So You Think You Can Dance - 7.29.09

Holy cow, next week is the finale?! How fast the season has gone. Melissa looked like she was caught off guard in the intro solos and ran up to her spot light. All of the intro solos were really good this week. Caat's wearing a very sleek purple minidress and her hair is simple and straight and I kind of love it.

Joining Mary and Nigel tonight is L'il C. Cat encouraged L'il C to pontificate. Mary was obviously upset at Janette's ouster last week and gave the voting audience advice to not vote stupidly, basically. Nigel wants to see more personality from dancers, because while they are great dancers, he's not seeing much spark, and people are simply voting on personality.

Guy's Group Routine (Pop Jazz, choreographed by Sonya. Song: True Romance by She wants Revenge) The outfits are a little odd, with Phantom masks with plaid shorts and neon gloves, bow ties, and lightnening bolts on their pants. They threw Brandon through the air and it was truly impressive. I couldn't tell if Evan fell off of the other guy's backs when he did his leap onto them, or if it was intentional, but if he did fall, he handled it well. Ade looks like he almost fell over at another point. All in all, though, it looked seriously tough and they did it really well. L'il C was super excited about Brandon and Ade in the same dance, and then he commended Evan for not getting swallowed up between two powerhouses, and thinks he stayed vividly throughout the routine. Mary was impressed by their abilities, which are not easy for men, according to her. Nigel thinks that Evan stood out tonight because he's never done a lot of things like it.

Jeanine & Ade (Samba, choreographed by Louis Van Amstel. Song: LoveGame by Lady Gaga) Any dance that starts with some stripping is good in my book. Jeanine has a giant feathered butt dress, and I think there are mardis gras beads around her chestal area, but she can move her hips pretty well and I impressed. It didn't seem as fluid as a samba should to me. Mary loved the first 15 seconds of it, but thought that once it got to the real samba bit, Ade was hopping around on the stage and was missing the samba roll with heal leads and thought it looked novice. L'il C loves the way that Jeanine looks, and wanted a Big Bang of Excellence, but was disappointed. He said that Ade looked frolicky instead of getting down. Nigel thought that Jeanine did a great job, but Ade was a disappointment, and then he sucked up to Louis.

Kayla's solo: More of the same from her. I'm a little bored by her solos, honestly.

Melissa & Evan (Broadway, choreographed by Tyce Diorio. Song: Get me to the Church on Time) They are half dressed bride and groom, and I wish that they somehow dressed by the end of the routine. It was charming. They are really cute. I wanted a little more zing from the choreography, though. L'il C wanted Evan to take the helm and dominate this routine, and doesn't feel like he did. He thought it was good, but wanted excellence. He said it was an A routine, but wanted A+. Mary was much more excited, and thought this might be the routine to get them to the finale on time. Though it is hard to take Evan seriously in his underwear and sock suspenders, she really enjoyed it. She also just loves Melissa. Nigel said that Melissa must be inspirational to a lot of ballerinas because they have had a lot auditioning for season 6, but doesn't think that they will be able to adapt as well as she has. He brought up the good point that the routine is more about personality than difficult choreography, and thinks that Evan brought that to the table. I could see that. I love these two.

Ade's solo: It was engaging. He does good solo.

Kayla & Brandon (Contemporary, choreographed by Stacey Tookie. Song: All I want, by Ahn Trio) The routine is about a woman who is having an affair with a married man and doesn't have the strength to leave him. More stripping on stage! Fun. The costume people must have fun with the breakaway shirts. They danced it really beautifully and Kayla has a great spark of personality. You could feel for her. And Brandon seemed like a bit of an ass, which was in character. L'il C thought it was really intense and beyond amazing, and thinks it is the first time Kayla's been equally matched in a partner. Mary placed them both securely on the hot tamale train and said the dancing was brilliant. No screeching, so I'm pleased. Nigel sucked up to Stacey, who is a star choreographer from SYTYCD: Canada. Nigel brought up the fact that the women have had it hard in choreography this season, and worries that they are all going to have to go to therapy after the season is over. He wanted a little more chemistry from the two of them, but loved the technique.

