SYTYCD: Feeling the Top Ten

Gev: I’m ready to see him go home just for the way he drools all over his partners. Gev is one of those guys. You know—one who blithely ignores the fact that your body is not in close proximity to his because you can’t resist his manly hotness, but because the job demands it, and his using the opportunity to hump your leg doesn't make you want to take him back to your room, it just makes you feel squicked-out and too uptight to do your best work. I just know that at some point Chelsie and Courtney have exchanged a look that says, "Sister, I feel your pain.”

And did I hear it right—after the second dance between Gev and Chelsie, did Mary actually say, “It was respectful. It was respectful”? Because that would be a slip of the freudian variety.

Comfort (now I’m channeling Mia): “Comfort, you’ve been hurt, and now you won’t let anyone get close. Your fear stops the chemistry from catching fire. You’re emotionally unavailable, and we can all see it.” I'm a fan of Comfort, but I get the sense that she's doing her best not to feel it.

Will: I think we haven’t seen half of what he’s capable of, and I want him stick around long enough to show us.

Katee: Katee is the best dancer on the show. I’ll hate it when if the voters send her home ahead of a prettier dancer.

Mark: Yawn. Was having Kherington as a partner really that uninspiring? Dude was phoning it in. I was so not feeling it.

Kherington: Ouch. Looking like Sharon Stone might just keep her in it for another week, which is too bad, because Comfort is so much more fun to watch. Double plus unfeel.

Chelsie: She’s awesome, but I couldn’t stop cringing for her the whole time she was dancing with Gev. Please people, send him home.

Twitch: He’s got a lot of personality, and I have a wee crush on him, but he should go home soon (just not before Gev).

Courtney: She seems so much more comfortable with Joshua (“He’s such a man!") than she did with Gev. I feel Courtney, but it's a small feel.

Joshua: Break-out dazzler of the night. Wow. I thought his “It’s so much more than just dance” was over-the-top pandering cheese, but apparently he really is that sweet. I loved his face buried in Courtney’s hair. So, so hot. I am feeling Joshua. Nigel is, too. Nigel sez: “You were just so butch all the way through it, but a lot of women like that.” It’s true, Nigel, we do. That must have been awfully hard on you.

Most sublime comment of the night:

Mary: "Dancing doesn’t build character, it just reveals it."

Word.

SYTYCD Pissed off Fan of the Week: Me.

I’m going to miss Jessica. Murghi over on Bored Morons was threatening to start a “Leave Jessica Alone!” campaign, and I read about someone printing up “I love Jessica King” t-shirts. It would have been fun to watch fans escalate their outraged support for Jessica each week as the judges trashed her.

BSYTYCD thinks Mia Michaels needs to get laid. Noting that Mia broke up with her boyfriend this spring, Ted writes:

I'm not gonna say it, but given her ornery disposition lately, you know what we're all thinking.

Mia claims that her brand of brutal honesty is all for the benefit of the dancers:

"What America doesn't know is the relationship. There's a beautiful, beautiful collaboration and very nurturing [atmosphere]. For me especially, I nurture them. I'm Mamma Mia and they look to me for that tough love actually. So, when I say it, American might go, 'Oh my God, that's so harsh.' [The dancers] are cool with it. They know. They know I only want them to be brilliant."

And, okay—I get that Mia doesn’t like wusses:

You can't be a victim to be in the dance business. You have to be a warrior

But since Jessica withdrew from the show, I’ve read variously that she had been dancing with one, two and three broken ribs, an injured knee, a punctured lung, pneumonia, and a broken wrist. So does Mia still think Jessica was “just there for the ride”, or is she a warrior, like Mia?

Wev.

It’s all cool, tho’! Mia was just telling her truth. Like she says:

Your reality is your reality. Your perception is your perception. Whatever your truth is, it is. Trying to understand the difference between your truth and the truth of others that has been embedded in your consciousness and being is a great challenge. How do we honestly know the difference? Go inside of yourself…

HOLD ON! I may be going out on a limb here, but exactly whose truth is Mia speaking when she says

“Will, you look tired of carrying her [Jessica]. That's what I feel like. You've been carrying her for this entire time and you look tired. You're tired. You need a new partner”?

And, like me, bBitz registered disbelief when Mia commented on Twitch’s krumping last week:

"Scary! It was your life!" What?!?! How the buck does she know that?! I hope she knows something and she's not just assuming.

More Reality According to Mia:

Your perception of your truth is what is, at this moment, in this time, and most likely ever changing. Everyone being wired and divinely programmed differently has their own truth. Every truth is valid and perhaps it’s the complete opposite of others’. Does it mean it’s wrong? Nothing is right or wrong…

It just is. Right or wrong is merely just your own judgment and perception. Creating my own right and my own reality, and beauty on a stage or screen is my truth at this time. My own vision and instincts are what makes me…me. My timing, phrasing, and choice of vocabulary is my right […]

I’ve dreamt of the life im living as a fantasy… Now it is my reality…My goal and treasure is to learn to pat myself on my back, smile and exhale… And most of all to open my eyes to the beautiful blessed life i have been given.

