SYTYCD has often had terrible camera work. I almost didn't watch the auditions because I didn't want to see the judges, I wanted to see the freaking dancers. Unless the judges' reaction was particularly unique or funny, they should focus on the dancers. I don't need to see Nigel sitting back saying "oh, that was nice".

Arianna was a beautiful dancer but I have no sense of her - did we see her at *all* in the auditions?

We saw a second of her at the very end of the LV auditions. Mia threw a pen at her. I wish we'd seen more of her because she was very dynamic in Tyce's piece and managed to break me out of my Jakob haze a couple of times. I think she's really, really good, not that we've gotten a chance to see it yet. I was actually surprised that Mary said that she'd been worried about her ability to hang. Ariana seems like a total rock star.

Is it me or was that Sonya piece terrible?

I like Sonya a lot more than I like her work. I've only ever really loved her Secret Garden piece for Mark and Courtney.

SYTYCD has often had terrible camera work.

True fact. The camera work during the tap routine was abysmal. I had to look away. How do you film a tap routine and not show the feet? Why do I just want to look at a bunch of flapping arms? There are only three people on stage. Why can't you keep them all in frame at the same time?

I feel like awful camerawork is brought up here a lot and I am pretty sure I have read the same complaint on other SYTYCD websites, so why the hell is it not addressed. It seems something that people notice and complain about.

TAR: True that she did make the choice to fail the challenge, but she has way more to forgive than he does. I do think there was an element of danger in what he was doing when he was trying to manhandle her down the slide. As strident as the waterpark dude was about lying back and crossing your arms going down, I can't imagine it would have gone well if she'd gone down at a bad angle or unprepared. As hard as he was shoving her, I think she could have gone down awkwardly and rolled over the edge of the slide.

And that's just the physical elements, leave alone the verbal abuse of it.

SYTYCD: I'm so glad we got this episode! I thought it would be lame, and for some reason I thought it was going to be all solos, but it was so much fun seeing them in their genres. I miss having ballet dancers, though, and doing it this way makes it clear how much contemporary dominates. It would have been worse in previous seasons, though, I think. I'm not sure. It just seems like there's always a ton of contemporary dancers.

That said! The contemporary boys we have this year are fabulous, and that's coming from someone who gets really irritated at the whole genre.

Russell was amazing all the way through. The way he moves his body! The way he owns his movement. I couldn't take my eyes off him in anything he was in. Agree that they could have done way more than they did.

Billy Bell's movement is so amazing to me, because it's still very young movement. There are things that he does that I want to criticize because it feels so undeveloped to me, but then that's part of what makes it so remarkable. It's very clear that he has an astounding amount of natural talent. He just extends...it's breathtaking.

I heart Ellanore, but I think she wasn't served well by that choreo. I think I like the idea of Sonya more than I like her actual work.

I couldn't keep my eyes of Billy. He's the one who moved Shankman to tears and he was so breathtaking I couldn't take my eyes off of him. I know Viktor is good but he was overshadowed.

And Ashley didn't have as much chemistry with her husband as the other girl did which was weird to watch. Also she pulled a few faces I know Nigel hates that I don't remember if he commented on it during auditions but she was definitely mugging.

I really liked the showcase aspect of SYTCD - seeing everyone in their styles and having the judges not giving critiques right away so everyone's just bathed in a glow of "look how great they are all". Very enjoyable!

That said, the only choreography I loved was the tap. It's like they aren't even trying to appeal to me and my idiosyncratic taste!

Eta: ugh, the camera work, drives me crazy! But it always does.

Mary called Ashley out on her fake faces during their very first audition, which was part of why she got sent to do the choreo round. Sadly, that part of her dancing hasn't gotten any better. She was outshone by both Ryan and Karen in that latin routine. The whole routine was kind of blah, and she was the blah-est part in it.

I liked the choreography for the boys in that tap piece, but not for Bianca. But I can't tell whether that had to do with the choreography or with the fact that I just flat out don't like her.

Like Liese, I could not tear my eyes away from Billy Bell. He's captivating even when he's just standing still.

I admit, I was not watching Bianca hardly at all.

Oh, I liked the group number a lot, I forgot about that. Just seeing 20 dancers all on stage moving at once is pretty thrilling, and that was a fun piece.

and thus begins the overrating of Ashleigh. Jakob made her look like a little girl.

Adam Shankman's Lil C reference was awesome.