Mertseger

IDK, there were maybe 20 of us posting about S1 over at TWOP, and so it's certainly quieter around here compared to the show's prime seasons, but not that much different than the start. I'm guessing the show had to evolve or die, and it seems to be doing both. It's just part of the show business life cycle. The real concern is whether there's enough talent in this pool to grab the usual choreo Emmy and pave the way for production Emmys. I suspect that the show's history as an Emmy factory is the only reason it was given this chance. The only two next gen cast members I can see reaching that level of quality at this point are Tate and Phoenix. On the other hand, what the heck are we left with for American dance on TV without this show? DTWS will remain a perennial, and their move into including Contemporary helps a bit, but that show always skews old, old, old. Is there any dance content on Dance Moms worth seeing? We need a show featuring young dancers stepping into their professional lives.

Thanks: a bit S10 heavy, but still a bunch of people I'd generally look forward to seeing dance again. Perhaps the key to watchability will be the ability to ignore the partner. That generally works well with Karina and Anna over on DWTS.

The new format is almost guaranteed to insure that we won't see the ten best dancers in the top 10. But, then, I'm not sure that the judges' choices were much better at that objective. Anyone catch who all the All Stars are? I believe I caught Fik-Shun and Jenna.

I honestly thought the cold open was a cell-phone ad. Apparently, SYTYCD is just a Dance Moms spin-off now. I'll watch it for Cat, but, then again, I watched Royally Mad for Cat and that was fairly unwatchable too.

It certainly helps to be a fan of Bamford (and pugs) to find enough to enjoyment to endure the bleakness in parts of the story, but it should be said that the series as whole is hopeful and uplifting. Given what you already know from the first four episodes it is not much of spoiler to say that two out of three of the timelines have a happy ending, and I liked the payoffs for various bits that are set up early in the series. (I particularly enjoyed the surreal resolution of the three Karens Grisham). It's also a fairly savvy indictment of the Industry and the kinds of choices the people in are forced to make to further their careers or simply survive. I cannot imagine, for instance, that Target would appreciate the series, and that's a very good thing indeed.

I'm barely hanging in on this season now that Melanie Tierce is gone. I do like Jenn Blosil when she is in savant mode and actually singing, but I suspect that she was only kept for group drama purposes. Did anyone catch whether Kayla Micklesen made it through to group?

Nor how freezing, explosions, receiving awards at toy conventions, toy fans running from imminent explosions, etc. etc. etc. work. Not surprisingly, National City is, apparently, just LA (if that wasn't already established by the ubiquitous palm trees). The exterior for the arcade was the closest arcade to where I lived in high school. It's at the Redondo Pier next to Quality Seafood which is also in the background of a couple of the shots.

Prime TWoP Amazing Race reference there, but given the past 14 seasons of AI your only hope for stopping the runs by AI contestants is the off button on your remote.

Blake Lewis of American Idol gives some idea of what Uncle Pervy is like as a producer: https://www.yahoo.com/music/first-person-my-american-idol-experience-by-191954633.html. Manipulative, patronizing, but, ultimately, able to admit it when the contestant is right

Yahoo Music is letting a bunch of AI alums tell tales after school starting with Blake Lewis: https://www.yahoo.com/music/first-person-my-american-idol-experience-by-191954633.html .

Thank goodness SYTYCD remains an Emmy factory: maybe we'll get an S13 after all. Of course, it will be the worst season ever (just like all the other seasons according to this board and its TWoPian predecessor). Honestly, I think this was one of the better finales. I liked Jenna and Travis. A ballet expert would have to judge, but does't she have really good feet? One advantage of this format is that with the extra female finalists we got extra dosages of Robert, Alex and Josh. (I'd still like to see Katee again someday.) Congratulations all on another worst season ever: may there be many more.

For me, my voting ended up coming down to the final solos since none of duets really moved me. I docked both Virgil and Jaja for the use of props, and Hailee's solo struck me as a bit competitiony. Gaby's solo was unrelenting and fierce, and so, to my surprise, I wound up sending the vast majority of my votes to her. I think it was a slightly above average season with a slightly below average set of finalists. Paula is probably the best full-season judge we've had even if she lost a bit of steam this episode reverting to her AI mode of content-free praise. I'd still put her behind Debbie and Misty, though. Jason was not bad: definitely above the Ellen and Mia lows (Mia's still the second best choreographer on the show to me). I don't hate Nigel, but it might be best for the show if he ceded his chair to some new blood if there are any future seasons. Stage vs. Street might work with greater stakes, but it ended up being a fairly minor change to the format. I do like that it allowed the gender balance to shift and to allow more non-pair routines.

