There's another episode next week? Really, guys? 'Cause, um, the summer TV season was over a few weeks ago, and you're not up against reruns anymore. I guess another hour of dance would be great, but you just know it's going to be 10 minutes of dance to 50 minutes of Lauren Sanchez drawing out the suspense before they reveal the winner. I don't know how it's going to be more surprising than tonight's big upset: judges' favorite Blake getting the boot before Jamile and Nick. I'm thrilled, though. Nick has all of Blake's skill with none of his cockiness, and he's got so much ahead of him. He even kind of showed up Jamile in their hip-hop duet tonight. Nick and Melody's paso doble was really a whole lot of poses, but that was enough to make Mia curse on national TV. Jamile and Ashle's salsa was too mild. Both same-sex duets had more energy than anything else all night, especially Ashle and Melody's athletic performance to "Message in a
read more
I was glad Angel didn't give up on this show until the night the actual dancing began. And then I sat through over half an hour of "getting to know everyone's sob story" without even the benefit of "lyrical" choreography. By the way, I'm not alone in being baffled by that category of dance. My sister Gabrielle, a dancer for 14 years, hadn't heard of it either. "It looks like modern," she shrugged. She actually called me from Florida in the middle of Ryan and Melissa's mambo because, well, they suddenly made the show worth talking about. Neither of them had much experience in the genre, and everyone was worried about Ryan's hedgehog hair getting in the way, but they totally pulled it off like pros. Dan's weird summation of the performance as "badass" led to the quote of the night from Nigel: "Nothing touches a badass?" And as much as I want to hate selfish Blake, he and Destini were totally in their element and made all that rolling on the floor
read more
