S11.E09: Top 16 Perform, 2 Eliminated

[shortpplfedup]

Again, I'm not even going to bother with the stuff I thought was really bad (*cough*BrooklynCaseyHipHop*cough*). Life's too short.

Hip hop with Dave Scott: Killin em. Tanisha did that, and Rudy wasn't far behind. Again, he's not technically solid but he's got that it factor. Good stuff.

Zack in Sonya's jazz: only Zack. Jacque gave me nothing to latch onto. The choreography wasn't much, but Zack really got into the character, very sexy, very longing.

Carly in Mandy's contemporary: Serge is a nonentity. He's present and supportive, but he's furniture.

Contemporary with Travis: I don't know where you guys are seeing all this great dancing Bridget is doing, because all I see is lazy legs and lazier feet. That jive last week was lackluster and painful, lacking sharpness in the kicks and flicks. This was a good piece though, and well danced. Bridget even managed to straighten her legs.

Contemporary group with Sonya: all I could see was Tanisha and Zack. Great piece though. That lean and fall was pretty neat.

Jazz group with Travis: this was the better of the two groups, dance-wise. And Ricky was serving me early-era George Michael realness.

I was absolutely fine losing Brooklyn and Marcquet. Neither has impressed. Next week, they can go ahead and cut Emily, Valerie, Casey and Serge

[realdancemom]

I was absolutely fine losing Brooklyn and Marcquet. Neither has impressed. Next week, they can go ahead and cut Emily, Valerie, Casey and Serge

Those are the four that I think should be gone.  But I think they want Valerie and Serge in the top 10.  That's why neither one has received any criticisms even when they're terrible.  Valerie hasn't impressed me in any of her routines not even tap.  Serge was terrible at hip-hop.  He has the emotion down for contemporary but Carly carries him in those routines.  Casey has no personality.  He's a great contemporary/jazz technician.

Edited July 25, 2014 by realdancemom

[romantic idiot]

I also thought her arms lacked precision in this routine.

On the Bollywood, actually, I liked Valerie's arms (not her hands though). She had graceful hands which is what is needed. That's why I dislike Kathryn dancing Bollywood, though K's the go to girl for that. She makes her arms so hard I'm afraid they'll break and that does not look attractive. 

 

Most of Nakul's choreographies are a mix of Bhangra, Bharatnatyam with a little bit of Garba thrown in, so putting some comparisons below to show what I mean by graceful arms: 

 

(And the hands / fingers show up well) Also, Ricky's tunic really wasn't that long - he's just short and it wasn't well made.

 

(Sorry for the Salman plug, can't help it and it's short)

 

Err - ignore the label  - this is not Tandav, but Bollywood-ised Bharatnatyam, yes. 

Edited July 25, 2014 by romantic idiot

[Bella]

Thanks - that was instructive.

 

 

Also, Ricky's tunic really wasn't that long - he's just short and it wasn't well made.

 

I have a friend who migrated here from India. She and her husband wear traditional dress when they attend weddings and similar events. Ricky's tunic reminded me of something my friend - not her husband - wore to one of these occasions.

[snorca]

 

The opening routine was good too except for the use of some sh**ty cover version of "Take Me to the River" - would have been much better if they'd used the Talking Heads original.

Al Green actually recorded the original in 1974. I love this song so enjoy pretty much all covers. My favorite being Levon Helm in 1976 or 77. I think Annie Lenox did a lovely job but Mandy's choreo I usually find to be bland.

[paramitch]

Valerie actually surprised me this week. To echo others, I've found her a bit leaden but her joy is so light and infectious I don't care. But this week I honestly could see little to critique -- she and Ricky were both joyful, sharp and in sync.
 

So I think people were enjoying Marcquet until last week when they went on and on.

I like Marquette tremendously, but balance has been mentioned for him as an issue every single time, and while I miss many technique aspects with the dancers (I'm theatre but not dance), they are right. I can point to half a dozen moments at this point where you SEE Marquette wobble. He wobbles in hold. He wobbles in big tableau moments. He wobbles when he holds up his partner. He needs more training. Which is a shame because until I actually saw him dance on the show, I wanted him to win.

 

So I was disappointed in Marquette, even as I felt incredibly sorry for the criticism he got yet again. But I have to agree. It may just be nerves, but you can see his ankles shaking many times during the routines, to the extent that he often will take a full half-step to steady himself. He doesn't dance solid.

 

I can't help but root for Tanisha, who despite being not conventionally pretty when standing still? Is heart-stoppingly gorgeous when she dances. She's by far my current favorite among the girls. In a similar vein, I can't help but root for Serge, who I think is underrated and really beautifully well rounded as a dancer. I know he's probably out next week but I love everything he's danced so far.

 

Moving on: I disliked the hip hop tonight because nobody got down low and "in the pocket." In past SYTYCD judgings nobody would have been so lenient as here, I was embarrassed that the judges weren't more critical.

 

As far as personal likes/dislikes, I cannot stand Rudy and can't wait until he's gone. I know he wants this but the problem for me is that I cannot even view his dancing in a detached way, all I see is sweat, tears, smiles, pouring NEED NEED NEED NEED NEED LOVE ME LOVE ME LOVE ME. It just doesn't work for me. Even when he's getting critiqued I want to throw things at him. It's completely irrational.

Zuleikha: I realized tonight that when I watch Rudy/Tanisha, I feel like I'm watching a strange version of Dancing with the Stars in which he's the celeb and she's the pro. It's not so much that he's a bad dancer as that there's an imprecision to his movement that makes him seem like a talented amateur dancer to me. I still don't understand how he got on the show in the first place, much less why he's staying out of the B3.

 

This.

 

I wish I saw in Carly what the judges see -- so far I don't, and last week I was in the minority that was unimpressed by her skeletal-hip-hop (it was too fluid and light).

 

In terms of other pieces, Zack impressed the crap out of me. I hadn't even realized before how versatile he is, but he really is something special. Now he's among my favorite guys.

 

Lastly: I don't really care for Misty as a judge. She's so technical that many times she seems to miss the forest for the trees. And I have to love Mary for pointing out that she always seems way, way harder on the girls (it's true).

 

Remember what a hard time they gave Lacey during her first season?

I unabashedly love pretty much all the work Lacey did on DWTS and was really sad her role was diminished the past few years. My suspicion is that her weight fluctuations (as negligible as they are for regular people, mind you) and personality conflicts may have made them decide it was better to move on. (Speaking of which, Lacey, girl, you are beautiful, please dear lord stop getting doctors to do things to your face!)

 

Speaking of which, did anyone else notice the granny panties under the sheer side panels?

I was annoyed by this because it was such a costuming fail. Either put her in a black or flesh thong, or add even a few 'ribbon strips' to the side panels in a way that wouldn't stop the overall vertical flow/feel but would allow her some modesty. As it was, the WHITE panties were clearly visible and just looked bizarre, when it was so easily fixable by the costumers.

I am quickly developing an inappropriate cougar crush on Teddy.  That eyebrow... I love a guy who can make me laugh.

I'm really warming to him as well. I kind of adore that he looks like the love child of David Bowie and David Cassidy.

 

Until next week! (Hey, it's something...)

