So You Think You Can Dance Quick Kicks: Rating the Top 9

· Billy slicked his hair into a Mad Men side-part for his contemporary routine. Sharp! But because it's Billy, he looked like a member of a white doo-wop group from the '50s called The Students or something. He brought lilting flexibility and technical perfection once again, but his performance lacked the strong character of his best work.

· Jose, who went Bollywood last week and stole your sister's pajama bottoms, enacted a salsa routine with some verve. He's got to do more hip-hop if he's going to survive though. For now, he seems destined for a fourth- or fifth-place finish.

· Kent, or as we call him, JAZZ HANDS: THE PERSON, performed jazz this week. The results were scintillating; the ebullient teen flounced like a sugar-blasted mudskipper. Mia and Adam are right, though -- he needs to adapt more to the character of choreography. For now he's the perky kindergartener who climbs on the ceiling. Lock the sink cabinet.

· And now for the DANCING DUDES. Alex and Twitch took what could've been grossly literal choreography and made it pop. The setup -- a psychiatrist (Twitch) consults with a patient (Alex), and they soon dance in synchronicity -- sounds dumb, or like a tacky routine they saddle Adéchiké with, but skeptical Alex came through with a hip-hop presence that was far less Burger King Kids Club than Billy Bell's last week. In short: effective!

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