Wednesday, July 22, 2009

DR. NIGEL LYTHGOE, BFF: Lots of dancing tonight on the show that's all about the dancing, but first let's talk about the people who have no business dancing: Ellen DeGeneres and Cat Deeley. As best I can tell, Ellen's people called Nigel's people and said um, hi, Ellen really loves your show and while she doesn't know anything about dancing, she's really funny and famous too and she'll sit at your judges' table and be funny and famous for you if you'll just let her please come to a taping pretty please please. And then there's Cat, who is of course both fabulous and self-styled (an increasingly rare thing in the biz, I gather), but who can't dance a lick. To Cat's credit, however, when she does her little turn on the catwalk at the beginning of the show these days, she comes across as quite coordinated and even somewhat graceful, particularly compared to her early days on the show at the beginning of season two when she was quite galumphy.

Turning to the dancing, here's what I liked (in chronological order). Travis Wall's constant presence on SYTYCD -- first he danced, then he foster-brothered Danny Tidwell, and now he's hanging with the big boys in Choreo Row. Janette's crazy legs doing Sonya's jazz while Evan hung in there admirably. Kayla's solo, which was much more thoughtfully assembled than usual. Janette's totally non-Latin contemporary solo, which established her as a real frontrunner to the extent that she hadn't already been one. Kayla and Jason's Broadway number, which reiterated the degree to which Caitlin had hoovered the lifeblood out of Jason for all those weeks. The second half of Brandon and Jeanine's battlefield dance. Evan's solo. Melissa and Ade dance the cancer, although I couldn't help wishing that it were Katee and Joshua dancing it instead. And Kayla and Jason heralding the return of a Shane Sparks we haven't seen in ages -- maybe since season 3's Lauren/Pasha I Am the Machine Fuego.

Some things that didn't move me: Slooooooow waltzing. (Excellent commentary by the jidges, though, as to what made the dancing not so good.) Jason's solo, which was fine, but lettucey compared to last week's Muddy Waters riff. Ade and Melissa's cha cha, which deserved no more than a single "cha" for its tentativeness. Ade's solo, because while he wows with the things he can do, he's developing a bit of a weird Brandonesque goofiness to the demeanor. Pint-sized Tony Manero and even-pintier-sized Stephanie, because like Dr. Nigel said, it's hard to get votes with a rumba. Melissa's solo, because while it's moving in the right direction, she's still not dynamic on a stage by herself (which is the polar opposite of, say, Evan, who's really only dynamic on a stage by himself). Jeanine's solo, because I want to buy her an ab-roller every time she wears a few garlands of toilet paper wrapped around her midriff in lieu of a costume. Brandon's solo, because while he dances divinely, there's always this whiff of puppydog emanating from everythng he does and it bugs.

Tomorrow on that show on which there is dancing, we watch Katie Holmes dance in a jacket and hat and apparently not a whole lot more. Jaimie continues to thank her lucky stars that she got to be Hok's partner for hummingbird week. And Wade joins the company for a rewind of ramalama. If you've got other plans, change 'em.

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