I have to wonder how many times they did the dance during the run through and how many times they did it full out as opposed to just marking it. I also think this is a little bit of a case of the choreographer needing to know that just because a dancer can do something doesn't mean that they should. That ending jump sequence was impressive and also crazy difficult and risky. Choreographers should try not to kill their dancers maybe.

Didn't they say it was the big jumps at the end of the Bollywood routine that did him in?

SYTYCD: I missed some of the beginning getting into my hotel room--I'm hoping as I read I"ll see what the story is with Alex, for the future weeks. I'm basically going "NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Lauren/Pasha chacha: She was not bad, though obviously it helps having a "all star" partner. There were a couple of awkward points, but generally pretty good for a nonballroom girl

Jose/LaurenG contemp: OMG Mandy of course it's INXS. Don't ever move from your love of these sort of songs. :) But much as I hate Lauren--my eyes were all on her here. She was really good in this, and Jose was just ...there.

Kent/Comfort hiphop: OK, other than the couple of breaking moments, which looked ridiculous, I thought he was pretty decent. ...except for his FACE. And yes, he looked like he was trying to be Justin.

Adechike/Courtney jazz: damn, girl is smokin'. I'm not sure how he did, I'm all confused. I liked when they were dancing side by side. Wow, interesting to hear Mia and Nigel disagree SOO much!

Billy/Allison broadway: Ooh Katee!!OMG, CATS??? Imagine what they could've done with the stairs and THIS number...Katee was fabulous, definitely you can tell why she came in so well! And yes, he was good too.

Ashley/Dom hiphop: Oh, those pants are SO WRONG. But there's definitely a few moments in here where she's kicking some ass.

Robert/Katherine--I got a phone call and didn't really see this.

Adechike and...not Alex. So wait, why did they replace Alex with a GIRL? Apparently Adechike jus tneeds dances where he's allowed to smile? If he has to look serious or sexy his whole dancing gets all tense and he just looks constipated. This, and the other dances where he's been allowed to be happy, he looks fine. But I really wish I could've seen that with Alex. Dang. Nigel has a point--there were definitely points where it wasn't perfect--but I feel like they wouldn't be saying this to Jose, y'know? (OOH! Cat agrees with me!) Damn, Mia seems in a BAD mood!!

Kent/Lauren contemp: It's really nice to see the current season dancers dance together because we're COMPARING them. That's the problem with this whole All Star thing. This was cute, but I felt like Lauren was better than Kent. (Nigel WTF? Ultimate in male and female dancers? Female maybe because there's not much compeition, but...ultimate male?)

Ashley/Robert quickstep: Oh, lordy. Way to look both stiff and sloppy at the same time!! Eesh. There's a reason this is a cursed dance.

Billy/Jose--OMG costume crackwhores. Damn, Billyboy, those are some deep plies. That said, he didn't feel...grounded...which Mia's been griping about all night. Wonder what she'll say.

The judges are all over the place tonight. I loved them getting called out by Cat for their overpraising of José.

Oh no, Alex. My heart is breaking. It was those fucking flexed feet jumps. I can totally see how that could seriously mess you up, especially for a ballet dancer who is usually all about points.

If this is as bad as it seems right now, I am probably not going to forgive this show. This, exactly, is why people don't want quote unquote serious dancers to do shows like this. Each of these genres of dance normally takes years of training to get to these levels. I don't know that some of this stuff can be learned safely in the span of time we're talking about, especially not with the style and choreography all being learned in one go.

I'm just heartsick. I may feel differently about it later. But achilles is a bad injury, one that will almost certainly have long-term ramifications. I say this, with a sprained ankle, one of my many chronic sprained ankles that are almost certainly a product of my childhood years of dance.

I do not hope Alex returns. The absolute best case scenario for him is for him to rest his injury and try to recover fully for the rest of his career.

I have little to say about the other dances, and of course I'm still seeing them chopped up. But Lauren did pretty well for me tonight. She and Kent were uber cute. And ah, look, first kiss on national television.

Ashley is a complete washout for me. I'm glad she finally had to do something other than contemporary, but I don't think she pulled it off at all, really. I'm sick of seeing Robert's cheesy face, and yeah, I do feel like he comes off arrogant. But worse, he comes off fake. No time for it.

Adéchiké consistently does better for me than the judges rate him. I still like him, and hope he gets the bugs worked out because when he's full out he's a hell of a dancer.

But then, so is Billy and somehow he's still a disappointment to me this season. Time I admitted it.

