So You Think You Can Dance is narrowing their crew down for the tour! We’re looking at the Top 14 this week, and usually, they take the Top 10 and some alternates, so the question for last night’s group of dancers is…

Who stays and who goes (on tour)?

I’ll be honest with you. I think the majority of last night’s dances did not suck, they were just BORING. I only found 3 really memorable of 14, and felt 1 other was unfortunately memorable due to the … atrocious … outfits Wardrobe put them in.

Here’s my list of favorites from last night:

1. Mark Kanemura and Chelsie Hightower - Their Mandy Moore Jazz routine was just fun, involving, and highly enjoyable. I LOVE watching these two dance, together or apart. Mark Kanemura is still my favorite of all (I love how he can adapt to the characters he’s given BUT still present the dance in a very individual way, no matter what style he’s given). I think these two, along with the couples in #2 and 3, are on top of their game, and by far, the best 3 couples (and 6 of the top dancers) this show has to offer.

2. Twitch Boss and Kherington Payne - Mia Michaels is an emotionally involved and involving GENIUS choreographer. I was in awe of not only the story and beauty of this dance, but also by how absolutely beautiful Twitch and Kherington made it look. Twitch, you’re amazing! And CONTEMPORARY??? Hello? Who knew? (Seeing you in Hairspray, I figured there was more you could do than just amazing popping, but man, you blew me away!) And Kherington, you’re just *beautiful*.

3. Joshua Allen and Katee Shean - Let me say it again (best dance of the night alert!), Mia Michaels is an emotionally involved and involving GENIUS choreographer. This dance, although I didn’t quite understand the concept at first, was just INSANE. Ghost running, daring dives, carries, flying, flips, turns, twists, emotion, you name it, this dance had it! And the involvement I felt when watching, I was completely captivated. Thank you thank you thank you, Mia Michaels, and thank you again for letting Josh & Katee do this dance. Like Joshua said, “Working with Mia is just …” and I feel the same about watching her dances.

Honorable Mention for Most Memorable Wardrobe: (EW! alert)

Joshua Allen and Katee Shean’s West Coast Swing - Who in the world had the bright (pardon the pun due to the hot pink outfits) idea to put Katee Shean (skinny!!) in an outfit that made her look (sorry Katee) like her butt ate two watermelons? This was a total contrast to the sexy outfit from last week, and we all know she’s beautifully built. Guess Wardrobe forgot to do the Spin test when she went in for the fitting (ya know, where they spin the person around to check out the look from all angles to see how it works)!

Your Weekly Top 10 call:

Here are your girls:

Kherington Payne

Chelsie Hightower

Katee Shean

Courtney Galiano (Girl, you outdanced Gev last night, but that outfit did you NO justice!)

I don’t have a fifth. — I think Kourtni Lind and Jessica King have a chance of going home tonight, and am not sure if they feel Comfort Fedoke is strong enough to go on (even though I adore Comfort and would GLADLY watch her over Kourtni or Jessica anyday).

and Here are your guys:

Twitch Boss

Joshua Allen

Mark Kanemura

Will Wingfield (I can’t wait for partner switches, and hope Jessica is no longer there to bring you down)

I also do not have a fifth guy. I think Gev and Thayne will compete for the fifth spot, and am not sure if either are truly strong enough for that spot. If I had to pick, I think they’ll pick Thayne over Gev, since there are already 2 poppers who can do popping and hip hop well, then Will & Mark who can both do hip hop with ease (Mark is formally trained in hip hop, and I have a feeling Will has extensive hip hop training as well, based on his performance in the group hip hop dance week before last.)

Who’s going home tonight?

Matt Dorame and Kourtni Lind. They’ve consistently been in the bottom three (every week, right?) and just dance so klunky and weighed down (like they’re dancing with weights on their shoulders). And they can’t blame it on their height, sorry. Will’s tall. Twitch is tall. Other tall dancers do not dance like that. And the second they go into solos, they’re light, airy, and just beautiful, but together, ugh. It’s just not pretty. (Sorry guys, you really are beautiful dancers by yourselves.) So far, I’ve been surprisingly off in my guesses for who’s going home, but I just don’t see them staying much longer.

See ya next time and enjoy the show!