Edited July 26, 2014 by paramitch

[Kat From Jersey]

Lately the regular weekly pairs performances have left me feeling 'meh'; they're quite uneven and uninspired.  But, the group numbers have been blowing me away.  This week's was okay, nothing outstanding, but the two end-of-performance group numbers were amazing, especially the Bjork "So Broken" dance.  It was very Sonia-ish, but in the best possible way.  And hey, you could actually see which dancer was which (the swoopy camera work was kept to a minimum).  I think it's important in a competition like this to see who's the standout in a group dance.

 

And hello, Casey!  I was just lamenting the lack of hot male dancers this season, but this week I found myself with the biggest crush on him! He's a very versatile dancer, but tends to stand out more in the group numbers.

[Casually Observant]

I am an adult female who lived to dance, and studied ballet, gymnastics, jazz, tap, cheerleading, etc. up through college. I am also a loyal viewer and have been watching SYTYCD since season 2 and have recorded on my DVR every show since I had the ability to do so, allowing myself to rewatch certain dances over and over.

My daughter who is now 21 also studied dance of all types for many years. She and I (and also her football stud brother) would watch this show together with relish every week. My son liked watching the good-looking female dancers, and would pick a favorite early on. (Allison, Kathryn, Jeanine and Lauren I'm talking to you!) But, after season 7, things started seeming "off". My daughter and son no longer wanted to watch and I couldn't seem to find any favorites to root for either. Now, this year, I am sad to say, I have been so disinterested that I fast forwarded through half of the dances/dancers each week because they were not holding my attention. In fact, after this week's show, I actually went in to my DVR programming and removed the show from my schedule. Why, you ask? Well, I've been thinking about it and at the risk of being un-PC I will tell you.

As most people know, when you watch a movie or a TV show, you watch because you can identify with one or more of the characters in some manner. For instance, as hetero females my daughter and I might feel like we "could be" the female dancer on stage, dancing with the male partner.

If the male dancer is good looking, a great dancer, acts romantically attracted to his partner, the hetero female audience members collectively swoon. (You do know that 98% of the audience is straight females of all ages, right?) Well, the point is that if the male dancers are obviously not straight and cannot conjure up any chemistry with their female partners, all the fun is gone. Yes, I know many of the past male dancers were gay, but they could still "act" involved, invested and attracted to their partners, so we could pretend along with them.

But, not this year. This year's group of males appear to offer only 2 that can pull off straight. The rest just can't do it. Watching them try to fake romance is painful. And several are so slightly built and just too young looking to carry off the part they are playing. The choreography numbers for the most part seem like more of the same and there have only been a few that I said, "Wow" to. Also, the dance crew and Bieber segments were of no interest. Sorry, but dance crew numbers all look the same anymore and all do the same style of aggressive, crunk/hip-hop style dance that we’ve seen ad nauseum.

Nigel and Mary, I love you both, but next time, please give your female audience what they desire: dancers who have strong emotional charisma, who can and will engage the audience while offering something unique and memorable in their dance style and can connect with their partner on stage. And, pick boys who can pull off straight. Sorry, but it's the key to high ratings.

[luvthepros]

This year's group of males appear to offer only 2 that can pull off straight.

Which two?

[crowceilidh]

My faves and dislikes are solidifying.  Zach is by far my favourite guy (I was pained by the look on his face when he was b3ed), although I like Serge too and am concerned at how he seems so background-y so often - I can't stand Casey whom I find to be anti-attractive and Ricky is, by virtue of the over-praise, starting to approach that place where he can do no right.  I did like him in the group number.

 

Bridget is my favourite girl, hands down.  I don't know why I feel this so firmly.  I couldn't stand her in auditions.  Tanisha is a wonder. I loathe Valerie and that loathing is increasing fast.  I thought her facial expressions came close to ruining her group number. All the rest are unmemorable and I will not be sorry to see them go.

 

That bollywood number was atrocious.

 

I thought that Brooklyn and Casey did everything they were capable of with their HH.

 

Marcquet is striking but wobbly and his time was up, bussing or no.  I thought Brooklyn should have gone in the first elims.

 

I liked both group numbers a great deal although I preferred Tayeh's by a sliver.  I do like group numbers where you can distinguish which dancer you are looking at. I enjoyed how different their energies were.

Edited July 26, 2014 by crowceilidh

[canter]

I liked Bridget & Emilio's routine, but Bridget's "hep V" neck makeup was cracking me up.

ETA: Geez, and then they all had hep V in Sonya's group number! What an odd makeup choice to use twice in one show.

Edited July 26, 2014 by canter

[kechara]

I stopped watching True Blood last year so I thought more about broken porcelain  dolls

[panthergirl13]

I'm watching very half-heartedly this season. I'm bored with the choreography, sick to death of Nigel and Mary (Misty, you can stay), and most of the dancers are interchangeable. One thing I'm really happy about is that now, with Brooklyn gone, Casey can be paired up with someone who doesn't ALSO have a "googly eye'. 

 

And THIS is the kind of thing I'm paying attention to now. [sigh]

I miss you, show.

[Terrafamilia]

Overall – costuming and lighting. I thought the costumers were finally going to break their habit with that get-up they put Tanisha in but then they returned to their usual antics with that ghastly pink-thing with which they afflicted Jacque and whatever the heck it was that they applied to Casey and Brooklyn. I also had a problem with the lighting. Often it was just too dark to really appreciate what was going on onstage.

 

Valerie & Ricky

 

eh. I should have liked it more but there wasn’t enough there there.

 

Bridget & Emilio 

 

Bridget definitely saved herself with this. The bed prop was used well but on the downside the dancers always seemed too tentative when dancing in or near it and with good reason. They were making sure they didn’t whack any body parts into it. When they moved away from it they could dance more freely. I’m also really liking Emilio and his willingness to commit himself in other styles.

 

Tanisha & Rudy

 

Didn’t seem like much hip-hop but Tanisha, Tanisha, Tanisha. You really brought it tonight. Your performance had a certain Christina Aguilera vibe but without the in-your-face-ness.

 

Oh, was Rudy in this? I couldn’t really tell.

 

Jessica & Marcquet

 

I like Jessica but she needs a couple more years’ maturity in her performance. Now she gets another partner.

 

Carley &Serge

 

Lovely and competently danced but kind of same-y.

 

Emily &Teddy

 

Inconsistent.  There were parts where Teddy seemed to be really getting it but then things would hit a speed-bump. (and to be especially snarky, superficial, and unkind, looks like Teddy could use a little Proactiv®)

 

Jacque & Zack

 

I really liked this, particularly Zach. Standing still he has this hang-dog countenance but when performing he just transforms. I wish they would acknowledge that sometimes the whole genre category thing the contestants are supposed to declare at the beginning are sometimes no more than a flag of convenience.

 

Brooklyn & Casey

 

Casey, Casey, Casey. You are the stereotypical white boy doing hip hop in the suburban school’s spring musical. Unfortunately for Brooklyn it was a simple process of elimination this week to decide who to send home.

 

Sonya’s Group number

 

Luved it. ‘nuf said.

