S17.E10: Head 2 Head

[jewel21]

The top six take the stage once again to impress the judges and voting audience, dancing three performances each; the dreaded eliminations return.

Airdate: 07/27/2022

[displayname]

I need Alexis to win.

[anniebird]

Praise the lord - Beau is finally gone. I am not a dancer nor do I know anything about technique but he was so obviously inferior to ALL the rest of them (Top 20? Top 100?) I couldn't believe they kept pushing him through. It took the audience to finally get rid of him.

[rlc]

Essence has zero business being in the top 3 if they still want to pretend that this is a dance competition. SHE HAS NO TECHNIQUE. It’s not even a question of bad feet- she has no clue what to do with her feet. I don’t think I’ve seen her point her feet. Ridiculous. Does she even have a double turn? You can’t even compete at the junior level without triples and second turns. 

[rlc]

Justice for Ralyn! 
 

I don’t want to sound like a bitter Betty- I love hip hop and I’m not trying to disrespect hip hop. Heck, my kid is a dancer, and she does competitive dance and she’s on a commercial hip hop troupe. She loves hip hop and I love watching it, but it does not require the same constant work and commitment as other styles.

[bourbon]

I really hate the head to head format. That said, I'm not mad at the results.

Beau is OK in his style, but his weaknesses were really laid bare up against Carter and Keaton. I'm all for body diversity, but he just didn't seem physically capable of doing what the other boys were doing. I don't know if anyone saw the Lizzo reality dance show, but those girls were big and she was asking everything of them that she would ask a smaller dancer -- and they were delivering. If Beau's going to be Top 6, he needs to be pirouetting and jumping like the other two. 

I get that Essence doesn't have the technique that Raylyn does, but I'm OK with that. I wanna see dancers who are good in their style and can more or less keep up in other styles. If it were all about technique, we'd almost never see a hip hop dancer in the top 5, and that would be a loss. 

[Quickbeam]

I needed Beau gone. I found his lack of completion of movement really obvious. I felt he should not have made it this far. I’m ok with the top three. 

[CoyoteBlue]

1 hour ago, bourbon said:

I really hate the head to head format.

The minute Beau realized he was up against Keaton, the look on his face said he knew his time was up. 

1 hour ago, bourbon said:

Beau is OK in his style

Beau makes kids in an average high school musical look good. Even running it at 1.5x couldn't give his solo energy and my fat middle-aged ass can jump higher than he can. He's barely trying.

Anyone know what the tapes on Keaton's shoulders are for? This is the second week I noticed them

[Electruck]

1 hour ago, CoyoteBlue said:

Anyone know what the tapes on Keaton's shoulders are for? This is the second week I noticed them

Kinesiology tape. “Kinesiology tape is a common treatment used in physical therapy. It can be used to help decrease pain, support your joints, manage lymphedema and facilitate normal muscle contractions. “

[vibeology]

Beau was given another Broadway number? Again? And he was the weakest dancer in the trio. It's his style! Whatever. He's gone. All is good.

I loved the Hip Hop number and the slinky jazz number. And I'm pleased with the final three. Ralyn is probably more versatile that Essence but that was the only match up where I would have been fine either way. Essence does not have jazz/contemporary technique really at all but she has other skills that Ralyn lacks. Plus, Ralyn wore that hideous leotard for her solo. I spent that solo just trying to figure out why and tuned out the dancing. It shouldn't matter but it does. Dance is a visual medium, after all.

Cat can claim they "randomly" selected those cards but somehow the childhood friends ended up going head to head and Beau ended up against the only person who could clearly beat him so I'm pretty sure the producers handed them those cards in a very intentional way.

Edited July 28, 2022 by vibeology

[sharifa70]

Yeah, I’m glad Beau is finally gone but he never should have been there in the first place. For all Jojo’s blathering about breaking boundaries, he wasn’t the first anyone on the show. In order to fully get me, he would have had to be excellent in his own style, and though he seems nice enough and he has a lot of heart, he just…isn’t.

Essence doesn’t have the best contemporary technique but she’s no slouch either, and (most importantly), she’s good in her own style. She’s no Comfort (no one is; Comfort is a goddess), but she's not competing against Comfort. I’m glad she made it through, though I would have been happy with Ralyn as well.

I’m happy with Alexis and Keaton as the other finalists. 

Is it just me, or are ballroom solos just really, really weird-looking? The arms kill me!

[displayname]

Essence is a better performer than Ralyn for sure, so that's one up she has on her, and she's of course the better hip hop dancer. That being said, I'm not sure she's an incredible hip hop dancer herself. Which style does she belong to or use the most?

