So You Think You Can Dance: Season 4 Top 16

Hello imaginery readers! I'm going to bore you again with a recap of SYTYCD Top 16 show. OH wells, I'm trying something new this season so please bear with me here as I record down the notes I've written during the show. Videos of dances are posted so feel free to jump to them. If you're bored at work or at home, follow the Youtube video links (to the person who posted them) to watch the whole show and enjoy one of my favourite television shows of all time. Don't forget to visit Leee's blog where he recaps (hilariously) the latest episode. .. And yes, I am blatantly selling SYTYCD off. :D

Ok. Here we go. In my opinion, today's show is the best so far this season.

Show starts off with Cat introducing the judges. We have Nigel (hope he's not high like last week) and Mary (not human, cos she's 90% botox) and Adam Shankman in da house! I love how Cat calls Shankman Shankers with that British accent. Their interactions are so fun to watch. :) ("Official" shipping names in brackets.)

Twitch and Kherington (Twitchington) - Hip Hop



They're doing a Hip Hop this week! Kherington and her shopping problem! And Twitch laughs like a bear! (I agree!) And LOL at Twitch "America, if you see her at the stores, say 'Kherington, put the shoes DOWN.'" I loving him more and more each week. And he's totally FAB in the routine! Kherington was not bad too, though I think she only stepped up one notch, not the two that Nappytabs wanted. Btw, I so dig the prison break concept. It was fun and entertaining, especially the lift thing he did at the end. If Kherington had been hitting it as hard as Twitch, then I think it would be awesome. Overall, it was good, but I'm not sure whether it's good enough, looking at how amazing all the routines are tonight.

Napoleon and Tabitha officially = Hip POP. Not Hip Hop. There's so much popping in their routines! I kind of miss Shane, despite some of the rubbish he threw at the contestants last week (ie Danny and Sara, Sabra and Neil). Too bad he's on America's Best Dance Crew, where, I admit, he truly belongs.



Sidenote: OMG did Adam just kiss Mary? WAHAHAHA to stop her from screaming I think! Lol.

Gev and Courtney (Gevney) - Rumba

The Rumba? Now they're totally channeling Dominic and Sabra. I shall laugh at Nigel's unsubtle attempts to create Dombra II. Too bad they aren't working that much for me. They're really cute together but their chemistry is a little lacking. Watching this routine, I can't help but compare it (unconciously) to Dominic and Sabra's Rumba and sad to say, this falls short of the fabulous one last season.
It's hard to point out what's missing for this routine but it just didn't have the magic that Dombra's had last season. Although no denying that the routine was definitely HOT. Basically Courtney + half a dress = hotness.



Having said that, I think it's really hard for them to be living in Dom and Sabra's shadow now that it's really apparent that the producers are trying to create another Dombra. Tough luck cos Gev is just not as entertaining or charismatic as Dominic and the dynamics of the relationship between Gevney is completely different from that of Dombra. Dombra II? Far from it.

Chris and Comfort (Chomfort) - Jazz

Tyce Diorio = Tasty Oreo! Jazz! African warrior Jazz! Well, I think it was a great effort. The starting was pretty cool and I was sincerely hoping for this to be a great number but after that it just died down. Not earthy enough, not primitive enough. And the music was so strong that they kinda just lost to the track. Plus, Chris just can't seem to get mean! Not with Krump, not with Jazz either. His mean face is laughable and quite pathetic. I guess rosey cheeks = school boy innocence. Comfort, on the other hand was bringing it but they didn't feed off each other's energy so I guess B3 again this week. Still, it was better than the Krump last week.



I guess everyone knows now that Chris = tree. But I didn't know that he's a personality blackhole as well - seems to be sucking away Comfort's personality week after week. Not cool.

Will and Jessica -- Disco

Haha! I love Will's "I Will..." shirt! Seriously, this dude is crazy good. Like CRAZY good. And very attractive. :D They are doing disco by Doriana Sanchez! And it turns out to be pretty good IMO. I love Will's popping-like movements at the beginning and his Travolta pose is so cool! He is just AMAZING. Word. And I've never seen a more spectacular aeroplane lift that goes UP and DOWN! ZOMG. More crazy lifts! Thoroughly enjoyed the whole routine. I have to say again: Will is MAG. Magnificent. Look at his movements throughout the whole routine! Makes everything look effortless! He's so sick that Jessica is like living perpetually in his shadow. She's good, but Will is just too amazing. Together, they make a nice and cute couple but if the judges keep flaking Jessica, then I have a feeling she's going to go home soon. They clearly don't want her in the competition. :(




Matt and Kourtni (Mattni) -- Contemporary

LOL at Matt. Hello! That's a balaclava! -.- They're doing Contemp. done by Sonya Tayeh. BTW, Sonya = COOL. That's got to be the looooongest Mohawk I've ever seen in my life. Plus, I LURVE the concept and her chereography. Comic book characters! And they executed it really well too.. very technical so I can't say much. Matt is cute! Although Mark definitely > Matt in this kind of quirky routines. I can see him doing it already. Great job anyway, not sure whether people will appreciate this type of chereography.



