Timing is Everything! with Donnie & Angela: The Adam Shorsten Interview!

(It's Donnie & Angela! Superfans to the MAX!)

Allow me to introduce you to Donnie and Angela - two "superfans" of my play, The Timing of a Day. They fell in love with it at an early public reading and are now obsessed with getting all the info possible on the show - of which there is decidedly little. So in an effort to control their enthusiasm, the production has allowed them to interview the cast and production team for web videos so they can help share their love of the show with the masses. Hopefully, these superfans can keep their love for us under control as they spread the message that "Timing is EVERYTHING!"



The Timing of A Day opens on Wed. 8.18.10 at NYTW's 4th Street Theatre as part of FringeNYC. You can purchase tickets here. Come out and see us!

A Field Trip to FringeCENTRAL!!

Yesterday after we were done with Venue Prep, the incomparable Ariana Paganetti and I took a trip over to FringeCENTRAL to scope out the scene and replenish our post card supply.

(Streetside view! Such wonders await you inside!)

FringeCENTRAL was so lovely. A very fun and spacious place to get info on all the shows in the festival. Sit and rest a while, get a snack, read reviews and most importantly - but $15 tickets to shows without the online surcharge. Seriously, if you can make your way down to 1 East 8th St at 5th Ave, you should take advantage of this opportunity.

(FringeCENTRAL rocks!)

(A fun place for kids to draw and play.)

(A wall of postcards. So many great choices! But see The Timing of A Day FIRST!)

Everyone there was very nice and the vibe was very chill. I had a fun time scoping out the different areas and taking some well deserved rest time on the couches with Ari.

Ari and I had a nice talk with one of the guys behind the ticket counter. We told him we were with The Timing of a Day. He responds "Oh, I remember reading about that one. That's the one where someone dies, yes?" And I'm simultaneously like "OH! HE remembers us!" and "Does my fringe description really say someone dies?" It does. I had just forgotten that some people thought that was too much of a spoiler, and I had stopped saying that. But months ago, that was the quickest way for me to describe the show! Anyway, we assured him the play was not majorly sad and that it had a lot of humor and he he said he planned on seeing it, and we told him how much we hoped he would. But people know about the show! Exciting!

(Come get tickets! Everyone here is super-friendly and helpful!)

FringeCENTRAL is open daily from 12pm-8pm. Congrats to everyone at Fringe for setting up such a great place!

Venue Prep for Success!!

(Ariana is showing that she is the muscle behind the show and the muscle behind Venue Prep Day. Woohoo!)

Tuesday was our venue prep in NYTW's 4th Street Theatre. As I predicted, our sexy design team did a great job of showing up, dazzling everyone with their good looks and technical savvy and did so much work. I showed up at the end after work, where there was not much left to do, but I did haul some extra cabling and lights out to the front lobby. The lady of the hour/day/entire project is Ariana Paganetti, who is an amazing Project Manager/ACR/Friend/Hot Woman who was there the whole time. I would like to thank NYTW for the use of their space, FringeNYC and our amazing venue director, Krystal, for doing a fantastic job keeping things organized, and my incredible design team for their time and their talent of which i am incredibly appreciative. I know the cast is salivating to get into the space and I can happily report to them that I think they will be very comfortable there and it will be a great space to have the run for the next two weeks. it's so exciting to finally be in the theater! I didn't take pictures inside, because people were working on lights and taking pictures seemed like an unwelcome thing to do. But we took pictures outside! Woohoo!

(Home Sweet Home at the 4th Street Theatre!!)

SYTYCD 7 - Free To Be You And Me In The Final Three!

(FOUR NO MORE - The judges achieve their summer-long goal of eliminating AdeChike from the competition and all they needed to do was rely on the popular vote of the Viewing Public. Who would've thought? Still, group hugs are in order.)

