So You Think You Can Dance: Vegas!

June 6, 2007 at 11:59 pm | Posted in So You Think You Can Dance, TV News | 1 Comment

Tonight on So You Think You Can Dance: we’re going to Vegas! That’s right, only good dancers tonight! Of course, “good” is subjective — I’m not super psyched about most of the folks we’ve seen. This time last year, we’d already met faves Benji, Travis, Dmitry and Donyelle … I can’t even remember anyone from this season, except for contestant relatives and people missing limbs.  Hopefully, some talented dancers will shine tonight.  Otherwise this’ll get boring really fast.

We start out Vegas week with a Shane Sparks hip hop clinic. Hilariously, Shane prefers to beat-box when working, instead of counting off the steps. There’s a great shot of a hundred dancers rehearsing while mimicking his noises. Olivia (the crybaby) isn’t feeling confident. I’d like to like Olivia, because she’s not bad, and is quite pretty. But she’s a big whiner. Shut it, Olivia.

After Shane’s all done, Cat explains the judging system. There are four judges for this round — Nigel, Mary, and Shane are joined by Mia Michaels, crazy/brilliant lyrical choreographer. If you get two votes, you have to “dance for your life” by dancing a solo for the judges. One vote or less: booted! A minor bloodbath follows: the skimpily-clad dance teacher and her student quickly get the boot. Blondie Brianne does, too, and so does quarterback Myles!

Next up, Lindy Hoppers Michael and Eva. They are terrible. I mean, I didn’t even think they were that great at the Lindy Hop. Perhaps hoping to recapture some of the Benji magic, Nigel and Mary send them to dance for their lives. (Is there some eighties song where people are dancing for their lives? Oh right, in Flashdance! That actually took me like two hours to figure out. I’m dumb.)

More after the jump:

Olivia gets past the hip-hop round. She cries about it. The Lindy Hoppers do a little dance to All That Jazz, and apparently the judging table has been smoking crack, because they get to stay. Mia even calls them adorable — huh? Mia’s supposed to be the hardass! Ugh.

Next, Mary Murphy teaches the samba. Finally, pairs dancing! This should cull the herds. Oooh, and Mary’s brought Dmitry to partner her. Unsurprisingly, Dmitry looks FINE. He grew some emo hair and he’s totally rocking it. Sadly, this is all we get to see of Dmitry. Instead, we meet some dorks named Kaylin and Jay, who have zero ballroom experience but seem to be getting along.

Judging time: hot Russian Pasha is paired with 1.5-armed Janet. Now, I had my doubts about how that prosthetic arm would handle in a pairs situation, but Pasha handles it like a pro — again, it’s virtually unnoticeable. Pasha goes through unanimously. He’s hot. Janet goes straight through, too. Stanislav’s sister Faina and Olivia also make it through. Then, it’s Kaylin and Jay’s turn. Ugh, not great. Jay gets knocked out, Kaylin gets kept — I guess Nigel thinks she’s hot or something. Jay bitches afterwards that he carried Kaylin through. Sour grapes are so unattractive. Kaylin later complains about Jay’s behavior, which isn’t super classy, considering she was asked to stay. Hip surgery/tattoo girl and overplucked b-boy also get sent home.

Fast-forward to the next day: Mia Michaels is bringing the pain. Lyrical’s hard, folks! People whine about how difficult learning the routine. This is a hard show, bitches! The Gomez sister gets booted (Nigel calls her a “lump”), along with Lindy Hopper Michael. Eva gets to dance for her life again, which is guaranteed to be a big waste of everyone’s time. A bunch of breakdancers get to dance for their lives. Then, we meet Ricky, a fresh-faced dude with ridiculously long arms and legs. He’s fantastic, and Mia almost craps her pants. Ricky ruins his glory moment by by sticking his face two inches from a camera and gushing about how much Mia adored him. He’s got a little of the Travis about him.

Next, several folks dance for their lives. A black hip-hopper tears the stage up. I wish I could tell you his name, but I can’t figure out what it is. Dominic and Hok are equally amazing and live to see another day. Jamal the “swing dancer” decides to do some tap. It’s not good. He’s a sweetie, but the judges luckily have some integrity and boot him. Eva charlestons her little heart out, but gets cut. Yay!

The 63 dancers who are still around get a surprise: they’re sorted into groups and forced to choreograph a dance together. Yeesh. I dislike this twist — plenty of great dancers aren’t exciting choreographers, and egos will clash. This seems like a cheap ploy to create additional drama.

We see Faina’s group first. Apparently they don’t like her too much, but what they lack in people skills they make up for in dedication, and stay up all night working. At the performance, Faina stars out a count behind the rest, but manages to get back in step. The dude in their group gets cut, though, and cries a lot.

Hanna-Lee, the facially reconstructed girl, has an ankle injury. She’s in a group with Olivia and Lauren (Tyce’s girl). Lauren and some dude named Kevin clash over the hip hop choreography. Olivia, ever mature, spends the whole rehearsal rolling her eyes and mugging for the camera. When she gets bored of doing that, she cries! At performance time, they have unison issues but are good overall. Lauren is amazing, and even the male ballet dancer in the bunch does well. Nigel doesn’t want to keep Hanna-Lee and neither does Mia, so she has to dance for her life. Everyone else gets kept.

Quick shots of the others: Hok stays. No word on hot Pasha or Benji’s sister. The nice hip-hopper gets kept, too. Jessi’s group is next. She’s the one who looks like a brunette Jaime Pressly and famously smeared baby oil on her body during her audition. Jessi dramatically emerges from inside a suitcases (huh?) and it quickly goes downhill.  Their routine sucks. The whole group gets sent to dance for their lives.

At dance for your life time, Jessi does a mediocre hip-hop/pop thing, but the judges like it, and she stays. Hanna-Lee gets cut, despite votes from Shane and Mia.

Only 50 dancers left! Next, they all get to dance one more solo, and then the top twenty are revealed! But not tonight. Tune in tomorrow! Eek!