TVSquad

(S05E14) Nigel was finally ready to announce their pending plans for a Michael Jackson tribute, but apparently the big plan hit an insurmountable impasse as they couldn't get the music cleared. It's a shame, because I think the diversity of styles broached on SYTYCD would have made a much better tribute to the King of Pop than that sub-par MJ episode of American Idol the network re-aired the past few weeks.

This is also the last chance that the judges will have to maintain at least a bit of control over who gets eliminated week after week. Next week is the Top Ten and the control shifts entirely to America to figure out who goes home. What isn't clear is if they'll start competing individually or if America will be voting out entire couples. That said, will they even be keeping the same partner from one dance to the next from here on? We already know current partnerships are breaking up. So many questions, so much unclear! But who's in that Top Ten?

GROUP NUMBER
"Seven Nation Army," Playing for Change
(Hip-Hop, Napoleon & Tabitha D'umo) The pants the girls were wearing looked really bad, and even worse in parts of this dance. Other than that, I think it was a well choreographed and visualized piece. We seem to be getting a lot of hip-hop in these group numbers; I guess that's because it's the style that is most popular with America? Or maybe it's because hip-hop is easier to choreograph for such larger group numbers like these.

BOTTOM THREE COUPLES
Jason & Caitlin were paired on the stage with Brandon & Janette, so the former's trip to the Bottom Three was inevitable. When they brought out Randi & Evan alongside Phillip & Jeanine I was confused because I thought both couples had a good chance of having to dance for their lives. Of the coupling though, the weaker link of Phillip & Jeanine faltered into the bottom.

That left Kayla & Kupono and Melissa & Ade to figure who was weaker. Despite what some commenters have said, as a dancer I can tell you a mistake is still a mistake even if you recover from it. And the fall at the end of Melissa & Ade's disco piece probably hurt them with the voters. That and the fact that the Mia Michaels' Kayla & Kupono piece was so powerful.

MUSICAL GUEST
David Guetta & Kelly Rowland - "When Love Takes Over"
I liked the sparse stage presentation on this piece, but Kelly's vocals sounded downright horrible in the beginning. Unfortunately, it didn't get much better. I know Rowland is capable of singing well, but that ability was definitely not on display here. Thankfully, when Guetta left the DJ booth, she suddenly found the right key. But it was too close to the end to salvage the number.

SOLOS
Caitlin Kinney - "Stand By Me," Playing for Change
She showed impressive strength and grace, but was it anything we haven't seen a million times? I didn't feel any hunger coming from her performance.

Jason Glover - "Calm Touching," Evaline
Jason again showed a lot of things we've already seen and seemed more focused on showing us his impressive physique and strength than musicality.

Jeanine Mason - "Baby's Romance," Chris Garneau
Jeanine, alternately, substituted difficulty for emoting in her performance, and as such, even though it was less technically impressive, it was still nicely done.

Phillip Chbeeb - "The Diva Dance," The Fifth Element
It was nice to see Phillip bring less frantic tricks and more intricate handwork in this solo. He's proving that he has some diversity within his own style, as well.

Melissa Sandvig - "Kashira," Kodo
Melissa is built like a track and field athlete, but no one can deny her strength in ballet. It was great finally seeing her perform a solo.

Ade Obayomi- "Windowdipper," Jib Kidder
When this piece started, I thought my computer was shutting down. The clever music was a distraction at first, but when I remembered to watch, I liked our first look at Ade's solowork. Definitely a stronger showing than Jason.

ELIMINATED
The judges explained that they were building a Top Ten of stars and some other confusing things about selecting from a positive perspective who could find the potential superstar within. After all, we have twelve brilliant technical dancers but no real stars. Or something. What it boils down to is they made the right call with Caitlin, but pushed Phillip off the show with her.

I can't say that I'm surprised by this. Especially when Nigel started talking about ensuring that who was eliminated tonight would be on the tour. At that point, it seemed pretty clear that they wanted Phillip on the tour, but they were done waiting for him to grow enough to handle these other styles.