It's the Final Four this week and usually that means we're at the Grand Finale (except for last season when they decided they were done whittling down the competition at Top 6...), but we continue to switch it up this season and we're cutting it to a Top 3. Of the four who remain, we've got 3 contempos, and 1 jazz hands left to shake their money makers! Woohoo! Welcome... to So You THINK You Can Dance!

Intros and everyone's healthy two weeks in a row, thank goodness. The final four's final pose downstage center is totally uninspiring. Two of them stand back to back and two of them crouch on the ground. I could do better than that. C'mon people. I'm sure we'll all tired, but dig deep! Tyce is on the judging panel this week along with the regulars. I'll take a guess right now and say his commentary will add nothing for me. There is a Top 4 group number this week that Tyce choreographed to The Crapshooters Dance from Guys and Dolls. It opens the show and it's the dumbest routine I've seen in a long time. It's totally boring and showcases no one's skills. They might as well have done jazz squares for the length of the music and it would've been cooler. My high school production of Guys & Dolls had choreo to blow this out of the water. I don't know why I'm spending so many words on such a weak routine. I liked Tyce's group routine from the Results Show a couple weeks ago, but this one is just a bunch of nothing. Tyce does take a moment afterward to compliment Kent, Robert and Lauren, but says he wants to see more fight in AdeChike which I take as a harbinger for more criticisms against AdeChike still to come tonight. These judges have agendas! The contestants won't be dancing together at all this week. They'll be dancing two routines with different All-Stars. I want to see an effing waltz finally and also maybe a Robert hip hop routine. Will the show continue to deny me??

Lauren - Argentine Tango with Pasha. The dance is very very passionate. Pasha clearly knows what he's doing and Lauren just lets go into him. The routine has a voyeuristic quality given how intense they are with each other in their own little world. I just wish it had more kicking, because i do like between-the-legs kicking in my tangos. When it's time for the panel to way in, even the usually "No-Homo Nigel" admits that he wants to dance with Pasha, that's how intense it was. Tyce and Mia really liked Lauren's maturity in the dance and Adam literally sings his praise to her, and also gets Nigel to agree to marry him now that Prop 8 was overturned in Cali (woohoo!).

AdeChike - Afro-Jazz with all-star Lauren as choreo'ed by Sean Cheesman. The dance is fun but not even midway through, I notice how tight AdeChike's shoulders look, and I know the judges will pounce on him. They do, especially Mia who never misses a chance to dis an AdeChike performance. In truth, there's wasn't enough joyful abandon from AdeChicke in this routine. The judges have been trying to get him in the bottom 3 for FOREVER. This is their last chance to get him off the show and they're going for it!

Robert - partnered with Anya and dancing a Viennese waltz! A waltz! What I've been waiting for all season! Thank you, producers. This one will be choreo'ed by Jonathan Roberts. As soon as I see the rehearsal footage, I start to think this may be a case of After You Get What You Want You Don't Want It. Robert's actually done several ballroom routines this season, and in almost all of them I feel like I can see him concentrating too hard on the steps. I can see him thinking about it. He's got a decent connection with Anya though, who of course dances it beautifully. The judges, for their part, showed up wearing their "Go Go Roberto!" T-Shirts tonight and all profess their love for the routine. Superlatives all around, which makes me happy because I want Robert to make it to the final round next week. As Cat is wrapping things up with Robert you can see he's gripping her very tightly, mostly out of adrenaline and probably a little because it's Cat and how could you not if she was already that close to you? Cat doesn't seem to mind it at all.

Kent - gets himself Courtney and Disco by Doriana Sanchez. Hmm. Disco hasn't been too succesful this season. It's like hip hop was for the last two seasons. I'm glad hip hop is on the rise again for this show. The dancing is fun - if not a little cutesy - as Kent continues not to be able to clamp down his face. BTW, Courtney's hair is twelve miles high. It's insane. They do this one airplane spin that's so fast it looks like it might go completely out of control, but they maintain it. The judges are not wow'ed - even Nigel, who has a soft spot for disco routines. Mia calls it Kent's worst all season. The discussion gets so bad that Nigel breaks off his engagement with a nay-saying Adam. Dance is tearing love apart.