Edited July 28, 2022 by displayname

[peachmangosteen]

I really hope Alexis wins because the other 2 don't do much for me. I would have rather seen an Alexis, Carter, Ralyn F3. Essence isn't even that good at hip hop lol. Keaton is vastly overrated to me.

[DEL901]

For all Beau’s talk about being around until the end, he seemed genuinely happy for Keaton…and totally unsurprised.  I would guess he knew he overstayed his welcome and was relieved to be voted out, being smart enough to be aware of the growing backlash.  

[jackjill89]

There is no way those were random pairings. They wouldn't have risked having an Alexis/Keaton match up. 

I'm so glad Beau is gone. He seems like a really great person, but he's not the level of everyone else. His stature reminded me of Jackie Gleason on The Honeymooners. Once I saw it, couldn't stop seeing it.

[hula-la]

13 hours ago, rlc said:

I don’t want to sound like a bitter Betty- I love hip hop and I’m not trying to disrespect hip hop. Heck, my kid is a dancer, and she does competitive dance and she’s on a commercial hip hop troupe. She loves hip hop and I love watching it, but it does not require the same constant work and commitment as other styles.

Yes it does, and to state otherwise is elitist and demonstrates a bias towards certain dance styles. I have competitively danced many different styles throughout my life, and I put just as much work to do hip hop than other styles. It has history, and movements are codified, and dancers practice  just as hard as other dancers. 
 

In this head to head, I agree that Essence did a better job than Ralyn. 

[realdancemom]

Agree that the pairings were not random.  I think they put the two ballroom dancers together to get at least one ballroom dancer to the finale.  Then the other two pairings were based on gender so that we would have one guy and one girl in the finale.  Maybe, there were different reasons but it wasn't random.

Here for Alexis being the first woman ballroom dancer to win!!  They usually don't do well when everyone votes and I was hoping it would be different with just the studio audience.  Unfortunately, she's been at the bottom multiple times while Keaton has never been.  Essence was there once but only in the first week.  So I don't have hope of Alexis winning.  When they show Cat with the studio audience, they are a bunch of young girls that are probably fans of Jojo.  I can see them voting for Keaton because they think he's cute.  I would give the Patrick Swayze comparison but they're too young.  Their mothers are not though.  I can also see them voting for Essence since they think she's cool or maybe they like hip hop. 

It was obvious that Beau was not in the same league especially when you see his solo.  I agree with Leah that he should have stood out in the Broadway number and he didn't.  I would say that both Carter and Keaton did that routine better while also doing the harder technique skills.  Like Twitch, I also didn't think he was believable in the love triangle trio.  Carter and Ralyn had more chemistry.  I think he's happy that he made it this far.

Edited July 28, 2022 by realdancemom

[Mason]

I both admire and do not envy tWitch. He's trying to be supportive of all the contestants, yet hold the show to some sort of standard. He needs to come back, if there's another season, but may feel he's had to compromise more than he's comfortable with. 

Hopefully the contestants are as loyal to one another as they appear to be (and has been the case in past seasons.) Since everything's been such a rush, one can't assume...

Who exactly is in the studio audience, besides family? People who paid for the privilege? who won some sort of contest? Has anything been leaked?

Very neat final three: ballroom, hip hop and contemporary. One wonders if final voting will be for the contestant or the style. Something I would never have questioned in the past.

But most of all, I wonder, now that Beau is off the show, whether JoJo will put her money where her mouth is and advance his career. Put him in one of her videos, or choreograph something for him to post, or actually dance with him.  

Edited July 28, 2022 by Mason

[rlc]

1 hour ago, hula-la said:

Yes it does, and to state otherwise is elitist and demonstrates a bias towards certain dance styles. I have competitively danced many different styles throughout my life, and I put just as much work to do hip hop than other styles. It has history, and movements are codified, and dancers practice  just as hard as other dancers. 
 

In this head to head, I agree that Essence did a better job than Ralyn. 

You call it elitist, I call it honest. Yes- hip hop has history and codified movements, but it simply does not require the same skills as other styles of dance. I'm sure you'll also call me an elitist for stating that it takes more work to run a fine dining restaurant than a hamburger stand. Do I love a good hamburger? Yes, I do, but you cannot argue that it takes as much skill to make a great burger as it does to create a 3-course fine dining meal. You are welcome to argue that you enjoy a great burger equally (or even more so) than a fine dining meal, but to say they require the same skill is a flat out lie. 

A cross-trained dancer can pick up hip hop far more easily than a hip hop trained only dancer can pick up leaps and turns.

[desertflower]

5 hours ago, sharifa70 said:

s it just me, or are ballroom solos just really, really weird-looking? The arms kill me!

