So You Think You Can Dance: Inside the Elimination

Whether his delivery was too harsh or not, it seems the majority of So You Think You Can Dance contestants got Nigel Lythgoe’s message loud and clear last week when he said he was “angry” after elimination night’s solos.

“The show was an improvement from last week [and] the solos were an improvement from last week,” Adam Shankman told PEOPLE backstage Wednesday night. “It’s kicking in now.”

Despite Mollee and Nathan’s jazz number, which PEOPLE.com blogger tWitch said demonstrated they “had chemistry and were so on point with each other,” the couple still ended up in the bottom three.

Nigel called that a possible “backlash” from last week, but said this week their routine (and his attitude) were much improved. “[Nathan] still seems a little arrogant,” Nigel explained. “They’re not voting against him, they just didn’t vote for him.”

Still, after their solos, the judges kept the couple, deciding instead to send home contemporary dancer Channing Cooke, 18, and hip-hopper Kevin Hunte, 23.

“We were looking at growth,” Adam said. “Kevin was doing okay, but he wasn’t growing. But more compellingly, I’d seen a lot of the stuff from his solo before and it wasn’t feeling like fighting for your life.”

While Channing, he continued, “just wasn’t reaching us. She’s a talented technician but she just wasn’t reaching us as a performer. We have a couple stars on the show right now, so we have to look at that.”

Nigel went further, saying that despite her “awful” solo, when it came down to Channing versus Karen, who was just as off as anything fellow ballroom-dancer Asukah did last season, “[Karen] is a star performer [who] will just get better and better.”

Channing lacked personality, Nigel said, comparing the two to an “ice-maiden” and a “hot-maiden.”

Season 6’s dancers appear to be back on track as they head into next week when each couple will dance two routines in the final performance show before the top 10 — who will get spots on the tour — are chosen. –Jed Dreben

Source:
http://tvwatch.people.com/2009/11/19/so-you-think-you-can-dance-inside-the-elimination/#more-20419