So You Think You Can Dance 6/3- Vegas Baby! VEGAS!

Note: The Posts here and at Sytycd.ca this week are pretty close to the same. That one has slightly more, but since there wasn't really much I could cut out, they're pretty close.

So, folks, it’s here. Vegas Week! Woot! This season had a bunch of great auditions, and there are certainly a few people I’m hoping to see during those final solos (Hello Kelsea Taylor, Brandon Bryant, Philip Chbeeb, and Bianca Revels, will you please move to the front of the class? Please?). Well, lets do it to it, folks!

172 Dancers are trying to make the top 20. The judges look tough, the dancers are looking, well, a little bit weak, and Cat is, well, she’s Cat, i.e awesome. And also wearing a weird leopard print-ish top. Way to take your name literally, Ms. Deeley! Judging Vegas, we’ve got Mia, Shankers, Lil’ C, and Debbie Allen, and the stalwart Nigel and Mary. Welcome back to the judging table Debbie. Everyone starts with solos to remind the judges how they got there.

Alex Wong- Finally gets a video package of his own, and he’s ridiculously impressive. Mia, wait strike that, EVERYONE is shocked by how good and strong he is. Mia gives the Flava Flav “wooooooow” afterwards. This also totally justifies my placement of him into my potential top 20.

Nigel starts out, by telling the dancers that they are not as good as the judges thought they were. And there are cuts happening NOW! Tony is safe. 45 dancers are cut immediately, including Travis Prokop, Talia Rickards, and Chimezie. Also it seems like Devin Oshiro is cut too. Sad to see Chimezie cut, means my top 20 officially can’t happen now.

Day 1 Hip-Hop: Napoleon and Tabitha are choreographing this round, and it is apparently set to the worst pop song in recent history, aka ‘Boom Boom Pow.” Gabi Rojas, who rocked it in New York, falls apart early here and puts like no energy into it. Mary, I have to note, looks very sultry during this judging. Mia says she loves cutting people, because it sends bad people home. Gabi is given a pass because of her amazing solos. The choreography during this routine actually seems to be on the better end of NappyTabs choreography. No one worth mentioning gets cut during this round, though, apparently.

Day 2 Ballroom: Ballroom with Jean Marc Genereaux and France. The dancers seem worried. Philip Chbeeb and Arielle Coker are “worried”, and performing with different partners. Phil is having… troubles. Shankers accurately points out that Phil can’t stop popping, regardless of the style. He’s given a pass for this round. Arielle impresses me, although her extensions could use a little work. Although the judges disagree, because she’s cut. All the ballroomers who we’ve met so far, though, are getting through fine. Other dancers noted for rocking it are Kayla Rodamski and Priscilla Marrero. Nabuya Nagahama also impresses. He’s overcome with emotion about his success, and thanks his teachers profusely.

Day 2 Jazz: Sonja! Yay Sonja! Glad to see Sonja having such a big role early on this season. Natalie Reid and Brandon Bryant are owning this rehearsal though. Sonja even calls them to the front to show everyone how it should be done. Wow, they OWN this. Like, this should send them directly to the top 20. However Natalie appears to be nowhere near as Own-some in the actual routine. And she has this weirdly big goofy grin on her face the whole time. Mary lays it on thick about how much they were all rooting for her, and then tells her that she’s done, because she didn’t bring it enough. Natalie even gets send-off music, which only shows that she was supposed to be in the top 20. Big oversight on the judges part, I’m guessing. EVERYONE is shocked she’s gone, and NO ONE feels safe any more. She feels bad because she thinks she let the judges down. Brandon is just gonna rock it harder now, for her, it seems. And own it he does. He could book the lead in Goddess with that routine (I promised you Showgirls references, didn’t I?) Mia and Lil’ C are NOT fans of Brandon, because he’s been overhyped apparently. Nigel disagrees, and tells Brandon that he thinks he’s one of the best dancers the show has ever had. And Natalie gets ANOTHER exit package, this one more about Brandon’s loss of her though. I’m sad to see Natalie go, but not heartbroken about it. But it does mean ANTOHER member of my prospective top 20 is dunzo. After the commercial break, the last group performs, this one featuring Gabi Rojas. And, in a sad turn, she’s again quite awful. She’s breaking Debbie Allen’s heart, fer chrissakes. The judges are hurt by how wrong they are. They are giving her ANOTHER chance though, because she’s dancing for her life. Sami Ramirez, is also cut. Dang, I really liked him. And now I’m FOUR down. My predictive skills suck.

Gabi Rojas For Her Life in the Thunderdome- Can we get rid of the terminology “Dance for your life”? It sounds like they are dancing with Mad Max (hence my terming for dance for your life solos this Vegas week) They are basing their opinions on this solo, and her whole dance-ography so far. I like the solo, and I’ll never say no to anything danced to Nina Simone. She needs more than 3 yeses. Mia is a yes and can’t let her go yet and tells her to shape up or ship out, Lil’ C is a yes and calls her buck, Mary is a yes, Shankers is a yes, Debbie is a yes and is glad she reminded them who she is, and Nigel is a sixth yes but mirrors Mia’s comments. Needless to say, with six yeses, Gabi makes it through.

Overnight Group Dance- The groups picked a song at random and had to choreograph it themselves. We thankfully do not have to go through watching all the group drama.

Group 1: Features Eric “Silky” Moore. And he’s worried, because apparently, we HAVE to get group drama. His group is clashing. He’s also already planning his dance for his life solo. NO ONE seems to know what’s going on. Eric is the most impressive in the group, but it is most definitely weak sauce. Everyone is really disappointed. REALLY disappointed. And it’s a good thing Eric was prepping, since he WILL have to dance for his life.