Yes! Especially Carter. I could appreciate and acknowledge he’s very good at the movements, but he just looked cheesy to me, for lack of a better word. Definitely looks better with a partner!

I hope Beau refrained from reading online comments. I noticed the comments on the show’s Facebook posts overwhelmingly agreed he didn’t have the same skill as the other dancers. He would probably agree with that but it would still be rough to read comment after comment saying “Get rid of Beau!” 

I’m rooting for Keaton but would be ok with Alexis winning too. 

[displayname]

I don't think we've seen many cross trained dancers on the show do well at hip hop. Not real hip hop like Luther's, the movement is poor more often than not, even if they're aping it well and are performing the hell out of it at their best. However, we're not talking about cross trained dancers. A ballroom only and a ballet only dancer is bad at hip hop too, this we've seen repeatedly on the show.

I outright challenge Alex Wong to take a year or two and try to dance like Comfort does.

[realdancemom]

I think the show is catered to studio cross trained dancers.  The reason why the Utah ballroom dancers do well on other styles is because they are still cross trained.  Since a person only has a certain amount of time in a day, you will notice that they mostly do Latin and not standard though.  That's because their studio showcase numbers usually feature Latin, jazz, and hip-hop.  They will do a little bit of standard in classes but unless it's their specialty, they mostly do Latin.

The show also waters down hip hop and ballroom numbers.  You're not going to see a non-hip hop dancer doing break dance like Bailey, animation like Cyrus, etc. in the hip hop numbers.  The cross train dancers do what I call studio hip hop.

Edited July 28, 2022 by realdancemom

[White Dog]

I think this show suffers greatly from the hour schedule.  In the old days we would have the time to get to know the dancers and the choreographers.  It meant more to root for a dancer who had a story and a journey you could follow.  Now it's random clips that we're expected to react to with empathy when we hardly had a chance to learn about them.  When there's a comment about say, Keaton's jive  or Alexis' hip hop I think, okay, I remember others who struggled but were still favorites to win.  Like Travis, his ballroom was terrible,  or Twitch, his contemporary was suspect.  But we rooted for these dancers because we felt we knew them.  I don't feel the same way about this top 6. 

Anyway the head to head was definitely prescribed, not random. 

I think Essence survives because she is really strong in her own style. Comfort was the same always voted in the bottom except when she had the opportunity to display her hip hop prowess.  Essence is the type of dancer that give her more seasons to perfect her style she will be sought after for her hip hop qualities.  Twitch knowst this and wants Essence to be top of the list of dancers for every rapper's tour .

Ralyn had a lovely solo, but the group dance sealed her fate, it was very poorly executed and imho she couldn't save it . This being her style she was expected to carry it, but I think this trio demonstrated how important the 'lifts' are and how they are executed . Ralyn can only rely on her partners to do their part. That didn't happen.    

In the match up between Carter and Alexis,  Carter is a very nice guy great work ethic digging deep to find the best in himself, but his ballroom solo despite the pirouettes was a little sloppy, Alexis was just fire, precise and perfection in that tiny little frame. 

Between Beau and Keaton it was a done deal.

Beau is just unable to execute the level of technique that Keaton was able to achieve.  But, if the show wants to promote character actors for Broadway then Beau could be a consideration.  If he can sing then maybe there's a role like Nicely Nicely in Guys and Dolls - must be able to  do a comedic performance, which would involve a minimal amount of choreography.  But that's no longer So You Think You Can Dance, and that is the shameful part of it all. 

I thought from the first live show that Keaton would be the one to beat.  Is he the best ever?  Probably not. But he is very good. He has the Swayze vibe if not the technique and the first duet with Alexis was jaw dropping in it's execution, and timing. It was a very strong contemporary piece and ballroom girl Alexis blew me away with her advanced contemporary technique. But, because of the irresistible idea of a star football player dancing that's gold. It's a new angle for this show and it gives Keaton that charisma and storyline to take him all the way.   

If I had a vote it would be for Alexis.  She's definitely a dancer who not only shines, she raises the level of the dancers around her. To me, that's star quality and hell it would be nice for a ballroom girl to win this thing. 

[Quickbeam]

5 hours ago, jackjill89 said:

I'm so glad Beau is gone. He seems like a really great person, but he's not the level of everyone else. His stature reminded me of Jackie Gleason on The Honeymooners. Once I saw it, couldn't stop seeing it.

My husband and I both said at the same time: “Gleason”. 

[mojoween]

Yepper.  As a dancer Beau was a big old nope for me but he really does seem like a sweet guy.  His encouragement for Keaton felt genuine from my couch, anyways.