I just wanted to thank everyone who’s been visiting my SYTYCD posts!  I plan on updating this blog every week for the shows, along with other posts throughout the week so definitely stay tuned and feel free to let me know what you think!!

Alright, just finished watching.

I was not surprised that Matt Dorame & Kourtni Lind were in the bottom 3, as I think they were #5 of 8 in the list of dances from last night.
I AM surprised that not only did they send Chelsea Traille home over Kourtni Lind, they didn’t even bother giving her a reason for the decision.  I mean, I know there was a crunch for time, but as a learning dancer, I’m sure she would have loved to know why, and as a viewer, I would have loved to know why as well.

Either way, I’m not surprised about Chris Jarosz going home, and am interested in seeing how Thayne fairs with Comfort next week.

All I know is the stronger dancers are definitely standing well apart from the rest of the group, and I’ve definitely developed my favorites.

My Pre-Top 14-dance call for who goes home next week:

Matt Dorame & Kourtni Lind

Does anyone sense a pattern here?

Mark Kanemura, Twitch Boss, Joshua Allen, Will Wingfield. The guys are SO STRONG this year.

Last night’s So You Think You Can Dance was very hit or miss. Nigel said there were 4 dances that he felt really took the night. If I had to guess which those were, they would be as follows:

1. Twitchington (Twitch Boss & Kherington Payne) - The Prison Break (and Kherington with her lens-less glasses!! My heart will break into tiny little pieces twice when the couples have to get new partners, once for them and once for the couple in #3.)

2. Gev Manoukian & Courtney Galiano - The Sexy Sexy Rumba! Half a dress really worked for this one!

3. Mark Kanemura & Chelsie Hightower - The Hip-Hop Work Addict Leaves his Girl dance. These two melt my souuuuuul. <3 Kanemura, you are the Johnny Depp of the dancefloor! (My heart will shatter twice that night!)

4. Joshua Allen & Katee Shean - Someone either has a very natural talent for all things Dance (Joshua) or has had more training than anyone cares to let on. This man is a POWERHOUSE and for being a popper, has nailed all three styles he’s danced so far, Hip-hop (duh), Broadway, and the Samba. And yes, yes, yes, Katee Shean, you are SEXY and don’t ever think otherwise. (BTW, Katee, love the new haircut!)

———————

I’m really seeing a strong trend here for the power couples (being 1,3, and 4 of the list above). I think there are certain partners that are bringing two really great dancers down, but who, in their own right, are great dancers themselves. These would be Jessica King (partner of Will Wingfield) and Chris Jarosz (partner of Comfort Fedoke) They are gorgeous dancers solo, but I think Chris needs to really come out of his shell and just break something and Jessica is simply being outshined by Will who is AMAZING. Then there are Matt Dorame and Kourtni Lind who I would much prefer to see do solos forever instead of dance together one more time. There’s just something not right about them dancing together (although last night’s dance was fun).

That leaves Chelsea Traille and Thayne Jasperson, who I’m just not sure about but enjoy watching Solo. Maybe they’ve just gotten stuck with some crap dances for what they can handle? All I know is they nailed the first week, but have fallen flat as a pancake the last 2 weeks.

My call as of Week 3 / Top 16 for the Top 10:

Guys: Mark Kanemura, Twitch Boss, Joshua Allen, Will Wingfield, Gev Manoukian
Girls: Chelsie Hightower, Kherington Payne, Katee Shean, Comfort Fedoke, Courtney Galiano

Last night’s Bottom 3 couples who will be dancing for their lives:

Chelsea Traille & Thayne Jasperson
Will Wingfield & Jessica King
Comfort Fedoke & Chris Jarosz

Going home tonight will be:

Chris Jarosz & Jessica King

Soooo…

My opinion of the dances last night is that most of them were pretty boring. Either the choreography wasn’t quite as powerful as I would have liked (krumping) or the dancers were weaker than I know they’re capable of (Thayne, you should have put some POWER into that KING role. You were not a child prince. You were a grand king!) . Of course, Thayne’s foofy (and boring for being so fancy) outfit didn’t help visually, especially when you compare it to the regal outfits Neil & Danny wore for the phenomenal Final 4 Prince number from last season (*drool*).

Despite an overall boring night, there were 3 couples’ dances that stood out to me. (I can’t wait to see more from these 3 couples and truly don’t want to see partner changes because of these 3 couples!!)