Second Round!

Lauren - partnered with Ade doing Sean Cheesman jazz. This is a reunion from Top 11 week, when the judges didn't like Lauren's performance so much, nor her lack of connection to the amazing Ade. Let's see how things go this time! Lauren is a black widow spider spinning her web of sexiness around Ade. It's a very sharp, athletic and energetic piece. i was really into this one. Two stand out moments - an insane lift where Ade grabs Lauren's arms, and then flips her upside down with her feet on his shoulders, and then pulls her up above his head. It sounds confusing and painful, but it was awesome. The other cool moment was an extremely quick hand movement sequence which Lauren and Ade nail. Really really good. Nigel loved it, but some of the others wanted more sexy ferociouness. Seriously, judges? You try to do that routine better.

AdeChike - Kathryn and contemporary with choreo by Dwight Rohden and Desmond Richardson! AdeChike's dance hero! That's awesome. It's all about showcasing AdeChike to his fullest, but again I find this lacking. Maybe it's that the dude just looks spent. I have a hard time focusing on the routine. Clearly the judges sense this the legitimate window they've been waiting for to criticize AdeChike fairly and then bounce him from the show. Nigel notes his falling energy throughout the routine. Mia says she still wants more. The kid ain't perfection and we want perfection! The others don't do much to defend him. AdeChicke gives a tearful speech of thanks and farewell. Dude always handled himself well when the judges went after him. Gotta respect that.

Robert - paired with Dominic for a hip-hop routine! Choreo by NappyTabs. This is what I asked for as well! Producers, tonight you are spoiling me. Robert and Dom are sad clowns. Dom looks like the Joker from Dark Knight and Robert's got static hair like he rubbed his head on one of the many balloons populating the stage. This is a very fun routine. Robert and Dom have good chemistry and Robert keeps up with all the moves. The judges dig it and again do their best to keep Robert around for Top 3. Adam says Rob outdanced Dom, and I wish they would stop saying bullshit like this. None of the All-Stars have been outdanced this season. They are not supposed to be pulling focus from the contestants. They are trying to make the contestants look better, so don't diminish them for it in the critique. It's annoying. Mia thought the routine was "dope" and I'm happy that Robert has two champions in Nigel and Mia.

Kent - closing the show with Neil doing Travis Wall contempo. The theme here is the breakup of "a friendship," Neil literally punches Kent in the back at out point as if a knife is going in. Neil is wearing a black tank top so you know he's the baddie. This is a very good routine. There is a lot of emotional weight to it that compliments the very athletic dancing of Neil and Kent. Those two make very good dance partners. I don't see why they have to be "friends" instead of lovers which is really what the implication is here anyway. Maybe if Prop 8 had fallen a couple days earlier it would have been more explicit. :) Travis is very broken up about the routine afterward because it's based on his life, and Mia and Adam also cry for the 900th time this season. This was a very good recovery for Kent after his not-so-great Disco earlier tonight.

My preference for tonight's dances goes a little something like this:
Kent and Neil's contemporary
Lauren and Ade's jazz
Lauren and Pasha's tango
Robert and Dominic's hip-hop
Robert and Anya's waltz
Kent and Courtney's disco
AdeChike and Lauren's African jazz
AdeChike and Kathryn's contemporary

Tomorrow: the final cut! Voting America will make its first real impact all season. Hopefully Robert did enough to stay alive. I sure voted for him!

Results Show: We open with a weird sorta dance that I enjoy, but it takes me a long time to realize part of my unease is that i can't identify any of the people on stage as contestants. That would be because there are none. It's all all-stars. I guess that's a result of the Top 4 wasting their time on that Tyce number that opened Tuesday's show. Dee Kaspary did the choreo for this and it was a nice job indeed. i

National Dance Day happened but I don't feel like writing about it.

