miamichaels

Looks like next summer we are getting another season of So You Think You Can Dance. The dance competition will continue to rule the summer with its fifth season next year.

This shouldn't come as a big surprise to anyone -- whether you watch the show or not. It's basically the American Idol of the summertime, the off-season Lythgoe/Fuller powerhouse. The ratings are stellar. Both Wednesday and Thursday telecasts rank number one in their respective time periods in all key demographics. Furthermore, the show has been Emmy nominated, earning four nods this year for choreography by Wade Robson, Shane Sparks, and Mandy Moore.

(S04E15)It's time to find out which dancers will be going on tour after So You Think You Can Dance ends this August. I'm going to put it out there now (I think it's time): I want either Joshua or Katee to win this competition. I think it would be especially nice if the girl they almost didn't put on the show won the whole sha-bang!

Other thoughts before we begin... Nigel is a little cranky lately. I don't like him chiding Cat. All she did was remind everyone to tune in to the finale. By the way, there's going to be a sick popping battle during SYTYCD's live finale. Awesome. My review of tonight's show is after the jump.

(S04E14) Tonight's "jidges" included the return to the panel of Mia Michaels. In a reversal of Kristin's thinking last week, I'm actually disappointed to see Michaels joining Nigel and Mary on the dais this week for two reasons. First, I think she does some amazingly bizarre things with the dancers and I find myself always incredibly curious and mesmerized by her choreography, even if there are those times where I don't get it. But even more importantly, I hate hate HATE her as a judge. She's completely subjective and criticizes the most nonsensical things.

And then tonight she completely surprised me by being generally pretty solid before derailing again to the point I wanted to throttle. But still she can't help but get all ethereal and bizarre leaving confusion in their wake. How do you learn and grow from a comment like "I wanted more movement"? And how do you respond to what was said to Will (which I'll get to later)? Overall, the night wasn't as strong as prior episodes, but there were still some gems among all that rough.

(S04E12) I'm filling in for Jason as he had some technical difficulties last night. So let's get right to it. Tabitha and Napoleon were helping out Mary and Nigel at the judges table. And thank goodness for that. I've been waiting to see someone else's hip-hop choreography. Theirs is very hit or miss for me.

We got to see fourteen routines tonight on So You Think You Can Dance as the seven couples appeared twice. I love when they move to this part of the competition. You get to see right away who has the determination, strength, and technical know-how to stay alive on this show.

And it was a night of crazy hair...

A few days ago I put together some of my favorite routines from So You Think You Can Dance. I have to thank you readers for reminding me how many other great routines the show has had. They are even some I forgot about entirely. But I enjoyed watching them all over again.

After the jump are the reader picks and the videos. Don't forget to check out Jason's review of tonight's show and tell us what you thought of the performances.

So You Think You Can Dance airs on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET and on Thursdays at 9 p.m.

At first, I was a little disappointed with this season's So You Think You Can Dance. I found most of the routines underwhelming. Furthermore, Mary and Nigel constantly telling us that it's the "best dancers they've ever had" and the most "competition they've ever seen" is a red flag. I think most viewers, those with dance training and without, know what they like and why they like it. And viewers don't like being told they should like something.

So I started thinking about my favorite pieces from past seasons. I thought about how I got goose bumps when Anya and Danny did the Viennese Waltz. I remembered how Benji's solos always put a smile on my face. I'll concede that season four hit it's stride after this week. But, you can't argue that previous seasons, especially two and three, left a lot for these new dancers to live up to.

Some of my favorite pieces from Fox's hit show are after the jump. I'll probably come up with more but here's something to start you off. Enjoy!

The Daily News has put together an article comparing the judges from American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance which confirms what I've been feeling all along: So You Think You Can Dance is the superior competition show.

Take a look at the comparisons after the jump.

(S04E09) Mia cried. Mary kept relatively quiet (Thank God!). Nigel lectured. Cat wore a green dress. And we eliminated another two dancers last night on So You Think You Can Dance. Off we go!

Opening Performance
"Elevator" by Flo Rida featuring Timbaland (choreographer: Shane Sparks)

What a great hip-hop performance! And I'm so glad that Shane Sparks is lending his expertise to the show again. I was worried he'd be totally wrapped up in America's Best Dance Crew this summer. The girls part on the floor was great but a few of them messed up the arm movements. The best part of the piece was Comfort with the three guys. It was near perfect. My eyes never left Comfort. I wasn't impressed with her krumping on Wednesday but this opener proved to me why she's there.

