So You Think You Can Dance Rundown: The Top 16

The top 16 performance show on So You Think You Can Dance left me with a lot of questions: Why does Mary insist on wearing so many sparkles that she looks like a cross between a disco ball and the dark recesses of the Designing Women wardrobe room? Why are all ballroom dancing dresses made with a disconcerting lack of fabric on one side? Why did so many choreographers insist on using music I just can't stand, thus leaving me wondering if I hated Comfort and Chris's routine or just the Marilyn Manson song it was performed to?

And why do Katee and Joshua manage to totally blow me away every single gosh-darn time? Cause yeah, that happened again with those two, who delivered a convincingly sexy, booty-shaking samba. I'm surprised we didn't hear Nigel go apoplectic again at the fact that "a pop-pah!" was delivering those smooth hip swivels, but still, it was the night's most successful ballroom routine from people who don't do ballroom.

Speaking of which, Courtney and Gev also turned in a pretty good rumba, one that led to Nigel pointing out the Gev-as-Dominic resemblance. (Also, how good was it to see Dominic? I still love that kid.) To be honest, though, I spent most of the routine distracted by how naked Courtney was on her right side versus the curtains of fabric on her left. That was one loose sparkle away from a major wardrobe malfunction.

The number that seemed to get the most praise from the judges — and which I can't deny was pretty great — came from Chelsie and Mark, who are really evolving into a cute couple. She's a little squirt of a tomboy, he's a totally offbeat older-brother type, and yet somehow together they click. I wasn't quite as rhapsodic as the judges were, though, because it seemed to me to be a ripoff of Napoleon and Tabitha's other much-praised routine of the season: Katee and Joshua's hip-hop. Once again: guy leaving; girl sad. And the overly literal choreography bugged, too — do you really have to point to your wrist when the song says something about time?

There were some other highlights — and a few moments that will leave some couples in trouble come tonight — so to talk about those, just read more.

Some other good things: Kherington would maybe make me like her more if she could ever stop smiling, but at least it worked for the happier moments of her jailbreak hip-hop routine. I don't really buy her as a grinning gangster, especially compared to the intensity on Twitch's face, but she did step it up to match him — maybe not two levels, but at least one and a half. Jessica, meanwhile, got the "underpromise and overdeliver" treatment, with an intro package that made it seem like she was just wasting her choreographer's time and then a routine that made her shine . . . for at least 75 percent of the time. There was one really awkward moment toward the end that I can't totally look past, but it was good enough.

I'm not sure how people will react to Matt and Kourtni's contemporary routine, which was about 55 percent cool, 45 percent weird. They seemed to be selling the whole "fighting cartoon lovers" persona more in the rehearsal tapes than in the actual performance. But Nigel rightly pointed out that they had great technique while doing whatever it was that they were doing; I still enjoy watching them.

On the downside, Thayne and Chelsea are almost certain to end up in trouble for their quickstep, just like everyone seems to for every quickstep ever (minus Lacey and Kameron's last season, but there at least one person had a ballroom background). They were just thinking so hard about the steps that they came off stiff and wooden; their smiles were almost scary. As for Comfort and Chris, I thought Comfort did great in the first half, but I barely noticed Chris throughout the whole routine — and I also wanted more from the sliding-on-sheets section. I suspect those two couples will be in the bottom three for sure; as for the third, I wouldn't be surprised to see Kourtni and Matt or Jessica and Will there, despite their general praise from the judges.

How about you? Which routines worked for you and which didn't? Which four do you think were the exceptional ones Nigel referenced at the end of the show? And will you ever get the image of Joshua's booty-shaking dad out of your head?

Photos courtesy of Fox