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So You Think You Can Dance Top 8 Couples

Dear Jenny,

I think this is what the kids today call "live blogging." I'm watching So You Think You Can Dance and I'm typing. Oh God. I'm already falling behind.

My highlight, week after week, is seeing what Cat Deeley is wearing and what she's doing with her hair. Today she's wearing what looks like a wedding dress, only super-short, and her hair is a little rough.

Adam Shankman is the guest host, which means we've got some Mia Michaels choreography coming up. So cool. He just said "Adam Sandler Christmas movie," though, which is deeply weird and is making me very anxious.

Cyd Charisse is dead, which is sad, although I'm guessing she was quite old. Cat Deeley is only 5'9". The Hell? Are all these dancers dwarves?

Commercial break, thank God. I am also making dinner, as the kids call it today. That Eddie Murphy movie, though . . . You know.

Twitchington. Some time killing at the beginning. Twitch laughs like a bear and Kherington has a shopping problem. Now we get highlights from last week's Celine Dion baby angel bullshit. Sorry. Viennese Waltz. They get a Tabitha and Napoleon piece this week and not so surprising, it's really cool. Nigel pretends that he's going to have something bad to say and . . . we get it.

Wow. Mary Murphy is sparkly tonight. And it's almost 8:25 and we've had just one performance. This blows.

Gev/Courtney. This was boring, but the judges seem to be going for it. I think these two are very safe this week, if only because Courtney is kind of naked? She's still got the best hair of the competition, which must help, plus we learned that she is learning to be a special ed teacher. Oh, and? I still kind of think that something is going on between her and Gev.

Nigel is like your pervy uncle. Adam Shankman just compared Mary to a disco ball and now he's rambling some  . . .Nigel is making a deal about that. He should be happy -- we have a lot of time to kill.

The Dark Knight trailer. I can't stand how much I'm looking forward to that. Ditto Fringe. The Sarah Connor Chronicles? Not so much.

Chris/Comfort. Confirmed: Chris has a weird body. I think this whole thing was a hot mess. (Mary is "disinterested.") I don't think it's the choreography's fault, and neither does Adam Shankman. Comfort, though? Still too big for this freaking show.

Space Chimps. Wow. I haven't seen Wall-E, but I know that Space Chimps sucks. L.C. and Brody Freaking Jenner are shilling for AT&T. Whatever.

Will/Jessica. Holy crap. So the pre-routine patter for them is deeply ironic. Jessica says that Will is a true gentleman -- opening doors and what not. Then Doriana Sanchez says that the routine is all about giving Jessica a chance to shine (because everyone already loves Will); the subtext seems to be, "Shape up, Ariel, because we will not let you be an albatross around the neck of our darling Will." Then Will steals the performance yet again. Unless one of the remaining couples really screws the pooch, these two are going to the bottom and Jessica? Is not coming back.

Julia Ormond is in that Kit Kittredge: An American Girl movie? The one with weirdly blond Abigail Breslin? Julia Ormond is still working?

Matt/Kourtni. New choreographer, piece about superheroes fighting and flirting? I don't know about that, but this was Matt and Kourtni's best performance so far, the only one that I've actually enjoyed -- and it made me like Matt for the first time.

Thayne/Chelcie. Quick step. Wow. I don't care. I hate quick step and these two drive me insane. Nigel says something about them being Band-Aids with smiles plastered on, which . . . has he been watching the past three weeks? This isn't a new development.

Mark/Chelsea. More Tabitha and Napoleon. Sucky music, good routine. I still love these two.

Joshua/Katee. This is actually kind of funny -- Joshua says Katee screams like a boy, which she does. I think I sort of like Katee. Her awkward moment dance thing is funny, too. Huh. Another half-dress. That seems very en vogue this week. You know Nigel is going to like it. Pig. I can't decide what I think about this routine because I'm distracted, thinking that they should have done this to "Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing" -- which they played during the rehearsal footage. Oh, wait. Oh my God. Nigel is now an equal opportunity harasser? He just drew everyone's attention to Joshua's "bum." Then he directed the camera to Joshua's father's ass as well? And I died? I can't tell which is driving me insane right now -- all of that or Katee's hair. Or Mary Murphy bringing up the stupid hot tamale train again.