Melissa's solo: I think she draws me in more than any other female dancer this year in her solos. I love her face, and her dancing doesn't disappoint.

Jeanine & Ade (Hip Hop, choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon. Song: Move (If you want to), but MIMS) The routine is about friends who have gotten evicted from their apartment, and they have to dance with boxes. In rehearsals, Jeanine did a whole lot of tripping and falling. It seemed lacking pop in a lot of the routine to me. They did one part where they danced with their feet in boxes, which was kind of cool, and ended with sad face boxes on their heads, but I didn't love the routine. L'il C wished that moving was always that fun, because he would relocate every day. He thinks that they danced it way better than he thought, and he said that he saw a dirty, earthy groove in Ade. I didn't see it. He also felt that Ade pulled Jeanine down into the dirt with him, and declared the routine buck. Mary backed up and told Jeanine that she was awesome in the samba, because she spent the whole time picking on Ade. Nigel made an awkward joke about his wife's divorce attorney. Um..... back to this dance, Mary thought it was great, and applauded Ade for getting his butt down. Nigel thought that the two of them had taken some great notes and improved. Nigel thinks that they got down and people are applauding the dancers and not just the choreography. I didn't love it as much as they did.

Brandon's solo: Skin to win! I think Cat was a little overexcited by it. His solo was really quite soemthing. And I'm not just saying that because of the copious display of his body. He got a standing O for that one, judges included. Nigel called it one of the best solos they've ever seen on the show. Cat enjoyed having her arm around him.

Melissa & Evan (Quickstep, choreographed by Louis van Amstel. Song: As Long As I'm Singin' by Brian Setzner Orchestra) I thought it was quite wonderful, and the ending spin was awesome. They created the illusion that Evan was taller than Melissa, and it worked. L'il C commended Evan for dancing bigger than he's ever danced on the show before. He wished that Evan had had better retractions with his feet, but he was still ok. He called Melissa fabulous. Mary did some sucking up to Louis, and thought that the routine lost traction by the end of the routine and wasn't even impressed with the final spin because she thought it had fallen apart by then. Nigel says it's routines like that that made him want to start dancing. He didn't like the lindy hop section in the middle, where they lost energy.

Jeanine's solo: I liked her solo more than I liked Kayla's solo - she just has more personality. I think Melissa's was better, though.

Evan's solo: It's not as flashy as Brandon's solo, but he has so much personality, it draws me to him. He's so adorable.

Kayla & Brandon (Disco, choreographed by Doriana Sanchez. Song: Dance by Sylvester) Talk about white lightening! Kayla is in a shimmery white/silver dress. Brandon's outfit matches her, with silver insets in his bell bottoms. Nice. She ended up spinning him on the floor once, too, which was fun, and she also flipped him once (or assisted him in his own flip). They didn't grab me like I expected them to, but it was something else. L'il C thought they needed to see the music, and thinks they suceeeded and saw only the light and not the darkness. He certainly did pontificate, and liked the double death drop. Nigel pulled a Mary and went leaping up and screaming. Cat urged him to take his tablets.

Girl's Group Routine (Contemporary, choreographed by Sonya. Song: Kick It, by Nina Martine) It's about super heroes. Fun. Kayla is Storm. Jeanine is Wonderwoman, and Melissa is Buttercup. Who is Buttercup? I am not sure. The routine was fun and I could buy them as superheroes. Good work, girls. L'il C thought they did a good job sharing the stage, but thought they were being a little too courteous with each other intead of getting down and dirty with it. Mary loved it, and thought that Kayla was the standout, mostly because of some extra choreography. She thought the three of them should have been at Comic-Con. Nigel said "Is it a Bird? Is it a Plane? No! It's an arabesque!" He thought they all had equally good parts, and loved the slight differences in their costumes - Melissa had a little ballet skirt, Jeanine had some super cleavage going on, and Kayla was slim and sleek.

I have no idea who is going home this week. I think that Brandon had the best solo, and also liked Jeanine and Melissa's. I think Evan and Jeanine might be in trouble tonight, though Kayla might me there, too. I love Evan and don't want him to go, but I think he might be out...

What do you think?