Chelsea and Thayne -- Quickstep

Thayne is starting to look more and more like Benji. But his smile irritates me though. ... Stop smiling so much! Haha! And Chelsea is a flower theif! Lol so cute! Quickstep is generally known as the kiss of death on the show and for this couple it definitely is. I don't know whose fault it is, could be both also, that everything is not together. The dancing awkward and not solid enough during the close hold sections (omg look at me with ballroom terminology!). The music didn't help either. I found myself yawning halfway through. And I got pissed at Thayne's contemporary frame. That look. He just can't get rid of it no matter what he does. Same goes for Will and Marquis. Whenever they do ballroom, the contemporary frame comes out and I just don't quite like it. I miss real ballroom guys! Especially Russians. :(



Mark and Chelsie (Marksie) -- Hip Hop

I think Chelsie really dosen't like Mark/Mark repels her. Outside of dance that is. On stage their Chemistry is fire but during the video pakages, Chelsie really seem to genuinely not like Mark. Plus, she seems like a stuck up teenager sometimes. Opps, not digging her personality. Having said that, I'm starting to love Mark more and more! Mr. Kanemura! :D --> Jap!

They're doing a lyrical Hip Hop routine by NappyTabs and it turns out to be FABULOUS. My notes say "SO FAB OMG THE ROUTINE!!!" which dosen't sound like I'm sane at all but trust me, it means awesome. It's about the relationship between a workaholic and his wife and the music is Leona Lewis's overplayed "Bleeding Love". Lyrical Hip Hop needs dancers to bring emotions across and Chelsie did just that. Her pops in the manipulation part of the routine were so good and you can 'feel' each of her chest pops. Though Mark was not exactly doing Hip Hop. His movements were not hard enough and seemed more contemporary + his own quirky style. Actually I guess the whole chereography wasn't really Hip Hop if you scrutinise it... it was more like Lyrical. But I dunno whether it was these two not hitting it hard enough or NappyTabs made it more of a Lyrical to help them.



It is inevitable that comparisons will be drawn between this and first week's No Air done by Joshua and Katee. Both chereographed by NappyTabs and fall under Lyrical Hip Hop. Personally, I prefer No Air cos it's more of a legitimate Hip Hop dance. And boyfriend going off to war > boyfriend loves his work. :) Oh, and I realised that Katee's too bright lipstick colour during the first week was probably a reference to Vietnam and the 70s. Dumb of me not to get that.

Joshua Katee (Katua) -- Samba

I told myself not to crush/ship on any couple this year cos it would distort my judgement/viewing pleasure. But I just can't help loving these two guys! They're so so cute together! :D Especially Joshua. I love his smile! And Katee too! Definitely one of my favourite couples. The video packages help in their appeal too (unlike Marksie's...). Haha! Katie screams like a boy! Lol, hilarious. Just love the Joshua and Katee interactions.






On to the dance. It was so effing HOT! Really sexy! I remember loling at Josh's expression when he taps her in the beginning and then HOLY SMOKES her kick is so HOT! And from then on their chemistry was sizzling and the rest of the dance was just plain SEXY. And entertaining too. Both of them knocked it out of the park when everyone thought they were going to fail at ballroom. Although their technique wasn't really there but they faked it really really well. The video package helped a lot, IMO. I'm loving Joshua's booty too. And Katie's new haircut! It's funny how bangs gave her more personality. Best routine of the night! Again! That's like 2 best routines of the night so far! And 3 stellar performances in a row! Seriously, one of my favourite couples, if not my favourite. (I'm also loving Mark and Chelsie, but only on the dancefloor -- they have 3 consecutive brilliant performances too!)


Sidenote: Tony's shirt says "Quick Quick..Slow". I love it! It's like ballroom mantra. Oh, and I love Mark and Katee. Spread some Asian love! :D

Sidesidenotes:

Mary Murphy says Murphy proverb = her ear-bursting scream. I wonder what Murphy family reunions are like. Hmmm.
And while Shankers provides some real encouragement and postitive critic to the show, sometimes he's just too chatty. This time he prompts Nigel to say "Carry on, Adam, we'll be preparing bed and breakfast for the audience" or something like that.



Soooooo, great show tonight. Leee did this funny peice about Katee's Awkward Dance. Please check it out. It's spreading.

Results Show



Group routine is a Contemporary peice by Mia. She is mad. I'd really like to go in her head and take a look around. Crazy! It's like goth + Alice in Wonderland + Tim Burton all ground up together! A simple explanation would be a circus deprived suffering unloved children, where Mark is the ringleader ie the most deprived and unloved one but Leee puts in a better explanation.

"Mia's routine was not so much Cirque du Soleil, because what grotesquerie as this could exist under the warm light of day? Visible only because of the luminescent moonscape of the stage harshed them into our consciousness, no, this was an unreal Cirque de la Lune occupying the liminal fringes of civilized living, a shadow society replete with its ritualized customs that dressed in the clothes of daylight civility, then broaching all good taste: the ringmaster and his court, resplendent in dubious pageantry, initiating their progress with screams and the rhythmic pounding of their staves, the lost, infantile naif absorbed into this tattered outcast family..."

O_O

Ok. Gotta say though, Mark totally shined in that one. And Comfort was not bad also. Love me some Mia.

Quest's performance was lacklustre in a sense that it didn't thrill me as much as their AI performance. A chemistry song did not help. AT ALL. Then comes the solos. Kourtni was fantastic, and Comfort was fab, albeit a little one-dimensional. The rest were all right, standard contemporary stuff that didn't impress. Matt and Thaye dance too graceful and soft for me. On to the eliminations, Nigel does a Sabra and tosses Chelsea aside quick as a lightning. WHAT?! .. Oh well, I was sad to see her go cos she had a so-called great personality but it was between her and Comfort so I guess it's a no-brainer for stupid old fart Nigel. On the other hand, it is definitely, without a doubt Chris's time to go. He's just not bringing anything to this competition although he really is a sweet guy. Splitting couples up is really sad for them. I was moved by the way Comfort ran up and jumped on Chris to hug him and how Thayne was embracing Chelsea. Now it's Thayne and Comfort. We'll see how it goes.