Group Dance/Contemporary/Lillies of the Valley/Pina/Tasty - So I was excited at first for the Addams Family theme and then as the dance progressed, it deflated for me. The costuming didn’t really seem to serve the story of the dance in any way other than to read as generically creepy. Just seemed randome. That said, I enjoyed the dance. Loved that the choreographer really used the hip hop boys not just as props but as dancers. Virgil just draws the eye like a superstar. He really stood out for me, as did JaJa and my lovely little tap goddess, Gaby, who can literally do anything. It was an OK opener, but I won’t remember it next week and there weren’t many “wow” moments in the choreo. Like Cat’s secretary wear, it underwhelmed. Ahhh, it was a Tasty piece. No wonder I was so uninspired.

Paula’s wig is getting wiggier each week. Girl. You might’ve gone through some lean years post American Idol, but you’ve got a steady paycheck now. Invest in a good lace front.

Virgil and Jasmine/African Jazz/Sean Cheesman/Kintamani – Transglobal Underground - Virgil is just such a little ball of sunshine. I smile every time I see him. As Miss Debbie Allen would say, I want to see him handle his big woman in this piece. I think he has the skills. So, I loved the piece, every voodoo infused minute. Sean really put a ton more West African movement into this piece than he normally would into his African Jazz pieces (which is still not a thing! But I digress). Jasmine was amazing and her energy never flagged. I feel like by the time Virgil got to the middle section with a lot of the arm circles and contractions and foot work, he was kinda gassed and his movement got small compared to the range of motion that Jasmine was giving, but overall, he kept up very well. I agreed with Jason that I didn’t really read sinister from him even when he was supposed to be controlling Jasmine. I read witch doctor, but witch doctor with a heart…or maybe a crush. I didn’t get menacing. Anyway, fairly good routine, but again nothing to make me give snaps or scream out “Yes, children. Werk!” at the screen, which I’m sure my neighbors were happy about but since I love to scream “Yes, children. Werk!” well, then, it kinda fell flat.

Virgil Solo/Ballet/The Four Seasons (Summer) – Vivaldi – Yesssss! Werk! See? There it is. That’s that good good.

Derek and Jaime/Contemporary/Tyce D’Orio/Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer- Stevie Wonder - Nice music choice, Tasty. Score one point for you. Ugh. So this routine was soooo So You Think You Can Dance. A lot of run, run, run, reach to the heavens, make an angsty face and then whoa, here comes a trick – split leap, Russian leap, tour en l’aire, and now stand real close and lean on each other like you’re gonna fall down, caress her face and noooow, more running. I just did not enjoy. It was a parody of what contemporary is, or at least what it is on this show. That said, it was danced very well. Derek is a great partner and that first cross body lift was impressive. And he did the running and reaching as required. He never communicates strong emotion to me when he dances. I haven’t believed him previously in his roles and I didn’t believe here that he and Jaime were lovers at the end of an affair, but from a technical standpoint, he was more than competent. My favorite move of his was actually a very small, quiet one, where he did a shoulder roll into a leg straddle on the ground. It was lovely. And I enjoyed the drama of the last lift where Jaime leapt into his arms and caught her foot in a gorgeous, stretched out position. But I mean, even with all that, I didn’t care. The judges seem to be pushing this kid really hard but he’s a big ole blah for me. Dammit, I’m agreeing with Jason DeRulo and Nigel again! They were right. I didn’t feel anything from him.

JaJa Solo/Hip Hop/Hype City – Tighteyez – She just hits so hard, y’all. She finds beats within beats that I didn’t even know existed. Damn. Also, purple pigtail baby JaJa is the cutest thing maybe ever.