I need to lie down.

Love,

-- Pete

P.S. Where is Mia Michaels?!

Chris Is Not a Tree

. . . as in, he did not leave. Get it? I know and I apologize. Anyway, yeah. So You Think You Can Dance results show. I called it, right? Susie and Marquis? Also, re: sad. That was even worse than I expected. Did you see the uncomfortable part where Marquis was hugging Cat Deeley and it would not end and you thought that maybe he had forgotten he was on-stage? Anyway, I mostly agree with the judges, with two exceptions:

1. I thought that Marquis's solo was better than Chris's. Interesting that they saw Marquis's as "tricks," and not "dancing." I don't know if I agree or if that means the judges are smarter than I am. I'm thinking it definitely means that the SYTYCD judges are smarter than the American Idol judges (also, obvy).

2. I do think that the judges seem to have been blind to how great Comfort is. There was no question that her solo was vastly superior to Susie's, for one. And also, she was really good with the slightly lame krumping Wednesday night. The problem, as I said before, was the wardrobe was crippling -- too much hat and kerchief. I actually think -- based mostly on the first week's whole "click, click" thing -- that Comfort might actually be too good for this show. Sorry.

So You Think You Can Dance Top 9 Couples

Another exhausting night. I still love this show more than anything (excepting Project Runway, of course). Moments last night did leave me completely slack-jawed, in the best possible way, but even so -- two hours, dudes. I wandered away at different points to look things up on the internets and to make limeade. I think I saw all of all of the routines. God, this must be a good show for Tivo, though. Nine two-minute dance routines over 120 minutes? That, Mia Michaels, is banoodles.

Thayne/Chelsea. This sucked. Is it possible Mandy Moore is kind of a lame choreographist? Because I thought her "Tainted Love" bit last week was bad, too. This is a whole new dimension, though -- who do we blame for the costume design?

Mark/Chelsie. I still really like these two. Funny that Mia said, in re Mark and Chelsie, that her two favorite things are "beauty" and "quirkiness." Argentine tango is always really exciting, mostly because usually the music is good. 

Will/Jessica. This was better, more interesting and safer than last week's whatever they did. I think the judges are right that Will is probably pretty safe for a long time, on dance skills alone. Jessica's hair was bad during rehearsal but cute during the routine, a reversal of last week's. Huh.

Matt/Kourtni. Whatevs. I think these two might be toast: Matt is starting to look like he's got some problems. That wouldn't be a big deal, if he had a really good partner (ie, someone like Twitch or Comfort -- a big personality who can also dance) to prop him up, but I didn't think Kourtni was extraordinary this week, either, and isn't really popping with the judges, either. 

Gev/Courtney. This was great, I thought. This is exactly the kind of piece I like on this show and the kids were great. Courtney's also got really good hair -- maybe she was the one (not Jessica) whose hair was so good last week? I like Gev, too, and they have great chemistry, like are they secretly doing it? That kind of chemistry. [This was a Mandy Moore piece. So I like some of her stuff. Maybe she's better at working with short people?]

Joshua/Katee. Joshua continues to be a favorite, but I actually thought that Katee stole this routine. Not as overwhelmed by it as the judges were, because I didn't really care about the emotion of it. Really impressive, though.

Susie/Marquis. Wow. These two are done, I think, and it's going to be really freaking sad, too. I mean, I thought this routine was kind of lame and I agreed with the judges about shoulders and whatever, but both Susie and Marquis seem like really nice people, and you know they're going to cry.

Twitch/Kherington. Eh. I guess I can't really criticize this because of angel babies and whatever, but it was Celine Dion. Come on. Oh, the business where Mia just went off for about 15 minutes about whether or not Kherington's fake smile should have danced the entire routine and then all the other judges and Twitch (albeit much less weirdly than anyone else) and the choreographistes and maybe even Cat Deeley argued about whether or not Mia was right to hate on the smiling and more baby angels and I give up.

Comfort/Chris. OK, wicked funny that our first krump routine was assigned to Chris, the whitest kid in this whole thing (um, Thayne might be whiter). Pretty good, funny exchange at the end about whether or not Chris can actually be menacing or I think the word was "gangsta," as uttered by 80-year-old Nigel Lythgoe of East Barmington, Hants., England. My criticism: wardrobe sucked. Chris looked silly in his enormous neckerchief and that's why he wasn't "gangsta" enough for Princess Margaret. Comfort was lost in her weird hat.

