Trav's Thoughts

Now my Lakers are in a huge hole. They stormed out to a 24 point lead in the first half, led by 20 in the third quarter, and then wilted under another tremendous defensive effort from Boston.

So now the Lakers are down 3 games to 1 and face a must win on Sunday, followed by two potential close out games in Boston. It doesn't look good for the purple and gold.

Yeah, I'm bummed. But it's not over until one team gets 4 wins and that hasn't happened yet. So I'll just be over here believing that my Lakers can win the next 3 games in a row.

Don't laugh! It could happen.


As I said in yesterday's post, I'm not quite ready for the full treatment yet. I did finally find photographs of the dancers. But I haven't learned enough about their bios and I'm just not ready to recap so many dancers.

I didn't even give the show its own post yesterday!

But what I can do is share clips of our three favorite performances from Wednesday. And to Dick Clark Productions, which entity is pulling a bunch of these clips off of YouTube and citing copyright infringement, I say that I'm not out to make a profit! I love the dancing and I just want to share it.

This is the tango from Jessica (23, contemporary) and Will (21, contemporary). Jessica and Will are two extremely well trained dancers. You can see it in the way they pulled the technique together for this performance tango. The choreography was really difficult...particularly the lift at the end. They made everything look effortless. They showed the drama and the passion of the tango. Jessica had a few wobbles, otherwise this was a perfect dance.


Kherington (18, jazz & contemporary) and Twitch (25, freestyle hip hop & breaker) call themselves Twitchington and we love that! It shows that they have a chemistry together, which really came across in their broadway routine. Tyce Diorio's choreography emphasized both of their strengths while staying true to the over-the-top performance style of a broadway production number. The music suited them, and they showed that they can complement each other's individual style in a partnership.


We thought the dance of the night belonged to Katee (20, contemporary) and Joshua (19, hip hop). We're not normally fans of hip hop, but this dance was so beautifully crafted and they performed the story so flawlessly. We were hooked at the first movement and they sustained that interest throughout. It helped that Joshua was in his hip hop element, but we get the feeling that he is going to be comfortable in most styles. And Katee redeemed herself after emotion got the better of her and she suggested to the judges that she wouldn't try again if she didn't make top 20 this year. She was outstanding.


It's always tough to get cut, but this first elimination is probably one of the worst.

For the bottom three couples, the judges decided that they were among the 20 dancers they thought had a chance to become America's favorite. They made it to Hollywood along with 14 other dancers, and then met the reality of finding chemistry with a partner they barely knew to dance in a style that probably wasn't their own. They trained and rehearsed with professional choreographers who had a vision and who expected them to dance it. Then they rehearsed for hours with their new partners.

Then came all the attendant obligations that accrue to a competitor on the show, and then costume fittings and dress rehearsal and last minute stage direction. Then it's action and they take the stage for 90 to 120 seconds of performance followed by another couple of minutes listening to the judges.

And then comes the hope that America liked it enough to pick up the phone and vote.

And then the next night, two dancers have to go home. They haven't gotten much exposure, and they'll probably go back to class or a day job, and continue to toil away trying to make it through that one audition that gets them into a music video or on a stage somewhere.

Of course, I'm just speculating. Only one of these 20 dancers is going to be America's favorite. The other 19 are going to be eliminated, and somebody has to go out first.

The bottom three were Kourtni & Matt, Rayven & Jamie, and Jessica & Will.

Sometimes a couple doesn't connect with the voters, for whatever reason. Jessica & Will could be one of those couples. They were one of our favorites on Wednesday, and they earned universal praise from the judges. I suspect they will both be saved.

After each dancer gets a chance to solo, the judges do decide to save Jessica & Will despite her sub-par solo, along with Kourtni & Matt.

So the first dancers elminated this season are Rayven & Jamie.