 

Travis’s Group number

 

The requisite OneRepublic number of the year. Liked it. Last week I compared Ricky to Ringo Starr but in this number at least he was totally channeling Colin O’Donoghue with the guy-liner.

 

MVP of the evening - Tanisha

 

Oh, Nigel, please stop trying to one-up Donald Trump in the profuse over-the-top self-congratulatory self-promotion (for the show, if not you personally).

[Absurdist1968]

Getting rid of a lot of fodder next week will help.  Seems they want to expedite the crowning of Ricky as America's Favorite Dancer ASAP.

Sort of.  More a matter of the first week being a non-elimination week; at some point they were going to have to get rid of four to catch up (five weeks is the top ten point in the season, even with separate results shows).  This season they chose to go from fourteen to ten instead of going from twenty to sixteen, and, if such things can be said, it's more logical that way.  The last four that don't make the tour at this point can't say they haven't had the opportunity to prove themselves, because five weeks is plenty.

 

On another note, it'll be interesting to see if Serge does get cut. If the "Nigel wants another ballroom winner" rumors are true, well, he's down to just Serge and Tanisha, both of whom were near the bottom this past week.  If Nigel were to rescue one of them for the win, it would probably be Tanisha, but even with that, I don't know how long she could hold on after that. Considering that Aaron didn't win last year, though, and Aaron has finished the highest of any tapper in the show's history, it could bode well for Zack if the blander dancers keep getting mowed down by fair-to-middling routines.  I'm neutral about Valerie in this case.

 

Now that I think about it, I'm kind of ready for this to be over.  As many here have pointed out, there are easily six to ten dancers that are being strung along because the network wants fifteen weeks of programming.  There will still be Emmy possibilities for the choreographers and Cat, since this season can't be considered for balloting until June of 2015.  Unless there's a serious uptick in either demo ratings or total viewers, the show is pretty much ready to be euthanized. I'd say it would be sad, but a lot of other commenters would probably call me out as a liar.

Edited July 27, 2014 by Absurdist1968

[kechara]

I would be sad. No matter how far it falls, there's precious little else on in the summer.  It may not be what it used to be, but it's still more entertaining  (imo) than most of anything else on tv in the summer especially.  Unless another show could take its place to fill the dance void...

[crowceilidh]

I would be sad.  They are finally trying some new ways of judging - being FAR more technical and learned then previously - and some new things like choreographers explaining steps.  The show is attempting to dip its toe into gravitas in a way that is not just Nigel being pompous and I like its tone. I will be extremely sad if it's cancelled, but they let it bleed for SO LONG.  I wonder if the ratings will go up when the Allstars arrive.

 

I'm sure they don't care, but I wonder if their ratings are falling in Canada too.  Now that there is no way for a Canadian to vote, I can imagine people might be tuning out.

Edited July 27, 2014 by crowceilidh

[waving feather]

I'd be sad if it is cancelled. Even though the choreography has not been inspiring and the camera work is crap, this is the only dance show that I watch on TV right now. And I really enjoy the format. They do need to get new blood for the choreography though. What's with Travis and Sonya doing 2 routines each (1 group, 1 duet) this episode? At this point, no matter how "brilliant" their choreography may be, due to over-exposure, we have seen it all and nothing will challenge our expectations. There are also too many Jazz/Contemporary routines each episode. Hip hop is such a failure on this show. Is it only this season because I don't remember contestants from earlier seasons being that bad at Hip Hop. The only Hip Hop routine I liked this season is the Zack/Jacque one.

 

Right now I'm mostly watching for Bridget and Zack. Bridget is the biggest surprise for me because I would never have guessed she would take to choreography so well. I've enjoyed all four routines she did on the show. Zack, too, is so charismatic when he dances. I thought he rocked 3 out of 4 routines (with Afro Jazz being my least favorite). He's such a great performer. Sadly, I'm guessing both won't be long for the show. Being in the bottom this early in the season doesn't bode well for either of them.

[joylove]

I, too, would be sad if/when the show is cancelled. The comparison to American Idol is very apt for me. I, too, am more disconnected to the contestants, and I agree it's because these kids have grown up watching the show, so they approach it in a more calculated way. Therefore, the novelty that made both shows so special for me during the first 5 years of their existence is gone for me.

 

However, unlike Idol, which I quit this year because it was boring the heck out of me, even when they had singers I liked, I still enjoy watching SYTYCD. I can't explain it, but for some reason, I don't need to be attached to dancers to be invested in the show like I need to be attached to at least one singer to enjoy Idol.

 

Also, while I agree that some of the dancing (particularly the contemporary) looks samey, for some reason, that doesn't always bother me, either. Beyond that, I'm impressed that they've brought in some new choreographers who have, IMO, created some entertaining routines. I looked at the ratings and, oy!, but I wonder how many people watch this show a few days after it airs. (I know I always do.) In addition, it seems like a number of people watch the YouTube videos. I'm not sure those factors would help save it, but it seems to me that networks are paying a little more attention to those things than they used to.

 

Now, on to the show.

 

My favorite routines were:

 

The Dave Scott hip hop (Tanisha and Rudy). Boy, did Tanish kill this. Misty was dead on in her critique, Tanisha was sexy without overdoing it, soft when she needed to be and hard when she needed to be. Like several of you, she initially annoyed me (I hate when people claim their specialty is one thing when they're much better in another), but she has been serving it every week this season. Best dancer of the night for me.

 

The Travis contemporary (Emilio and Bridget). I knew from the description that it would be "Addiction lite," but that didn't bother me. I thought both dancers were excellent, and while it was no Addiction (my favorite SYTYCD dance of all time), I really enjoyed this.

 

The Sonya jazz duet (Jacque and Zach). I agree with those who said these two have really good chemistry.

 

Sorry if this is un-PC, but I was rooting for Marcquet largely because I, like him, am an African-American who studies ballroom dancing. (Sorry, but there are not that many of us!) That said, he deserved to go this week. I'd like to see him on DWTS at some point, but he definitely needs LOTS more training first.

 

I'll miss Misty on the judging panel. I appreciated her way of giving positive, constructive criticism.

 

I hate that salsa on this show has to be all tricks, all the time. That takes away from the flavor of the dance for me. I'd love to see more turn patterns, styling, and footwork, and slightly slower, more sensual music.

 

 

Could not agree more. I think the dancers worry so much about getting the tricks right they don't concentrate on some of the basics, particuarly staying grounded. I'm so sick of contemporary folks looking like they're dancing on ice when doing salsa. That said, I really enjoyed Teddy in this.

 

I thought that Brooklyn and Casey did everything they were capable of with their HH.

 

 

That's exactly how I felt about their routine. Unfortunately, what they were capable of was far short of "good," and that choreo deserved better. I could tell they were trying, though. Also, based on tonight and the entire season, Brooklyn was the right choice to go.

 

This was about Dmitry, but I just wanted to point out that this the second time Jonathan Platero has been asked back to choreograph salsa and he was cut very early in his season.  To the point that most people don't even remember he was on SYTYCD.   He was elimintated in the third week of S5 I believe.  He's another one that has a lot of connections to DWTS these days and is close friends with the whole Chmerkovskiy crew (and Serge).  I'm always surprised when Jonathan gets asked back mostly because Nigel and co. didn't like him very much when he was on the show the first time.  They were basically always telling him he sucked in his own style.

