SYTYCD - 2 of 18 go home

6/18/09 Results show
First things first. That opening routine from Mia Michaels was FAWKING AWESOME. Definitely one of my favorite group numbers. You know I think Mia completely grates as a human, but I do have to give it to her, sometimes her choreography just blows me away. In fact, in my top 5 group dances on this show, Mia Michaels routines occupy 3 of the spots.
Someday, maybe towards the end of this season or before the fall edition, I'll post about my top 5 couple and top 5 group dances.
Speaking of the upcoming season 6 - how great was the teaser they showed as a surprise for Evan about Ryan Kasprzak going through the L.A. auditions to Vegas (because d'uh)?

Anyway after the previous night's performances I was left with two worries - either that two of my favorite couples would be in the bottom 3 because of their poor showing (Jason/Caitlin and Philip/Jeanine), or that a couple that did really well like my other favorite pairing (Melissa/Ade) would be in the bottom because they don't have as strong a fan base as Philip or say Evan.
In the end the bottom 3 couples were sort of a mixture of these scenarios: Pono/Ashley, Jason/Caitlin, and Max/Kayla.

Male Solos:
Kupono - He's very quirky no? Interestingly for both his and his partner Ashley's solos, I think that if they'd had more than the 30 seconds that they're given it would have been brilliant. Pono was just starting to go somewhere great with his solo when the dreaded 10 sec countdown started. (And for the love of God people in the audience! Stop screaming the along with the screen as the seconds count down - it always takes the dancer and the viewer out of the moment and ruins things. HATE)

Max - I've already mentioned that the "dance for your life" solos from the ballroom dancers on this show never really excite me (with rare exception - see: Dmitry and Artem). And Max's solo was just kind of rote. I did sort of like that he did it to "Footloose" and that he had the solo and the music perfectly timed to 30 seconds. But I was hoping that he might mix it up and add other dance types in because he's actually very good at other stuff. He did really well with Friedman's choreography the night before.

Jason - I saved the best for last even though he was the first to perform. Jason was in a word - PHENOMENAL. I could watch his solo on a continuous loop. Nigel wasn't talking out of his ass when he said it was probably the best male solo they'd seen on the show ever. (So cute watching Jason's humble face when he registered what Nigel said) The minute he was done I knew he was definitely safe.
So when it was obvious that it was between Pono and Max, well I felt for sure that Kupono was going home; thus I was shocked when they booted Max. He looked so incredulous too like he couldn't believe it either.

Girl Solos:
Caitlin - She's very good. And I seriously keep forgetting that she has a fake hip or whatever. Totally crazy. Because she was the first person out of the gate last night I wasn't sure if her solo would be enough to save her.

Kayla - Again I agreed with Nigel when he said that she tried to cram every move in the dancer's encyclopedia into her 30 second solo. It was totally spastic and desperate, but hell, I knew there was no way this chick was going home.

Ashley - As mentioned above, I so liked where her routine was going; it looked like it would've been awesome with a 2 minute time period. It was just like she'd taken a longer piece and just done the first 30 sec of it. Contestants on this show have got to realize that they can't do that crap. They have to have a few "DfYL" 30 sec solo pieces in their repertoire along with other solo stuff that they might use in the audition process. So I wasn't that surprised that she was the one to be cut; and girl took it like a champ.

Kind of overly excited about the idea of a Kupono/Kayla partnership. Might just be dancer heaven.