Hailee and Fikshun/Hip Hop/Luther Brown/ - Let It Go-Chonique Sneed – Murder. Murder in the dance floor. That routine was on beast mode and they both killed it. Hailee is such an amazing dancer. I haven’t seen her take a bad step this whole season. The one thing that I would say is that I’d like to see her get down even more, get low. There were moments watching it back where Fikshun was really deep in a groove and even though Hailey was deep in her plié, her body was pulled up, she was still pulled up through her core and so she didn’t ride the pocket quite like he did. A lot of trained dancers have this problem and Hailee navigates it better than 99.9% of them, but it just showed up in a couple of odd places as I was watching them both. But overall, she killed that. I agree with Paula that she could work in videos or in the next Step Up 3000: Step Even Higher and not look out of place at all. I cannot even fathom why Hailee is in danger. America stays on that stuff.

Gaby/Tap/Oye Como Va-Santana – I love that she chooses to tap for her solos even though she clearly could do another style because she’s so cross trained. That said, this was not one of my faves of hers. It seemed oddly static and so on the nose with the beat that it just sat kind of awkwardly for me. But I love her, though. Love her.

Megz and Paul/Paso Doble/Jean Marc Generaux/Blade of Blood-Tom Player – Oh, wow. It was bad, y’all. So, so bad. Right from the beginning, I didn’t appreciate that she didn’t dance in heels. I didn’t like it when Kherington did it and I don’t like it now. Then, it had very little Paso content, very little in hold. And the content that was there was not done correctly. So much of the skippy feet. The hold was terrible. Hand and arm placement wrong, head placement wrong. Paula was right on point that she wasn’t pulled up through the core and she wasn’t stretched through the feet and arms. It’s not so much about strength, it’s about placement and line and where the tension goes during the dance. She just, it just, yeah. It didn’t sit right on her. It was really awkward to watch.

Derek/Contemporary/Two Men In Love-The Irrepressibles – So So You Think You Can Dance. That’s all.

Neptune and Kayla/Jazz/Ray Leeper/Infinity-The XX – This was very smart choreography by Ray Leeper. The syncopated nature of the movement, the use of isolations and body rolls, the way he kept most of the movement low to the ground and with a deep center of gravity. He really tailored the piece to play to Neptune’s strengths. And for the most part, I think Neptune did a nice job with it. I agreed with the judges that the portions where he had to be more pulled up with more stretched lines and pointed toes, like some of the turning leaps, you could see that he lacked the proper technique, but it didn’t bother me. It didn’t pull me out of the piece. And the lifts didn’t really feel labored to me except on a couple of the exits which were kind of clunky, but there weren’t any that made me feel uncomfortable or worry about Kayla’s safety (as was the case a couple of weeks ago when Asaf and Kate were partnering). On the whole, I thought Neptune did a creditable job here and I think he would’ve gotten a lot more praise for this dance had it been like week two rather than now in the top 8. I was left bothered by the judges comments. It’s not that street dancers are not trained. I’m sure Neptune has studied and practiced and worked hard for years with master dancers to become great at his style of dance, which is krumping. It’s just that he’s not classically trained. He hasn’t trained in ballet or jazz or modern or other studio dance forms. But the judges always lecture the street dancers about getting “trained” as if what they’ve done to this point to become great weren’t somehow training. You know, Jim, who was held up as a model for Neptune here, was stiff and awkward in his hip hop piece a couple of weeks ago, but I didn’t hear any of the judges lecturing him about getting “trained” in hip hop, or about needing to go see if he could apprentice with Qwest Crew so that he could learn proper hip hop technique. So, yeah. The judges can bite me. Boo.

Virgil/Hip Hop/i-Kendrick Lamar – Star quality. That’s what it looks like. I wasn’t even overly enthralled with the choreography, but I couldn’t take my eyes off him. And Virgil on the step doing the Kid n’ Play with his cousin? Everything.

