Okay, that Mandy Moore Cirque du soleil routine was a serious ripoff of some HBCU step show somewhere.

Oh, it was a TOTAL step routine ripoff....but I enjoyed the hell out of it. At the same time, I was going "Cirque du Soleil?? Are you...what? I didn't accidentally flip to ESPN2 or something, did I?"

I was hoping they'd show more highlights of the allstars' seasons before doing the routine, that'd be fun.

And I'm glad to see Melinda gone, but a little boggled at how that leaves ALL THE BOYS.

Vortex speaks the truth. Somebody's been watching too much Stomp the Yard. The coolest part of that whole mess was when Cat pulled out Big Pasty. What? Not the former contestant I would've expected. Damn.

I thought the group routine was a hot mess. Slow, plodding, and WTF on the musical choice? Carmina Burana for cracked out clowns dressed like extras on the Shaka Zulu set? I don't think so. Whoever that new choreographer in the audience was rocking the modified jheri curl, he needs to never come back again.

I loved seeing Mark and Courtney do The Garden. It was better. Mark has come so far since the dead fish feet. BUT I did not like the all star spotlight. This season is not about them. Why not give space to more professional companies?

Two dances next week? One with another contestant which will necessitate same sex partners next week? Oh, Unca Nigel. It's just like Christmas in July. You shouldn't have. I'll take Alex and Billy, please.

Speaking of Billy . . . That solo, y'all? Gorgeous! That was perfection. Perfect match of music and movement and dancer. Loved it.

There was no way Melinda wasn't going home tonight and I certainly think it was the right call, but her solo tonight was better than Robert's. I think Robert may go next and staunch the bleeding for the girls.

I think if they want Kent to stop doing "hungry jazz" face, they should stop giving him jazz. Seriously, what is with all the jazz anyway? It's all over the place.

Billy Bell (Broadway, Krumping, Contemporary)
Kent Boyd (Cha-Cha, Jazz, Jazz)
Robert Roldan (African Jazz, Argentine Tango, Jazz)
Jose Ruiz (Hip-Hop, Bollywood, Samba)
Adéchiké Torbert (Jazz, Contemporary, Hip-Hop)
Alex Wong (Contemporary, Broadway, Hip-Hop)

Alexie Agdeppa (Hip-Hop)
Lauren Froderman (Pop-Jazz, Lyrical Hip-Hop, Broadway)
Ashley Galvan (Contemporary, Jazz, Contemporary)
Cristina Santana (Jazz, Paso Doble)
Melinda Sullivan (Jive, Contemporary, Salsa)

People have definitely been done a disservice by the "luck" of the draw. And (not they they are not good), but Kent and Ashley have reaped the benefits. Lauren and Adéchiké have had pretty easy draws too, but I give them props for doing the best in the week that was furthest from their styles.

I am struck by how nobody has yet "drawn" a quickstep or Viennese Waltz, which have traditionally been first-few-round killers. If they can make Pasha do a jive and Anya do a samba, surely they can do European ballroom, no? Not that I need to see anyone suffer through them; the only quickstep I can recall liking was Jakob and Ellenore.

One with another contestant which will necessitate same sex partners next week?

I didn't even think of that part! Brilliant. If only Cat could stop making o.O faces when she talks about same-sex dance partners -- not every dance is a love story! I mean, obviously.

They don't have any ballroom all stars who specialize in the smooth dances. Anya and Pasha are Latin dancers, so the five dances they would normally compete include jive and samba. Most ballroom pros are not ten dance specialists. That said, I'd bet we get smooth ballroom numbers before the season is out. Anya and Pasha showed that they can more than hold their own in those styles on their season. The Danny/Anya Foxtrot was a dream! And Pasha and Sabra had one of the more competent Quicksteps thanks largely to him. Alex could do very well with a standard ballroom routine - Foxtrot, Waltz. He has the carriage for it. Ashley as well. If they really want to keep Billy around, they'll give him a standard ballroom as well, I think. A Latin ballroom routine with Anya has the potential to be as much of a trainwreck as his Krump with Comfort.

I thought the group routine was a hot mess.

amen. Carmina Burana is totally overused. Plus, the direction was terrible, I couldn't get a sense of the dance because the cameras were all over the place at weird angles and spending random spotlights on the individual dancers.

You could also really tell during "The Garden" that this stage is just not conducive to actually getting into the dances. It just didn't have the intimacy of the original. At least for me.

I miss the stairs and levels, it made for some interesting possibilities. What would Ramalama have been without the stairs?