(S04E08) Two down and seventeen more to go until we find "America's Favorite Dancer" for the summer of 2008. Have you found your favorite yet? I'm narrowing it down, but it's a bit early yet to be picking favorites and there are still a ton of dancers left, as the lo-o-o-ong intro sequence showed us. Nigel and Mary were joined this week on the judge's panel by contemporary madwoman Mia Michaels (of the inspired "Tim Burton wedding" piece last week). And her hair was shockingly bleached very blonde.

I think I prefer Michaels choreographing than judging. She focuses almost too much on her own interpretations of the emotions in the pieces rather than what the dancers had to bring. I think she's insane and brilliant in choreography, but maybe a bit too "out there" for really constructive criticism.

(S04E06) The first night of performances and we've got a lot to consider. Nigel and Mary were joined by hip-hop choreographer Dan Karaty at the judges table and they led us through ten couples. We saw everything from smooth waltz to Broadway. And only one thing is for certain: it's going to be a tough competition. As Dan said in the beginning of the show, there are no front runners.

But after the ten couples strutted their stuff, the pack of ten had some leaders. Find out what happened last night on So You Think You Can Dance after the jump.

(S03E22) A quick look at the little weather widget on my desktop tells me that summer is coming to an end next week. If that seems soon to you, I'm guessing you don't live in the greater Seattle area. At any rate, it's fitting that our premature change of season coincides with the ending of the best of the summer reality shows.

As Cat said in her introduction, "This is it." We've been watching these kids for weeks now, and it all comes down to one last night, stuffed to the gills with dancing. The show did have its moments of stretching, but the interviews and the looks back at auditions really played well here. Judging everything, Nigel and Mary of course, and they were joined by Dan Karaty. My first snarky thought was that they brought Dan in to judge to keep him from choreographing a number. But that was mean of me, and I have to say, I thought he did a good job in his judge's seat tonight. After the jump, a rundown of all the performances.

(S03E20) Holy smokes. Call me crazy if you don't agree, but I'm calling this the best episode of the season. There hasn't been a standout number one performance every week, but there has always been something that didn't quite work, or didn't quite measure up to the rest. I didn't find that here.

It would seem that the talk about the choreographers stepping things up wasn't just talk as all of them delivered great routines for the dancers to perform. The criticisms were few and far between this week, from me, and from the judges. That would be Nigel and Mary as usual, joined this week by Debbie Allen. After the jump, we'll get to all of the performances, and a rant about Fox scheduling.

(S03E18) Holy smokes. Episode 18 already? Our summer, and the SYTYCD competition, is flying by. As Cat pointed out in the intro, we're only two weeks away from crowning the season three champ. The everybody dances the same solo format from last week was out the window, which I think was for the best. You can have too much of a good thing. There was also a welcome absence of political commentary, as I think that really took away from what the show is about last week. That doesn't mean that there wasn't controversy though, but we'll get to that later. More about all of the performances, after the jump.

(S03E17) We've turned a corner in the season three competition. The eliminations to go from ten dancers to eight represented the first choices made by the fans at home. Would they get it right? Or would this be another head scratching result like so many of those the judges brought about with their sometimes strange decisions? In the spirit of the results show, you'll have to wait to find out.

That gets us to the first point about the results show this week. It was certainly worth hanging around to find out who was going home. Given the dancers that are left, there was certainly some question as far as who that would be. That said, as an episode, this was far and away the worst of the season. They've stretched to fill time before, but this was the first time that I felt like they were just jerking the audience around. It was 30 minutes of show stuffed in a one hour bag. But there were results to be had, and I'll have those after the jump.

(S03E16) Cat kicked off the show reminding us that the decision is now in the hands of the viewers. That will put an end to the weekly musings about the judges curious elimination decisions. However, I don't think there will be any shortage of controversy with the viewers in charge. If the week six performance show is any indication, you could make a case for anyone to stay, so somebody is going to be disappointed with tomorrow's results. That's getting the cart ahead of the course though, there is a whole performance show to deal with.

Viewer voting isn't the only change this week. There are new partnerships to take a look at, and along with those five partner dances all ten of the contestants danced the same Wade Robson choreographed solo. Witnessing all of this were, of course, Nigel and Mary. Mia Michaels was along for the ride as guest judge. It all made for a pretty impressive night of competition. We'll try and wrap it all up in a nice neat bow after the jump.