So You Think You Can Dance 5

So...forgot to talk about this thus far, or maybe just talked about it too much IRL for it to slop over. Like most people, I found the presentation of the male-on-male ballroom team last week pretty disgusting, though not for the reasons Nigel and/or the show wanted me to. In all seriousness, neither of them was strong enough to go further, and I think that Sonja had a point when she raised the issue of ballroom being inherently geared towards one person playing "the girl", which meant that their constant trading of that role came off as awkward and confusing. But MAN, am I sick of the whole "you're not being MASCULINE enough!" vibe coming out of Nigel...particularly weird in his case, since he's been a damn dancer for forty years or so, so I think he's probably met a few extraordinarily professional gay guys in his time (even beyond, say, Blake, Danny, Brandon, Tyce D'Orio and Adam Shankman). And playing "It's Raining Men" as an intro cue, with "It's a Man's (Man's Man's Man's) World" as an outro? Lame, guys. Lame.

That being said--some very strong people this time 'round, especially in terms of the girls, which gets me thinking (as ever) about how badly they're inevitably going to handle the girl-on-girl portion of the finale show. I agree with my ex-student Chris Bird (over at mightygodking.com--he's been posting "Best Of" clips, BTW, so check it out) that this has, hands down, traditionally been the most inequitably choreographed dance routine throughout SYTYCD U.S. (and Canada)'s entire run(s); see giving Katee and Courtney the point-and-leap-with-bustles-on BS vs. Joshua and Twitch getting to trepak their brains out, last year, or Nico and Myles getting caporeira vs. Allie and Natalli doing the "go-go". So--how to fix?

This year, I'd love to see somebody give the final two chicks something firey and martial to work with: Flamenco, for example (see the flamenco "duel" in the all-flamenco version of Carmen), or a Tai Chi/Wing Chun/rhythm gymnastics variant (call it "Peking Opera"). Man, that'd rock. Or better yet, reserve Sonja or Mia Michaels for this slot, RFN. No Tyce! Not ever again!