So You Think You Can Dance 6/20. The Top 18 Perform

Opening Thoughts: Shauna’s looking a lot less frumpy. Lacey copies her brother with a slide move. I think Cedric has an excess of joint fluid. Neil twirls like a second-rate Travis. Danny twirls like a first-rate Travis. Mia’s judging, so no kickass contemporary routines this week I guess. Hopefully, she’ll do some good bitchy judging. Well, Mia’s either delusional or lying because she claims that the best 3 male dancers were the bottom last week. Cedric and Dominic are nowhere near the best dancers here. Mary blames America. Nigel blames “dance snobs”, while looking at Mary.

Lauren and Neil: And the puff pieces begin, this week about why our top 18 started dancing. And this week they’re doing hip-hop with new choreographer Dave Scott. This should be interesting, considering Neil may be the whitest kid in the competition. The routine, to Timbalands “The Way I Are”, and, this may just be because I’m not a dance aficionado, didn’t seem hip-hop. They still don’t seem to have fully committed their personalities to the dance, and Neil still isn’t coming across as interested in his partner. With the exception of one pretty damn good leap, the dance is nothing special in my opinion. Mia says it was a hell of a lot better than last week and that Neil tore it up and Lauren was useless and wants her to be more. Mary thought their chemistry was a lot better. Nigel also liked it a lot because they didn’t look like they were about to “beat the world”.

Jessi and Pasha: Pasha apparently got into dancing because he was a horny 8 year old. Jessie started dancing in front of her fireplace. This week, they’ve got a Tyce D’Orio jazz routine, that, according to Tyce, is not Jazz, so much as African modern contemporary. Dancing to “Stiff Jazz”, their routine is a lot of fun, and they seem to be meshing well and enjoying the routine. I get where Tyce was coming from, it seems like a Tribal mating dance, with Pasha even laying on top of Jessi and one point and ending with a near kiss. They hear all the beats well. Cat comments on Pasha’s trademark eyebrow. Mia loves birds (can be read in a double innuendo kind of way too) and Jessi and Pasha were her favorite birds, because they loved their dance. Mary thought it was terrific. Mary finds Jessi’s movements intriguing and calls them both gorgeous. I fully agree with Mary, which is interesting. If I Mary Murphy scream, I expect someone to put me out of my misery. Nigel comments on the journey of the show and wants Jessi to keep dabbling in whatever she’s doing. If that’s Nigel’s pervy comment of the night, then these judges are not nearly outrageous enough tonight.

Jamie and Hok: Jamie started dance in a move of seeming sibling rivalry. Hok got inspired to dance while watching TV. Hok acknowledges that he got lucky by picking hip-hop last week. They are no longer confident in their abilities to Samba, but at least they make fun of their lack of preparedness. Jamie looks forward to slapping Hok on national television. They’ve got a routine by Jean-Marc Giderot (I think that was his name). They’re consistently on beat and seem to be having fun with it. They occasionally look flustered by moves in their footwork. At the end it seems like Hok almost dropped Jamie. And I didn’t see her slap him. But I digress. Mia thinks she drank love juice because she’s not being bitchy. I concur Mia. Mary says that they had some good bits but that it wasn’t up to snuff. Mary has to say it how it was. Jamie scrunches her nose in anger. Nigel thinks their performance was great but their dancing wasn’t good. Nigel comments on the choreography and Jean-Marc looks pissed.

Sabra and Dominic: Dominic started dancing because he wanted to get the ladies, a massive failure according to him. Sabra started dancing because she was envious of her friend. This week, they’re doing a Mandy Moore contemporary routine. Mandy Moore thinks that men are creatures. And with that she gets him to chuck Sabra across the room. Both are worried about their connection (Sabra with their connection to the dance, Dominic about Sabra’s connection with his package). Watching the dance, I can only think about how much more kickass this would be if Mia Michaels had choreographed it. Sabra and Dominic both do pretty well, with some very nice movements, extensions, and jumps. Although Sabra’s throwing across stage was nowhere near as committed as Lacey’s jump last week into Kameron’s arms. Dominic is scared of Mia Michaels, as he should be, because Mia Michaels can be scary. Dominic looks like he’s about to cry. But Mia loves him and thanks Nigel for believing in Dominic, and calls Sabra a beautiful Ailey girl. Mia apparently, has a continuous IV of her love juice going. Mary loves all the intricate work and thinks Moore’s choreography was great. Mary also heaps a ton of praise on both of them. Nigel hopes that Sabra won’t slip through this net and is very happy with Mia complimenting him. Nigel mentions that Dominic shaved his toes. Too much information. The judges absolutely love this dance though, and darned if it wasn’t deserved. And kudos to Dominic for so shamelessly always playing to the camera. It’s kind of endearing.

