I think they're out of ideas for the couples routines. A lot of their work last year was legitimately terrific—the Joshua/Katee "No Air" piece to kick off the season, Twitch/Kherington's prison breakout routine, Chelsie/Mark's workaholic piece to "Bleeding Love"—but man, it's one thing to do "lyrical," "sensitive"…

FACT: Sonya's routine for K&K was very similar to Mia's own style and was executed beautifully by both of them. Of course Mia's going to go over-the-top in her praise for them.

There's no dancer I'm looking more forward to getting a new partner this week than Evan. Yeah, he was a bag of sand in the samba, but Randi wasn't anything to write home about and she's been the weaker of the two in virtually every other routine they've done—not that the judges seem to have noticed, they're so busy…

America = smarter than the judges
Judges: "Your costume sucked and the idea of aliens dancing is weird. See you in the Bottom 3!"

I think Kupono's solo last night really was The. Worst. Solo. in the history of the show. Beyond awful. Unless Phillip crashes out of another non-hip-hop routine (isn't it high time we got to see if he can pull off contemporary?), Kupono's the obvious choice to go home next week.

Of course Melissa/Ade drawing a classical pas de deux wasn't random—the show's first out-and-out (I think) classical ballerina just happens to draw the classical ballet the very first time they ever offer it? Pull the other one, it's got bells on—but I don't care. Those two weren't going home this week no matter what…

Well … that's a lot of truth in that, no doubt about that.

Yes, if there was one part where you could see how much Asuka truly despised Vitolio, it was after her dismissal, when she said working with him was the best part of the entire experience.

Eh, I thought Nigel was a bit harsh on Phillip—probably the first time I've everr thought that about his (usually overly forgiving) critique of a hip-hopper in a different style. Phillip wasn't great, no, but I thought the energy was there and Broadway's tripped up plenty of dancers on this show.

Yes, less interesting than Karla and Jeanine. She's been fine, but what's Randi done that virtually every female contemporary dancer they've had on the show couldn't have done? Her VORCD—Value Over Replacement Contemporary Dancer, as any sabremetician dedicated to Fox reality dancing competitions would tell you—still…

Ah. That makes sense. Sorry for the confusion.

Well, yes, I'd expect a veteran dancer who (we can assume) happens to be one of the best practitioners of her style in the world to have a little better "technique" than a bunch of kids (oh, and the ODB) trying their hands at a mishmash of styles they've only practiced for a few months if at all. That kind of goes for…

I guess I'll add in response to Murray's original post that Sparks' work isn't any worse or better than NapTab's, just different. There was some discussion of this in the "preliminary," uh, discussion in last week's thread, with a poster who much preferred Sparks' aggressiveness and "braggadocio" to NapTab's lyricism.…

This is more a response to the whining upthread as this post, but … given the quality of the female dancers in the field this year, Ashley completely deserved to go home. Yeah, the look of her solo was cool and all, but she didn't DO anything. In a 30-second solo, you can't spend 10 seconds of it rocking slowly on the…

Sashi, different writer this week. Helps explain the differing opinions in ballroom solos.

We shan't be telling your mother about this, shan't we?

Paris basically got the boot because she's tall. he tallest girl, I think. That got her paired up with the tallest guy … who just happened to be a total anchor. There wasn't a better option last night, really, but I'm not convinced Paris wouldn't have been just as good as Randi or Karla in their routines, or maybe…

I also thought the group routine was pretty good—if not quite up there with Sparks' excellent season-closer last year—and hampered by the klutzy directing/camerawork. At the very least, based on the glimpses we got of a vibrating Tony, Sparks got way more out of him than NapTab did (or he showed in his solo), so he's…

Wait wait wait … _Karla_ is dragging _Jonathan_ down? Uh, no … given that Jonathan was utterly forgettable dancing in something close to his alleged specialty Wednesday night and then put up a total clunker of a solo redeemed only by a couple of decent gymnastics, it's more the other way 'round.

I agree that Caitlin didn't quite keep up with Jason in the Bollywood number, but I think you can cut her a little bit of slack since, IMO, Jason crushed it. That was one hard-ass routine—much more difficult than Katee and Josh's last year—and he seemed to glide right through it. Can't wait to see what he does with…