‘So You Think You Can Dance’: America was tough, the judges fair

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The appearance of Chelsea Traille, Thayne Jasperson, Chris Jarosz and Comfort Fedoke was no surprise to the ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ viewers at home: Both couples had been floundering on stage and in the judges’ eyes the last few weeks. Kourtni Lind and Matt Dorame, however, seemed like they had performed better on Wednesday night than to deserve being put in the bottom three couples. Their flirty comic-book contemporary routine seemed made for them (Kourtni in particular).

However, Kourtni and Matt made it easy on the judges with their solo performances, which clearly stood out from the other four dancers’. Kourtni’s seemed to define who she is as a dancer and as a person, similar to her audition piece. Perhaps she needs to bring some more of that to her week-to-week performances. And Matt’s, as Nigel put it, was simply brilliant. While Chris’ was solid and Thayne’s seemed full of tricks (why did he not get called on this and Marquis Cunningham did the week before?) Matt’s lines, movement and graceful strength were undeniably beautiful.

At least from home, it was hard to pick which of the other four dancers seemed to deserve to go home based on their solos, so perhaps Chelsea was sent home over Comfort because Chelsea was slightly lagging behind in the on stage persona department (compared to Comfort, at least). Who can say why Chris was chosen over Thayne, except that Nigel seemed to feel that Chris had a slightly wooden personality from the get-go. His oh-so-innocent face will be missed, however. It was bittersweet to watch Comfort throw herself onto her now-former partner at the end of the episode for a goodbye embrace -- it could be said that if they had shown this sort of connection on the dance floor, perhaps Chris would still be there.

As a results show episode in all, tonight’s was strong. The creepy, kooky opening contemporary number was like ‘Alice in Wonderland’ on a bad acid trip, choreographed, of course, by Mia Michaels. The dance crew Quest, featuring season three contestants Hok Konishi and Dominic Sandoval and season one contestant Ryan Conferido performed a rewind-worthy mad-scientist-inspired hip hop routine to Blackalicious and Cut Chemist’s song ‘Chemical Calisthenics,’ a madcap song in which its quirkiest elements, most especially the ‘ding!’ of a bell, were emphasized on stage. And ‘American Idol’ season six winner Jordin Sparks performed her new single ‘One Step at a Time,’ a cute, catchy little number, sort of like Sparks herself, who, while adorable, definitely needs to work a little bit on the transitions between her ‘Hi!! I’m so happy to be here!!’ face and the ‘I’m acting this song out, seriously’ face.

--Claire Zulkey