So You Think You Can Dance: Bye, bye Adechike

Last night's So You Think You Can Dance reinforced all my beliefs of this season - except one - and underscored my desire to smack Mia Michaels in the head. Except now I'd like to use Tyce D'Orio to do it. Seriously, can those two just go back to junior high and start over?

The one belief I have that got a tad shaky last night during the Top 4's performances is that the final two will be Lauren and Kent. Of course it will be Kent (and he will win) but now I'm not so sure about Lauren. After Robert's two great dances last night - and the judges' near unanimous swooning every time - I'm thinking the gangly "prince" might just be giving Lauren a run for her money.

Of course tonight we will say goodbye to Adechike. The judges tolled his bell after his second performance, and his tearful and heartful expression of gratitude showed that he knows it too ... and is fine with it.

While I agree that it is an excellent top 4, I did not think it was excellence across the board last night. Let's review, shall we?

We open with a group Tyce Broadway number - Guys and Dolls, except there was only Lauren. Meh.

Then Lauren and Pasha got a tango choreographed by a skinny and shiny couple, both of whom may have been named Leonardo. This dance was sloooooooow. And while I agree that it was great the way they were locked into each other, I sort of started equating sloooooow with booooooring. Judges swooned. Pasha is so hot when he dances and so not really hot when he just stands there. Kind of like Ellen Barkin.

Then we see what Lauren was like in high school, which is exactly like she is now.

Adechike and Lauren (all-star version Lauren) get an Afro-Jazz-Caribbean routine. The first half is OK, the second half is better and Mia again makes up a new word during her take-down of Adechike: "celebrational." Mia: You are an idiot.

Robert and Anya get a Viennese waltz choreographed by my beloved Jonathan Roberts from Dancing with the Stars!!! What!!! Yes!!!! Jonathan has put on a few pounds since DWTS, but he works magic with these two. As hot as I did not think Lauren's tango was, I think this waltz is. A hot waltz! Have you ever heard of such a thing? Fabulous.

Then we learn that Robert thinks his dumb stepdad is hilarious and he lives with the manly Channing from season 6. It's a small world.

Kent and Courtney get a Doriana Sanchez disco routine, and this worries me because I'm not sure Kent can do this. Luckily, Doriana dumbs it down a bit in terms of the insanity (which Nigel calls her out on) but there is still enough death-defying stuff to make it fun to watch. That last spin when he had her on his shoulders was something.

Then we learn that Kent is very Ohio and once loved soccer.

Lauren and Ade get a Sean Cheeseman jazz routine and all I can say is holy crap. Holy crap to her outfit. Holy crap to those moves. Holy, holy crap. That was amazing.

Adechike and Kathryn get a Desmond and Dwight routine and we certainly know this was not an accident, since Adechike has already told us Desmond is why he dances. It is nice they did this for him, and it's nice that Double D choreographed their routine just for Adechike. It's kind of a mess, but in a good way. I could watch that guy jump all day long.

Then we learn that Adechike grew up in a Spike Lee movie, and it was tough.

Then Robert and Dominick get a Nappy Tab routine that involves angry clowns. FABULOUS. Seriously. How great was that? Magnificent. This is why I think Robert might squeak his way into the finale. He is peaking at the right time.

When we think it can't get any better, Travis Wall does a a contemporary for Neil and Kent that is the closest man-to-man dancing ever on this show, and yet it is so masculine as to be breathtaking. I love this about SYTYCD this year - the embracing of same-sex dancing. This routine is spine-tingling. And luckily for us, it renders Mia wordless.

So, I have been saying Lauren and Kent for weeks, but now I'm thinking Robert and Kent, and of course Kent is going to win, win, win. What do you think?

So You Think You Can Dance: Parting will be such sweet sorrow

As frustrating and annoying as last season’s So You Think You Can Dance was, this season is fabulous and thrilling. My goodness what dancing. What nice kids. And what lunacy on the judges’ panel.

Last night, the six dancers had an all-star pairing, an each-other pairing, and a solo. I loved almost all of it. Let’s begin.

Guest judge tonight is the terrifying Amazonian ballroom expert Toni Redpath. Everything about this woman scares me. I’d love to put her and Cat Deeley into a steel cage and watch what happens.

First up is Kent and Anya, doing a Jean-Marc and France cha cha. This will be Kent’s second cha cha. In the first one, if you recall, Anya won. This time around, that clever Jean-Marc and the almost-always-silent France have cleverly created a dance in which Kent is supposed to be all naïve and young and inexperienced, and Hot-For-Teacher Anya is going to show him a thing or two. Except by the end of this most excellent routine (already downloading that song), Kent comes out on … top. Fabulous.

