So You Think You Can Dance
So You Think You Can Dance

Episode Report Card
Joe R: A | 346 USERS: B-
YOU GRADE IT
Chrome Swan

Last slot: Cyrus from Dragon House and some guy named Feliciano Turk. Come ON, show! This is easier than Amelia. Cyrus was THE lead of last week's show. Also, WOW, so ONE hip-hop dancer this season? Out of 20? I wonder if America's Best Dance Crew is siphoning off the top hip-hop talent? Lil C gives compliments to both dancers before Nigel says Cyrus is in, duh. And then the typically Nigel, "You better bring it, young man!"

On stage, Cyrus, Brandon, and Cole do a Christopher Scott routine that's aggressively baseball-themed in honor of the All-Star game airing on Fox in two weeks. It's kind of a silly conceit, but combining these styles had to have been a challenge for Christopher Scott, so I'll allow it. All three dancers show up well, though the style was middle of the road enough that no one really got to shine. Dorky Nigel and Mary are wearing baseball caps for judging, as Nigel says he thought why not be a company man and get an early pickup for next year. Okay, Nigel. That's cute. Anyway, my main takeaway from this performance is that I am going to be so afraid for Cyrus's earlobes all season. Don't snag them on some spindly girl's leg or something!

So that's our entire Top 20, but there are still three group routines remaining. The Top 10 Girls (minus Janelle) perform a Travis Wall routine that features a door (which: wasn't there a door routine last year?). This one plays more like an homage to that last scene in Lost, with the bright heavenly light behind the doorway. Lots of fast movement in tight quarters for these girls. It's breathtaking in how massive and cohesive it all looks. Very Mia (and when we see the Top 20 routine in a few minutes, this becomes even clearer, particularly as the dancers slow-mo walk to Alexa in the doorway). Nigel promises next week the judges will actually criticize them, but for now, per Zooey: "You're all wonderful!" They actually are, which helps the lovefest make sense.

The Top 10 boys, meanwhile, get put through their Sonya Tayeh paces. Rehearsal takes the tone of aggression because it's BOYS, see, but Sonya also makes them take their shirts off, so there's that. Poor Will thinks he's too jiggly for this kind of exposure. Sonya also makes them partner with each other, shirtless, so God bless. And honestly, good to get those homophobic heebie-jeebies out of the few actual straight boys -- always overrepresented on this show about dancers. Case in point, Brandon, who is partnering with Chehon but wants to make sure we know he "love(s) the ladies." He actually says that. In 2012. On stage, the boys are all dressed in ... pantsuits? That only come up to their diaphragm? Anyway, good news for Will is that they have a control top. It's all very fight-dancey, which we've sen more than enough of with boys on the show, but, you know, there's some vogue-esque stuff too, and certainly a lot of partnering, with boys leaping on each other's backs, grasping. I like this. Will is a BEAST out there! Eight feet tall if he's an inch and THICK. This is not a complaint.

So You Think You Can Dance

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