So You Think You Can Dance Canada: Top 16!

Howdy folks! Time for the Top 16 Performance Show! And yay me! I figured out how to rewind the tape and was finally able to watch!

Oooh...we’re switching up the judges tonight! Joining Tre and Jean Marc are Paul Becker who has apparently worked with everyone and Kenny Ortega who most recently worked on High School Musical 3. I think it's great to have some different judges on the panel!

Can someone please try and explain the appeal of the High School Musical franchise for me? ‘Cause I just don’t get it.

Leah rambles about procedure and winnings again...blah, blah, blah...Get on with it!

JM and Tre are harping on the voting thing again. I really don’t think Canada’s voting...

We talk to Kenny and find out that aside from working on HSM, he also did Dirty Dancing and Gene Kelly was his teacher. That’s kind of cool.

Alrighty. Up first are Lara and Miles. They’ve got Krump this week with Lil C. I’m anticipating no opportunity for making out with this one. I’ve missed Lil C’s crazy descriptors. He should be on these shows more.

They’re dancing to ‘Tiny Ram Anthem’ by The J Squad. Lara does some crazy flips right off the bat and Miles has some surprisingly crazy abs. For a couple of really white kids, I’m actually buying this from them. They’re not always as together as they probably should be but they finish pretty sharp. I really think we need to talk a bit more about Miles. And his Abs. Yes, I capitalized it, because really? Ummm... yeah. He looked like he should have been part of the 8 Mile crew... I kept waiting for him to declare a battle and go all Eminem on us. I thought they both rocked it. Lara was pure determination throughout the whole thing.

Kenny says Lil C would be proud and that they brought the stuff. Paul says they were buck and surprised him. Tre loves it and says they killed it. JM says Lil C is now called ‘Capital C’. Hee. He thinks it was amazing and fantastic.

Oh, apparently we’re packing the filler into one segment tonight. There’s no way I’m going to catch all of these unique traits and reiterate them all accurately, so I’ll just tell you they all have something, and it’s suitably unique. Onward and upward.

Alrighty, Izaak and Kaitlyn are up next doing the Cha Cha with Benji Schwimmer. Benji says the cha cha is extremely ‘caffeinated’. Why is Benji wearing that ridiculous scarf?

The song is ‘Make Me Sweat’ by Basement Jaxx and they start out swinging around those reflector thingies that the people on airport runways use to direct planes to their appropriate jetway. Izaak doesn’t look entirely comfortable. I think he’s having problems moving his hips independantly. Kaitlyn seems to have it pretty good but not perfect. This one seemed really short. See, and I thought that Izaak looked much more comfortable in this one, that he was finally starting to relax and that he stopped acting like such a nerd about touching a girl.

Kenny thinks it was executed well, but had a slow start. Paul thought the concept was awesome, but found that Kaitlyn overpowered Izaak. I agree. Tre said she believed Izaak for the first time this week. JM acknowledges it was a difficult pick for them this week and that the technique wasn’t quite there, but thinks they showed growth.

Okay so Lisa and Vincent are up next doing African Jazz with Sean Cheesman. The song is ‘Hiohonolofatsa’ (say what!) by the Soweto Gospel Choir. That crazy lift is really quite impressive looking. I’m actually finding the big skirt on Lisa a little distracting. Aside from that I really like this routine. They both seem to be having a lot of fun with it. They're good. They really are. Lisa is probably even as good as she thinks she is. I saw a sign, a hint, of humble at having landed in the bottom three last week. It lasted about 7 seconds. And it's not that I don't appreciate a healthy dose of confidence, because I do! But gracious goes a long way with me, and I just don't get that from her. I do from Vincent, and I think that they couple really well - technically probably the strongest pair on the show... But I think it should be Canada telling HER that, not the other way 'round.

Damn! Somehow I just turned all Kim's words purple and can't make them white again! I have no idea what I did... :( So for the remainder of the show, Kim will be appearing in gray.

Kenny thinks they really understood the work and put in great emotion, heart and drive. Ugh...shut up Lisa. Seriously. Paul just says ‘mmmmmm’. Weird. He also says they’re an amazing couple. Tre wants us to work with her vision. I don’t wanna. JM says the pros are back! He says it was authentic and believable. He’s getting teary again.

Tamina and Joey are on the hook for hip-hop with Luther. He says it needs to be thuggy. They’re dancing to ‘Ditch That...’ by The-Dream. I think Joey’s too skinny to pull off thuggy and the mugging he’’s doing with his face isn’t necessarily helping. Tamina’s really hitting it though. Overall, I think they did pretty good, they were mostly together and hit pretty hard. I haven't been sold on anything they've done up til now... this one was good - wow, was Tamina ever in her element!

Kenny loved the routine and said Tamina hit it hard and Joey surrendered himself to it. Paul says ‘finally’. He thinks they were in a zone and apparently Joey’s mugging sold it for him. Tre says Tamina hit greatness, but gives major ‘props’ to Joey for looking the part. JM acknowledges Luther who seems to be sweating a lot for an audience member. ‘Joey! Ooo are you?!’ Hee. Beautiful fusion right before our eyes. JM cracks me up.

