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SYTYCD - How can you make us choose???

victorkarentango_MG_5076.jpgOh, how can you be so cruel to us, So You Think You Can Dance? How in the world are we going to choose who to cut out of the coveted "Top 10"??? We're down to 12 people -- six amazing couples -- and multiple performances tonight that gave us chills. This cut could be one of the most painful of the season. There are some amazing dancers up there on that stage, and as Adam Shankman said, it's a pleasure to sit here and watch them do their thing.

Sure, not every number knocked our socks off, but each couple had a chance to perform twice tonight, and if they were a little forgetable in one piece they were amazing in the next. After the jump we will go into detail on who killed it tonight in both numbers, and who had one of each.
  

VictorKarenhiphop_MG_6375.jpgYeah, unfortunately Victor and Karen had the rockiest performances in our opinion. The tango was alright, and Karen nailed it in both pieces, but Victor was struggling -- especially in this hip-hop number. We fear that Victor may not make it into the Top 10. At least, that's our bet tonight. Nigel identified it right away -- he hasn't corrected his tendency to sway his back, which tends to sap all his strength out of his stage persona. Sorry, Victor. We just worry that the standard is too high this season. Even the smallest problems are going to stand out.

MolleeNathanHH_MG_5295.jpgSpeaking of small problems and standing out, our least favorite routine of the night was Nathan and Mollee's hip-hop number. First of all, there was too much gimmick in it. When you're describing your number as being a mini history lesson, you know you may have gone too far. We really didn't get the hip in this hop. They both played it "too twee" as Nigel says. We were quite worried for this couple after their first performance of the night. And we were worried even more when we heard their second dance would be something new for SYTYCD -- the can-can. Mollee? Doing a racy French dance? We worried. Then we saw this:

NathanMolleecancan_MG_6511.jpgWe're not sure if the fun in this comes through in the photo, but we had a blast watching this number. It's one of those that gave us chills just to see the high level of performance. And then they reminded us that Mollee did all these jumps and lifts and kicks with an injured ankle! We were in awe. Go Mollee and Nathan. We hope your fan club can keep you out of the bottom three in the votes, but if they can't, we'll be happy to watch you dance again. We're not very worried about your place in the Top 10 - in spite of the awkward beginning. Sometimes dancers can't overcome strange costumes and choreography.

Speaking of which....

RussellNoelleSamba_MG_5498.jpgWhat is Russell wearing??? Noelle looks great doing the samba here and Russell once again floored everyone with his ability to pick up ballroom on such short notice. But when even Cat Deeley is making fun of your outfit in front of the judges (And really, Cat, do you have room to talk? You wore an Easter dress you stole off a six year old last week. And bunny slippers.) you know your costuming went awry somewhere.

So yeah. As always, Russell was a charmer and he had great chemistry with Noelle. But we worried about their popularity just a tad as Russell had one of the costuming handicaps this week.

But their second performance was this:

RussellNoelleContemp_MG_6794.jpgYowza. This guy is a street dancer? Who taught himself? Seriously, we feel like we've stumbled on some kind of genius here. Russell, we expect you to have an amazing career in dance as you revolutionize the art form. Don't let us down! (Right, no pressure!) We just expect that you'll sail through into the Top 10 with no trouble and we hope you get a great agent. Thanks for giving us chills again tonight.

Here's your biggest competitor for winning (in our humble opinion):

EllenoreRyanLyndyHOp_MG_4623.jpgRyan and Ellenore were fantastic. And these guys nailed it in both their numbers. Their first one was a fantastic lindy hop where Ryan managed to shine -- even though he's taller than most lindy hoppers and really had to dig deep into the floor to match his partner and have the same kind of pop she would. We expected a fair amount of flailing, and instead we got fabulousness. Chills! Fun! Pardon us while we rewind our DVRs and watch that again!

Along with this offering:

EllenoreRyanBroadway_MG_6040.jpgWhere Ellenore really shone. And in the past, the broadway genre has been the kiss of death for more than one couple. These guys though.... wow. First of all, great costumes and makeup. Second of all - precise, gorgeous dancing. They even pop off the screen in this still shot. Go Ryan and Ellenore!

If we had winners for the night, you would be our picks. Sorry Russell. You've got some serious competition here. They're charming, talented, consistent and have years of training. We're just not sure if unmitigated natural talent can overcome that. But back to tonight's show.

ashleighJakobchacha_MG_6908.jpgAnother wow of the night came from Ashleigh and Jakob as they performed the cha-cha. It didn't hurt that Ashleigh has been doing ballroom for years, and that they danced to some pretty fun music. Still, Ashleigh just killed it on the last number of the night.

In this photo, Jakob blends into the background a bit and that's how we felt about his performance on the cha-cha, too. But he had his moment to shine in their lyrical jazz piece:

JakobAAshleighLYrJazz_MG_5722.jpgWhere he was more in his element than Ashleigh. She still impressed the judges with how far she had come from the auditions in Vegas, but in our hearts we think it was Jakob who made Adam Shankman go speechless. Good job. That doesn't seem to be an easy feat.

Another one-sided performance, in our opinion, came from Legacy and Kathryn. They did a waltz that really showed off Kathryn's personality and charm. Just take a look at this dress:

KathrynLEgacyVWaltz_MG_6264.jpgIt's almost enough to get you to ignore Legacy's sloppy footwork. Almost.

But we 100% weren't looking at Legacy's feet during this performance:

KathrynLegacyJazz_MG_4845.jpgIt's not exactly shown off to best advantage in this photo, but that's Legacy with his shirt entirely off for the whole performance. And wow, has he been doing some ab work. Forsooth. We swoon.

His dancing in this number was pretty good, too. Or so the judges said. We're willing to take their word for it. We were distracted by the hotness.

To sum up tonight's show: we're worried for Mollee (we suppose) and Victor (we will be very surprised if he survives into the top 10) but no matter how they cut it, we're going to be sad. What a great show tonight!

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