So You Think You Can Dance Top 10 Couples

Dear Jenny,

Last night was a special two-hour So You Think You Can Dance. It was a lot. I'm tired; I was tired about mid-way through. By the end of the episode, I could barely remember the dancers in the middle. It's too much and I wonder if maybe next year they could space all of these out over two nights, like American Idol does in the early performance episodes. I can barely face tonight's one-hour results show, although unlike Idol's results show, I think it might actually be entertaining.

Rayven/Jamie. I liked these kids just fine. (Everyone was really good, though, so that's not saying much . . .) I liked the song they danced to (Estelle featuring Kanye West?) but the routine left me a little cold.

Susie/Marquis. This was really good -- a very pretty dance, but moving, too -- great storytelling. They might be my favorites. I'm definitely rooting for Marquis.

Kourtni/Matt. I liked this a lot more when I saw it again at the end of the episode. At the time, it looked a little sloppy, although maybe that was the choreography? Is "Tainted Love" the gayest song of all time and does it even matter whether it's Soft Cell or the Supremes performing it?

Chelcie/Thayne. This was a cha-cha and I barely paid attention. I think I was wondering how it could be that there are 10 women competing in this thing and 15 of them are named Chelsie. Plus eight are named some variation on Courtney. Is that a dance thing? I don't know anything about Thayne, but is it possible he's that mythical creature the gay Mormon?

Chelcie/Mark. This was my favorite. I like Mark; I was worried because Mia was saying that he wasn't getting it. I thought this was going to be a disaster. Really great, though. Mia's stuff is usually really powerful, I think. Are the judges always so freaked out about the more intellectual pieces? Because this one actually seemed very straightforward to me.

Twitch/Kherington. Another really good one. Broadway dancing, whatever. They were great, though, and Twitch is another favorite -- of course he has a really good hook, having just barely missed the finals last year.

Comfort/Chris. I think Chris is the one who has the personality of a tree, according to Nigel? I liked Comfort a lot during the try-outs, was worried she would get lost in the shuffle, but Jesus! She really popped during the post-dance interview. She's a real stand-out, probably my favorite of the women, on personality alone. Oh, and she's the one who dislocated her shoulder! I liked that she was so whatever about it. "Yeah, click click." Yikes!

Katee/Joshua. Um, Katee is the one they tried to send home for talking too much last week. Yeah, her name is Katee, not Katie. That makes me like her less. Love Joshua, though. Really liked this dance, especially the ending.

Jessica/Will. This is where I completely tuned out. I am sure I saw this, but I have no opinion about it. Will is the one who is friends with Debbie Allen in real life. OK. It seems like there's a tango virtually every week. This one wasn't memorable like that "Whatever Lola Wants" one last year with the kicking. I'd like to see that again.

Courtney/Gev. Gev is a Kazakh, but has no discernible accent, and now he lives in Salt Lake City or someplace? Fun! Courtney has the best hair of all the girls -- not so much in the dance, but during rehearsal, it looks great. The judges hated this number. I'm not sure if that hurts or helps Courtney and Gev. They're in the "pimp spot," which helps, right? But they were about the only couple to be criticized by the judges, but maybe that helps because it motivates people to call? I can't tell.

Love,

-- Pete

Dance Night!

Dear Jenny,

I'm not even going to ask if you watched last night's exciting Three-Hour Mary Murphy Event, because, as everyone knows, you have no soul, which is to say that you are not delighted by the wonders of The Dance.

A pity, because it was pretty good. OK. My attention flickered a little during So You Think You Can Dance. For me it doesn't get interesting until the auditions are really, really over and the actual performances can begin. I'm not interested in the talentless, deluded or attention-seeking freaks (which, to be fair, were mostly weeded out in the first -- but endless -- weeks of this season) and the drama around who will make the cut isn't that exciting for me, either.