You're most welcome. I'm a mathematician by trade, but I've had a strong interest in world religions since I was in college. Teish's book was on my teacher's reading list back in the day. I realized that "syncretic religions" was not going to get anyone who was interested to the appropriate materials. The Yoruba Descent Traditions are highly syncretic but many other religions from all over are as well. It is interesting, however, how often the art in SYTYCD lead to such paths. I know we like to complain, and every season after S2 has been worse than all the previous ones according to this forum (and TWoP's before it), but, truly, we're living in a Golden Age of dance, and, occasionally, the dances on this show still transcend. And even the one's that don't can lead to rewarding avenues of thought and investigation.

You'd probably have better luck looking up Yoruba which (because of the slave trade) combined with Catholicism and native Meso-American religions to form Candomble and Santeria among others. Vodun arose through a similar process with a different set of African religions. These religions generally practice a form of possession in which the participants enter willingly and surrender their consciousness to the spirits. Thus, it would not be seen as surrendering to the dark side nor would be resisted within such traditions. Such practices would be seen (and frequently are) seen as the dark side by Christians. A great book on Yoruban Traditions by a modern practitioner is Jumbulaya by Luisa Teish.

It's an attempt to engage the audience in the format, but, indeed, there are no stakes whatsoever.

"It's not that kind of club, Nigel." - Why, oh why, does Cat not have an Emmy yet? Jim's solo covering the entire stage was amazing, but Jaja's in her tiny little Krump box was still the better solo.

Oh, what a difference a week (and nine All Stars) make, eh? Gabby was costumed more in a wuxia (Chinese period action film) style rather than geisha. (No wuxia costume would show that much leg, but the hair definitely was Chinese.) That being said, it was truly a cultural hodge-podge. And I'm fine with that. For me, Jaja is still the best soloist, but the emotional range she can portray seems very limited. She does ebullience well, and so shone in this week's routine. And she delivers a sort of mock, winking ferocity when she krumps, but I really wish Mia were around to break down her emotional pretense a bit. As I watched Travis' routine for Jaimie and whomever she was paired with, I thought, "****. Well, there's next year's Emmy for Outstanding Choreography". (SYTYCD has won 13 Emmys to date compared to, say, AI's 8 and DWTS's 14. The fact that it's an award generating machine is the only hope I can see for future seasons now that AI is ending.) I can't complain that Edson was eliminated since I did not vote for him, but I certainly would have sent him some votes after that routine. ETA: this episode should also be one of the one's submitted for Cat's nomination next year. Her happy dance with Virgil and the matching Ta-Dah pose with Hailee were amazing.

Was Brian's choreography always about feeding the male gaze? I've watched since S1, but I honestly cannot remember. I think we've gotten less direct creepy smarm from Uncle Pervy in his commentary this year, but the new format has created a bit more opportunity for same-sex pieces (which is good!) However, the all female ones have definitely drifted into sexual exploitation. On the other hand, there is a thread of female empowerment in the modern burlesque movement. I think burlesque should have a place on the show, but should not the necessary portrayal of an affirmation of women's sexual agency fall more to the choreographers than dancers since the dancers may well be unfamiliar with the modern genre? Or should burlesque simply be tossed from the show because it's consistently not been able to get out of the mire of male-gaze and exploitation when it goes there? I like the broadest array of dance styles possible on our show, but the show is consistently sexist when it approaches such styles and themes. And it doesn't have to be. Simply consider Sonya's S8 piece for Melanie and Sasha. There's got to be a broad area of viable artistic exploration between Sonya's piece and sexy-fish and pin-ups, why can't the show explore that space? Turning my hetero-cis-male gaze to Cat, I will say that I liked the dress, but would have liked to see her go full hippie chic with the styling. Maybe a garland?

The Fug Girls covered the red carpet for the Dizzy Feet fete: lot's of friends of the show plus twicH and Alison.