Nigel talks a bit about the finale. He slyly mentions NASA is involved, so who the hell knows what crazy ass thing they have planned there. He'll also be getting his tappa tappa tappa on for our viewing pleasure. And for some reason instead of just showing us the Alex/Twitch "Outta Your Mind" routine on video they are performing it with a surprise guest replacement. Who could it be - Baryshnikov? An "Only Mostly Dead" Michael Jackson? Otherwise, just play the tape of Alex doing it, please.

Before results, there is already filler in the form of Janelle Monáe, singing a song about a tightrope. It's actually kinda cool and interesting, but seriously just tell me who is going home, Show.

Everyone does a solo tonight. All of the solos are fine.

There's an extended commercial for Gatorade within the show. Please, can we have some results?

Finally, the dancers are out on stage. Lauren is safe first and then Kent. There's more to it than that but I'm cutting to the chase.

Desmond Richardson is on hand to dance awesome for the masses. It's fantastic, but will I never get to see my Transformers routine with All-Stars Pasha and Lauren, Show? You gave me a waltz and Robert's hip hop, now give me my Transformers!

The Final Four went to see Step Up 3D. I did not. Flo Rida is on hand to perform a song from the film. Several All-Stars dance around him. Cat assures us Flo Rida smells great. Please just let me know if Robert made it to next week's show already!

AdeChike is out and Robert is in! Hooray! The montage for AdeChike is very nice. He did have some good moments throughout the season! The three dancers who didn't just lose, run back on stage to hug AdeChike.

On Tuesday, The Top 3 dance for all the marbles and then Wednesday we award Kent (or maybe someone else!) the title of America's Favorite Dancer! I can hardly wait!

Rafa Y Gambas!

I have a new meal that I eat in preparation for all my long races now. It comes courtesy of Rafa Nadal. Surprised? I didn't think so. Turns out he has a favorite meal that helped him out at Roland Garros and Wimbledon as he marched towards victory. That meal is pasta y gambas. I love both of those things! I need to carbo load anyway, and I've always been a fan of shrimp, so if I can eat foods i like before a race AND draw inspiration from Rafa, this is a win-win for me.

Nadal's still prepping to get back in the (literal) swing of things for the US Open Series leading up to the US Open later this month. I still haven't bought tickets! I hope some are still available! I need to get on that right away.

Here's a US Open commercial where Nadal talks about prepping his secret recipe for success! I love how he can't take his delivery of the lines that seriously.

SYTYCD 7 - Road To The Final Four

(FOR WHOM THE BILLY (ELLIOT/JAMIE) BELL TOLLS/NO WAY, JOSE. Two high-profile personalities dealing with season-long vote deficiencies finally get cut, even as Billy gives his best performance of the season.)

We're back again with 6 Finalists just like last week: 4 contempos, 1 jazz hands and1 breaker. Unlike last week, they might all actually perform. They'll be dancing three times again this week. In the end two will go home, so that production stays on schedule. Welcome... to So You THINK You Can Dance!

Here come the intros, let's count to make sure everyone is here. One, two, three, four, five and... six! Hooray! One has a big ol' knee brace on, but I'll take it! Cat Deely comes out looking better-dressed than last week and is all "no injuries! no injuries!" and somewhere on Mount Olympus, The Muse Terpsichore is all "For now. Don't tempt me, Deely." There's a new fourth judge, but it still isn't Mary Murphy. Mary I miss you! Come back and Scream just once for me, please? Instead we get the ballroom expertise of Toni Redpath! She has the best last name. It makes me think she's like Beatrix Kiddo in the House of Blue Leaves leaving a trail of wounded behind her. Anyway, it's finally time to dance!