Group 2: Features Brandon Bryant. Who is hoping to FINALLY live up to the judges praise. I think he always has, but whatever. Mia is still unconvinced, and tells him to STEP IT UP. He (and Priscilla Marrero and Maksim K, seemingly) is through.

The Final Group: Features Ryan Kasprzak (and a Hart twin?). They are called “Nerdography.” And they are FULL of win. They are FUN and they are GOOD and they have PERSONALITY. The judges all love them, and they made Shankers miss dancing. Aw, poor Shankers, who has to direct multi-million dollar movies, Boo hoo. Don’t make me slap you Shankers. And I’m already willing to for your unleashing of Cheaper by the Dozen 2 on the world. They’re all through.

Eric Silky Moore Dances for His Life in the Thunderdome: His tap is still remarkable, features two GREAT flips, and yet he still does not have Mia, Nigel, or Debbie’s votes. He needs all the remaining judges to stay in. He doesn’t have Lil’ C’s vote either, which means he’s done.

Day 3 Mia Michaels: Everyone is like “DEAR GOD MIA MICHAELS! OH NOES!”. Hell, even if I knew I was gonna be a miserable failure, I’d be like “ZOMG I GET TO DANCE A MIA MICHAELS ROUTINE!” Seriously, everyone seems to be crapping themselves in fear. Tony Bellisimo is seemingly impressing the judges, enough to earn him a second video package tonight. He’s worried about Mia. He’s like a beat ahead of everyone, but I think he did an okay job. Mary says they love him as a person but his dancing is not good enough. He gets to dance for his life. Only not quite, since he has to dance the choreography again. Amanda Kerby gets cut, as does Nabuya. The Kinney sisters are featured (I preferred Megan, but both were initially good). Unfortunately, Megan seems to be falling apart, and I will be very surprised if she gets through. But she DOES get through, which I’m fine with, because I had her in my top 20. Caitlin is up next, and seems to be a lot better than her sister. But Mary disagrees, and can audibly be heard saying so during the dancing. She is asked to dance for her life RIGHT NOW!!!!!!

Caitlin Kinney Dances for Her Life in the Thunderdome: She seems to be pretty good. I’m still not blown away by her, but she’s putting enough energy and personality in it to stay in. Nigel and Debbie are yeses, Mia and Lil’ C and Shankers are all nos, and it all comes down to Mary Murphy. Mary gives her a reprieve.

Mia Michaels Part 2: The Kasprzak brothers are up next, and Ryan makes it through first. Evan is up next, and based on his dancing, if he doesn’t make it through, it’s kind of a travesty. But he makes it clearly through. A number of dancers are emotional on having made it through. On Tony Bellisimo’s second shot, he vows to leave it all on the stage. Cat talks with him and asks for a little smile, which, when he gives it, she adorably calls pathetic. He seems to bring it this time, but I’ve been disagreeing with the judges all night, so who knows. Debbie takes a VERY long time to tell him he’s made it through. I wonder if this is a decision that Mia disagrees with though, because she’s sitting awful far apart from the rest of this and says “I can’t take it anymore. I quit.” He gets a post interview with Cat too, where she admits that she loves when grown men cry. Why is Cat so adorable? Seriously, does ANYONE know how she manages to be so chock-full of just ridiculous amazingness?

Day 4 Tyce Diorio: They have girls routines and boys routines today. Tyce’s two routines are inspired by West Side Story. It’s Tyce, so I have low expectations.

The Girls: While the girls dance, we get a package of all the boys hanging out at the pool. I wouldn’t mind it as much if it wasn’t set to Metro Station’s “Shake It.” Tyce says the girls are gonna have to own it. I can see Jeanette Manrara owning it up front, which is good. Bianca Revels seems to be having some troubles through. Bianca looks good in the actual performance to me. Priscilla Marrero continues to stand out to me despite her distinct lack of being featured. Even though she falls at the end of the routine. But she does it amazingly, and the judges all love it. Bianca gets cut, which means she is the second of the five locks for top 20 spots that I predicted who didn’t even make it to the end of Vegas. Gabi Rojas, Megan Kinney, and Priscilla are all cut as well. 3 Dancers who ALL made my top 20 list. Which makes half my girls done, as well as a complete lack of mention for two of them (Where in the hell is Kelsea Taylor?). The girls get cut down to a top 16, and will have to solo later.

The Boys: The girls relax at the pool while the boys go through Tyce’s broadway hell. The Kasprzak’s are up in the first group, and I manage to like both of them more each time they’re on screen. And they are both OWNING it, IMO. I liked the girls routine better overall, but neither was terrible, so I guess good work Tyce? That Hart Twin that I keep spotting gets cut, but he’s the only notable male cut.

We end with everyone doing final solos in order to get the judges attention. Alex Wong Jeanette Manrara, Brandon Bryant, Asuka Kondoh, Philip Chbeeb, Kayla Rodamski, Jason {No Last Name That I Can Remember}, and Evan Kasprzak all impress me with the few seconds we saw of everyone.

Jeanette Manrara is the first one up to find out their Top 20 fate. Or will she? Because this is the end for tonight. Cat tells us it’s the most dramatic top 20 reveal yet. And it looks like only one of the Kasprzak brothers is gonna make it through, since they seem to be the dramatic end pair. Sadly, folks, tomorrow night the recap will be up later than usual. It’s my mom’s birthday, so I’m going out to dinner and will miss the live broadcast. But it’s gonna be DVRed, and I would expect the recap should be up by like 1130. Sound good folks? And what did you think of tonight? And I say again, WHERE THE HELL WAS KELSEA TAYLOR?