From last week: GRUMPYPANDA, ON 28 JUL 2015 - 06:24 AM, SAID: Be careful for what you wish for, even ironically, eh? But that's the thing about highly focused individuals: they're often quite boring outside their area of expertise. I had a friend who went to UCLA during the '84 Olympics and went out for dinner with the US Men's Gymnastic team. He reports it was the dullest experience of his life. Note to Brian: if you want to explore sexy in future routine's check out Leonardo's routine for JJ and Derek this week. Sexy is not putting your dancer's in high heels, having them wear skimpy vaguely fetish costumes, and choreographing HMV's on the floor. Sexy is a smoldering, intimate connection between individuals. Of course, it was a huge advantage for JJ to dance with Leonardo. But, OMG: how hot was that? Speaking of hot, I've commented on this boards and TWOP s for all 12 seasons, and I've said both positive and negative things about Cat's styling, but I don't think I've ever addressed her footwear until this episode: Yowza. Sexy shoes, my dear! Of course, once again, it was her instant response to Nigel's "It's the first time a shirt has come off on this show for a good reason." comment which is why she has always and continues to deserve an Emmy. I found it very hard to vote last night, and spread my votes much wider than I usually do. We're finally in the heart of the season, and it's shaping up to be a good one.

And traveled via slavery to the Caribbean and the US. Neil Gaiman explored the character in American Gods and Anansi Boys. And the illustrator who did the art work for the most popular 20th century Tarot deck, Pamela Colman Smith, used to tell versions of the stories in Caribbean dialect after her family moved to England. She later collected them in a small illustrated storybook called Annancy Stories that returned to print five years ago.

I'm going to put a stake in the ground at this point, and say that I mildly prefer the new format largely because without ballroom being one of the holy triumvirate we are no longer stuck with duets for every single competition dance (although the lack of getting to-know-you segments in favor of more rehearsal footage is a nice side benefit as well) . I'd like to see more quartets after the introduction episodes, and when the field gets smaller, I'm hoping we will get choreographed solos with an assigned choreographer. (The format has also finally killed the stupid count-down clock for the dance-for-your-life "self"-choreographed solos that the audience would shout at with Pavlovian fervor. Woohoo!) That being said, I agree with whoever posted last week that the "two girls fighting over the affections of boy" story-line for trios was played out after the tenth time it was done on DWTS. There are only two non-clichéd ways at this point that a romantic narrative for a trio can end: the same-sex pair united or a happy polyamorous union. And I suspect we'd quickly get bored with those two outcomes as well. I do think that they could make some format changes to increase the stakes for the team competition. Perhaps a accumulating point system with escalating values each week to enable come-backs. How about different points for specific genres? 5 points for the quickstep routine, 1 point for the inevitable clutch-at-the-sky contemporary duet - and I say that as a contemporary/contemporary-in-the-style-of-contemporary fanboi. The audience would then rank the dances via a vote, and final points would be assigned accordingly. The team captains could then assign their dancers based on the available points for the coming week, and so would have some direct dance-managerial role in the competition. And then we could complain about their favoritism and stupid decisions. It would be fun. (Too bad the show couldn't assign points for different choreographers given the egos in the industry: you know that Tasty Oreo should be a 1-point choreographer.) Back to the show. How butch was Megz compared to Jim? Looking at the hands alone I suspect Jim has never punched anything in his life, and Megz has never not punched in a dance routine. She ruled that routine, but it was, of course, in her wheelhouse. I was disappointed with both Jim and Jaja this week, and reduced my votes accordingly. They are great in related genres, but they aren't quite making the leap across genres. Neptune, on the other-hand, really shone this week with Kate in a way that I look for in this show. I will defer to the ballroom experts, but I did feel that Asaf was really focussed on keeping Marissa safe during the lifts to the point that he entirely stopped "dancing" to do so (which is much better than the alternative). I did like the fact that Virgil and Haley did not break character after the routine ended: they deserve some personality/popularity votes for that fact alone.

A verb, Senator, we need a verb. I do miss Lil'C's verbal flourishes.

I'm glad that there at least two of us that think so. The two of them simply beginning to walk forward at the start of "Hometown Glory" (just watched it again for the first time in years: frack, what a good piece) is the standard by which I judge most dance now. Can a dancer command the stage like that? Then we are talking dance. The subsequent movement itself is also necessary - but I live for moments like that. (And Jim and Jaja caught a bit of that frisson at the beginning of theirs this week which is why I find both of them promising.They may not get there this season, but I currently think they have the greatest chance.)

Exactly what I came on line to say. I do wish we'd gotten Rama Lama as well. And I wanted to see Katee again. But other than that, very good picks.