First it's the All-Star routines. Kent gets cha-cha again with Anya and choreo by Jean-Marc and France. The concept of the dance is that Anya is a Mary Kay Letourneau-type and Kent is her horny rebel student. It's fun, and it's ANYA! but it's not super spectacular. There's a top layer of sheer school-teacher blouse on Anya's costume that needed to go at some point during the routine. The judges ding Kent again for his face-pulling and he tries for a "I have to be true to my face-pulling self!" defense but Mia isn't having it and politely tells him to be more of a chameleon. You're heading to the Top Four, Kent. They want you to earn your eventual title now. Don't slack. Transform!

Robert - dancing contemporary with Kathryn with choreo by Stacey Tookey. Soldiers are going off to war in this routine. It's not the first time we've explored this on SYTYCD, but seeing as we've been at war longer than this show has been on the air, I guess we ought to keep doing dances about it. The dance is set to a fancy version of "Heaven Is a Place on Earth"a song which holds the unique distinction of being the earliest song I can remember learning from listening to it on the radio. The routine is very emotional and Robert and Kathryn have a great connection between them, matched with great technique. There's a bit of a switch at the end because you think Robert is going off to war but it's actually Kathryn! Robert is left alone. Oh good job, Robert! The judges eat it up. Nigel says it shows how's he grown this season, which is the exact opposite of what he said about Robert when he was in the Bottom 3 last week, but no matter. Toni loves him, Kathryn loves him, Mia loves him and Adam loves him. Hopefully love will translate into caller votes.

AdeChike - paired with Courtney, dancing Jazz and Tyce is handling choreo. It's gonna be more straight jazz instead of contempo Jazz so as not to ruffle Nigel's feathers. The performance is fine, but I was a little bored. Too many jazz routines this season, I think. Still not one waltz. What is up with that??

Jose - hip-hop. He's got Comfort with him, doing a routine by Marty Kudelka and Dana Wilson. This routine has a fun throwback feel to it as they dance to "Try a Little Tenderness." I actually think Comfort is totally captivating in this. She's soft and flirty in character, but her moves are all so on point. I love it. Jose works to keep up. The judges are nice to Jose, but everyone involved seems to know he'll be in the bottom 3 this week and is a sure bet to be leaving the competition. The only question left to answer is who is joining him.

Lauren - Broadway with Allison. Girl on Girl action! Damn Yankees again?? Why does this musical have such a hold on this show? This is another Tyce number where it feels like not much is happening and is over before it starts. The girls can't help but look physically amazing though. They both do gymnastic flips at the end, and it looks like Allison is having to work harder than Lauren to get it done, but it only makes me love Allison more. The judges all praise Lauren, saying it's like she's already an All-Star. She really has grown leaps and bounds this season - literally and figuratively.

Billy - contemporary with Ade. Oh, eff yeah! Stacey Tookey is back again for the choreo. The story here is Rich Man/Poor Man. Billy is a homeless dude and Ade is in a super smart suit. They are in their own worlds and then halfway through they realize they used to know each other and that makes them freak the eff out. The music is the Donnie Darko version of "Mad World" by Tears for Fears, a song that I find as emotionally evocative as Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah." You just don't have to work that hard to get something out of it. It's beautiful. Billy and Ade however DO work hard and they get A LOT out of it. It's really amazing. Billy's best performance on the show, by far. He does half of it with a wool hat pulled down over his eyes. Ade is his usual amazing self. Toward the end there are these amazing lifts and the tortured expression on Billy's face is perfection. Everyone but Nigel (who likes it in a more reserved way)goes crazy for it at the end, and Cat makes sure we all know Ade finished up the routine with a "Work, Billy!" of approval. I love the All-Stars. The judges are very complimentary to Billy. Mia tells Billy that win or lose the competition (it will likely be lose) he's an amazing emerging artist and she loves him. Billy beams. Aww. I forget these kids are all like 10 years younger than me.

Contestant! Dancing together! LIVE!

