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.

So ... with all the bizarre dance genres they've introduced/made up while on something exotic, why don't they ever have a ballet dance? It doesn't HAVE to be on pointe ....

They have had ballet on SYTYCD before. The piece that Jim and Darion did just this season was definitely a ballet piece, and Cheon and Eliana also did a lovely pas de deux on their season. The problem with ballet, IMO, is that it's really not something that you can pick up in a week if you've never done it before. In that way, it's a lot like tap or breakdancing (as opposed to hip hop dancing) or bone breaking. Those are dance genres where the technique is so specific that you need to study for years to get it to look right, even if you are a highly trained dancer with a background in another style. They can only do ballet routines when they have contestants that they can pair together (or pair with an all-star with a ballet background) to perform the routine.