FLOTUS loves Gravity which is one of my favorite dances ever on SYTYCD so that just reconfirms for me that FLOTUS is unimaginably awesome.

Not even for the All Stars would I sit through a Jason DeRulo performance. FF.

Team Stage/Warren Carlyle/Broadway/Body Language - Queen - Hey, Tasty is not here doing Broadway so that’s already a win. Sadly, it’s yet another choreographer “inspired by” Bob Fosse. Look, I have nothing against Bob Fosse or inspiration. In fact, I quite like both. It’s just that most of the time “inspired by Bob Fosse” just turns out to be “copying moves directly from Fosse choreography” which if that’s the case, I’d rather just watch Fosse’s choreography. But let’s see what this dude can do, shall we? And ahhhhh, song choice is love! This song was the soundtrack to one of my most favorite SYTYCD solos ever (Blake, S1. If you’ve never seen it, go here right now and watch it and get your whole entire life and you can thank me later: [link] so I am already about 80% on board. The costuming was also super on point and got me feeling the Fosse moment, so well done wardrobe hos. Right from the start, these little ones were giving me everything I wanted. That little walk those boys did with the pelvis forward, hats and shoulders back just swinging around the girls with the canes in the middle was a) so hard and b) so stylized and c) so right. Everything. I died! Moises and Gaby’s tap break? Yes! (Even though Moises did fall out of his turn. Yes, I saw it and must note it even though the rest was fierce and the turn was super tricky) Hailee and Marissa were giving it from the walks in on the girls’ foursome and Alexia and Kate were…there. They are just not that exciting. I can’t imagine they won’t be the first to go of the stage girls. Jim, Edson and Moises all showed solid partnering skills during that chair sequence for the girls although I felt Moises had the best feel for the Fosse style. I was surprised that Darion didn’t do the partnering section as I imagine he’s done a lot of partnering in ballet which makes me think that maybe he didn’t pick up the Fosse style as well as some of the other boys. As Jim noted in the rehearsal footage, it’s very different from ballet. Much more grounded and down into the floor, not so pulled up, with lots of hip action and lots of flexed foot, flexed hands. Maybe it just didn’t sit well on him? They all were doing really well with the prop work until Alexia dropped her cane. Aww, poor boo boo. I bet she felt awful as she was the only one that dropped. But she recovered quickly. Overall, it was a fun routine. I felt like really only Moises, Marissa and Hailee got the Fosse movement vocabulary right. Gaby had her moments, but in the initial duo work with the cane that she did with Alexia, neither one of them was really giving me the broken down, Gwen Verdon style movement that was required. They were both still way too pulled up. And Jim tried, bless him, but I think he might have come out of the womb in turned out fifth position. Still, good showing for Team Stage. And a fun routine that was reminiscent of Fosse but not a total rip off. I liked it.

Team Street/NappyTab/Hip Hop/Ready or Not Here I come – District 78 feat. Cheesa - Sigh. I guess. You know, in rehearsal, the choreo looked…really good. But like, really good. I was shocked. It was shocking. I got excited about the performance. I forgot that when they are not doing contempo-hop, they are actually really good choreographers. Asaf wanting to tap out on the choreo? Yeah, right back out of my good graces. Whatever little bit of grace he’d earned by being so sweet to his group members was gone in the blink of an eye. tWitch was extremely gracious but I’m sure he wanted to whoop ass, let security carry ‘em out, all Luda style. That shit just cannot fly and it’s only week one! And onto the performance. I don’t totally understand how this song is not a Fugees song, but whatever. Let’s go. I also didn’t like tWitch being on stage with his team. It’s not about you right now, Boo Boo. OK, now really, let’s go. The girls were murdering this choreo. JaJa put Neptune in his grave during their very brief pairing. And then Ariana, Lily and JJ came out with the whacking section and it was on and cracking. These hip hop girls are so serious. That front line of ladies plus Virgil once the whole group started? Hitting so hard I felt it in my living room. Say it with your chest, kids! I was living for this routine right up until they really did just take Asaf and Burim off stage while the other kids did choreography. What type of tomfoolery is this? I can’t. It’s bad enough that none of these kids have had to dance outside of their pre-determined boxes yet, but now you are telling me that two of your street dancers can’t even dance in their own style? Over it. On a good note, the rest of the kids killed it. JaJa was so grimy here. She hits harder than any dude, y’all. For real. I was also really enjoying Megz and Lily. They are my top three hip hop girls. But the other ladies are also serious. And all of them are better than Neptune, who’s not terrible but not memorable either. Virgil is the cutest. And at least Burim came back at the end with some solid breaking whereas Asaf? Did we just never see him again until the ending pose? Yeah, no. But Team Street came with it. I’m not gonna lie. They were better than Team Stage.

Didn’t Cat say that they were going to be revealing what styles the kids would be taking on next week and then that just didn’t happen. I didn’t hallucinate that, right?

OK, so Top 20 is in the can! My favorites, irrespective of teams:

Girls
JaJa
Lily
Megz
JJ
Marissa
Gaby
Hailee
Yorelis
Alexia
Ariana
Kate

It’s super tight within the first five or six because all of those girls really made an impression on me tonight. And I love that four of my top 5 are hip hop girls. We’ll have to see how they work outside of their own styles now.

