male hip hop boys section. I heart Virgil so much. He is a cutie pie and I think he will be quite versatile thanks to his Broadway training. I was sad to see that they brought back the Israeli breaker. I did not enjoy his Vegas week outburst and he really struggled the whole week to pick up choreo. I’m not always a Nigel fan, but he was right about that one. I sense much Cedric-ing in his future. The contempo boys entry was super messy. Only mini-Alex Wong and the latino kid with the sideways Gumby cut really stood out for me. But that whole section into the whole group joining in was kind of a mess. You can already tell that the two “teams” are not used to dancing together. There was a real lack of cohesion once they all got on the stage. That makes me sad. Overall, the first group routine was just alright. It fell far short of some of the past great top 20 routines.

Cat’s dress was insane. The top looked like it was made out of Brawny paper towels. But the head was fabulous.

Megz-Neptune-JJ/Dave Scott/Hip Hop/The Illest – Far East Movement feat. Riff Raff – I really like Dave Scott, but I think he is a much better choreographer when he works with a larger group than he does when he works with a pair or trio. He struggles to find a way to fill the whole space when he’s only got a few dancers and he does a lot of intricate movement that looks better with a larger group because with a small group if the synchronization is even a little bit off, then it starts to look really messy. When the routine started, right after the solo intros, their spacing was all off. Neptune and Megz were way too close together and it bugged. Megz and Neptune were also giving movement that was way bigger than JJ, so it didn’t look synched. Once they went into the inverted triangle formation, the synch and spacing got much tighter and I thought they were crushing it. I thought both girls were selling harder than Neptune, but overall, nothing in this dance stood out for me or made me say, Whoa! They all could’ve hit harder and brought more performance to it, although Megz came closest in that respect. Nothing memorable about this trio.

Dear Nigel, the opening routine was not one of the best ever. Stahp. Also, Neptune is the god of peace? Ummmm, yeah. Also, also, don’t make me agree with Jason DeRulo, show. He was right. The performance was a let down and not sharp enough. Ugh. I feel dirty now.

I thought when Cat sent the trio off to see tWitch, she told him to give them some "tits" and I was like, "Whaaa? This is a family show!" and then I realized she said tips but in general, I don't enjoy the in the wings chats with tWitch and Travis anyway, so there's that.

Yay, Kat commentary is my favorite!!

Do you still blog any of this? My old roommate really wants somewhere to read SYTYCD stuff, but I have nowhere to steer her.

Moises/Gaby/Derek/Stacey Tookie/Contemporary/Luminous – Max Richter - This was a very Stacey Tookie routine which can usually be very, very good or very “meh.” This one was very good, I thought, not great. Derek is kind of a generic contempo boy. Moises has a little light about him. Gaby is amazing and not in an amazing for a tapper way but just in an amazing dancer way. Is now the time to talk about how cracktastic the lighting and camera work is already this season? Yes, I think now is the time! So much fog that I couldn’t see anyone’s feet or legs. That is not a good look for a dance show. And cameramen sprinting through the shot? When did that ever used to happen? Never. When Moises went to the ground during the opening eight counts, he went completely out of frame and we lost him. Was he doing something magnificent and gorgeous down there? Was he just picking his teeth? We’ll never know. Camerapeople, leave that crack alone. Once the fog lifted and the camera crew stopped running through the frame, this was a lovely dance. Moises was on another level technically from both Gaby and Derek, which I expected for her but not for Derek. Watch when all three go into their plies in second how much deeper his is than the other two, how much more over his toes his knees are. And then when he and Gaby are both doing side by side work while Derek does his leap, check how far down he goes into his splits in second, almost all the way to the ground, where she stays way up. It gives a grounded feeling to his dancing that the others didn’t quite match. But I will say their trio work was gorgeous and so synchronized. Really well done. And Gaby has a great center. Her turns were clean and tight. Just gorgeous control. All in all, a more than serviceable contempo piece. I liked it way better than Travis’ piece, but we’ll get to that later.

OK, BFree in the hat and scarf looking like an ultra pimp daddy deluxe in the audience next to Stacey was everything. I love him so much. He’s my spirit dancer. I hope he sticks around all season. Jason DeRulo went back to being useless here, so that made me feel a whole lot better.

Lilly-Jaja-Asaf-Burim/Hip Hop/Chris Scott/Easy (Switch Screens) – Son Lux feat. Lorde – I love these two hip hop girls. They are fire. I’m just gonna say right now that I didn’t really care about either of the boys in this group. It was all about the ladies for me. From the jump, I thought Lily and JaJa were murdering the choreo. The guys looked lazy and slow next to them. I don’t think it’s an accident that the girls were downstage and the boys were upstage once they broke out of that initial straight line formation. Also, during the transitions, the girls had much more difficult choreo while moving than the guys did. This would remain true throughout and it bugged. And once again, the lighting and the camera work here was really problematic. All four kids were dancing in and out of shadows such that at times, you really couldn’t see what they were doing. And shooting it so much from the side rather than head on was giving off some really weird angles. During all the close up scenes of b-boying, I just really was wanting to see Lilly and JaJa doing the hip hop choreo because they were crushing it and the b-boy moves felt like nothing I hadn’t seen before. I expect more from both of those gentleman if they plan to stay around for the long haul. JaJa and Lily have very different styles. JaJa hits harder and gives more face, but Lily has a better groove and was more in the pocket on some of the movement. I enjoy both of them a lot! Not one of my most favorite Chris Scott routines, but it held my attention.

Judgery: I love Cat Deeley doing her best Chris Pratt. Beast-y is not a thing. Go home, Jason DeRulo. You’re not drunk. You’re just annoying. And OK, Asaf thanking his group for staying up late with him to get the steps right was adorable. I’m somewhat mollified that he’s made it onto the show now.