NextIteration

I don't understand how Rubio and his chicanery were ever elected to the Senate in the first place. It would be nice if said chicanery were exposed via the corporate media but I'm not holding my breath. Jeb is a signatory to PNAC, I don't understand how a neocon thinks he can win after the Iraq disaster, but there are a lot of stupid people. Oh dear lord, Joe is bragging about the "influence" of his show? Does he not understand that his numbers are down to 78k?

Joe doubles down on misquoting Bill Clinton - wonder if he'll have to apologize again? Idiot.

Totally agree about the Emmy bait.

It is one of the more important ones because of the Dance Awards nationals (it's also one of the more important workshops because of the faculty), I think one of the most honest quotes from Abby during the episode was something like "these are industry heavy hitters, master teachers and choreographers, I can't snub them" when she was talking about the importance of having them attend on Sunday. Most of the time when she says this kind of thing, it's pretty exaggerated imho, but about this, I think it's true. For those that watch SYTYCD Mandy Moore (also DWTS) and Mia Michaels are on faculty; at Nuvo, one of the other workshop/competitions in the group that leads to the Dance Awards you have Ray Leeper, Stacey Tookey and Travis and Denise Wall. If a dancer is a winner/finalist at these workshops year over year, and attends nationals the dancer will be remembered, the premise is a little silly for these girls anymore because they are already on national television, but winning like I said in a previous post is affirmation that they are actually amongst the top cross-trained dancers (making a distinction from pure ballet training) for their age group in the country, if the region is weak their will be less winners. Because they are who they are (Dance Mom dancers), and also dancers in general - I don't think missing out on the last bit would be a snub, kids and families have other things in their lives and it is a long weekend and some people drive hours to get to them or have flights to catch to get the kids back to school on Monday. For advanced dancers at any age level all these workshops are great because they expose the kids to new choreographers that are also respected master teachers, they have to learn to pick up choreography very fast and it includes the audition process which is important and this is all outside of winning or going to nationals - just the experience is great for all dancers. The show could have taught viewers much of all of the above and left out the drama, the episode would have been much better for it. (Short story about my dancer, when she was little and I was just learning about dance and started realizing that she might have a bit of talent I also realized that we were at a really bad dolly dinkle - I started taking her to outside ballet technique classes - I got caught and they threatened to kick us out because "kids shouldn't be exposed to too many teachers and methods of teaching" I knew it was time to put on my sneakers and RUN at the end of the season!!!! The truth was that they knew that having exposure outside of the their studio would lead me to understanding just how bad they were, and they feared that I would share this knowledge - I found a number of other moms at this point who'd gone through the same experience with them. This is something I tell anyone looking for a studio for a very young child, even at the Mommy and Me level - make sure that you are at a quality studio because you never know what will happen and unlearning bad habits from bad studios is really hard.)

@Uke, I'll bet that Allison "training" Maddie means teaching master classes at workshops that they've all attended, unless of course Abby has Allison in to do classes from time to time. Allison is originally from Orem, Utah, which is probably how she has the connections that allow her to be a pro on this show though she never competed in ballroom (except on SYTYCD). Oh, and about the wall dance, lolz, for all those SYTYCD S2 megafans that always wanted to see Travis and Allison dance, their wish came true, I guess.