Kent and Jose - Broadway with choreo by Spencer Liff. They're just a couple of old-school blue-collar guys hollerin' at a girl on the street. I gotta tell ya, I'm a little over Kent and Jose so even though there's nothing wrong with this routine, it can't really hold my attention. I'm not even sure what the judges said to them and I've watched it back twice. I just keep spacing. Let's make an educated guess that they liked Kent and were a little underwhelmed by Jose's lack of technique.

Lauren and AdeChike - foxtrot with choreo by Jean-Marc and France. They're dancing to "Fever" which is a nice sexy song for a fox trot. This one is not super-memorable. I don't know what to really say about it. Neither of AdeChicke's routines tonight really made any impact on me, so I wonder if that will be reflected in the vote. Lauren seems to be leaning very heavily on AdeChike during the critique... she doesn't collapse or anything, but it looks like the girl could use a nap.

Robert and Billy - We have a pull Bollywood finale by Nakul Dev Mahajan! Awesome. The idea of the routine is two actors fighting for the same role, but it could just as easily be two contempo dancers fighting to avoid a spot in the Bottom 3. It's very very good. There's a lot of squatting and bouncing and 1,001 ways to aggravate a knee injury, and everyone remembers Bollywood was what took Alex out several weeks ago so there's a bit of weird energy about the whole thing, but both guys make it through and everyone goes crazy. Nigel loves it , Toni amusingly compares Robert to a "big, cheesy hamburger" (she kinda wants him), Mia calls Billy the pizza she prefers and once again points out that they got through it without injury. On Olympus, Terpsichore stirs in annoyance. Nigel points out that Billy is working his knee out, but give the kid a break. He's fiiine, Billy insists to the judges and to America.

Cat again revels in the fact that there were no injuries. (Terpsichore - "You were warned!!") And throws it to the numbers.

My preference for the evening goes:
Billy and Ade's contemporary
Robert and Billy's Bollywood
Robert and Kathryn's contemporary
Lauren and Allison's Broadway
Kent and Anya's cha-cha
AdeChike and Courtney's jazz
AdeChike and Lauren's foxtrot
Jose and Comfort's hip-hop
Kent and Jose's Broadway

She's Cat Deely, goodnight! Wait, what? FIVE dancers are on stage and not six? Cat tells us, abashed, that since no one could shut up about their good fortune tonight, Terpsichore went and made an example of the last girl left in the competition. (TERPSICHORE: DO NOT TEST ME, MORTALS! Lauren's being checked out by the medics. They won't tell us why. Sigh. Hopefully this doesn't spell the end for her.

Results Show! The group routine is very Alice in Wonderland. Allison is Alice, so I guess it's really Allison in Wonderland. Lauren is nowhere to be found. I do spot Jose back in the mix after being mostly absent from the group numbers the past two weeks. Nigel tried to explain yesterday that Jose's absence from the group numbers was a result of a groin problem, but I don't know how much I believe that. Maybe I'm just unfairly hating on Jose. Tonight's group number featured choreo courtesy of Mia Michaels. Fun times!

Lauren is actually fine, btw. Terpsichore just let us off with a final warning not to discuss dance injuries anymore. Lauren got dehydrated, i think is the official diagnosis. She should have been drinking Gatorade during the performance show. Speaking of Gatorade, this season's winner will be featured in an ad campaign for the sports drink. Gatorade now considers dance a sport. Nigel hopes the Olympics will follow suit. I'd personally like to see Anya and Pasha win an Olympic Gold for Latin Ballroom. They deserve it.

Bottom 3 is Jose (not unexpected) Billy (unfortunately not unexpected) and Lauren (what?? unexpected!) American, you got this all wrong! Billy was great last night! How does AdeChike have such a strong fan base? This means Billy has been in the Bottom 3 for FIVE weeks in a row! Since Top 9!! The voting public is not watching what I'm watching. Billy takes it more in stride than I do. You really want less "Mad World" on this show and more "Fever," voters? Okay then. It's clear to everyone now that Billy and Jose are goners. There's no way they will axe Lauren, nor should they at this point.

