By Ashley Thompson

 

The top 20 perform a Broadway routine for the last time together to "New York New York". Tonight, two dancers go home for the first eliminations of the season. Joining Nigel and Mary tonight is guest judge is the second ever African American soloist at the American Ballet Theater, Misty Copeland.

 

Strangely the show has decided to announce the bottom 3 girls and the bottom 3 boys right off the bat (pun intended since they showed Cat throw out the first pitch at Dodgers Stadium).

o Brooklyn
o Casey
o Jourdan
o Nick
o Malene
o Serge

If it were me I'd be dancing with tears on my cheeks and pee in my pants.

 

First up: Rudy and Tanisha doing a Sonyah Tayeh routine to "You Need". The best way to describe it is as a sadistic jazz cat and mouse. But in a brilliant way.

 

Valerie and Ricky: A Travis Wall contemporary routine to "Oh Darling". Basically, he pushes her around like a rag doll. Not in an abusive way, but in a dependency way. And I'm pretty sure by the end Ricky has had enough of Valerie's clinginess.

 

Emilio and Bridget: A Luther Brown hip hop routine to "Work". Bridget isn't very believable as a hip hop dancer but she gives it a fair effort. Thankfully Emilio brings a little more. But they could both stand a little more grit.

 

Jessica and Nick: A Benji Schwimmer (Season 2 winner) ballroom routine to "Respect". Jessica pops her shoulder out of place but apparently feels fine enough to continue. Jessica seems reserved but it could be because of her injury. Nick likes to stick out his butt. That's as memorable as this routine is for me.

 

Serge and Carly: A Sonyah Tayeh contemporary routine to "Latch". And latch they did. Their connections were great and the dancing was emotional.

 

Teddy and Emily: A Dave Scott hip hop routine to "Don't". Seems more like a strange broadway routine than hip hop.

 

Malene and Stanley: A Spencer Liff broadway routine to "I've Got Your Number". Using telephones as props (the landline with a cord kind) fell kind of flat. It needed a significant amount of more energy. Malene looked like a supermodel trying to dance in a telephone commercial.

 

Marcquet and Jourdan: A Sean Cheesman jazz routine to "Work Work". Sexy police woman interrogating a criminal. And they make it work work. Although it looks as if Marcquet is just Jourdan's prop. But at least he has proven he's a good partner.

 

Casey and Brooklyn: A Miriam Larici and Leonardo Barrionuevo Argentine tango to "Gallo Ciego". It's like a scene right out of a Latin drama and I expect to see a glass of wine broken at any time. Very seductive but I know nothing about ballroom technique.

Zack and Jacque: A Sean Cheesman African jazz routine to "Dibiza Kick *** Mix". They are wearing artistic body suits against the same designed backdrop and it is fascinating. So fun... And the first on Mary's Hot Tamale Train!

 

The all-girl tapping crew Syncopated Laides dances to " ***Flawless" after the top 20 performances. So glad tapping is back and popular, and thanks to these ladies, sexy! The winner of the crews gets to dance on the SYTYCD finale.

 

Shockingly there's no dancing for their lives but straight to the judges eliminations. After the top 10 the public's votes will decide. For the girls tonight it's Malene (which is fairly predictable) and for the guys it's Nick Garcia.

 

 

You can go to the SYTYCD website and download your favorite tracks via iTunes. You can also Shazam at anytime during the live broadcast for a Pro Tip from one of their experts and more. I tried it during Serge and Carly's routine and got a tip from Travis Wall!

 

Photo courtesy of FOX