 

 

LOL, yes, and is it me, or do they never mention that he's an alum! Mind you, I didn't like him, either, partly because he was obviously a contemporary/jazz dancer masquerading as a salsa dancer, and also because he dragged down his poor partner, Karla, who I thought was very underrated that season.

 

Off the top of my head, Lacey is the only non-specialist hip hop dancer I can think of who seemed to really get hip hop.

 

    

You forget Alex Freaking Wong.

 

 

I'd add S2 Allison, S3 Sabra, S4 Courtney, S5 Brandon, S7 Lauren, S8 Sasha, and S10 Jasmine to that list. After tonight, I'm tempted to add Tanisha, as well, but will reserve judgment until I see what else she does in hip hop.

 

Lastly, a few months ago my boss was questioning her judgment as a parent for driving her daughter three hours so she could attend a Wildabeast master classs. I can't wait to tell her it was money (and time) well spent!

[ToxicUnicorn]

Goodbye, Marquette.  Sad because he was so attractive and elegant.  But he really did not bring the performance in his routines like the other guys are doing.

Agreed.  WIth both Marcquet and Serge in the bottom 3, they definitely saved the better dancer, and Zack is better than both of them.  I'm a little surprised Teddy wasn't in the bottom this week.  He hasn't impressed me since the Night Shift hip hop the first competition week.  I wouldn't mind losing both Serge and Teddy next week.  Whenever I see him standing next to Cat at the end of a dance, it is clear that Serge has been dancing his heart out, but he has been a complete non-entity for me outside of his style.

 

As much as I dismissed Brooklyn after the Meet the Top 20 show, I now am sorry that she did not outlast Jacque and Emily.  Yes, I know Brooklyn wasn't very strong, but I noticed her and had started to get interested in her progress.  Jacque has no charisma at all, for me.  I don't remember a thing about her or her dancing.  And Emily always seems kind of ungainly.  Plus, not only do I agree with the opinion upthread that Emily and Teddy delivered the worst salsa of the series, I'll go ahead and say it was the least pleasant ballroom I've ever seen on this show.  (In case anyone's interested, the title previously belonged to Hok and Jaime's samba which ... ok, now I need a stiff drink.)

 

So, I hope Jacque and Emily go next week.  I'm still willing to cut Jessica some slack, and Valerie is sort of an enjoyable train wreck.  Carly, Bridget and Tanisha have all delivered strong performances.  I'll join the crowd who were won over by Tanisha this week.  She had a real moment.  Good for her.

 

As for the show itself, it was a real clunker.  I can't remember an episode of SYTYCD that I've enjoyed less, and that includes some truly ridiculously padded results shows.  The Bollywood was awful, the only thing I remember from Bridget and Emilio's contemporary is Bridget's ending pose (although I didn't hate it), I found Jessica's foxtrot dress completely inappropriate and couldn't find anything to like about the choreography (sorry, Dmitri), Carly was good in the Mandy Moore contemporary but I didn't get anything from Serge, I don't remember Jacque and Zack's jazz, and Brooklyn and Casey's hip hop was sort of odd looking.  Which makes Tanisha and Rudy's Dave Scott hip hop the winner of the night.

 

Except for the small group numbers.  I liked the Broken People choreography.  For all of the griping about having the same old choreographers, Sonya has not been boring me this season.  She seems to be much fresher and I haven't seen too many flexed bicycle peddling, so I kind of like her.  And Travis' number was a lot of fun (not coincidentally because it was completely different from what we usually get from him).  I think it's great that we're getting small group routines.  They might become the best part of the season.

 

As it stands, Ricky is still my favorite.  I hope Valerie goes before the Top 10 so we have lots of chances to see him with someone else.  I'm looking forward to two weeks from now, after four more have gone.

Edited July 28, 2014 by ToxicUnicorn

[Zuleikha]

Like several of you, she initially annoyed me (I hate when people claim their specialty is one thing when they're much better in another), but she has been serving it every week this season.

 

I've seen this sentiment multiple times in regards to Tanisha, and it's a little bizarre to me. Whether Tanisha is better at ballroom or contemporary/jazz/acro is subjective, but what's not is whether or not she has a lengthy history of dancing ballroom. She does. She's one of Mark Ballas's students and danced with him at least once (I think twice) in pro exhibitions on Dancing with the Stars. She also competed at one point in Dancesport, although it seems like she switched away from competition when she got to her older teens (my impression from Google is that she stopped competing when Mark Ballas started mentoring her and bringing her into the pro performance world, but that could be totally wrong). Specialty, to me, seems like it should refer to the form that a person has pursued primarily. In Tanisha's case, although she's heavily and openly cross trained, Latin ballroom does seem to be what she's done the most. 

 

If anyone's miscategorized this season, it's Teddy, who seems to primarily specialize in tap with hip-hop a relatively recent addition to his repertoire. His dance reel is primarily Broadway and tap, with a smidge of hip hop. But so many of the dancers are cross-trained at this point, which is perhaps contributing to a bit of a jack-of-all-trades/master-of-none vibe to the show.

[Giggly]

 

There was an interesting comparison to Idol upthread and whether this show had run its course.  I love it, but I think it needs a break.  Like Idol, I think it's pulling too many contestants (or casting too many auditioners) who grew up watching and have the ambition to be on the show, not necessarily an ambition to be the thing the show celebrates.  That might sound weird, it's probably not based in fact, and it might just be that they make me feel old at 34, but to me they've lost something because for a bunch of these kids it's like just getting on the reality show was the plan.

 

I truly believe that this is one of the biggest problems of the show.  The contestants don't necessarily train to be dancers, they train to be on So You Think You Can Dance.  I started watching in Season 2 and very few of those dancers were as seriously cross trained as the dancers in the past few seasons seem to have been.   If you work hard to be passable at everything, you're never truly going to be good or great at one thing and all these kids seem to be watered down versions of one of the previous seasons' greats.  I would rather watch Kent Boyd destroy a cha cha with Anya than most of what has been shown this season. 

 

The second biggest issue is making the choreographers responsible for making the dancers look good and ultimately the voting results.  Choreography has become about generating votes and not necessarily challenging the dancers with real choreography that takes the dancer out of their comfort zones. 

 

Seeing Alex Wong kill hip hop.  Watching Allison and Ivan redeem themselves with their Argentine Tango.   Katee and Joshua Bollywood.  Benji and Donyelle hip hop.  Those are the moments that have been missing for a while.

 

Or maybe nothing about the show has really changed and all us long time viewers are suffering from nostalgia.  Much like my mother believes life was better in the 50's (pretty sure it wasn't), we are all thinking things were better in Season 2 or 3 or 4 or 5.  Most of us "lifers" thought the end was near in Season 4 with Twitch and definitely thought Molly was the first sign of the apocalypse (and btw - no matter how horrible Teddy and Emily were - they can not even compete for worst salsa against Molly and Nathan!) and bemoaned the lack of anything redeeming in Season XXX (take your pick).