Boys
Virgil
Jim
Moises
Darion
Edson
Burim
Derek
Neptune
Asaf

My top four are my top four by quite a ways. There’s a big drop for me between Darion and Edson. The hip hop boys are substantially weaker than the hip hop girls.

I’m not quite sure how voting off will work this year. Will we get B2 or B3 from each team and then dances for your life and then one from each team gets booted? I just…I’m confused, family. So I’ll just say that from Team Stage, I could easily loose Kate or Alexia from the girls or Edson or Derek from the boys. From Team Street, I wouldn’t want to let go of any of the girls, but if I had to, I guess I’d let go of Ariana. I could lose Asaf or Neptune from the boys and not even really feel it.

Much better first show than I was expecting!

Oh my word, y'all! The last seventy-leven billion posts are just me musing about SYTYCD. Just like old times!

I don't blog it anymore because I don't feel sufficiently inspired but I'm glad to be able to always share my random thoughts here with you lovely peeps.

We love you sharing your thoughts!! So much! I almost feel inspired to re-watch, with your critiques!

Very interesting about the one dancer who danced in Shaping Sound. Huh. And I too am very confused about how all this is going to work with eliminations and stuff. And I totally noticed the break dancers just leaving the stage in that one number. So pathetic--but then, I've pretty much never been a fan of breaking on this show, and definitely think there are some boys out there who are hating on Asaf bigtime right now and with good reason. There's got to have been better boys.

JFC, Nigel going on about the bringing of two worlds together, like that isn't the EXACT THING THIS SHOW HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT. And going on about a ballet boy doing hip hop?? It's like he never saw Alex Wong and Twitch!

Especially when that piece was so fucking weak! I mean, it was nice, but not the fucking second coming.

Fuck these people.

Not sure why I'm so angry.

I actually liked the piece quite a bit, until Nigel started talking

SYTYCD: Not reading whatever Jesse wrote above, but trying to capture my impressions:

I actually kind of enjoyed a lot that opening number. I'm not sure how I feel about the makeup/costuming? Is it appropriate?? Also, covering everyone up like that meant that for many of them I had a hard time telling who it was. Also I kept trying to figure out if Megz was in a dress. :)

Intros: I seriously have no idea who half these people are. Definitely interested to see what happens this week.

(Cat, why are you wearing pink with red? Do not like)

Also...do i really believe this was a "random" dance style? NOT ONE BIT.

I miss having guest judges. Mostly because that would mean we'd get awesome people occasionally even if we sometimes got awful people.

Darion/Yorelis/Hailee: (salsa) Blucutu--Saamara: Oh that lift. Sad. No idea if they're really getting any footwork at ALL, but Yorelis and Hailey are at least really trying with the face and energy, it seems. He disappeared on stage. (And the judges seem to be with me on this) I'm not shocked he's in danger, because I seriously don't remember what he did last week.

The backstage chat with mentor bit is so useless

Ariana/Derek: (jazz) Cry Me a River--Michael Buble (seriously? This song??) The beginning of this basically looks like bad mime. And...wow, it just isn't any better. The rehearsal footage looked so much better than this? Awful. I blame a lot of it on the costume crackwhores.

Virgil/Megz/Alexia: (contemporary) Until We Go Down - Ruelle: Oh, I want to like Megz, but girl needs to stand straighter, keep her head up, and have more...crisp? purposeful? movements. Alexia got lucky with her own style. Virgil...harder for him to stand out here, but I guess he was OK. (He remains adorable though)

Lily/Burim/Gaby/Edson; (Bollywood) I feel like the girls were killing it way more than the boys, until the end where Edson stepped it up a bit in energy. Not loving Burim. But honestly it was pretty entertaining.

Kate/Neptune/Asaf (Broadway): All About That Bass - Postmodern Jukebox: Ugh, I really hope Asaf gets kicked off. Kate has lovely legs, but I am not feeling her at all. There were a couple moments when I dug Neptune, but mostly this was very meh for me. OMG why are the judges talking him up?!?!? Also I can't believe how often I agree with Jason Derulo. WTF? AAAAGH, SERIOUSLY ASAF IS SAFE HOW?!?!

Jaja/Jim (hip hop) No Woman No Cry - Bob Marley: I love Jaja, she's amazing. He had some good moments in there. Glad they're both safe.

Marissa/Moises/JJ (jazz) I'm So Sorry - Imagine Dragons: Moises looks about 12 years old. He's a lovely dancer but I just don't...sex is not his thing. This is why 18 year olds are so rarely a good plan on this show. Overall this number was very meh for me. OMG PAULA IS TELLING THEM TO SMIZE!! MY REALITY WORLDS ARE COLLIDING!

I really don't understand the twitter vote thing--only east coast and central? WTF? BOO.

Team Street: Yeah, Jaja in front. And Megz carrying a girl. What what. I like the music.

Team Stage: Puzzled by the costume crack. Roman gladiator rags?

I'm a little disappointed in who went home, but mostly just because it freaking wasn't ASAF. BOO.

I am all about Jaja. Still trying to keep people straight. I am also a fan of Jim and Darion from last week because THIGHS.

I kind of want to have Megz and Sonya Tayeh together. At least for a hair-off.

I actually liked the piece quite a bit, until Nigel started talking

I liked it fine, but thought Jaja was obviously being held back to match her partner.