Last week's So You Think You Can Dance performance show kicked off with more bad injury news. Lovely Ashley hurt her ribs and was out for the night, perhaps longer. Mia wore a weird headpiece in her honor. We also learned that the other injured dancer, Alex, came through his Achilles tendon reattachment surgery with flying colors. He sent a video message on his phone from the hospital. It was great to see him looking relieved and chipper but it was a real missed opportunity for the show to get some product placement in there. If this were RuPaul's Drag Race, he would have called on a Verizon videophone and got into a plug in for some gauze sponsor, as well, then talked to a hot bartender about it while sipping Absolut.
Lauren and all-star Mark kicked off the show with SYTYCD's first-ever Tahitian number. Lauren was super bootylicious in it, but she got a little lost among all the feathers. As I've observed already here, Mark went out and got some pecs since Season 4, and they are lovely pecs that must taste delicious. Mia compared Lauren to a duck in heat, adding that she has just such a duck in her backyard, which explains the hairpiece.
Adechike then salsa-ed with all-star Anya. It was a fast-paced number with tons of tricks, and Adechike admitted that after he first saw the choreography, he thought he was screwed. But he and Anya served up lots of moves we'd never seen before and pretty much pulled it off.
Jose played a lovelorn stagehand obsessed with all-star Courtney's ultra-glam showgirl in a jazz number. Jose committed to the character's sad-sackiness and was believable as a loser. But with his shining personality muted, the judges were forced to look at his dancing and decided it just wasn't up to snuff. Jose was just playing the character, but the judges were still hard on their golden child. "I can't even look at you right now," said Mia. Ouch. I would have loved for Jose to reply, "Would you like me to leave the stage, Mia? Or maybe I could go stand over a trap door. Would that do it for you?"
Sometimes on SYTYCD, the competition comes down to who gets assigned the powerhouse contemporary number that moves everyone to tears. This week, that plum assignment went to my fave Robert and all-star Allison. They played mother and son in a piece choreographed by Travis Wall, whose own mother has been ill of late. It was a knockout, beautifully danced and full of pain and love. The crowd stood up, Mia fell to pieces, and Robert somehow held it together for the Q&A afterwards, while mouthing "I love you," to his own tear-streaked mom. Adam was so moved, he literally blew a snot bubble on TV. That dance wasn't just good, it was snot-bubble good.
All-star Anya was back for a jive routine with Billy that was choreographed by Dancing with the Stars regular Louis Van Amstel. I met Louis at a party a few months ago, and he was very nice and compact. You kind of just want to put him in your ass. I mean, pocket. The dance was clever and energetic, and the judges complimented Billy on his chemistry with Anya, which was their way of saying he didn't seem too gay for his own good.
For sheer athleticism, the dance of the night was Kent and Niel's Damn Yankees–themed Broadway routine. It was choreographed by Tyce Diorio -- who I recently noticed was in Showgirls -- and featured lots of leaps and tumbling. The two guys were in perfect sync with each other, which I found remarkable because Neil's maybe half a foot taller than Kent. It seems like they wouldn't land at the exact same time, but they did. "I love boys so much," gushed Mia. Finally, we agree on something.
For their second dance, Lauren and Billy danced a Mandy Moore jazz routine to "Boogie Shoes" by KC and the Sunshine Band that was charming and loosy-goosey and really fun to watch. I'm adding "Learn the 'Boogie Shoes' number" to my Bucket List. Adam pointed out that Billy got lost in the dance for the first time, and I agree. He didn't want to please. He just wanted to put on his boogie shoes and boogie with you. Yeah.
The first break dancing duet in the show's history came courtesy of Jose and all-star Dominic. Jose redeemed himself for his snoozy stagehand performance for sure, but when he pulled out a sword and gave an intense look at the end, it was a little Spinal Tap–Stonehenge-y for me. Dominic endorsed Jose after the dance, telling Cat, "My man's got mad heart." God, don't you want someone to say that about you someday?
Kent and Adechike danced a contemporary duet with chairs. I didn't understand what was going on story-wise, but it had some amazing moments, like any time Adechike is airborne, for example. He flies through the air with the greatest of ease. Mia gave props to Adechike, which prompted Nigel to say, "No more hate mail for Mia," which proves that I'm not the only viewer who thought she was unnecessarily tough on him a few weeks back.
The show closer was a disco number that Robert was supposed to dance with Ashley, but she's hurt so he boogied with all-star Catherine. I love Robert, and I love disco, but I didn't love them together for some reason. Mia went even further, telling Robert she never wanted to see him do that again. But Robert's first number was such an emotional high point that I didn't see him going home this week.
And he didn't. It was Ashley who was sent packing because her injury needed time to heal. So we're down to one girl and five boys, kind of like when Britney went on tour with N Sync. God, those were good days. Just thinking about it makes me want to put on my-my-my-my-my boogie shoes.