[Absurdist1968]

I truly believe that this is one of the biggest problems of the show.  The contestants don't necessarily train to be dancers, they train to be on So You Think You Can Dance.  I started watching in Season 2 and very few of those dancers were as seriously cross trained as the dancers in the past few seasons seem to have been.   If you work hard to be passable at everything, you're never truly going to be good or great at one thing and all these kids seem to be watered down versions of one of the previous seasons' greats.  I would rather watch Kent Boyd destroy a cha cha with Anya than most of what has been shown this season.

For a hot minute, I would like to talk about the real dance world (the one distinct from the artificial reality that is this show).

 

Regarding the notion that being "passable at everything" can detract from being good at one thing, I'll point to a dance company whose imprimatur Nigel has been lusting for since Desmond Richardson and Dwight Rhoden choreographed for the show aeons ago:  The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.  Every dancer in that company must be fluent in all styles but ballroom and tap (and many of the dancers that have gone through the company have tap fluency despite that).  They've got to be able to dance Graham and Horton technique modern (contemporary) to dance most of the repertory.  They've got to have mastery of Dunham technique Afro-Carribean.  They've got to know Luigi technique jazz, as well as hip-hop (there are at least two ballets in the Ailey repertory that specifically call for modern and hip-hop; Dwana Smallwood said of one of them that she basically had to recall all the time she spent street dancing as a kid and throw out all the classical training she'd gotten since for one such piece).  All of that on top of ballet technique, because Alvin Ailey did choreograph several ballets en pointe for other companies that were subsequently taken into the Ailey repertory (not to mention pieces like Night Creature that were choreographed directly onto the Ailey company).

 

It's simply realistic for a concert dancer to be versed in all styles and techniques of concert dance as a matter of employability.  Desmond Richardson left Ailey, and before he and Dwight Rhoden formed Complexions, Richardson danced with American Ballet Theater and Frankfurt Ballet (among other companies) and danced on Broadway for the likes of Twyla Tharp and Anne Reinking (including some serious tap).  Dancers who intend to work as dancers need to be able to do everything (including tap, should they ever get a call for a national tour of 42nd Street).

 

With the influx of eastern European dancers into international Dancesport, we've also been seeing a fair number of retired ballerinas coming into Latin ballroom, and they actually have a leg up (if you'll pardon the phrase) coming into Dancesport from the standpoint of technique.

 

But again, whoever upthread suggested that perhaps there are people who are training to be on this show as opposed to pursuing actual careers in dance, yeah, there's probably something to that.  Given the number of alumni of the show who will toil in relative obscurity as dancers in specialty tours, as chorus performers in Equity theater, or as background dancers for pop stars, appearing on a reality competition show is perhaps warped a little bit out of perspective.

Edited July 28, 2014 by Absurdist1968

[spanana]

 

LOL, yes, and is it me, or do they never mention that he's an alum! Mind you, I didn't like him, either, partly because he was obviously a contemporary/jazz dancer masquerading as a salsa dancer, and also because he dragged down his poor partner, Karla, who I thought was very underrated that season.

 

They probably don't mention it because he went out so early and since they generally were crappy to him.  Mind you he did drag down Karla that season so I agree with that, but I'm not sure he was a contemporary/jazz dancer masquerading as a salsa dancer.  My memory is probably off, but I think his story was that he didn't start dancing until super late so he was wasn't very experienced and good in that regard.  My issue with that though was how do you cast somebody and give them a place in the Top 20 and then complain about their skills in their own speciality.  You saw them dance their specialty in the first place, so if they weren't good enough why did you let them through?

 

But either way Jonathan has actually done pretty well for himself and makes a living as a working dancer.  I suspect he's a far better dancer than he was then.   He pops up on DWTS occasionally and tours with a lot of the pros from that show doing Ballroom with a Twist.  I think he's performed with JLo and others.  Plus he just got married to one of the former DWTS troupe dancers and their wedding is supposed to be on one of those David Tutera shows soon.  I believe Serge might have been in the wedding party along with other DWTS/SYTYCD people.

 

Probably more than anyone wanted to know about Jonathan.

Edited July 28, 2014 by spanana

[chocolatine]

Plus he just got married to one of the former DWTS troupe dancers and their wedding is supposed to be on one of those David Tutera shows soon.

 

 

I believe that "one of the former DWTS troupe dancers" is Oksana. :)

[luvthepros]

I believe that "one of the former DWTS troupe dancers" is Oksana. :)

Just saw some photos of the two of them on Google images. I can only assume they are married.

[chocolatine]

Just saw some photos of the two of them on Google images. I can only assume they are married.

 

 

I YouTubed them to see if there are any videos of them dancing salsa with each other - I wanted to see if they dance better than they choreograph. I didn't find any salsa videos, but did find a video of Jonathan proposing to Oksana (and her accepting).

[inmyeyes]

Thanks for the info on The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Absurdist1968! I didn't know that they required such versatility from their dancers.

 

That said, I do think that they are an anomaly rather than the norm. Most industry jobs, be it Broadway, dance companies, commercial work like music videos or tours, almost always require a specific skillset and people who specialise in one genre will have a leg up. And by specialise, I mean having 90% of your dance training in one genre. Most dancers, depending on what their dream job is, specialise in whatever will lead them to achieving that dream. Time for dance training is finite, and the more you practise something, the more likely you'll be great at it. Not saying it's not possible to be versatile, but as someone mentioned upthread, it would likely lead to the jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none syndrome. I know some dancers dabble in other genres, but my guess it's more for benefits like increasing body awareness, expanding movement vocabulary, which are things they can apply in their home genre.

 

Within the context of the show, I think most of the winners showed that (a) they were damn damn good in their own style; and (b) competent enough in other styles. What we're missing right now... is both of those, haha. IMO, so far, no one has been mind-blowing in their own style and they've only been passable in other styles. There hasn't been any real surprises like Alex Wong killing hip-hop, which, I think, is why we're feeling some ennui. Maybe the All-Stars will inject some life.

 

 

If anyone's miscategorized this season, it's Teddy, who seems to primarily specialize in tap with hip-hop a relatively recent addition to his repertoire. His dance reel is primarily Broadway and tap, with a smidge of hip hop. But so many of the dancers are cross-trained at this point, which is perhaps contributing to a bit of a jack-of-all-trades/master-of-none vibe to the show.

 

I remember watching an interview where Teddy said that the reason he categorised himself as hip-hop was because when he auditioned, he had been been training specifically in hip-hop for the 8 preceding months, and he was in a hip-hop frame of mind. It might have also been a strategic decision, to downplay the rest of his dance training?

[Zuleikha]

There hasn't been any real surprises like Alex Wong killing hip-hop, which, I think, is why we're feeling some ennui.

 

That's partially choreography and expectations, though. Tanisha killed her hip hop, and it is a surprise to me that she did that well. Emilio's slaying of his Travis piece was a surprise. Carly surprised me with her hip hop. But none of the choreographies had the wow factor that made a moment out of it, the way Alex's Outta Your Mind piece did. NappyTabs paced that choreography brilliantly because it started relatively simple with more story, static poses and then kicked it up to 11. By comparison, the choreographies I mentioned this season stayed at one level pretty much the whole way through. 

