On "So You Think You Can Dance," choreographers can give and take away. They can serve up one piece that makes a dancer seem dynamic ... and another that makes him seem blank.

Sonya Tayek did both tonight. The loser was Jose Ruiz, who was given a piece that was set entirely on the edge of the stage. "I find it very difficult to criticize your dancing," one judge (Adam Shankman) told him afterward. That may be because Jose never really got to dance; it was a stylish piece, but this high-energy guy was rarely given a chance to move.

In my next life, I think I'll be a soldier or a saboteur or a stunt pilot, but not a dancer. Dancing seems way too dangerous -- especially after this week's "So You Think You Can Dance."

Alex Wong injured an achilles tendon and was pulled from the competition -- maybe for this week and maybe for the season. Allison, one of the show's "all-stars," re-injured a rib and asked to be taken to the hospital. And to think some parents breathe a sigh of relief when their kids turn to dance instead of football.

It's good that "So You Think You Can Dance" is requiring everyone to do a solo on Wednesdays. For a while, it seemed like we'd never see some of them.

The show was only requiring solos (on Thursdays) for people in the bottom three. That meant no Alex Wong or Jose Ruiz or Billy Bell or such; it meant seeing a Melinda Sullivan solo every week.

Tonight, everyone had to do one. And we saw that those people -- plus Ashley Galvan, Adechike Torbert and Kent Boyd -- are rather magnificent soloists.