Reality Roll Call

Everyone, get out your charts and make your bets, because we’ve reached the Final Four of So You Think You Can Dance!  Katee, Joshua, Twitch and Courtney are going to be dancing full out, because this is their last chance to be the favorite. Tonight’s show involved everyone dancing with each other–girl on boy, boy on boy, girl on girl–there’s a little bit of dance action for everyone. Indeed, the judges barraged the dancers with an orgy of compliments about what great performers/entertainers they were; how unexpectedly great they were; how consistently great they were; etc. etc. I was ready to shoot the hot tamale train by the end of the night—all the gushing was hurting my cavities. For you closet fashionistas out there, I’d like to note that Cat was looking especially radiant in a gold mini dress and the kind of uber-straight hair that would make Cher jealous. Though, I’m not sure what Mary’s hairdresser was thinking when she dyed about two inches of the woman’s roots a medium brunette with highlights, but left the remaining hair dark brunette. Tacky doesn’t even cover it. But, to return to all things dance-related, Mandy Moore is rounding out the judges’ panel.

Twitch does another crazy girlfriend routine, but this time with Courtney, who during a one-on-one interview with Cat revealed that she knew she wasn’t the best dancer. Their dance is choreographed by hip-hoppers Tabitha and Napoleon and set to the song Church by T-pain. It’s a fast-paced performance, with every single beat choreographed. The highlight was when Twitch spins Courtney on his head. Cat ask him if she was heavy— he very graciously said that she was not.

Mandy Moore said they were great, and that Twitch always performs full out, and commends them on a great start to the show.

Mary said she felt Courtney’s character an that the routine was a knock-out. She screams. Nigel said he was going to miss everything about the show, except for Mary’s screaming.

Courtney dances her solo to a Mary Higgins number

Power couple Katee and Joshua perform a dance choreographed by Wade Robson who hasn’t been on the show this year because he’s been working in Las Vegas. They perform to “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” by John Mayer. The performance was beautiful according to Mandy and Mary, while Nigel said that Joshua was one of the best dancers on the show.

Katee and Courtney perform a Broadway routine choreographed by Tyce Diorio, which is set to the “Trolley Song” by Rufus Wainwright. Their outfits are fantastic: off the shoulder, late-19^th-century-inspired dresses that are short in the front with lots of ruffles and a train. They even danced with umbrellas. Mandy said their wardrobe reminded her of Old Hollywood. Mary said they had a great chemistry. Nigel took a moment to compare the two dancers, and concluded that Courtney didn’t extend her lines quite as far Katee, though he tried to soften the blow by saying there was a very small difference between the two dancers’ abilities.

Twitch bounces on stage with his solo dance to “It Was All In Your Mind.” He makes the girls scream and Nigel says that he is a great entertainer. He talks about his journey and about how he would be in the Navy right now if he wasn’t on SYTYCD.

Joshua and Twitch perform a Vienna-Style Russian dance that plays off their friendly rivalry. Their dance, which was choreographed by Youri Nelson is set to Tchaikovsky’s Nutckracker. They jump, they kick, they do manly looking things and Mandy’s response to their work was to say that there was nothing like watching two men do crazy stuff on stage. But she wasn’t too keen on the fact that Twitch did all the floor work, while Joshua did all the jumping. She said Joshua should have been doing the floor work because he was shorter. Joshua responds, “but I can jump higher” and proceeds to do a back flip. Go Joshua!! Mary gushes about how great they were, and the fact that they’ve never had the dancing style on SYTYCD, while Nigel says I expected you to be good at it because you’re street dancers and it is Russian street dancing.

Katee does her solo to an Imogen Heap song, and in her one-on-one with Cat she talks about competing against her friend in the auditions and what it felt like to almost not make it.

Twitch and Katee perform a Viennese Waltz together, and once again the two of them kiss—or almost kiss. Katee’s characters always seem to be chasing men and Twitch makes a great joke about Katee finally getting her man at the end of the performance. Mandy called it very romantic and said Katee was beautiful. She also said Twitch was great for lifting Katee in a dead press. Mary points out that he has grown and said he has blown her away. Nigel said Katee has been wonderful to watch. Meanwhile, Cat, comments on Twitch’s black suit and bow tie saying that he looks like James Bond. Nigel gleefully asks him to do an impression and Twitch puts on his best British accent to give the famous line, “Bond, James Bond”

In his solo, Joshua decides to flip the script, and leave the stage to dance on the judges panel in front of Nigel. Then he takes his shoe off. Nygel says he has set the standard for untrained dancers. Mind you, Joshua has had training, albeit, when he was very young, but still. Cat tells Joshua that he always makes her smile

Joshua and Courtney do the last couples dance with a jive choreographed by Jason Glikson. Mandy said it was great and Mary talked about how difficult the choreography was, but that they made it look easy. Nigel said there were a lot of things he found disappointing in their performance and began to enumerate them, the crowd belatedly boos—making me wonder if the crowd handlers (those folks who tell the crowd when to sit, stand or sound excited) had fallen asleep. But of course, Nigel gives his speech about the show being just as much about improvement as it is about entertainment.

The last performance of the night was a Mia Michaels piece with all four dancers performing. Of course it was weird and beautiful with a bit of humor thrown in as the dancers did a few herky-jerky renditions of ballet movements.

So the end is near, folks. Tell me who you voted for, and who you think will win—they don’t have to be one and the same. I’ll tell you I wouldn’t be surprised if Twitch took it—the kids love him, but my votes were on Joshua and Katee. I just love that I can vote for more than one person!! How about you?