 

On top of that, is that we've seen dancers excel out of genre already, so the judges don't seem to be setting the stage for moments well either. When Dominic had his contemporary with Sabra, the dance was strong, but what really sealed things for them as a couple was watching Dominic lay himself bare before Mia's judgement. Even though, by that point, we hadn't really seen his obnoxious D-Trix side to know what Mia was talking about, we could still see that raw vulnerability. 

 

By comparison, with Emilio/Bridget, the judges seemed to spend as much time talking about Travis's brilliance as a choreographer as saying anything about the dancing. All Nigel said to Emilio was "wow, you pointed your toes." That should have been a moment about how wonderfully Emilio danced the piece, and instead it was wasted. 

[inmyeyes]

That's partially choreography and expectations, though. Tanisha killed her hip hop, and it is a surprise to me that she did that well. Emilio's slaying of his Travis piece was a surprise. Carly surprised me with her hip hop. But none of the choreographies had the wow factor that made a moment out of it, the way Alex's Outta Your Mind piece did. NappyTabs paced that choreography brilliantly because it started relatively simple with more story, static poses and then kicked it up to 11. By comparison, the choreographies I mentioned this season stayed at one level pretty much the whole way through. 

 

On top of that, is that we've seen dancers excel out of genre already, so the judges don't seem to be setting the stage for moments well either. When Dominic had his contemporary with Sabra, the dance was strong, but what really sealed things for them as a couple was watching Dominic lay himself bare before Mia's judgement. Even though, by that point, we hadn't really seen his obnoxious D-Trix side to know what Mia was talking about, we could still see that raw vulnerability. 

 

By comparison, with Emilio/Bridget, the judges seemed to spend as much time talking about Travis's brilliance as a choreographer as saying anything about the dancing. All Nigel said to Emilio was "wow, you pointed your toes." That should have been a moment about how wonderfully Emilio danced the piece, and instead it was wasted. 

 

Agreed to all the above. Alex's hip-hop routine could've easily gone the other way, at least in terms of choreography. They could've treated him with kid gloves and given him hip-hop lite, but Nappytabs gave him the content AND he nailed it. I've watched that routine so many times, trying to pick it apart and nitpick Alex's execution, but there's nothing to fault. In contrast, while I do think Tanisha and Carly did pretty well in their hip-hop routines, if I really tear it apart, I can find flaws. But yes, I do agree that the hip-hop choreography so far has lacked that dynamic build-up... it can be tough to achieve that in a 1:30min routine.

 

I hatehatehate the "wow, you pointed your toes"-compliment, cos it's so lowest denominator. I wish they'd stop saying it, but I know they won't.

 

Even though we have seen dancers do well out of genre in past seasons, I think what is lacking is this season is that X-factor, charisma, stage presence, whatever-you-wanna-call-it combined with the technical talent. Tanisha, I think, has displayed some of it... but we haven't really seen any memorable must-be-reprised-in-the-finale moments yet.

 

What I do find interesting: every season, there's a dancer who gets by on charisma/personality and it's almost always a hip-hop dancer. This time, we have Rudy.... and if we still had DFYL-solos, I don't think he'd make it against the other guys who are still in the competition. 

[Percysowner]

 

So I think people were enjoying Marcquet until last week when they went on and on.  He didn't pull the exciting/memorable choreography but people were enjoying him.  I know I even enjoyed the foxtrot.  But when they want you gone, it's over.  It may take a while but they'll get you.  For instance, Teddy and Casey are the B3 culprits for next week.  Let's see if it works.

 

I voted for Marquette every week, because I did like him. I also see that he didn't stand out as being superb, so I'm not shocked that he went home. Now Stanley was totally hosed by the choreography on the telephone number. I felt for him.

 

I will note that Evan stuck around far, far longer than the judges wanted him to. So I guess he's the exception that proves the rule if they want you gone, your gone.

[spanana]

Just saw some photos of the two of them on Google images. I can only assume they are married.

 

Yes, I know Oksana.  Well, not know personally.  But I watched her dance on DWTS for however many seasons she was on.  I just didn't know if people on a SYTYCD thread would be familiar with her since she's not an alum and she was never really heavily featured on DWTS either.  It wasn't meant to be a slight at Oksana.   Also yes, I believe he proposed to her on stage after one of the Ballroom with a Twist shows.

Edited July 29, 2014 by spanana

[rereader2]

I'd say the exception to the rule that professional dance companies hire specialists (true) would be Broadway--if a show choreographer decides they need a big tap number and a dream ballet, they will only hire dancers who can do both tap and ballet. BUT....a show is not a company.

[Vandy10]

I just figured out who Teddy in guyliner reminds me of--Hook from OUaT. No wonder I'm enjoying him!

[joylove]

I've seen this sentiment multiple times in regards to Tanisha, and it's a little bizarre to me. Whether Tanisha is better at ballroom or contemporary/jazz/acro is subjective, but what's not is whether or not she has a lengthy history of dancing ballroom. She does. She's one of Mark Ballas's students and danced with him at least once (I think twice) in pro exhibitions on Dancing with the Stars. She also competed at one point in Dancesport, although it seems like she switched away from competition when she got to her older teens (my impression from Google is that she stopped competing when Mark Ballas started mentoring her and bringing her into the pro performance world, but that could be totally wrong). Specialty, to me, seems like it should refer to the form that a person has pursued primarily. In Tanisha's case, although she's heavily and openly cross trained, Latin ballroom does seem to be what she's done the most.

 

Thanks for correcting me on that. I guess I just don't like the way she dances Latin ballroom. She takes such long steps in cha-cha, she looks like so many of the contemporary women on this show when they're doing Latin ballroom routines. Or maybe I don't like the way Mark Ballas teaches, lol, because I remember your saying Lindsay was one of his students, and I didn't like the way she danced Latin ballroom, either. (And I still don't. I thought she was awful during the season she was a DWTS pro.) I've seen women their age (and younger) look way more polished, IMO.

 

They probably don't mention it because he went out so early and since they generally were crappy to him.  Mind you he did drag down Karla that season so I agree with that, but I'm not sure he was a contemporary/jazz dancer masquerading as a salsa dancer.  My memory is probably off, but I think his story was that he didn't start dancing until super late so he was wasn't very experienced and good in that regard.  My issue with that though was how do you cast somebody and give them a place in the Top 20 and then complain about their skills in their own speciality.  You saw them dance their specialty in the first place, so if they weren't good enough why did you let them through?

 

Thanks for correcting me. My memory may be fuzzy, too, but I thought I remembered him looking very strong in a jazz or contemporary piece, but crappy in the Latin dance they did. That's why assumed his specialty was jazz/contemporary.

[Zuleikha]

Or maybe I don't like the way Mark Ballas teaches, lol, because I remember your saying Lindsay was one of his students, and I didn't like the way she danced Latin ballroom, either.

 

Yes, she was. Not sure about Witney, though. I'll have to rewatch Tanisha's cha cha to remind myself what I thought of it--I remember I liked Malene and thought Brooklyn seemed not good enough to be picked over Jaja (why, no, I'm not still bitter or anything over that) but I don't have a strong memory of Tanisha's actual Latin other than liking her audition. 