Now I get it! It's really all about Mia.

Jamming the Allison Holker Blunder

Allison Holker was a contestant in the top 8 in Season 2, a brilliant contemporary dancer and a favorite among the judges. She was arguably a better dancer than the other three women left in the competition, and she might have won it all, but for America’s preference for sexy Natalie. America voted, and Allison left the competition before either Donyelle, Natalie or Heidi. Hence the Allison Holker Blunder, where a better dancer is voted off ahead of less-talented but more appealing dancers. Katee is this season’s potential Allison Holker.

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Comfort for Katee

I started this post yesterday, attempting to answer the question, Why do the judges bag on Jessica?

My first theory (prior to last night’s result): Jessica has better puppy-dog eyes than the brilliantly precise but uncharismatic Katee, and America is a sucker for hapless girls with puppy-dog eyes. The judges want to get rid of Jessica so that she doesn’t end up being retained past her stale date by a sympathetic America. The judges fear the pity vote for Jessica, and they want her gone.

Why this theory is wrong: America is hard-hearted. Puppy dog eyes won’t sway them.

My second theory (after last night’s vote to drop Comfort instead of Jessica): The judges are sadists, and they’ve grown fond of their little punching bag. They’re keeping Jessica because they like to make her cry.

Why this theory is wrong: The judges are not really sadists (are they?).

My third theory (which is my first theory revised after considering FOF’s theory): The judges are anticipating an Allison Holker Blunder favoring Comfort over Katee.

Why this theory is correct: Comfort is more appealing than Katee, but a poorer dancer. The judges fear is legitimate. FOF agrees.

It’s settled: The judges got rid of Comfort to save Katee.

SYTYCD: Explaining the Judges Decision to Keep Jessica and Send Comfort Home

Well, it doesn't make sense, at least not in the sense of who would you rather see on tour, a ho-hum contemporary dancer in Jessica or, to paraphrase Nigel, the best female hip hop dancer ever on SYTYCD? Answer: Comfort. That equation alone should have saved Comfort.

How unexciting is Jessica? But seriously, I know the Judges have, on rare occasion, had nice things to say about Jessica, but as compared to Comfort? I don't think so. Comfort is far and away the greater unknown, as in, you never know--which is eminently more interesting that Jessica's predictable, earnest struggle.

Sue Brody over at BSYTYCD makes you stop and think about it too:

And then Nigel says something that really takes me aback. He says that “I have to say this, and it might sound cruel, but this is one of the times we would have liked to have kept all three boys and lost two girls.” While I have to say I somewhat agree—I wanted to keep Thayne—I can’t imagine how much this hurt Jessica. They should just eliminate her already and stop the torture.

Torture is right. In fact, I don't think single contestant in the history of the show has had to endure the abuse from the Judges Jessica has week after week. Why not put Jessica out of her misery? Why condemn her to another week of abuse and false hope?

Last but not least, Comfort is a crowd favorite. I know she's a favorite of mine. Not my favorite dancer, although she has her moments. Not my favorite to win. But a favorite nonetheless. As a person she's real, she's honest, she's humble yet hard and a bit different too (but in a good way). I don't think I'm alone in my affinity for Comfort and the Judges know it. They know that the fans, now that it's solely up to them, may elect to keep Comfort around longer than next week, which is how long they'll keep Jessica. In other words, by sending Comfort home the Judges exert their control over who stays and who goes one more week. An odd, short-term calculation on their part, and a short-term mistake at that, since audience engagement suffers as a consequence of Jessica's predestined departure.

Comfort, if you're out there, take heart. Look at all the mistakes the Judges were willing to make (a less interesting tour, a prolonged cruelty to Jessica and a wash of an episode next week), all to deny the audience, us, the chance to vote for you.

Update: "The best backstage moment -- by far -- occurred at the very end of the show, after the cameras had stopped rolling. After Comfort Fedoke and Thayne Jasperson's eliminations, Nigel teamed up with another member of the production to make a shocking announcement: The top 10 dancers aren’t the only ones going on tour this year ... four more dancers will be making the trek. And two of them are Comfort and Thayne!" -- LA Times

SYTYCD Episode 420 Top Twelve Results Show Open Thread

Episode Airs: Thursday, July 10, 9/8c on FOX.

1 guy and 1 girl is going home. Our meager little polls suggest that tonight's losers will be Jessica and Thayne, but something tells me Comfort has overstayed her welcome. Either way it should be interesting. Either Will gets to suffer Jessica for another week, or Will gets to carry a new dead weight in the form of Comfort. But no pressure Will, the Judges will take care of you even if the gods and fans won't.

p.s. I'm aware that my ever deepening dislike of Will is not necessarily shared by the XX persuasion. So, I'm sure he's safe thanks to you, and as a consequence so is Jessica (no dancing for your life tonight dear). Thayne and Comfort, it's curtains.