“So You Think You Can Dance”: got it under RemoteKontrol

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It was a pretty good elimination episode tonight on ‘SYTYCD,’ except maybe for that whole results thing, but that’s up for debate. The show opened with a powerful, sensual (the show seems to be selling the sex a little extra this season, perhaps?) dance that was very Sonya Tayeh: a little bit raunchy, a little bit jazzy, a little quirky and very athletic. It was the first dance of the season that made me think, ‘I wish I could do that!’ While I probably cannot, I have a better chance of learning the dance that Tabitha and Napoleon demonstrate on the show’s website in honor of Dance Day, which is a sweet little feature that the show should integrate more on the website.

Looking hot in a simple black leather strapless dress, Cat got to the eliminations, which provided a little surprise for me with each group. I was surprised that Cristina was in the bottom three as opposed to Adechike (I have a feeling that Kent will be safe for a while). For some reason I expected Ashley to show up in the bottom group as opposed to Melinda, whom I keep wanting to love as much as I think I should (she seems really cool and eclectic, yet I haven’t developed any strong feelings about her). Finally, I was surprised that Robert, who is kind of the stud of the season, wound up in the bottom as opposed to Billy B. Wack. Maybe Robert needs to lick and bite his lips a little bit, like Jose.

The first guest performers of the night were RemoteKontrol, the dance crew helmed by Bryan Gaynor. Did I detect a bit of a mean joke from Cat when she delivered her ‘little introduction’? In their metallic gold costumes, masks and hats, RemoteKontrol at first appeared like those awful street performers who drive me crazy for clogging up rush-hour sidewalk traffic, but they were so, so, so much better. If RemoteKontrol performed on the streets here, I too would stop and gawk. I loved the subtlety of the crew’s moves, especially anything involving neck movements. It was one of my favorite guest performances on the show in a while.

We got to the bottom three performances, and I have to say I didn’t feel passionate about any of the performer’s last-chance dances. I thought Cristina looked hot and was a little mesmerized by Melinda’s red hot shiny pants (and impressed that the show finally seems to have figured out how to mike tappers) but I didn’t think about any of them, ‘Well, he/she proved that he/she deserves to stay.’

Before the results, singer Debi Nova performed the song ‘Drummer Boy,’ which I don’t think is going to supplant the Christmas classic ‘Little Drummer Boy’ as the most popular boy-drumming-based song any time soon, but the All-Stars dancing backup were great and the singer, who appears to be 4 feet tall compared to Cat’s 8, is a knockout.

Nigel made a point of mentioning that the judges’ decisions were not unanimous. He informed Robert that while it would have been easy to eliminate him to even up the sexes (which isn’t really that necessary this season with the dancers not pairing up), that wouldn’t be the case. He also basically told Melinda that he wanted to eliminate her because of her inability to connect with the audience but that Adam and Mia disagreed with him. Thus they chose Cristina to go home, which was another mild surprise since I thought Adam had praised her on her ability to take in the judges’ feedback. I think I agreed with Nigel regarding this decision, especially since tappers never seem to last that long in the competition. We’ll see if Melinda can somehow make the country fall in love with her by next week. Otherwise I’d say three times in the bottom three and you’re out.

-- Claire Zulkey

Robert Roldan (R) Anya Garnis (L). Cr: Kelsey McNeal/FOX