Tonight’s So You Think You Can Dance (July 26)

July 27, 2006 at 1:15 am | Posted in So You Think You Can Dance, TV News | 5 Comments

Tonight’s So You Think You Can Dance live blog after the jump:

It’s only a one hour show tonight, which means no filler!  (I’ll have to type extra fast during commercials.)  Cat continues her style winning streak; her dress is a little disco for my taste, but she looks hot anyway.

Oh, HELL YES! It’s my favorite judging panel: Nigel, Mary, and Dan!

Donyelle’s first up for partner-picking, and she gets … Travis! Sweet, I think they should do well together. For their dancing styles, Travis picks hip-hop … the dreaded quickstep.  Never mind, sucks to be them!

In hip-hop rehearsal, Shane Sparks amuses himself by making them dance like zoo animals.  As we see later, there are no zoo animal-ish moves in the choreography, so Shane’s just being mean.  As for the performance itself: ugh. Not only are they dancing to a horrific Fergie song, but the stylists hate them. Donyelle and Travis are each wearing two white face masks (on the front and back of the head) and hoodies.  If this is a “message” piece, I really don’t get what Shane is saying. The choreography is nothing special — Shane plagarizes himself a bit by repeating the crazy interlocking hands dance that Ivan and Martha did last week. It’s hard to even focus on the dancing, though, because the masks are so bizarre. Nigel and Mary agree with me: masks are wack. Dan blames the dancing, not the choreography, though, which is fair. Donyelle and Travis are always solid, but it wasn’t their best work.

For her partner, Allison picks … Ivan? And they’ll be dancing hip-hop and Argentine tango … is this a rerun? Tango’s up first, and I don’t like this routine as much as the last one.  That’s probably because of the music — nothing will ever be as awesome as “Libertango.” The choreography is much more complex than last time, though, and Alex de Silva actually lets Ivan do some footwork. They both do a great job.  Nigel loves it, and mentions that Allison was in High School Musical. Aw, I bet she was adorable, and I’m totally looking for her the next time it reruns on the Disney Channel. Mary almost tears up again when contemplating Ivan’s macho manliness, and Dan tells Ivan that he worked Allison this time, instead of the other way around. It’s a nice moment.

Dmitry’s in the audience tonight! Poor bastard.

Natalie draws Ryan as her partner, and I bet he peed himself a little, since he looooves her. They’ll be dancing contemporary and disco. In their disco rehearsals, Ryan confirms that yes, he is still totally obsessed with Natalie. Natalie, by the way, is wearing a knee brace, so I guess she’s still hurt. Dmitry’s holding up a big “Vote 4 Natalie!” sign in the audience … huh? What, no Heidi love?

I generally hate all disco routines, but I thought these two did a good job. Nigel, Mary, and Dan all disagree with me, and do their best to try to make Ryan cry. He doesn’t look that affected by their critique, though — it looks like he’s developed a thicker skin, which really impresses me. Or maybe he’s just still glowing from getting to hold Natalie.

Finally, Benji and Heidi will be dancing together! Mambo and Broadway! Broadway’s first, and Tyce is their choreographer! Dude, they are so lucky. There’s not much to say about this routine, except that it totally kicks ass. It’s almost unfair for them to be in this competition; they look like total professionals, because, let’s face it, they basically are. As they face the judges, Benji holds his cousin inappropriately close (i.e., the way he usually holds Donyelle), which makes me think that it’s just a ballroom partnering thing. (What I’m saying is, I seriously doubt Benji and Donyelle are hooking up.) Judges loved the routine, of course, because Benji and Heidi are AWESOME.

It’s time for Travis and Donyelle to suffer through the quickstep.  I thought they did a nice job. Cute costumes, but they might as well be wearing giant targets, because no one ever gets praise for the quickstep. I didn’t see any obvious technical problems, but Nigel and Mary nail them for not gliding across the floor with the right level of finesse.

Ivan and Allison are doing something umbrella-rific for their hip-hop routine. Ivan wears a do-rag to rehearsal, and somewhere in Los Angeles, K-Fed yells at the tv: “Bitch stole my look! Popozao!” Now it’s performance time, and dude, this routine is hot. It’s very music video, but good music video, if you know what I mean.  There are a couple of unison problems, but overall it’s danced very well. The routine finishes with the two posing behind a backlit umbrella, almost kissing — but I would like to point out for the record that there is no kissing. It’s just a show, folks! The judges praise the dancing and the choreography, but I think mostly they’re relieved that Shane didn’t make them wear the freaky masks.

Yay, more Tyce! He’s choreographing Natalie and Ryan’s contemporary routine. It looks good in rehearsals, but as for the performance … eh, I dunno. It’s danced very well — except for one part where Natalie might have fallen out of a spin — but I don’t exactly love the Boys II Men song. Natalie and Ryan have much better chemistry this time, though, and the judges are much nicer. Nigel and Mary can’t resist the opportunity to nitpick Ryan’s performance, but Ryan doesn’t care, because he’s so over them. It’s nice to see him simply enjoying the experience. He’s totally going home this week, but at least he got to dance contemporary with his beloved. Aw, good job, Ryan!

Finally, it’s time for Benji and Heidi to dance a ridiculously hard club mambo routine. This should lend credence to the conspiracy theories out there, because it’s a pretty big coincidence for the latin ballroom dancers to randomly pick the most difficult mambo routine ever. Maybe Alex de Silva increased the difficulty level in rehearsals according to their ability? Anyway, it’s the best routine of the night, and maybe even the best routine of the season. Mary tries to fake Benji out again, but can’t pull it off, because the routine is just too damn good. Dan says there’s nothing to criticize, and he’s absolutely right! Aw, Dmitry’s sitting with Benji’s dad in the audience! Poor bastard. And … that’s it for tonight!

So, who’s going home? My guess: Ryan and Natalie. I only was half right last week, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed for 100% accuracy this week!