Francis and Natalli (the copy...okay I’m done, really) are doing the rhumba with Gustavo Vargas. Francis is excited about ‘touching’ Natalli and...whoa...somebody needs to teach Natalli about finding a foundation that actually matches her skin tone. Girlfriend’s face is about three shades lighter than the rest of her skin. Not. Good. I really did want to like Natalli, from the very beginning. But I just can't buy into her, and keep thinking that if they would only add a pole to the choreography, it would work for me - cuz THAT I think I would believe...

They’re dancing to ‘Perfidia’ by the New 101 Strings Orchestra. They’re doing really well, although I’m not finding it very exciting. They start getting a little shaky towards the middle and the lift doesn’t really come off well.

Kenny says they are as good as they need to be to win, but they maybe overdanced it a bit. Paul says the dance made him hungry. Tre starts in on the dress and Natalli talks way too much again. Just. Shut. Up. Girl needs to learn that a gracious 'thank you' would do just fine. Less is more. Tre says she got into their routine. JM gives a brief history of the rhumba and thought it was wonderful. Is it just me, or is anyone else getting a little concerned at how fiercely Natalli is clinging to Francis...

Allie and Danny are up next doing the quick step (aka the Kiss of Death) with Pierre Allaire. They’re dancing to ‘The Boogie Bumper’ by Casa musica Sound Studios Dusseldorf. I am in no position to comment on the technique on this, so I’ll say they seem to really have the routine down. It looks like they got a good handle on the lifts in rehearsal and make it look easy (when history tells us it’s not). I just love these two. They look like they should be time machined right back to the 50's. Or whenever the hell quick step was born. They just suit it so perfectly.

Kenny loved it, thought it was classic. Paul thinks Allie and Danny removed the curse from the quick step. Tre thinks they made it look effortless and calls them chameleons. JM says they made it look easy (sheesh should I be a judge on this show, or what?). He says it’s the best quick step from all the So You Think You Can Dance’s. So I notice that when Allie says "yay!" it's like she's pleased to receive the compliment. Kind of a "yay, that was nice to hear!" When Lisa says "yay!" it's like she's expecting the compliment. Kind of like "yay, THERE it is." It's amazing how much of a difference that makes in the delivery.

Arassay and Nico are on next with contemporary with Blake. It’s a fatal attraction/break up kind of story. There is a completely outrageous, disgusting semi nose breaking incident where Nico ultimately ‘pops’ the bone in his nose back in place. Gah! I had to block that part. Some information I just can't allow to penetrate.

The musical selection is ‘Let Me Leave’ by Marc Broussard. Way to be literal with the song choice Blake. So there’s a lot of convulsing and collapsing all through this dance and I really like all the leaps that Arassay does onto Nico. You had to know they were going to do really well with this, it’s right in their niche. Yay! Nico’s shirtless again! Pleasant dreams Carra. As Nico walks off the stage at the end of the dance, I’m reminded of that quote from (I think) Thelma & Louise; “I hate to see him go, but I love to watch him walk away.” or something like that. Sigh. Best line in the whole movie, delivered to a very skinny Brad Pitt... Do you remember? How skinny he was?

So... I'm just wondering... exactly how many drowning orphans and starving kittens do you think Arassay had to save in her previous life to be given this treat. This treat of rolling around... on the floor... with a nearly naked Nico. And does she even know?

I have completely lost my ability to give an unbiased critique. They are both simply fantastic.

Kenny says ‘Viva Cuba!’ and thinks it was beautiful. What is with all the excess talking from the dancers tonight? Paul is not a master a of the fake-out. That he is not. He thought it was amazing and that they have natural chemistry. Tre doesn’t think they’re going anywhere. JM didn’t want it to end. He’s nearly teary again. He loves them and calls them fusion in motion.

Finally we have Caroline and Jesse doing rock with Melissa Williams. Fun! Jesse’s selling his soul to Caroline (the devil). They’re dancing to ‘Miss Murder’ by AFI. They do really well with a difficult lift and look like they’re really having fun with this. They sell it really well. For probably the first time, I’m enthusiastic about their piece. I absolutely agree. The commitment to this one was just pouring off them.

Kenny thinks Caroline should sign up for the Pussycat Dolls. Jesse was overpowered a bit by Caroline. Paul agrees with Kenny about Caroline and thinks Jesse was excellent. Tre thinks Caroline ‘did it’ this week and agrees with Kenny about her overpowering Jesse. JM thinks this was the most solid they’ve been so far. Jesse didn’t ‘jazz’ him so much but Caroline rocked his world.

We close the show with the usual recap and final comments from the judges. Apparently they’re using the judges as filler tonight ‘cause they’re talking a LOT. Each judges pick their two ‘favorites’ and - shock of all shocks - everyone gets picked once! Yeah, that wasn’t orchestrated at all.

Now, just because they harped on it so much tonight, I am actually going to vote. I’ve programmed the appropriate number into my cell and will try to get through to cast at least one vote. Yay for me, I’m a participant.

So that’s it for tonight. Carra’s comments will be added shortly so keep checking back . Carra’s heading up tomorrow night’s results show recap as well (yeah, about that...), so keep an eye out for that later Thursday night or Friday morning.

Cheers