...as to the Shaping Sounds Travis Wall piece, domestic violence? Really? What are the "SM Boards"? I think I made out Nick, Teddy and Jaimie along with Travis, Allison and Jenna - a bit of hunting around leads me to believe that Kyle and Chantel were the final two. The ladies were tossing the men around pretty equally so I just don't understand how one gets to "domestic violence" from the piece (for the record I got romantic desperation out of it). All in the eyes of the beholder I guess, and I understand that a lot of ballroom enthusiasts don't appreciate that contemporary keeps creeping more and more into the show - but since the Macy's pieces it has been been a focus on results shows, anyways. I also understand that it isn't everyone's cup of tea. @crowceilidh, if the song seemed familiar to you it's because NappyTabs did a group piece to it in S5 of SYTYCD. Speaking of "contemporary" I noticed Maddie's teeth and constipated lyrical face dancing with Brynn and Jaycee, both of whom are every bit as accomplished as the bratty teeth, and it looked to me that perhaps the teeth fell out of a turn. I refuse to watch it again so there is that. I actually do watch the show and Maddie does seem to be getting a big head these days, it will be interesting to see where she is 5-10 years down the road. Why exactly is Noah still here? I guess it's like Amy last season. I don't hate anyone, dancer or pro (except Lacey), I'm sad that Robert left though it was his time and I guess I'll have to read about all the "bad stuff" Riker, Rumer, et al are doing since I just caught up with this season.

This, times a bazillion. Did Derek perhaps have to be back in New York? (I have no idea.) I'm very late to the party having just watched this episode, but was Chelsie really there? And no Dimitri, boo! So good to see Karina, Anna and Maks. Miss Patti LaBelle, this rendition was just as good or better than I remember her, because I'm a dinosaur, on The Midnight Special. Those three can come back and perform every single week next season, outstanding performance! It made up for all the rest for me, along with the silliness of the NFL Paso. I loved Whitney's costume for her dance off with Alfonso.

@Cosmocrush - all the fake concern for the children is upsetting to me. Kids don't care, unless they are taught to hate.

In my world that would be devolve. On a happy note, they adopted the gender identity policy despite hatemongers like Bitsy. Stopped by to mention that the Sherri Shepherd case was covered this morning on the Melissa Harris-Perry show. A link isn't yet available to the segment, but I will come back and link it later (it's later and I don't think they are going to link to the sub-segment that covered Sherri). The upshot of the panel was that it is just a very sad situation, especially for the baby boy - MHP has a 1-yr-old from a surrogacy so her view is interesting; she talked about texting back and forth with her surrogate all through the case.

Finally watched the episode. Yup, it's very clear that Abby (er the producers, for more drama) decided that Nia and JoJo didn't need to bother with classes on Sunday since they weren't in the running for VIP - who knows if that's what really went down or if Nia and JoJo just left at lunch on Sunday (when the other four would have had to stay for choreography for the closing ceremony while they were being evaluated for VIP). This is interesting, Mini VIP Results Jr VIP Results Teen VIP Results if you watch, only Kalani is there to receive her VIP award - Mackenzie, Kendall, and Maddie are gone. (In the beginning of the Mini results they describe The Dance Awards nationals.) I went looking for the VIP dance but it's not posted on jump or YouTube, jump is notoriously slow at posting some stuff on their site. (Most other competitions/conventions don't do a dance the weekend of the competition - but "elite dancers" (special judges awards generally based on solos or picked out of group dances) chosen at regionals are eligible to do one at nationals.)

@hqtextbook - it seems so, I was hoping that we'd get the balance of episodes, I think there might be five more - that culminates with their trip to Portugal but they haven't updated them for weeks.

That was sort of my point. If JoJo and Nia were "out" at the audition - it's not as big of a deal if they missed a couple workshop classes - I should have explained that once you are chosen as a finalist in the audition - you are more closely watched to determine if you'll be a VIP or a runner-up. Kendall was a runner-up. Mandy Moore used to run the Jr auditions and it was always a jazzy musical theatre type piece - I have no idea if this is still the case. eta: So of course this was all producer driven drama for the story line, there was no way they could have known for sure, (for the sake of argument, yes I agree the two most obvious not to make the audition would be Nia and JoJo, which sort of proves how nasty Abby is to allow that as part of the story) I was just trying to outline how a weekend at jump works so you all could fit the "time lines". Here is a clip of The Garden from jump, note that there aren't massive amounts of turn sequences and most of the movement displays control, flexibility and technique. This is what usually wins as dancers age up.