And now is when we pause to say, Mia Michaels, PLEASE SHUT UP. Seriously, you and your obsession with Kent’s facial expressions. Did you see Anya’s face during this routine? Half the time she looked like was at the dentist’s office, awaiting treatment for something painful. The depths of my dislike for Mia Michaels grows and grows.

Robert and the ever more lovely Kathryn get a Stacey Tookie contemporary about going off to war (big twist at the end – it’s the girl who leaves!). This was really gorgeous, but if we are going to be honest, it was because of Kathryn. Nigel talks about Robert’s amazing growth this season, which is in direct conflict with what he said last week about Robert not growing enough, which simply proves my point that really, the judges are full of crap.

Jose does an awesome solo. I love this kid. Not as much as my Legacy, but I love him.

Adechike and Courtney do an amazing Tyce jazz number that is just fabulously insane, and Adam Shankman loves it so much that he calls it “balls out dancing” and then realizes he is not supposed to say that on live TV. The guy manning the 3-second delay bleep button was immediately fired, I’m guessing.

Lauren does a solo that is both restrained and powerful and just beautiful. Final two, baby.

Jose and Comfort do a hip hop number by a couple Who Are Not Nappy-Tabs, and it’s set to Otis Redding and it is a blast to watch. Mia Michaels again proves she is utterly worthless. Dear Mia: Please get a real vocabulary. There are CDs you can buy. Best part? When Cat said to Jose, “Just don’t worry about it.”

Billy does a solo, Kent does a solo (to my beloved Elliott Yamin!!!). Because of the horrendous camera work (why do they bother with dress rehearsals and blocking?) I missed the little gimmick at the end of Billy’s dance, and had to go back after Cat mentioned it. Oh, and Kent will win.

Lauren and Allison do a Tyce Broadway number, it’s the first hot girl-on-girl action ever on SYTYCD, and I am underwhelmed because I am not a fan of Broadway in general.

The best part of this whole number is that Nigel refers to the show as American Idol, which Cat points out, and which is hilarious because it came out this week that Nigel might be going back to Idol, and he’d like to fire all the judges. Ha! Paging Dr. Freud.

Robert does a solo. He’s going home tonight.

Billy and Ade get a Stacey contemporary, about a business man and a homeless man, which Phil Collins once wrote a pop song about, and in the beginning there is so much going on, dancing-wise, that it’s almost too much. But then when they come together as partners, it is gorgeous.

Adechike solos. That guy can jump higher than anyone.

Jose and Kent get a Spencer Liff Broadway number, and I like this, they are two guys just girl watching on the street and it fits them perfectly. I love these two together. When Jose goes home tonight, I’m going to be sad.

Lauren and Adechike do a Jean-Marc and Silent France fox trot which I find very dull.

Then Billy and Robert close the show with Bollywood, which, ugh to begin with, I am so over this genre. Secondly, remember when Twitch and Joshua did that Russian number together and it was so masculine and awesome and magnificent? This was none of that. The judges swoon. I am blinded by all the sequins and, well, all that they imply and I hate it.

So, I think Robert and Jose will go home. I wish it were Billy and Robert, but I don’t think it will be. How about you? What do you think?

So You Think You Can Dance: Making it up as they go along

Last night's So You Think You Can Dance "ouster" episode had no ouster, which they all tried to paint as so shocking and brave and crazy, but really, American Idol et all has pulled this trick so many times that as far as I was concerned, it wasn't *if* SYTYCD would do it, it was *when.*

The bottom three was composed of Jose and Robert based on votes, and Billy based on weenieness. Having injured his knee and then been cleared for dancing by doctors and then opting out of dancing puts Billy in the Permanent Dog House (as opposed to the warm and snuggly Cat House) for me.

This really is a brutal season in terms of ousters at this point because they are all so great in their own ways. It took me a while to get used to the All-Star aspect and the fact there were only 10 instead of 20, but I like it now. There is some kick-ass dancing going on here.

So the judges were all "oooo, look what we did" when Nigel announced that no one would go home, and next week two will shuffle off stage left instead. Honestly, I would've booted Billy, but I do see their point.

As for the two dance-for-your-life solos that we had last night, Jose was the clear winner, as Robert opted to redo his solo from the Wednesday night performance show, while our B-Boy whipped out an entirely new routine that involved cool trick after cool trick. Seriously, he set that stage on fire.

And as for Nigel's statement to both Jose and Robert about their lack of growth? Whut? Did you see Jose do the Sonya routine on the edge of the stage? That was fabulous. And while I agree that the paso doble was weird in that it was both hetero-erotic and homo-erotic at the same time, I think he more than held his own with the far-more-technically-proficient Adechike on that. And Robert is already so great, so tall and long and lanky and bendable and personable.

But I still maintain that all of the above points are moot, as the final two will be Lauren and Kent, and Kent will win in what will be the biggest landslide in SYTYCD history.

What do you think?