No All-Star dance this week. Are you saving Transformers with Lauren and Pasha for next week, producers? Instead we get a megamix dance from Step Up 3D. This movie features Dance alums Twitch, Joshua, Ivan, Legacy, Ashlee, and Musa. Tonight's performance also features Tony Bellissimo (but he's not in the movie? I'm confused.) and Lil' C!! They don't show enough of Lil' C during the dance. As I watch, I wonder if Lil' C is younger than me (like Wade Robson), and I just think that he's older because he's a successful choreographer. (Note: wikipedia tells me he is younger, by 3 years - younger even than Wade. Wow.)

Next up is a performance by some dude named Christian TV. He scares me and I don't listen to his song. The Bottom 3 dance solos, but they are just swan songs for the boys because the decision is so obvious.

Up next we have a performance by homegirl Allison Iraheta. She's got Orianthi on guitar with her. To my they are like a real life version of Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn if those two started a rock band. It's not my favorite Iraheta jam, but she's great nonetheless. There are these two random dancers on stage with them, but they're not All-Stars so what was the point of them? More All-Stars, please!

Time for cuts. Jose should be happy he made it this far. He is, and then he's gone. Nigel tells Billy his "androgynous dance style," didn't gel with America. That seems not exactly right to me, but I don't have a better explanation as to why he's had no voter support for over a month, so what can I really say? Billy is an odd bird perhaps, but he's a beautiful dancer and I think he grew a lot through the last month of finding a reason to dance brilliantly even if the public wasn't responding to it. I felt like he made adjustments that were right for him to improve his craft, instead of just trying to please voters and that's gonna benefit him so much more in the long run. I'd pay to see him dance live. I think he's fantastic. Both he and Jose seem really at peace with their eliminations.

So now we're down to four. It's all about the call-in votes from here on out. Next week it's a straight vote tally that determines which three are going to the final and the judges simply critique. i don't think we've ever had an odd number of dancers in a Finale week before this season. Should be interesting. My voting power is firmly behind Robert. I think the Top 3 should be Robert, Kent and Lauren, but AdeChicke has had the magic touch for several weeks. It should be very very interesting next Thursday.

SYTYCD 7 - The Top 6 Dance as the Top 5, So Next Week They Can Dance as the Top 6 Again to Determine the Top 4. Got It?

(MAKING IT UP AS WE GO ALONG. The judges don't like the rules they set up so they ignore them and no one goes home. Also Cat wears her craziest outfits ever. And it's our first episode without Anya or Pasha. Nothing this week makes sense!)

6 Finalists Remain: 4 contempos, 1 jazz hands and1 breaker... who's kinda outstayed his welcome. Everyone will dance three times this week, as we try to fill two hours with fewer and fewer dancers. Welcome... to So You THINK You Can Dance!

Here come the intros, let's count to make sure everyone is here. One, two, three, four, five and... NO! Not again! Three weeks in a row someone is injured? And it's Billy (Elliot/Jamie) Bell that's gone down. Holy hell.

Okay, listen. I can't do a normal recap this week, because the whole two episodes turned out to be a total wash. Here's what happened. Billy hurt his knee while rehearsing. the doctors cleared him, but he still thought it was better not to push it as he was set to dance some knee-intense numbers. This was a little weird though because no one has ever elected not to dance before when the doctors said they could. So Billy got sent to the bottom three and the others danced two routines plus solos. Kenny Ortrga was also there as the 4th judge to mark the special anniversary of the show's 150th episode. Here's how the dances went in my order of preference.

Lauren and Twitch did a Tabitha and Napoleon Wild West routine. Lauren did this insane reverse somersault roll designed to look like a tumbleweed. That was intense! Everything was hit hard and looked really really good.

