I could be making up a whole storyline that has no basis in reality, but I think part of the Channing/Phillip problem is that Channing is not a small girl and Phillip has no lift experience and not a hell of a lot of upper body strength from what I could see. I think she has been terrified of relying on him as a partner for lifts and catches and lead strength. Phillip always struck me as having up a big wall, holding a lot back and not throwing himself into things, but I realize that may be a really unfair assesment based solely on his smiley face.

I get the comparison of the tango to last season, but wasn't Brandon/Jeanette like the dead end of the season?

I think the Brandon/Janette tango was their last dance before they got to top 10, wasn't it?

My main problem with Phillip (in addition to his inability to do lifts that msbelle noted) was the carriage of his upper body. He couldn't get away from that very Gene-Kelly-esque stance even when he was doing the samba, and it detracted from the number.

Yeah, I had no problems getting rid of Phillip--he was much stronger as a solo dancer than as a partner, and that's just not what Show is about. I would have kept Bianca over Noelle, but I figured both of them would be gone early on in any case.

I actually thought Legacy did a pretty good job in their piece, as well as Kathryn. He had some really nice power moves.

Why assume that Bianca has danced like that before?

I thought Bianca said in the rehearsal interview that she was comfortable with the routine because that's what her church experience was like. I'm not sure if the judges saw that.

I'm glad she's gone, part was her attitude but also she hunches all the time when she dances. Even doing her style she had her shoulders pulled up to her ears. SLNRLBF is here visiting and we were watching and he asked "Does she have a neck?" The Broadway routine was meh. It was one of those routines that looks like it needs LOTS of people to make it work instead of just the the two dancers.

I liked most of the routines tonight. The Samba was a hot mess and I agree that a lot of that was probably Channing being afraid that she'd get dropped.

I thought Bianca said in the rehearsal interview that she was comfortable with the routine because that's what her church experience was like.

When I was in college in the south and going to a black church, my church experience was like that, too, but I didn't dance. That style of movement is going to be familiar to you if you've spent time in many Large, AA churches because lots of them incorporate praise dance. But as far as I know, she never claimed to have been on a praise dance team. I don't know. It just rubbed me the wrong way.

I'm still glad she's gone. I will never forget her stank attitude when she didn't make the show in S5 and nothing will convince me that she is not secretly stank.

On the Channing/Philip thing, I agree that Philip turned out to be a lousy partner and not a strong lead. But the thing with lifts is that the lady has to know how to help her partner out, how to hold her center and hold her own weight. If she doesn't know that, it makes it infinitely harder for the man to properly execute the lifts. And Channing, whether because of fear or inexperience or I don't know what, goes into those lifts like a wet noodle. And then she kind of just sits there and waits for her partner to throw her around. She's not helping at all, which is part of the reason why the exits to every lift that they did looked so clunky. I think it was just unfortunate that neither one of them seemed to have had much partnering experience.

And while I agree that it's kind of unfair to compare Janette and Brandon's tango at several weeks into the competition with Ellanore and Ryan's, I think even if they'd pulled that style during top 12 week, they wouldn't have come close to executing it as well as B&J did. Also, we've seen some really awesome tango performances early on in a season. I'm thinking of Mark/Chelsie in S4. Their tango is what solidified my Mark love and my intense obsession with Chelsie's feet and that was what? Like week three? I remain impressed, though, by their reaction to the wardrobe malfunction. They were total pros. I'd bet that's probably happened to Ryan's partners before, maybe even in competition, but Ellanore? She took that unfortunate challenge like a champ.

I think it was just unfortunate that neither one of them seemed to have had much partnering experience.

I think it's bizarre that they don't work more on that ahead of time. I know they are auditioning as specialists, mostly in styles without partnering, but they know how much of the focus of the actual show is partnering! I would think, even if they just worked on it between auditions and the show, that would show. Am I wrong? Is that too short of a time to actually make a difference?

Ok, seriously. Why is my tv thwarting me??? Why?? No frikking Glee and now this random TC All Stars stupid episode. Look here, Bravo. I live in a region where we have freaking Meijers. If I had just a skosh more motivation, I could go freaking SHOPPING and not watch this bullshit. If I wasn't such a tv whore, I would TURN THIS OFF. But the shiny black bx stole my soul long long ago so eff me, I guess. Dammit.

I'll go get Halloween candy before they draw knives.

and now this random TC All Stars stupid episode.

I dunno - I'm finding it hilarious. I love the bitching and moaning. And, conversely, seeing who are the class acts.

I'm with you, Frank! This is definitely worth it!

But it's $500 total, yes, so $100 per season? It can't be $500 per course, because that's just ... gross.

I want the Fabio and Stefan Show one day, I swear.

No new TC? Damn.

I went to Xoco again tonight and Rick Bayless was *not* the most exciting person I saw there. (Though seeing him was way cool. He's more wee than I expected.)