'So You Think You Can Dance': Lil' C talks Brandon, Mary Murphy talks week 2 eliminees

Do you agree with last night's "So You Think You Can Dance" cuts?

Nigel Lythgoe stated during the show that the judges were not unanimous in their decision, that they truly didn't want to eliminate anyone this week. But I spoke with judges Mary Murphy and Lil' C afterward -- Nigel did not show up for post show interviews, I have to guess it's because he's avoiding the "Katie" question! -- and they explained in more detail why Max Kapitannikov and Ashley Valerio had to go.

"Ashley wasted so much time in the backstage during her solo," said Mary. "She didn't really come out and fight for her life. We're asking the dancers to fight for their lives and I think [her elimination] sent a message to all the other dancers. You have to come out there and give us everything." As far as the other two female contestants in the bottom two are concerned, they felt Caitlin just had a stronger solo, plain and simple. And Kayla, as anyone who's been paying attention knows, is pretty much their favorite female dancer in the competition, so she wasn't going anywhere. I mean, Mary didn't come right out and say that to me, but you know...

Regarding the boys in the bottom three, Mary said Jason wasn't even part of their elimination discussion, because his solo was so strong, they knew immediately that he was safe. Between Max and Kupono, however, they had a tough time deliberating: "Was it a great solo by Max? No it wasn't. Was it a great solo by Kupono? No, it wasn't! You know, a decision had to be made and it had to be made quickly. It could've gone either way, that's how close it was. The thing we kept coming back to though was, Kupono, when he gets a character, man, he just embodies it, full tilt. He reminds me of Mark from last season. But his solo did not remind me of Mark this week! Thank God he threw in that little pirouhette at the end, otherwise he had nothing in that solo. The fact that he can pull in a character stronger than Max is really what swayed it [his way]."

So, there you have it.

Sad to see anyone leave the competition at this point... especially someone like Ashley who auditioned for "So You Think You Can Dance" four years in a row -- something the judges considered during their deliberation, by the way -- and someone like Max who really didn't make any mistakes to justify his elimination. But as Lil' C told me, someone had to go.

Speaking of Lil' C, I just couldn't resist asking him about Brandon's performance this week. After criticising the kid so hard during the audition processs, it was good to see Lil' C give him props on Wednesday and I wanted to hear more. What about Brandon rocked C's world on Wednesday? "For one, I think it was the number," he explained. "I think it was tailor made for him and his dance style, because he's a dancer of immense strength and doing the disco moves requires him to hit everything really hard. And, as Adam said last week, when he showed up with performance -- which he was lacking during Vegas week -- he had [the combination of both elements]. And of course, the assisted lifts, amazing. So on time. He's got the smile. He had disco fever." 

On the issue of arrogance -- which, frankly, I'm still not sure where Mia Michaels got that from -- Lil' C said he never felt Brandon was arrogant. It was just that he had very high expectations for Brandon, because the other judges had hyped him up so big after his first audition which C wasn't present for. "I was just waiting and waiting and waiting to be impressed," he said. "He's such a great dancer, I don't want him -- or any of the dancers -- to be comfortable just because of praise. Praise can hinder you sometimes. But I told him [this week], you did very well."

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