'SYTYCD': Conrad Dechabert's second chance

Wednesday night brought with it the last of the audition nights for So You Think You Can Dance , and a trip to Atlanta -- home, I learned, of some crazy dance troupes. One was called Dragon House. Another was called something else. In any case, Atlanta: the place to show off your dance moves.

Also notable in Atlanta, or at least the editing of the Atlanta auditions: heavy dude focus! Last week gave us a number of notable female dancers, many of whom will be going on to the next round in Hollywood and vying for the real thing. Wednesday was all about the dudes. Athletic dudes. Feminine dudes. Aggressive dudes. Dudes of all shapes and sizes, talents and dispositions. We even got a dude who loved yelling at Nigel, which we'll get through a little later!

But I wanted to start our exploration of the latest crop of dancers with Conrad Dechabert, a return tryout who really stepped up his game in a big way this year and proved to the judges -- and us at home -- just what it means to hone your craft and respond to criticism in the best way possible.

On his tryout last year, Dechabert was told that his moves and general dance form were "too feminine." As someone who dances arguably asexually, I wasn't totally sure what that meant until watching the footage. And sure -- his movements seemed at a disconnect with his body, and certainly the music track accompanying him.

This round, the dancer brought the same remarkable flexibility we saw before...but aided by a sense of masculine bombast, with what felt like a really percussive force behind every leap across the stage. What he came up with, I think, was something you could call gender neutral -- or at least combining the best elements of traditionally male and female moves. Crazy good stuff.

Mary: "I think the choreographers could get a lot out of you." Nigel didn't disagree. Onward!

Image: FOX