Tonight, the semifinalists who made it to Vegas on So You Think You Can Dance try to show the judges they deserve to make the finals. Dancers will either be cut straight-out, definitely make the next round or, if the judges are split, have one last chance to "dance for their life" to prove they should be there.

By the end of the process, only 20 will remain.

The first challenge for the contestants is a hip-hop routine from judge Shane Sparks. It is, as is his style, intricate and powerful. After the dancers learn the routine, they perform it in groups of 10 for the judges.

After each round, the judges vote on whether people get through to the next.

Dance student and teacher Ashley and Katie both get cut first round.

Ex-football player Myles Johnson also gets cut.

Lindy-hopper Michael and Evita each get a split vote and have to dance for their lives in the competition. They get to do their style and make it.

Olivia (who danced for her mother, who was ill) makes the cut.

Sixty-two contestants get cut after the Shane Sparks round. Next, judge Mary Murphy teaches the remaining dancers the samba.

Russian ballroom dancer Pasha gets a unanimous vote.

Janet, who has a prosthetic arm, also makes it.

Olivia makes it, too.

A guy named Jay is out, and he's mad, pulling the "get that camera out of my face" move.

(Sun photo by Doug Kapustin)

Immediately thereafter, we get a very, very quick cut of local Maryland dancer Heather Zampier (pictured above left and profiled in today's paper) getting cut. Sadly, we don't even get to see her performance.

Next round, the dancers have to take on a lyricalcontemporary dance by Mia Michaels.

Lindy-hopper Michael is out.

Yesenia, the hip-hop dancer, gets cut, too.

Lindy-hopper EvaEvita gets a split vote, so she's got one last chance.

A bunch of b-boys and breakers will also have that one last dance opportunity.

Ricky Palomino (whom I don't think we've seen until now) impresses everyone.

The next morning, it's the solos for the contestants on the bubble.

"Twitch" is up first. He breaks it down to "Get Up Offa That Thing" -- he gets all yesses, including two from Nigel (but that was a joke).

Hok gets a unanimous vote, too.

Jamal, who surprised the judges and got through when he improvised a swing routine with another guy from his crew, decides his best option for the solo is tap. Which he doesn't really know. So he kicks off the shoes and does his usual thing. The gamble does not pay off, and he is out.

Eva/Evita finally gets the boot, with Nigel saying, "I can't keep putting you through on personality."

After all that, only 63 are left.

Cat surprises the remaining 63, telling them that they will be divided into 15 groups, and each group will choose a CD from the box she has, each of which has one of five songs. They then have until first thing in the morning to choreograph and learn a group dance.

The first group includes ballroom dance Faima, who is having trouble with the contemporary routine they are creating. They decide to stay up all night. Nigel asks who choreographed it, and Jamie (whoever that is) says a mix of people, but Nigel notes it was mostly her style. Michael from the group gets cut. The three women make it through.

Hana-Lee (who survived the collapse of a building in Israel a few years ago) is nursing a sprained ankle. The group has hip-hop dancers, modern dancer Olivia and a ballet dancer. The hip-hop dancers decide to both choreograph the routine and totally override each other again and again through the night. Olivia loses it. But they pull it off. Hana-Lee will be dancing for her life. The rest make it through.

One group includes Jessie Peralta, who appears to be missing from the routine, but then she climbs out of a suitcase in the middle of the floor during a chaotic and weird performance. The whole group is asked to dance for their lives.

Jessie Peralta makes it after her solo.

Hana-Lee goes out and does the best she can on her injured foot, making a prop in her performance. She only gets two votes, but at this point, that doesn't get her through.

At the end of this round, there are 50 dancers left.

Next, each of the remaining dancers performs a solo for the judges, with no feedback from them. After that, they find out whether they make the Top 20. But that's probably tomorrow's show, since there are only two minutes left. Yep.

See you then!