I haven't watched the show yet - but I thought I'd take on these two things before I do. jump is one of the competitions that feeds into the national Dance Awards competition in the summer. This is in the top five of the most prestigious nationals. Winning a regional jump VIP makes you eligible to compete as a finalist at the Dance Awards. Here are the results from jump Pittsburgh, Mackenzie, Maddie and Kalani all won VIP, Payton was a runner up. It looks like the whole studio attended, not just the Dance Moms kids. Kalani won Jr Dance Awards a couple summers ago - I think what winning does is affirm that these girls are the real deal, top dancers in their age group in the country. VIP finalists spend extra time working on choreography for the closing ceremony that usually occurs around 4 p.m. on Sunday, the audition that determines the finalists usually takes place late in the morning on Saturday, the competition part of the weekend generally takes place starting late afternoon through the evening on Saturday. As to competing at two events over the same weekend, while it's highly unusual it can and does happen, though I have to say, I've never heard of attempting it with a competition and a convention simply because you're in classes at a convention. I know that when we were at a highly competitive studio - a couple of our dancers did this, you can finagle solo performances and make it work. Sometimes it's all about qualifying at a regional for the top competitive spots at nationals. eta: For the seriously obsessed and needy dance moms/dancers - some will travel around to different cities and compete again and again in order to win VIP at jump, Outstanding Dancer at NYCDA, Champion at West Coast Dance Explosion or hrmmmm, Protegé Champ? at The Pulse (I can't remember the name). Anyways, yup - some kids and their parents fly around the country doing what I think is cheating sort of - because the same choreography is used in every city for the audition part of the convention.

Senator Ron Johnson, WI ( R ) in the Senate Rotunda. They all have BenGhazi fever again since she's agreed to testify.

Not for nothing, but wouldn't that be what matches the interests of the audience more? There was a heckuva lot of newsworthy things that went down since they've been live to cover outside of boxing. And as much as I hate horse racing now (used to be a huge fan) I would think discussion of the Derby would interest more of the audience than the match.

Nobody brought up Mayweather's horrible reputation? I mean ever when discussing this match?

Ha, and once again Joe has a fit over Pres. Clinton's speeches and he and Halperin misquoted him - he said he spent a couple hours a day "researching things for his speeches" not a couple hours per speech. Joe, you look pea eyed green with envy with your ranting. To quote Joe "Hee Hee!" eta: 5/5 - Seriously Mika? "Some people might say...", "you don't need to be condescending"... if we wanted Fox & Friends, we would turn the channel.

Sadly @Morbs, I think you hit the nail on the head. I love me some Ro - I really feel for her right now, between Chelsea's birth mom and this disaster. :(

Greg is the moneybags that pulled Abby out of bankruptcy, pretty sure outside of the Collins payments, we have him to thank for this hot mess. lol. Don't you think that Collins is footing the bill for their apartments?

There are a ton of stories about Rosie and Michelle on TMZ right now - poor Ro, yet another gold digger in her life.

Oooh, I haven't watched the episode yet, but @tessa, it's very important to keep moneybags Greg happy in Melissa's world.

The Clinton Foundation has helped millions around the world, which is part of why all this Sturm und Drang about the Clinton Cash book is sort of stupid. Sure, I think some of Bill's speech fees (personal income) may be a bit shady and a little too convenient timing wise - but it's not what Scarborough is huffing and puffing about - it actually makes Joe look petty, and jealous as in, it's NOT FAIR that Bill can command those dollars for a speech when I'm stuck here every morning making a lot less money exploiting my history in politics. Pot meet kettle. Now Joe wants Canada to change their privacy laws with regard to charitable donations, yeah sure, I bet they'll jump right on that.

Melissa has a resting bitch face, but it's been really bad about the situation with Nia's video and attention. She cannot bear it when her girls are not the center of attention.

No Joe, you absolutely do not have a three hour show, you have a two and a half hour show, one half hour of which is made up of of the much maligned Mika fluff. ::eyeroll::

Bitsy and Sherri, up for Moms of the Year in Hell, every.single.year. Opps, I forgot Jenny, make it a trio award.