Jose is still cute but way over his head. I don't know. Everyone just pales in the face of Alex's injury. If I don't have him to cheer for, I don't know who I'm advocating.

Everyone just pales in the face of Alex's injury. If I don't have him to cheer for, I don't know who I'm advocating.

This. Can I just call in and vote for Alex anyway? Write in vote? C'mon, people.

Yeah, exactly. Under the old rules I could pity vote and I would totes pity vote him to the win.

The loss of Alex has so discombobulated this show that TBC was the best of the night. That's just wrong. And I'll just echo Liese here and say once again, frikkin' chireographers. That jump sequence should not have been in the routine. Period. It would have been very difficult for even a trained Bollywood specialist to pull off let alone a novice to the style. You didn't see Nakul demonstrating that shit during the backstage clips, did you? Exactly.

I'm not really invested in these other kids, but since they danced, here goes:

Tops of the night

TBC - Well, fuck. TBC kind of turned it out again this week. The cha cha with Pasha was fun and sexy, if a little bit slow. And there were a couple missed hand connections, but I believe that's the best ballroom we've seen this season. And her body is sick. What? The contemporary with Kent was everything. TBC was heaven in that. The floor work was sensational. Really great choreography from the Peanut. (And for the most part, good choreo on the night) Snaps to TBC, and somebody in production must like her because her hair and make up were not hideous.

Kent - Speaking of that contempo, the Wapokeneta kid was second best on the night. He partnered Lauren really well through all those lifts, something he really struggled with in his routine with Allison. He was totally focused on and connected to her, no mugging for the camera. Good musicality and solid technique as always. Crazy then that TBC still outdanced him. His hip hop with Comfort was also really good. Super smart choreography from Dave Scott, too. It was a perfect choice to give Kent that smoothed out, JT-fied boy band hip hop. And Kent killed it. Seriously, the first time I've ever gotten even a hint of a sexy vibe from him. And he kept up well with Comfort, who is as Nigel noted tearing it up as the resident girl hip hop all star. There was a little mugging and some fakery, but solid job overall. Kent had a really good night.

Billy - I thought Billy also had a really solid night. His broadway with Katee was heaven. Cats! I love Spencer Liff. I hope Tasty broadway is gone forever. It was a fun routine. The choreo did in fact sit well on him. And that fool's feet? Insane! Toe point of the gods, y'all. On his African jazz with Jose, well, I was in Camp Mia. Before I get into that, I have to just restate African jazz is a thing whichos not a thing and the show should just step away from African dance as they don't know what it is, what it means, or what it looks like when done well. Most especially Mia, who really needs to shut it down. Umm, where was I? Oh, yeah. I was gonna talk about how I agreed with Mia here about Billy's performance. That sequence of poses where he was circling Jose stopping every 4 beats or so and getting into some physically impossible configuration in a deep plié in second with more turn out than god? Just oh my stars! The whole snake/iguana vibe was the fault of the crackwhores putting him in that hideous black and white unitard, but his movement quality was very sinuous and feline. Well done.

Middle Of the Road

Ashley - As always, she was just kind of there, not horribly inoffensive but not outrageously memorable either. It's weird because objectively, she's a beautiful dancer, but from a performance standpoint, she's such an empty vessel. The NappyTab routine is a perfect example. It was a great piece even though it kills me to say it about those two clowns' work, and How Low is a really fun club banger. And she hit hard, displayed nifty skills in both booty popping and stripper splits, and she got the character. But it was all so very boring. The Quickstep with Robert was terrible, but that wasn't her fault. Her frame was solid and she did a good job following a really bad lead whichos not easy for a novice ballroom dancer. Her footwork was sharp, yeah overall good. Still, I wish the show would stop trying to make this girl happen. She's not going to happen.

Robert - Yep, I had him in my #5 slot, which puts me on the wrong side of many Buffistas. I thought he was very good in his first dance with Kathryn. The choreography was so clever and inventive. The work in the box was killer, especially when they climbed the plastic to get out. It's hard to make that look like dancing and not like rock climbing! The lifts were iffy (None of these guys seems to possess that skill) but for me he was dancing more into the floor and grounded then ever. And since he was playing something fake and plastic, the mugging worked for once. And yeah, he was awful in the quickstep, terrible frame and the arthritic, lobster claw hands were killing me. But the worst was that one sad little foot hanging out during those attitude turns. Heinous. Still, one good routine and one bad this week puts him above both Jose and Adechike whose two returns were not of the good.