Robert and Fellow-Contestant Lauren did a beach party-flavored samba by Dmitry Chaplin. It was cute. They had the right feel for it. Robert looked solid and strong. Lauren looked great. They had a few wonky moments where they didn't quite connect right on the lift spins, but overall a fun number.

Kent and Kathryn danced Jazz From Sonya, but I didn't really dig the choreo even though they had strong energy. The thing i remember most from this was their colorful shirts. Nigel says Kent outdanced his all-star partner 2 weeks in a row and i think that's not true in both instances.

AdéChiké paired with Comfort for Tabitha and Napoleon lyrical hip hop. It's emotional and danced strong, but there's a very real slap that seems kind of out of place. It's not like there haven't been a million fake punches and kicks and smacks on this show before. We could've lived without it.

Robert and All-Star Lauren's had jazz with Tyce. It was sexy and well done, but there was one moment where Tyce had Robert lick Lauren's leg that felt totally gratuitous. Still it gets points for being straight jazz and not dependent on a literal story.

Kent should've danced with "injured" Billy to a step routine by Chuck Maldonado. Instead he gets partnered with Twitch. I didn't think this routine worked at all. Twitch and Kent are so physically different. The style was much more natural for Twitch than Kent, who i personally thought flailed around for a lot of it. The judges can't find enough praise to heap on him, but really? It was no Alex and Twitch Hip Hop from before all the injuries came to town.

Jose and Allison did Sonya Tayeh contempo, which was all danced on the lip of the stage and would've been really cool if someone with more technique than Jose was dancing it. Instead, Sonya gave Jose movements which Mia later characterized as "pedestrian," meaning they came out of normal everyday movement instead of movement learned through technique. Jose is just in over his head right now, people.

AdéChiké and Jose dance a guy on guy Paso Doble choreo'ed by Dmitry Chaplin and All-Star in his own right Legacy. It doesn't work at all, mainly again because Jose has no technique. Just being shirtless and waving a cape does not a paso doble make.

Results Show: The opening dance is a cool cover of "All That Jazz" with choreo by a lady named Kelley Abbey. Jose does not dance the opening number for the second week in a row which seems insane to me. How does he keep getting excused from doing these routines?

Bottom 3: Robert, Jose and a by-default Billy. They all do solos. Wait, no they don't. Robert and Jose do, Billy's still chillin' in the audience.

The All-Star encore dance is Wade Robson's routine for Lauren and Neil from season 3, which is cool and all, but I am still waiting for Lauren and Pasha's Transformers routine. They must be saving it as the finale of all the encore numbers because it rocks so hard.

Members of the American Ballet Theater performed the Grand Pas de Deux from Act III of Don Quixote, and they looked more like claymation figures than people for all their superhuman nimbleness.

The boys do solos. The judges go off to deliberate. Enrique Iglesias and Pitbull show up to sing a song and Allison, Lauren and Dominic supply the back up dancing.

Then the judges return. They are in a predicament, you see. They have Robert, who they suddenly think has stopped growing. Jose, who maybe has not grown at all ever on the show, and Billy who elected not to compete this week even with doctor's clearance. Getting rid of Robert before Jose would be insane. So it comes down to Billy and Jose. I think they would like to get rid of Jose, but don't like the idea of rewarding a contestant who just wants to take a week off from competing. And here I must paraphrase Into The Woods: Then from out of the blue, and without any guide. They know what they're decision is, which is not to decide. No one gets cut. Next week they'll cut two. So nothing this week really mattered, except maybe every flaw in Jose's dancing was exposed and maybe Billy's attitude has cost him a trip to the top 4, since I find it likely both those boys will be cut next week. At this point I really think nothing can stop Kent's ascent to the title, except maybe an injury. The way this season is going it's not out of the realm of possibility.

Let's hope next week we get 6 healthy and willing contestants and lots of solid routines!