1. Mark Kanemura and Chelsie Hightower - Chelsea is just as cute as a button in the face with the body of a goddess. Mark, who is growing to quickly become a favorite (of mine, anyway!), really expressed what that role needed. He was powerful and passionate and it just worked so well. Stunning dance!

2. Joshua Allen and Katee Shean - What a great dance! I felt this was the only dance of the night that was any kind of fun. It was upbeat and considering you’re looking at a Popper and Contemporary dancer doing this fun Tyce D’orio Broadway routine, it was absolutely great (and got one heck of a reaction out of Nigel!).

3. Twitch Boss and Kherington Payne (fondly referred to as Twitchington). The dance was choreographed by Mark Jenoreaux and his wife and was very special. The Jenoreaux’s daughter lost all of her motor skills at 20 months of age but when she sees movement in the form of dance, it brightens her up, so they put together this piece for her. And Twitch (a popper) and Kherington (contemporary) danced the most beautiful dance, Twitch full of beauty and grace (Grace from a popper! :D), and Kherington, just stunning. She’s gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. I don’t know if I’ve seen a more beautiful face on this show in all 4 seasons.

I love it I love it I love it!

My call for the Bottom 3 tonight:

Matt Dorame & Kourtni Lind

Will Wingfield & Jessica King (Through no fault of Will’s; Jessica is just not as strong as other dancers)

Chelsea Traille & Thayne Jasperson

My call for the Go Home vote tonight:

Jessica King & Matt Dorame

I got the tv I mentioned in my previous post.  Got a great deal on it, I was so excited.  Still am really!  The TV is beautiful.

I’ll try to post more, gotten lazzzzy and been really busy!!!

THE TV WE’VE WANTED FOR A YEAR IS ON SALE FOR $1199.  It’s a Mitsubishi 1080p 57″.

It’s normally $1899.

I think i’m going to cry.

So I sit here reading my Odd News of the day with Pat Benatar’s “Love is a Battlefield” playing in the background… Grandmas giving 9 year olds alcohol to make them pass out so they don’t have to babysit, George Bush flubbing a speech (really?!?!), the Chinese government censoring something (really?!?!), Vanessa Hudgens naked (oh, c’mon, like you’ve never been naked before?!) and this one:

Miss SC flubs answer, gets the country talking

It’s only been discussed a thousand times already and her YouTube video has only gotten 12+ million hits. I can’t help, however, to want to bring it up again. The article linked to above explains what really happened. She’s not stupid.

She’s a trained teenage robot ninja of pretty.

Pageant girls are of a whole different ilk and that article spells it out. Trained to answer every question with “World Peace”, when asked about education in America, she fell flat on her face. Her answer was riddled with “like” and “uh” (normal language of teenagers today and since the 80s, really) and full of political keywords. Can we really blame her, as dumb as she may have sounded? In a way, I’m glad she made the mistakes she did. It’s gotten us thinking and talking about education in this “advanced” country. To that, kudos to Miss Lauren Caitlin Upton for having the balls to mess up and take it in stride. And after all of this publicity, she’s well ahead of the winner. (Searching on google.com for “Miss Teen USA” returns 5 non-Miss SC results, then 2 YouTube videos of her flub in a row coming in at 6 and 7.) By the way, um, who won the pageant again?

As far as other things are concerned, my place of employment is, well, something else. I am constantly weighing the + and - of working for the company I work for, and after what went down 2 weeks ago, it’s really a wonder I stick around. I’m not even going to get into it, simply because the net is not a private place, but I did want to rant a little, just to get it out. I feel better now. Thanks.

Here’s the image of the week:

I came across it at iloveteh.biz and although I am agnostic, I think it’s such an awesome statement.

Classes started recently and I have some projects to do so I’m going to go work on getting ready to take Karissa out for some art supplies. YAY PAINT! I’ll write more soon now that I’m learning how to handle my new schedule.

Quote of the Day:
“We are young, heartache to heartache we stand. No promises, no demands.” - Pat Benatar

P.S. Paul Simon and Chevy Chase are good together.

I’m very excited.  My page views for my blog are at 9489 today.  It’s actually pretty neat to be able find a space to write down your thoughts and random findings and have people come see what you have to say!

Thanks to all my visitors so far. :)  I hope I have kept you even slightly entertained!