I missed the first half hour, so didn't get to see Kayla/Evan, or a few other things. Sad.

But I LOOOOOVED Peanut's choreography! And I really like Jeanine, more and more every week.

Not loving Kupono. I want him to be Mark and he's just not. Sad.

But I was reminded of why I liked Evan in the first place when he did his solo, which I thought was adorable and great. Sadly, I still rolled my eyes on seeing him in the boys group number, no matter what the judges said.

Yeah, I agree. I think in general, these dancers would benefit from editing on their solos. Especially with the fast motion, they tend to be frenetic, not strong. If you don't hold your extreme positions for at least a fraction of a second, I can't see you made it there. It's just like you're flapping your hands at me. They need to learn to hold, just hold. Which I understand is probably impossible with the time constraints.

Anyway, loved loved Travis' work, and Jeanine was fabulous. So clear that she was being eclipsed by Phillip's problems. Glad to see her clear and excelling.

Evan is a likability power station. It rubbed off on Kayla. He's just so disarming. But I agree that he's quickly getting to the point where he's outclassed.

Although Kupono may beat him out the door. That pasa doble was terrible. The lifts were awful, and I think a lot of it had to do with Randi. Even when they showed her in rehearsal being lifted by the choreographer, she was awkward and ungainly. Lifts take a lot of strength from the woman, too, and I suspect she wasn't bringing it.

But it wasn't just the lifts that were bad. And that's one of my favorite styles in general. But not today.

So nice to see Ms. Allen. She's fab, as always. She brings a seriousness and credibility to this show that it otherwise lacks, I think. I love how her heart is for dance. She's not wrong about the show being good for dance as a whole, though.

What they said about the pasa doble being one hot mess. Just, blargh. Evan's waltz was much better than Randi's cape imitation, even though it was the second weakest of the men's performances tonight (after Kupono in that blargh), but I did like Evan's solo.

And, boy, did Jeanine and Jason just explode in that routine! They both needed to break out of their previous partners' shadows, and they did just that. Really excellent work from them.

Also, Janette proved she can steal the show from even as powerful a dancer as Ade. My eyes were constantly on her, as much as I love him. She has that "zing" as a performer that Kayla, with all her lovely lines and grace, lacks. As Nigel said in the beginning of the ep, with the judging being up to the audience, that's going to be pivotal.

I think it'll be Randi and Kupono going home this week, but Kayla might be toast next week.

Sadly, I still rolled my eyes on seeing him in the boys group number, no matter what the judges said.

yeah, he had the strangest expression on his face. I think that he held his own, but he was the weakest dancer.

My love for Jeanine and Janette only grows. I never realized how short Janette was until I saw the girls lined up after the Bollywood number. Of course, that's probably because she was dancing with Brandon, who I also did not realize is a peanut until tonight.

I didn't hate Jason tonight, which is really saying something.

It's tragic that both paso dobles this season have sucked. Of course, it didn't help that once I saw the composer of the music I got earwormed with Palladio (aka the DeBeers shadow people music). I have no idea who might go home, I only pray it's Randi.

Oh, man. I had totally blocked that paso doble out of my mind, it was such a hot mess. Ew. Terrible.

I'm trying to remember when they had a really good Paso on this show. Jesus and Sarah came closest, I think, although it was nearly destroyed by Jean Marc's inexplicable decision to use We Will Rock You as the music. I love Paso, but it has been by far the weakest of all the Latin ballroom dances on SYTYCD. This one was no exception. Kupono was a nightmare and I in general enjoy him and Randi, well, she was all over bad. And totally agree that she did not help at all on the lifts. That last lift was one of the ugliest things I've seen on this show and it was very obvious that she was not holding her own weight as she needed to. They were awful.

Jeanine continues to blow me away. She was a revelation in that Travis piece. (And how much did I scream when they revealed that Travis Wall was choreographing? A lot!) That was a gorgeous number. So intricate, so demnading technically and yet beautiful flow and they just made it look effortless. I feel like I need to see it a couple of more times to even adequately comment on it because there was so much in it that I know I missed things. By far the best Jason's ever been, and I still barely noticed him. He just doesn't pop for me.

Janette is my other superheroine of the night. My eye was also pulled to her in that hip hop number, and that taking into account that Ade was shutting it down in that number. NappyTab frustrate me so much because they can bring it, yet so often they choose not to. Anyway, Janette was fabulous. Some of the harder hitting parts at the very end started to get away from her a little bit, but overall, I loved it. And her solo was fierce. Best solo by a partner dancer ever. That is how it is done. Not that I ever had much, but I now have no more sympathy for ballroom/partner dance kids who serve up tired solos.

I like Brandon/Melissa as well. Brandon is so powerful. That forward roll into a split in second and then he pulled up to a standing position? That's not even right. And Melissa is always a joy to watch. Tasty is so much better at non-Fosse Broadway, although Nigels was engaging in a little bit of hyperbole invoking Twyla Tharp. Tasty Oreo wishes he could rock it like that.

I love Jeffrey Page. That choreography served! It was so difficult. And I love that Debbie Allen gave props to the role that proper technique plays in mastering African dance. I was annoyed by the pre-dance clip package and all the kids whining about how there were no counts and it was all so ryhthmic and hard to pick up because, you know, it's not really dance unless you have a fancy French term for the move? Whatever. That said, I thought the boys did a very good job with the piece. Evan was by far the weakest, but he did the best that he could. Jason seemed to be focused too much on placement and getting everything "Just right" and consequently he came of as stilted. Brandon, Ada, and Kupono were fire. Good way to end the show.

I will be shocked if anyone but Randi and Kupono go home, but for my tastes I'd actually keep Kupono and send Evan home. I like Evan and I loved, loved his solo. It reminded me why he's been one of my favorites since he tried out last season. But that Waltz was just OK and Kupono absolutely showed him up in that group dance. Further, I don't want to see the next couple of weeks of girls having to dance barefoot because he's so short. Janette is the only person who could wear heels and still be partnered with him.

You could see Debbie Allen getting pissed with Nigel a bit in her comments about the African dance. I also thought it was interesting that the cameras not once showed the faces of Mary or Nigel when Debbie was speaking.

Nigel's comments about Africa and the dance were of course ignorant. There are different ways of dancing across the countries and cultures of Africa, Nigel. Just like you would find in, say, North America, Europe, Asia. He speaks like he twitters.

The sytycd community on LJ tells me the choreo from the Paso was mostly recycled from the Canadian version, and there is a link to how it was danced there (much, much better): [link]

I think Evan is charming, but it is time for him to go. I never had much feeling for Randi, so I won't be sad if/when she exits tonight.

I was just starting to go through the TWOP thread for yesterday's ep, and someone mentioned a guys group routine from a previous season done to "Five Guys Named Moe"! I had no idea about that--I'm going to have to look for it on youtube.

My sister got me hooked on the Broadway cast recording of FGNM many years ago, and I was finally able to see it live in Chicago about 8-9 years ago. It was fantastic, and incorporated a lot more dancing than the Broadway version did, according to the Tribune review of the show.