Jim and Comfort/Hip Hop/Pharcyde and Phoenix/Hey Mama-David Guetta feat. Niki Minaj – So Jim does a lot of cheer team hip hop. It’s like hip hop by numbers. You can almost feel him counting “1-and-2-and” while he’s thinking, “Place this arm right here and then this leg, hop on the downbeat, now body roll and grab crotch 7-8.” And it is not pleasing to watch. He was really trying to bring it but it was not broughten. And there was so much armography in this routine. I didn’t enjoy it. I think the choreographers were trying to distract from the fact that Jim couldn’t master the style, but it just made the routine look super busy and over-stuffed. Even Comfort looked uncomfortable at times. And I just did the mini-rant about street style technique and training so I won’t go on a full on rant on the judges here, but I will say that to just say that hip hop or any other street style is just all about “being yourself” and “feeling the movement” is some bullshit. If Jim, or any other of the stage dancers, wants to get better at hip hop, he needs to get his butt in some classes. There, I said it.

Hailee/Contemporary/Vanguardian-Steed Lord – Lazy competition studio choreography. I felt like I was watching an episode of Dance Moms and she’s better than Abby Lee Dance Company style choreography. Also, the curls were not working at all. And the bra and booty shorts look is tired and the top and bottom didn’t seem to match or be from the same costume set. But other than that, you know, I really liked it. Ha!

Gaby and Robert/Contemporary/Mandy Moore/Angel-Sara McLachlan – Oh my word. The music choice? Ha! Don’t ever change, Mandy Moore. Gaby reminded me of Alison this week. I can’t give any higher praise. She was wonderful and amazing. I don’t even have any words. I just want to watch it again and appreciate it.

Megz/Hip Hop/Delirious(Boneless)-Steve Aoki – That seemed like an “I give up” solo. If you don’t give a damn, we don’t give a…

JaJa and Ricky/Broadway/Al Blackstone/Let’s Face the Music and Dance-Nat King Cole – Ricky!!!!!!! OK. Now back to business. That was delightful! JaJa just nailed the character and the style of the dance. The choreo was so much fun. And more than the style, JaJa also got the technique right. Gorgeous pointed feet and extended and held clean lines. Sharp arms. Loved all the little flicks of the wrists on the bench when she was miming crying. She really came through on this piece. There really wasn’t anything I didn’t enjoy about it. Well, maybe the dress. The dress was kind of hiddy, but that’s not her fault. Wardrobe ‘hos strike again. That was fun. I can’t imagine that she and Virgil won’t be the top 2 from Team Stage. She should book her ticket in the finale right now.

Neptune/Hip Hop-Krump-Bone Breaking/Get Big-Dorrough – Well, that was everything but the kitchen sink, but I liked it. I also feel like I want to write a sociology paper now on the cultural implications of having video cameras to capture family functions/dance recitals/etc. but that’s for another time.

I’m not recapping the group routines because who has the time, but I will say, Tessandra Chavez put her foot in that choreography for Team Stage and those kids delivered.

Hailee staying over Derek felt right to me. I’d have kept Neptune over Megz, but I think neither would’ve made Top 4, so it’s kind of six of one, half dozen of the other.

Hi, y'all! Just catching up on SYTYCD.

I've come to really love Virgil. Earlier (a couple/three weeks ago), Paula Abdul said something about Mattel should put a logo on his ass and sell millions of Virgil dolls (or words to that effect). And she's pretty much right - he's adorable.

Virgil is awesome (but so TINY!). Loved the stoop video of him as a toddler. Damn--I know adults that can't dance like he did as a toddler. Good grief. (Was just having a discussion last night at dancing with another girl about how there are some guys who are amazing, but in general there are SO many more guys who are awkward or off-beat or trying but not quite there than there are girls who are decent-though-not-great)

Virgil Solo/Ballet/The Four Seasons (Summer) – Vivaldi – Yesssss! Werk! See? There it is. That’s that good good.

This is a hilarious typo, if it leads to one imagining what Virgil would look like doing Jim's solo.

I do have give Derek a head-nod for the music choice on his solo.

Ha! I had Virgil on the brain. I think he could kill ballet if he put his mind to it.