alonewiththemoon | SYTYCD (Reply)

Although in retrospect I think it was fair to vote Will off on the basis of Wednesday night's show, I'm still pretty surprised. I thought his James Brown solo was brilliant, but I could see it kind of freaking out the hoards of teenage dance school girls who I think are the majority of the voters. I do think he's a better dancer than Mark or Twitch, and possibly Joshua.

I liked Chuck Maldonado's opening hip hop choreography, though the camera work was not that great (a recurring theme this season, unfortunately). Comfort especially seemed to be nailing the futuristic superhero steps, though I had a feeling watching her dance that she knew this was her last chance to leave a strong impression on people--she held nothing back because she knew she wasn't going to need it in the next week. (not that I think the dancers are told who's leaving, I just think she knew in her heart.)

Naughty Cat Deeley to Twitch--You can leave your hat on indeed!

The guest dancers from the Los Angeles Ballet were lovely and like the Alvin Ailey dancers did previously, showed the difference between real seasoned pros and the contestants. I loved the music choice, a classical arrangement of The Man I Love.

The bottom two women made sense to me, and I think the entire world knew it was Comfort's time to go (again). She danced well in her solo, and hopefully she has a spot on the tour and can build a real career from all this. Courtney looked genuinely shocked to be in the bottom two. Her solo was fine, not my cup of tea but it showcased her strengths. It looked to me like Joshua and Mark were more stunned than Will was that he was in the bottom two, but poor Twitch didn't handle it well at all. Dude, start learning how to deal, because it could be you any time now and you want to look like a pro up there, as Will did in his leaving the show speech. I expected the bottom two to be Mark and Twitch, so I was half right. Twitch did the kind of solo one expects of him and did it well. I missed a bit of Will's solo but it looked extremely interesting, like he'd incorporated some of the Bollywood they did last week into his repertoire. There's growth for you. One of the things I've liked about him is his open-mindedness to other dance forms and sources of inspiration, like in his kodo drum solo back a few weeks ago. Anyway, while I think he shouldn't have gone and I think he suffered some backlash from the judges' obvious favoritism, I guess fair is fair. And he certainly already has a career path laid out ahead of him, so I don't think his elimination really will have an effect there. If anything, it might bolster his reputation in the dance community.

It really opens up the possibilities for who will win though. Katee I think is the best remaining dancer, but being the best isn't necessarily what it takes to win. It really will come down to the dancing over the next couple of weeks.

Hearing The Man I Love made me dream about singing Billie Holiday songs. Now I want a bottle of wine and a couple of hours to myself...