QFT. What a doll.
Thoroughly enjoyed the evening. Definitely a step up from last week. I, too, agreed with the judges for the most part last night. Melinda needs to go home and Alex needs his own show. He is so amazing. Who would have thought he would be so good at hip hop?
Mia’s comments are getting more and more bizzare. And these dancers just have to smile and nod like they understand what the hell she’s talking about instead of saying, “Huh? Could you please explain in English?”
Kent is a wonderful dancer with a bright, innocent spirit. But now’s the time to step it up and grow a pair. You can do it, kid.
I like Jose. He enjoys his dancing and gives it everything he’s got even if its totally beyond anything he’s ever done. He shows confidence and exuberance and connects with his partner. Nigel was right when he said that Anya did not eat him alive last night as she so obviously did with Adechike and Kent. He held his own with her and she did not dominate. And, his salsa was much better than Robert’s samba. His hips and shimmy were delicious. Robert was too stiff, not involved enough.
Billy is a great technical dancer, but he just does not connect with his partners. I fear he is a one trick pony and if he doesn’t grasp the concept of connection with partner and audience he will be going home soon.
“You’re like when a hurricane meets a gentle breeze, and the wind is purple.” :rolleyes: Uh, yeah–real helpful.
I think the final 3 will be one of the 4: Melinda (practically pushed under the bus by the judges), Robert (because of last week’s final 3), Billy (for the reason rpg mentioned), and Lauren (who I thought was pretty strong, but Broadway is always brutal).
It’s hard to imagine that the judges will choose to bring the boy-girl ratio down to 4:1, but even harder to see them back pedal from their evisceration of Melinda. And I really have a hard time believing that she’ll pull out a Tap Dance for Her Life that could possibly save her.
What the eff is Billy’s spine made from? His solo blew me away last night.
But as others have already mentioned, this is Alex’s game to lose and I don’t see that happening unless both of his feet fall off. He is amazing.
Archive Guy, you called it. Great job!!
I think that scare that Kent got thinking he was in the bottom 3 really shook him up. Hope it helps him settle down and dig deeper.
Liked the new section featuring the all stars. Reminds me how much I enjoyed them the first time.
So, next week we have two dances and one of them with another contestant. Sounds like it could be interesting. Can’t wait.
Yeah, it was a no-brainer last night. Mixing things up partner-wise will be fun, but all the group numbers are going to run into problems with the disproportionate gender balance. Last night’s “Carmina Burana” number, for lack of a better word, Sucked.
I suspected as much. I got home a few minutes after nine and turned on the TV, but was sorting the mail, feeding the cats, etc. for a few minutes so I didn’t watch the routine. Might have, if I hadn’t rolled my eyes upon hearing the music.
The contestants this season seem all too happy to be eliminated. Melinda clearly wasn’t in it to win it. She could not have had a smoother, breezier elimination last night if she downed a tray of ex-lax brownies beforehand.
I think many of the finalists are more than happy with just the TV exposure and the tour money.
The show would be greatly improved if there was a bigger motivating factor to win. I’m thinking if the loser got off a limb hacked off using one of those big machete-like paper slicers, it would give some incentive to dance harder.
And how awesome would it be to see the grizzled veteran Travis Wall, who came so close to winning, sporting a pirate hook?
You bring up an interesting point–the post-season SYTYCD tour is typically made up of significantly memorable and iconic dances amongst the contestants from that cycle (my wife and I went the year Joshua won). But what are they going to do this year? Are the All-Stars going to tour with this season’s batch as well? I would like to think that some of them have better things to do at this point, and the number of truly memorable pieces has still been pretty low.
I have a feeling that no more tappers will make it to this finals stage. Nothing against tap, I really think it is amazing, but tappers just do not seem as capable to adapt to the format of this show.
So I just was able to catch up with this week’s episodes. Holy fuck! I don’t think I every really got the expression “jaw-dropping” until I saw Alex’s hip hop routine. Once he got off of the couch and got down to it - my jaw did drop and my mouth remained agape throughout the entire routine. I think that might have been the best “Dancer so far removed from his genre” dance I’ve seen ever on this show.