Faina and Cedric: Faina’s mom is the reason she’s still dancing. I would have thought it would have been her brother. Cedric started dancing to work through emotional childhood issues. I don’t know who plugs more shamelessly to the camera, Dominic or Cedric, playing the emotional card. They’re dancing a Hunter Johnson Fox Trot this week. It’ll be interesting to see if Cedric will be a decent partner outside of his field. Hip-hop moves are added for Cedric. It’s kind of lucky that they’ve hit their two respective styles in the first two weeks. The dance to me seems fairly lifeless, with Cedric not really connecting with Faina or the camera. Faina, on the other hand, looks good and dances well. She seems to be trying to connect with him and the camera. He seems disinterested. Also, it seemed kind of slow. I thought Fox Trots were faster. Mia’s love juice appears to have stopped flowing, thank god. She says it was Ginger Rogers and an insecure Michael Jackson. He needs to be better she says. She thinks Faina is beautiful, but it wasn’t copasetic enough. Mary agrees with Mia that Cedric is extraordinary in his field but botched this. Well then why did you keep him around judges? Mary says he let her down, which was their fear with Cedric. Nigel agrees, reiterates that he thought Cedric couldn’t partner. Nigel accurately says that there was no charisma and that he lost performance because he was nervous. He should have been cut last week.

Lacey and Kameron: Lacey started dancing because her family is a dancing family. If you didn’t already know that for all their discussion of her dancing family. Did you know that Lacey’s family are dancers. Kameron started dancing because of his sister. And Kameron discusses the fact that dancers get to see female dancers in the changing room. They’re doing a Tyce Broadway routine. Tyce tells us expect sexy and danger with jazz hands. Meanwhile, Lacey tries to do sexy in a way that’s way too reminiscent of Benji. Set to “All That Jazz”, it certainly fulfills on Tyce’s promise of sexy. Unfortunately at times it seems to be more of that Benji sort of sexy than genuine sexy. Although Lacey’s outfit is rather risqué. There’s a “zip” missing from the routine, and I can’t help but think it’s not as good as Nick and Melody’s first season “All That Jazz” routine. Kameron seems to have gotten rid of the arrogant red stars on his head. Mia rightfully points out that it was missing Broadway pizzazz. Thankfully, the real Mia Michaels has shown up. Mary very stupidly says that “danger” is apparently Lacey and Kameron’s middle names. Nigel thinks they had pizzazz and that they seem like they’ve been dancing together forever and are going to get married and have babies and be just totally awesome. The judges seem to finally have amped up the crazy/bitchy. Thank god.

Anya and Danny: Anya started dancing because she had to. And because shiny costumes intrigued her. Danny started dancing because it allowed him to focus on things besides fighting. Ballroom dancer Anya has no idea what a Viennese Waltz is, which is kind of scary. Hunter Johnson’s routine apparently requires a lot of romanticism, which Anya and Danny are afraid about, but their romanticism is supposed to like that of the 1950s, so I guess Anya is supposed to make Danny’s dinner onstage. Anya and Danny look absolutely beautiful doing this. Graceful, sweeping, connected, and they seem to have fully committed themselves to the dance. Not as gliding as Jessi and Pasha’s last week though, but still beautiful. Mia says they bring a level of professionalism to the stage, and comments Danny on his hands. Mia though they and the dance were stunning. Mary brings up the hot tamale train from last week, which prompts Mia to ask, “where are we?” and says they seem to have emerged from a dream. And they receive the first true Mary Murphy scream of the season. Mary says that they are her favorite couple. Nigel says that even us idiots who have no idea about dancing will have thought it was beautiful, calling it the routine of the night. Nigel’s comment makes me regret saying that it was beautiful, because it proves him right.

Shauna and Jimmy: Shauna started dancing because of her mom, but she looks up to any professional dancer. Jimmy started dancing in middle school because he needed fine arts credits. They’ve got a Dave Scott hip-hop routine, which makes Shauna and Jimmy probably most out of their comfort zones for the week, except for maybe Jamie and Hok. Shauna is, apparently, gangster. They pull it off, if a little lifelessly. But I give them credit for being so out of their comfort zones. The stomping interlude in the middle doesn’t really work for me, but the routine is certainly not bad. Mia compliments Jimmy for completely committing to whatever he does and says that Shauna did a better job this week but she was still a little dancing school. Mary also thinks they stepped it up this week and she’s happy they’re growing on the show. But that Jimmy was a lot more interesting to watch. Nigel disagrees with Mia that Shauna was less dance school than last week. Nigel drops the f bomb, fun, and says that it was fun. They seem to be enjoying each other a lot more than some of the other partners.

Sara and Jesus: Sara started dancing from watching a B-girl dance off. I wonder if they had their pants off. I missed why Jesus started dancing. I assume it was a family member. They rocked their Wade Robson routine last week. This week, they have the dreaded Paso Doble. Sara says she’s relying on Jesus, while Jesus says he knows nothing about the Paso Doble. Their Paso Doble seems to be a glam rock version, which helps them, because it distracts from their seeming technical faults. This is not to say its bad, its just not polished in this viewer’s eyes. But they have fun with the routine and they gel together well. Mia says it was awkward and that the music fought the choreography, which I what I kind of felt, like with last weeks “Girlfriend” jive. Mary thought the song was strong and it didn’t fit well with the dance. Nigel calls it the most experimental dance of the night and says they coped with the style well. Nigel says Sara cleans up to be a beautiful lady. There’s the slightly pervy Nigel we know. They give Sara a hard time, but take it back when they realize she’s never had formal training or wore heels before. They absolutely love Jesus though.

Tops Tonight: Jessi and Pasha’s Afro-Jazz routine was pretty darn good, as was Sabra and Dominic’s contemporary. But the best of the night was Anya and Danny’s Viennese Waltz.

The Bottom Three: Cedric and Faina should already be working on their solos. I’d say Shauna and Jimmy and Lauren and Neil ought to be worried.