 

My memory may be fuzzy, too, but I thought I remembered him looking very strong in a jazz or contemporary piece, but crappy in the Latin dance they did.

 

To be fair to Jonathan there, he and Karla had to cha cha to Poker Face. It didn't exactly set the mood for Latin! I rewatched it just now, and I think he's pretty good. His hips are a little stiffer than I'd expect for a salsa specialist, but he looked like a strong, confident lead. I forgot how good Karla was---eergh, that makes me mad all over again the she was let go so early. I just watched a recent video of Jonathan doing bachata, and his hips are standard male Latin dancer slinky now. It's nice to see that he's done well for himself. Too bad he didn't have dancers capable of executing his and Oksana's choreography. I will always wonder what Teddy would have looked like if he'd gotten to perform with Oksana because Teddy seemed fairly strong.

[realdancemom]

When Tanisha was 16, she was Mark's partner in this routine.  She has also appeared with the Vibe dancers in other routines in DWTS.

 

 

I still wouldn't say that she's trained in ballroom more than contemporary/jazz.  She's done the latter a lot longer and didn't stop training once she started ballroom training.  However, she's in the same position as other competition studio dancers.  They usually learn/compete in different styles: contemporary, jazz, hip-hop, Broadway, etc.  So when one of these dancers audition for SYTYCD, they choose one of these styles.  The Vibe teaches ballroom in addition to the usual studio styles.  I think I read on here that Nick's/Rudy's studio does the same thing.  The Vibe dancers usually choose ballroom since there are a lot more dancers that choose contemporary or jazz as their specialty.  I think that's why Mariah last season chose krump even though she's a competition dancer.  At least, Tanisha was honest in her audition and made it very clear that she's cross-trained.  So we never got the "You're so good at jazz/contemporary for a ballroom dancer".  Unfortunately for Marcquet, I think Nigel thought he had a lot of jazz/contemporary training because he went to the same studio.  However, a dancer doesn't have to dance in all the styles that a studio offers.  I think he did take some jazz/contemporary but he also started late.

 

Serge was a strictly ballroom dancer.  However, he has cross-trained in the last three years. 

 

As for Oksana, the one thing that I remembered in DWTS is her very long hair.  One time, she did a duet with Mark and he was wrapped around her hair including his face.  It was just a funny sight.  Also, I remember thinking that she wasn't dancing particularly well in certain dances. 

Edited July 30, 2014 by realdancemom

[Absurdist1968]

Thanks for the info on The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Absurdist1968! I didn't know that they required such versatility from their dancers.

 

That said, I do think that they are an anomaly rather than the norm. Most industry jobs, be it Broadway, dance companies, commercial work like music videos or tours, almost always require a specific skillset and people who specialise in one genre will have a leg up. And by specialise, I mean having 90% of your dance training in one genre. Most dancers, depending on what their dream job is, specialise in whatever will lead them to achieving that dream. Time for dance training is finite, and the more you practise something, the more likely you'll be great at it. Not saying it's not possible to be versatile, but as someone mentioned upthread, it would likely lead to the jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none syndrome. I know some dancers dabble in other genres, but my guess it's more for benefits like increasing body awareness, expanding movement vocabulary, which are things they can apply in their home genre.

 

Part of the expected versatility at Ailey is because they're a repertory company that engages far more choreographers than just Alvin Ailey, where, for example, the David Parsons company only does David Parsons work (some of which has been taken into the Ailey repertory after Robert Battle, a former Parsons dancer, became Ailey's Artistic Director), the Paul Taylor company does only Paul Taylor work, Jones/Zane only does Bill T. Jones work, and so forth.  The thing is, dancers will move from company to company over the courses of their respective careers, and not always in the same styles/disciplines.

 

I mentioned "a national tour of 42nd Street" a bit deliberately, because it's something I've seen a dancer deal with firsthand.  I had a cheerleader friend through junior high, high school and college that was an All-American gymnast, and once she moved into theater (and more than a couple of pilot seasons) she turned choreographer as well.  After high school, she went back to her straight ballet training, getting a job dancing in one of those historically-themed, touristy-funded musicals.  As a theater/dance major, though, she was mostly doing jazz/modern/character dance in musical theater and modern as a choreographer.  Once she finished college, she went to NYC and auditions for CATS (the gymnastics training meant that she got a lot farther in the audition than some of the other dancers she traveled with), though she didn't end up getting that job because dancing semi-professionally in The Hinterlands meant that her technique wasn't as sharp as full-time dancers in The City.  Through perseverance, she did end up becoming a swing for the Broadway revival of Candide, following that with the first of two European tours of My Fair Lady, where she sustained a back injury.  While she was home recuperating, she got a call from a friend who knew that a national tour of 42nd Street was going out and offered her a spot, but my friend didn't have any tap.  By God, though, injured back be damned, she started tap classes.  As it happened, she ended up going back to the next tour of My Fair Lady (with a different Higgins).  After all of Europe, for a time she accepted a role as choreographer for Anti-Gravity, a specialty troupe of gymnasts/acrobats-turned dancers while dancing in off-season pick-up dance companies with dancers from other companies who were filling time while the major companies were on summer hiatus (yes, many companies not called Alvin Ailey go two to four months every year with no work, where Ailey has a one-month home season and ten months touring internationally).

 

A basic skill set is nice, yes, but if a dancer is looking for actual work, he does well to train in whatever style is hiring when he's looking, as you suggest, and a dancer with a broader (translate: less wilfully limited) skillset is more likely to find Actors' Equity/AGMA work (which encompasses collectively-bargained Broadway and company dancing).  Further, factors like wanting to broaden one's horizions (Alex Wong?), loss of job (for example, in the all-too-frequent dissolution of a company) or simple boredom can lead dancers (or even choreographers) to move between companies or even genres (see, for example, the now-dissolved Trey McIntyre Project; McIntyre worked primarily in modern/contemporary ballet both dancing and choreographing, but the last piece he created for his company was a Freddie Mercury-themed tap piece, recalling his earliest dance training, that his company of ballet/modern dancers learned and toured for an entire season).  The learning curve between genres may be different for different dancers trained in different genres, which is perhaps the most salient point with SYTYCD.  Asking a dancer to achieve a particular level of mastery in an unfamiliar style -- tap, most notably -- in, say, three days; yeah, that's problematic, which is not to suggest that given adequate time, someone trained in ballet can't learn tap well enough to get paid for it, because it has happened.

 

Perhaps there's a difference between being professional dancers and reality show dancers, then, but it doesn't seem unreasonable to ask "dancers" in general to be able to work functionally in any style that a job requires.  Dancers like Renee Richardson or Elie Chaib, who dance the vast majority of their careers with a single company/choreographer are the exceptions more and more often.  Maybe it's a little easier for someone like Megan Williams to move from dancing for Ohad Naharin to dancing for Mark Morris because they're both modern choreographers, but ... wait, I have to take that back.  Megan never had to dance on pointe for Ohad Naharin, but she would (alongside several men on pointe) in Mark Morris's The Hard Nut at Christmas.