Some of it is just plain annoying. They always make a big deal about who is going to be the very last dancer of each sex to make the cut. This final cut for the men was relatively compelling: two dancers I hadn't seen before took the stage, and I thought, "One is really cute, the other is whatever but has a huge neck. I'm rooting for Not-Huge-Neck," and then sort of kind of not really agonized while Nigel Lythgoe et co dragged it out. (Not-Huge-Neck won.) Then the last two of the women came out, and according to Cat Deeley they are best friends -- Katie and Natalie. The judges had apparently already decided to keep Katie and cut Natalie, but then they interviewed them. Katie admitted that if she didn't make it, she probably wouldn't audition again next year, because this was her second year auditioning and it was all just too much. Pearl-clutching ensued. "How can you give up so easily? If you're this easily discouraged, then why should we bother?" and on and on, as if So You Think You Dance were the non plus ultra of dancing, rather than not even the only televised dance competition airing that night. Then -- then! -- the judges sent poor Katie and Natalie (the latter of whom hadn't even said anything!) out into the hall while they re-cast their votes and then decided to keep Katie anyway.

On the other hand, earlier in the night, when the judges kicked another dancer off, just for being mouthy, it was kind of awesome, because that one totally had it coming.

Anyway, after that, we had the grande finale of Step It Up and Dance!, which was slightly anticlimactic. I haven't been covering this show, week to week, for whatever reason, maybe because I didn't have much to say about it. It's good, I watch it, and then it's over. From about the second week on, it's seemed to me that Cody Green was going to walk away with the whole thing. Others of the dancers are good, but Cody can do anything. While the rest of the dancepetitors had exceeded in specific genres -- notably Janelle Ginestra (of Modesto!), whose genre seemed to be "angry" -- Cody had been among the best dancers, week after week, no matter what he had to do.

Last week, though, things got a little more interesting -- underdog Nick Drago did an amazing job with a dance to Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" (so weird) while Cody endured a rain of abuse from Nancy O'Meara (the judge who uncomfortably has nicknamed some of the male dancepetitors after pastries) all hinging on O'Meara's perception that Cody is "snobby." Then, at the judges' table, Elizabeth Berkley contradicted O'Meara on the "snobby" thing, leading to a "don't interrupt me"-off between the two judges. So awesome. 

This week . . . grande finale (and yes, Beserkley pronounced that phrase as if she were French -- and very dramatic). Mary Murphy. Other celebrities I didn't totally recognize. One group routine to a Fergie song that seemed to kind of suck -- the song, not the routine. The winner of that challenge won a role in a music video by some white kid I didn't recognize and don't 100% believe exists. Poor Michelle "Mochi" Camaya -- she's my favorite and she deserved a better prize than a role in an R & B video for a made-up white kid. Then individual, self-choreographed routines, each of which was actually really good, then, despite last week's blip, Cody won anyway. Yay!

Like you care,

-- Pete

Dance, Dance, Dance

Dear Jenny,

I'm conflicted about this, but here goes.  My new favorite show is almost the same as my old favorite show.  It's called Step It Up and Dance, it's on Bravo, and it's exactly what the Weinsteins are complaining about vis a vis Bravo and cannibalism (see also Top Design and Essman, Susie, career as game show host). 

I'm sure you saw all the ads, because I know you watch The Real Housewives of Oh My God I Hate These People, so I won't go into all the details.  I will say the following, though:

1. It's called Step It Up and Dance.  Isn't that funny?  If I were in charge of Bravo, I would have called it Dance, Dance, Dance, in honor of everyone's favorite author of books to give to other people, Haruki Murakami.  Isn't that better?

2. It's really pretty good so far.  Remember how I was watching Make Me a Supermodel, even though it was boring and sucked, just because Ronnie is so attractive?  This is like that, only interesting, because it's more interesting to watch someone dance than to watch someone walk. 

3. It's also more interesting to watch someone dance well than it is to watch someone dance not well, which is why I'm not singing the praises of Dancing with the Stars. 

4. Last night's episode (maybe Bravo will air it again -- you think?) was especially good because the dancetestants visited a burlesque show and had to dance a special, dramatic, violent and sexy dance I had never heard of, but I'm going to say that it was a lavash.  Wait.  Lavash is a kind of bread.  Never mind me -- I'm very hungry.  The not-lavash was good, too.  No Dita von Teese, though, which was sad.

Love,

-- Pete