Fox's New Reality Show? So You Think You Can Kick Dancing On Its Ass.

Season 7 of So You Think You Can Dance has been...stellar. Even if you don't understand or appreciate dancing, I think this season is well worth watching. And perhaps it's because it got off with an extremely rough start with extremely suck-ish auditions, and got progressively better once they got to the top 11.

Which, should really be Top 10, but they had to include one of my favorite dancers of all time: Billy Bell. I love this boy. But more on him later.

Now, for those of you who don't know the faith of SYTYCDism (pronounced sigh-di-sy-sum ((pronunciation orginiated by Noelle Marsh of Season 6, term is actually a website for all things related to SYTYCD))), Season 7 is different compared to the other six seasons.

For one thing, there's a Top 10 (11 in this case) instead of a Top 20. Instead of dancing with each other, they dance with 'all stars' from previous seasons, although next week they have to perform a solo, a routine with an all star, and a routine with another contestant, so SYTYCD is sort of returning to its roots.

I like these changes, somewhat. I like having a Top 10/11 because I don't spend weeks on weeks on weeks screaming at my television about how much I hate certain partners and how they suck. Case in point? Ashleigh and Ryan DiLello from Season 6. A married couple who, although they were not together, BOTH SUCKED and SOMEHOW BOTH ENDED UP IN THE FINALE. Actually, Ashleigh only made it that far because she was partnered with Jakob Karr (♥♥♥♥♥) for most of the time, and she was injured the week before the finale and floated into the finale ON HER HUSBAND'S TEARS, and Ryan took his shirt off every week. Estrogen Bridge Bait indeed.

But this time was also used to get to know dancers and pick favorites, especially for those of us who don't watch the Vegas episode. A few favorites of mine are Jakob Karr, Chelsie Hightower, Mollee Gray and Billy Bell.

This journey also makes routines like this, this, and this more memorable because it's not just about the dance. It's about what these dancers go through together, and it shows in their dancing. Well, maybe not so much in the last one, but, y'know, that's one of my faves. But, there's no journey with these dancers. I miss the dancers falling on their asses together, laughing about it,crying together during emotional/frustrating routines, and just wondering to yourself, "Can they do it?"

Sometimes they could, and sometimes they couldn't.

I don't know people's names in this season yet. Wait. I know Melinda, Cristina and Lexie were eliminated. Let me see if I can remember the names of the eight dancers that are still there. Okay. There's Lauren, Ashley, Billy, Alex, Jose, Robert, Kent and Adecheke! I got it. Whoot.

OH YEAH. Another thing that kind of irks me. With the top 20, you had a girl and a guy eliminated each week, so that the partners would be kept fair. Since the all-star addition, they've basically been eliminating all the girls because the guys are absolutely spectacular this season.

Watch the following routines as an example:

Billy Bell and Kathryn McCormack contemporary
Alex Wong and Twitch Boss Hip Hop
Alex Wong and Allison and Allison Holker Contemporary


Okay, so that's not ALL the guys, and I mentioned Alex Wong twice...but that's the caliber of dancers we're dealing with.

By the way, I stinkin' love Billy Bell. He's adorable as can be, and whenever I watch him dance, he makes me tear up because it is just that beautiful. I know he probably won't win, but I hope he does.

I wish Billy hadn't gotten mono. He would've kept Ryan out of the finale. Jakob Karr vs. Billy Bell would've been awesome on SO MANY LEVELS.

An example of Jakob Karr's awesome dancing? Here.

I'm gonna go fantasize now. Toodles.