 

One sticking point I have with Nigel in particular is the introduction of exclusionary narrative.  The idea that a hip-hop dancer is of necessity untrained in any other style of dance is something that he loves to play up; that a ballet dancer is completely out of his/her element doing anything else is another specious point he likes to make.  The reality, at least from where I see it, is that I never took any kind of jazz dance class where there weren't hip-hop dancers enrolled, I never took a Graham-technique modern class where I wasn't on the front row with six girls who'd been in ballet slippers since they were four and on pointe since they were twelve.  BFA degrees in dance require at least a little bit of cross-training, even if not in street/vernacular dance.  But the idea that, on a reality show where building narrative is paramount, it's supposed to seem like a big deal that someone not trained in hip-hop could pick it up quickly (though, to be fair, some of the stuff the show tries to pass off as hip-hop dancing is significantly watered down by the street standard) when it isn't necessarily.  My level of expectation may be significantly different, though.

Edited July 30, 2014 by Absurdist1968

[shortpplfedup]

I was in a small local non-professional company, then an even smaller one toward the end of my dance career. I had to be at least conversant in ballet, Graham modern, jazz (classical, modern and funk), basic tap, various styles of character dance, several types of club dance (dancehall, hip hop, soca) as well as multiple styles of folk dance, including myriad Caribbean, Polish, Hungarian, Russian and Indian styles. For a small local non-professional company. Needs must in the dance world.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I was out of town so I'm finally catching up on the episodes from the last two weeks. As a result, I think that this week's routines seem a lot better because I just watched S11.E08 which was a total snoozefest.

 

I wanted to bust out my metronome to confirm, but I'm 99% sure they sped up the theme song for the opening credits and the dancer intros. I'd rather they limit Nigel's babbling to ten seconds per routine.

 

I'm totally fine with two couples being eliminated next week. Honestly, the first month of the elimination shows, I usually tell Mr. EB that we need to cut a bunch of dead weight and then I complain that they should cut a good 6 or 8 people in one fell swoop.

 

I'm not fond of most of the lame intro segments but I always love seeing videos of the dancers' first performances (even if I think some of them are fudging and using their first competition solo in place of their very first ever performance).

 

I like Bollywood as a genre but I think that Nigel made the mistake of seeing that Katee and Joshua did an amazing job and now refuses to give up hope that it will happen again. I have such mixed feelings about Valerie. I love that she really exudes joy when she dances. Her face lights up and you can see how much she loves dancing. As much as I love good technique, a lot of the technical dancers who have been on this show do not have that ability. They either have exaggerated facial expressions or they seem like robots. In comparison, Valerie's obvious love of dance is so refreshing to see. But I don't think that sheer enthusiasm and love of dance make up for a lack of technique (although, what do I know since Fik Shun won last year?). She wasn't finishing her moves and her arms were sloppy. Ricky seemed so fast, precise, and light compared to Valerie.

 

I don't like Travis Wall's paint by numbers overrated choreography and this was no exception. Big set piece = Emmy bait (see also: Heidi and Travis bench dance, Twitch and Kherington bed dance, Katee and Twitch door dance, Neil and Sabra table dance). I hate when the judges praise dancers for things they should already be doing. Emilio pointed his toes? AMAZING. I thought it was more in line for Misty to point out that he did a penché.

 

I didn't understand the point of Tanisha's giant underwear. It's not like she was wearing a skirt and there was a chance that we would see her hoo ha. So was she wearing that gigantic underwear to show everyone that she wasn't going commando? A thong or g-string would have been way less obvious.

 

Bless Dmitry for coming back to this show even though Nigel doesn't appreciate him at all. And high five for classing it up with some Nina Simone. I liked the choreography but I felt like I would have enjoyed this routine much more if someone else had performed it. But man was it obvious that they were throwing Marcquet under the bus.

 

Between Serge's mini Debbie Gibson ponytail and Mandy Moore moonwalking, I would have been happy to watch their rehearsal footage instead of listening to Nigel blather on. Mandy Moore strikes me as a dancer's choreographer - she has some transitions that I can tell must feel so good to do because they're so organic but still different. I felt bad for poor Serge having to dance that sweater. He must have been sweating up a storm. I was kind of cracking up that everyone was so impressed with the hinge that Carly did at the end because there was a girl on my high school dance team who always put one of those into her routines for the spring concert, but she did them without a guy's foot to catch her at the end so she went all the way back until she was lying on the ground. We all knew it was cool but like so many other things in life, once you see it several times and come to expect it on a regular basis, it isn't quite as impressive anymore. Mandy gets extra points for using early Jewel (she even used the album version of the song that was not released as a single!).

 

During Emily and Teddy's salsa, I found myself wishing I could see Jannette from S5 do this routine. I agree with Misty and Nigel that dancing after an injury and recovering from a mistake is what separates the professionals from the amateurs. I'm not saying that they should risk injury, but at the same time injuries are part of being a dancer. You have to know your body and how far you can push it, but going on when you don't feel 100% is part of the job, as is not panicking when you make a mistake. Every dancer I know has made mistakes but pros don't let it show. The best dancers make you think that was exactly what they meant to do! I felt like the routine was lagging but that they were barely keeping up (and I suspect a lot of that was Emily because my eye was drawn to her skirt). Heh, but I totally loved her first performance. Cutting in front of the other girls and then marching off in the opposite direction? Sassy!

 

Jacque either has a massive underbite or a weird chin, but whenever she talks I find myself trying to figure out which one it is. Despite Sonya's explanation that this dance was about former lovers who spot each other and try to rekindle the flame, it looked like a hooker and a john. I mean, seriously, between Jacque throwing off her fur stole, the thigh high stockings, and the rest of the costume, how was I not supposed to think that? Then her first interaction with Zach was to grind against him. I didn't like the original Back to Black and I didn't like the Beyoncé cover any more. Once again, STFU, Nigel. If you can't say what company Sonya is going to work, then DON'T MENTION IT. I agreed with Misty about Jacque's feet. I, too, expected Jacque to have perfectly pointed toes and instead I found her feet to be kind of lazy.

 

Casey and Brooklyn's hip hop was a little too high school cheerleaders at a pep rally. I didn't love the costumes either but Nigel again needs to STFU. The dancers didn't choose them so he's just insulting his own costuming department. With her hair pulled back, Brooklyn reminded me of Amy Acker.

 

A Travis Wall routine that I didn't hate? That I liked? Are cows oinking and pigs mooing? My whole world is topsy turvy! Travis, please take note that you can choreograph to an upbeat top 40 song and the world won't end. You don't have to keep doing slow angsty flailing routines to emo songs! I have been neutral on Ricky, but I loved how menacing and creepy he was in this routine.

 

I hate how the judges are totally pandering to the crowd. They tell the audience to go ahead and boo or to stop booing them before the crowd has even made a sound.

 

Even though I am definitely not part of Pretty Little Liars' target demographics, I still watch it so I can say that Lucy Hale is not my favorite actress on the show. I love that Cat reminded everyone that Lucy was one of the winners on American Juniors (over TEN years ago!). That song was doing her no favors. She was suffering from Samantha Barks syndrome where she could not hit the lower notes, but unlike Sam Barks, Lucy Hale didn't come up with any lame tricks to cover up the lack of lower range.