The Kids Are Alright

What a week to take a little blog-cation, no? I'm actually glad that I missed all the sturm and drang from the Will boot, Kittens. (And wasn't it nice of the show to play it for us again just in case we missed it!) Now, I can jump back in to a quality Top 6 night!

To begin: both Cat "Grillz" Deeley and Mary "Diamonique Week" Murphy were dressed like disco balls (and what was on Cat's feet?), Shankdaddy was the guest judge, and Courtney is the best partner that Mark has had in weeks. All in all, a good start to the show. And in the spirit of the upcoming Olympic games, I'll give out my gold, silver and bronze medals for last night's show.

Couples Gold

I think you can guess where this one is going, can't you? Mark and Courtney turned it out in that Bow Wow Wow piece. I had an inkling that Mark and Sonya would go together like babies and pacifiers, and friends and fans, so it was! From the very first count of the routine, he owned that piece. And the look into the camera? Whoo, child! I like it like that. And Courtney reminded me in this piece why I loved her so much wtih Gev. As much as I adore Chelsie and her fantastic feet (more on that later), Courtney made a solid case for F4 tonight. The waltz was lovely as well. So pretty in fact that it almost made me forget the awful Cook-ian nightmare music that they danced to. Almost. And did my eyes deceive or was that an actual waltz? With ample time spent in closed hold and everything? This new ballroom kid from down under was a nice surprise tonight. I thought Courtney was awesome in this piece. She looked feather light in those lifts. And Mark, as usual, was head to toe in the moment. They were supposed to be young and in love and I bought it from him. Overall, they entertained me the most. And thank Shankman that the judges recognized his solid night.

And now for a little break from my typical Mark adoration, kiddies. It's no secret that I have a thang for the beauty from Hawai'i, and I took Mia to task a few weeks back for questioning his technique. But y'all, I have to say that I was alarmed by Mark's feet in that jazz number. He had the dead fish feet! As much as I loved him in that routine (and trust that it was a lot) I have to admit that he was not as clean as he could have been. (I even saw him fall out of one of his turns) Talk about feet of clay. Now back to my typical Mark adoration. I don't even care. Mark for the win! He is made of awesome!

Couples Silver

Josh and Katee land here, and it's more due to Katee than to Josh. I never would have thought it possible, Kiddies, but ridiculously spelled Katee turned me into a fan. She was wonderful in Tasty's contemporary piece. The thing that I adore about her is that she is completely fearless as a dancer. She absolutely attacks every piece. Joshua was lovely in the contemporary piece as well. Every time I see him do a leap like the one he did over Katee's head in this dance, it makes the "no training" line that Unca Nigel keeps trying to sell all that much harder to swallow. I wish they would stop that. The lifts in this routine were crazy difficult and Katee and Josh's partnership and dance chemistry really shone through the piece. Having said that, I'm not sure how tough the other parts of the choreography really were. It was a lot of flash and not much substance. And for the love of all things holy, please step away from the Celine Dion. A grateful nation would thank you! I enjoyed the Paso, too, although I did notice a few bobbles here and there. It was entertaining and they definitely got the characterization right. And the show came through with more shirtless hotness. I will admit that I find Josh more boyishly charming than OMG hotness, but the boy's body is banging.

Couples Bronze

Twitch and Chelsie by default. Although Chelsie gave it the old colleg try, their mambo was a dance don't. Missed connections, sloppy partner stunts, no hip action from Twitch and . . . forgetting the steps!?! Party foul, dance fans! Their hip hop was the typical NappyTab mess with an extra side of not actually dancing. I felt like I was watching Looney Tunes. I could see what they were going for conceptually, but the dance lacked content. Twitch and Chelsie did what they could with it, but there just wasn't much to work with. The judges went very easy on this couple, with Twitch especially getting a pass on that mambo. It's way too late in the game to be giving out "As" for effort. If you can't bring it, keep your broke broke home.

Solo Gold

Boys: Shirtless Mark. Enough said.

Girls: Courtney, although she takes it by default because I felt all of them were pretty bland last night.

Solo Silver

Boys: Twitch. Cat in gold grillz. Enough said.

Girls: Chelsie. This was better than her last solo, but that's a really low bar. And immediate points off for using that awful PCD song. That's almost as bad as Lauren's egregious K-Fed usage last season.

Solo Bronze

Boys: Josh. It was cute, but had a been there, seen that feel.

Girls: Katee. Standing around and touching your face does not equal dancing.

Going Home

For the boys, if it's anybody else but Twitch, there will be blood on the blogosphere, Kittens. Twitch already took out one clearly superior dancer. He is a likeable figure and a great hip hop dancer. And he clearly tries in other styles, but he just doesn't have the goods. He's the weakest of the boys left. The girls are tougher because I thought they all had decent nights. And they are all really good dancers. It's a toss up, but I think Katee and Chelsie have the bigger fan bases and will eke it out over Courtney.

We're in the home stretch, kiddies. Was it only yesterday that we were all Katee haters? That Miss Miami was stomping around in wrestling boots? That Big Pasty was making us question our faith in dance as we know it and Thayne was terrorizing us with his perma-smile? Good times, good times.