I watched it three times in a row because it was just that amazing.
And I agree with Misnomer - Adam is by far my favourite judge. I just adore him.
I’m glad Melinda’s gone… who next? They’ve gotten rid of the annoying ones… okay, so I think Kent is pretty annoying with his hungry jazz face and all, but if he digs in and matures, he’s technically a good dancer. I think Billy will turn it around with the partnering. And Jose has a huge fan following. So who’s next?
Jose may have a huge fan following, but I think it will be him. I think he’ll wind up in the bottom three – if it could happen to Billy, it could happen to Jose! – and the judges will finally ouster him due to his lack of technical ability.
Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part. 
If not Jose, then Lauren. Just get rid of everyone but Ashley and Alex already!
(Sort of OT story: I’m in a jazz vocal workshop, and Thursday night our instructor was commenting on my performance of a particular song. He said that technically I’m nailing it, I just need to make it mean something and work on selling it to the audience … I thought to myself, “Holy shit, I’m Billy Bell!” :eek: :D)
But Billy, Robert, Kent, Adechike, etc. are all contemporary dancers. Jose really does stand out as the only hip-hop/B-boy of either gender in the mix. This won’t take him all the way, but I suspect it suggests a fairly wide fan base who will stick with him for a while longer (especially since he’s still got a ton of charm to show and good will to feed off of).
I think the judges are going to have pick off a couple of boys next, so even though there’ll probably be at least one woman in the bottom 3 the next few rounds, they’ll likely remain fairly safe. The group dances on Thursday night were already feeling like big sausage fests already…
I imagine that Billy Bell also has a fairly wide fan base, yet he wound up in the bottom three. That’s what I meant by “if it could happen to Billy, it could happen to Jose.” I think we’ve seen that being popular only gets these guys so far – have you heard the raucous cheers that Robert gets? yet he wound up in the bottom three, too – and I think Jose’s lack of technique will wear thin pretty soon.
The '80s movie Girls Just Want To Have Fun centers around a dance competition: during the open call audition, one of the characters (played by Helen Hunt) says, “What I lack in substance I make up for in style!” I think of that line every time I watch Jose dance. 
But I’m saying that Billy, Robert, Kent, etc. all seem to have a similar Dreamboat-Contemporary-Dancer fan base, so while they may all be loved, there’ll be some inevitable overlap when it comes down to which one their fans choose to vote for over and over. Jose has no such problem because in terms of his style and genre, he’s the only one “representing”, so to speak.
Interesting theory! I never thought about the fan bases being divided by style, but I think I disagree. If anything, I’d say it’s mostly about the dancer’s personality, with ability running a close second: according to my little theory, Kent and Jose are competing for the same votes – but Kent will ultimately get more of them because he’s a better technical dancer.
It’s too bad that none of the dancers this season are gifted AND masculine, which includes being tall (Sorry, short guys). It is a partnering show and it’d be nice to have some Dmitris and Twitches to choose from.
I really enjoy Lauren.
Alex is awesome but the judges need to quit laying it on so thick or he’ll not get as many votes. People tend to be more motivated to call in for dancers who may be in danger.
I’d much have preferred the judges had they gotten rid of Melinda last week, as was appropriate, vs. allowing her to stay and then reporting that it was a mistake allowing her to stay. While they may be just being honest, I’m not a fan of bullying.
I’d love to know what really happened to Mary Murphy. Last year, Mia left the show. Now she’s back and Mary disappeared. :dubious:
You can’t stress the masculine part enough. My wife frequently comments on how some of the dancers are great in their technique and almost everything else, but they lack a strength or masculinity that makes would make them very appealing total dancers.
I think Robert is the biggest letdown in the area of a strong, masculine dancer. He’s tall, handsome, and annoyingly hammy and feminine. He has a real campy “earnest” look when getting judge feedback, and if he dialed it back a bit and manned up, he’d improve his appeal immeasurably.
Alex’s hip-hop with Twitch was kick ass.