I actually liked Carter’s solo better than Alexis’s, but for body of work Alexis was the right call.  And with Essence and Ralyn I also would have been ok either way, but I definitely prefer Essence.

The reaction of the crowd when Keaton came out gives a hefty clue how the voting is going to go the next two weeks.

[Haleth]

At least I remembered to dvr this last night. I hate, hate the audience voting on head to head 10 second routines. TPTB are really wanting to rush thru this competition, aren’t they?  We’ve hardly had a chance to see anyone perform much. Terrible format.  Since I FF-ed thru the judging and turned it off right after the F3 were announced it took less than 35 mins.  I would have been fine with any F3 that did not include Beau.  

I did enjoy all the trio performances. They were all fun, even if some of their shortcomings were apparent.

12 hours ago, vibeology said:

Cat can claim they "randomly" selected those cards but somehow the childhood friends ended up going head to head and Beau ended up against the only person who could clearly beat him so I'm pretty sure the producers handed them those cards in a very intentional way.

Maybe the random part was which person opened their envelope first. You cannot convince me those parings were not set up to produce maximum drama. 

[kirklandia]

I turned this on, thinking - I'm just in it for the All-Stars. Alas, not an All-Star to be seen. Pair dances are my favorite thing about SYTYCD, didn't care for the brief dance-off solos.

The best part of the show for me was when they played "Why Don't You Do Right?" and I envisioned Jessica Rabbit singing it.

[Melonie77]

I can't believe they put Beau in another uniform.
Once again all I could see was Ralph Kramden dressed as a bus driver.

Is it just me or is there a really strong resemblance between Gleason and Beau not only in appearance but the way they dance???? 
Jackie Gleason was a riot and Beau's comedic skills echo his. 

I enjoyed Beau the first week for his skills as a performer and was surprised that he danced better as part of the top 12 than he did in his audition. After the weeks went by though it was obvious he couldn't keep up and it became upsetting to see him stay beyond people like Anna and Thiago.
I'm glad he is gone now but I hope he continues to find joy in dance beyond the show.

[rollacoaster]

20 hours ago, hula-la said:

On 7/27/2022 at 9:31 PM, rlc said:

I don’t want to sound like a bitter Betty- I love hip hop and I’m not trying to disrespect hip hop. Heck, my kid is a dancer, and she does competitive dance and she’s on a commercial hip hop troupe. She loves hip hop and I love watching it, but it does not require the same constant work and commitment as other styles.

Yes it does, and to state otherwise is elitist and demonstrates a bias towards certain dance styles. I have competitively danced many different styles throughout my life, and I put just as much work to do hip hop than other styles. It has history, and movements are codified, and dancers practice  just as hard as other dancers. 

Thank you, @hula-la. You hit the nail on the head.

To be done well, hip hop ABSOLUTELY requires constant and consistent work, effort and commitment. It's a relatively young dance form and it doesn't get the respect that it should. Everybody can't just wake up and dance like that. We've all seen the struggles that dancers in other styles have had trying to do hip hop. 

19 hours ago, rlc said:

A cross-trained dancer can pick up hip hop far more easily than a hip hop trained only dancer can pick up leaps and turns.

Ah, I see what you did there. TBH, a cross-trained dancer in ANY discipline would have an easier time picking up moves from another dance form. So, by your logic, a dancer trained ONLY in ballet or contemporary would struggle to pick-up hip hop moves, while a cross-trained hip hop dancer would have an easier time picking up ballet or contemporary moves. 

Edited July 29, 2022 by rollacoaster

[displayname]

45 minutes ago, rollacoaster said:

So, by your logic, a dancer trained ONLY in ballet or contemporary would struggle to pick-up hip hop moves, while a cross-trained hip hop dancer would have an easier time picking up ballet or contemporary moves. 

That is, Bailey and Joshua Allen and Russell Ferguson, compared to any number of contemporary or ballet dancers (Chehon anyone?).

[rlc]

Wow, some of you are really worked up about this. I love hip hop, and could happily watch people perform it all day, but it is a very different discipline.

Let me state again: MY KID IS A DANCER. She trains 6 days a week. She is a member of a commercial hip hop troupe in addition to being a cross trained competitive studio dancer. She spends hours a day working on core strength and technique classes to build her leaps, turns, and stamina. She loves hip hop, but is not even close to the best hip hop dancer in her troupe because the training involved for other disciplines is counterintuitive to a lot of what your body does in hip hop. 

If you look at some of the best hip hop dancers in the show's history, the either didn't make it to the top because of holes in their technique, or they did actually have some cross training (like Fik-Shun). tWitch and Comfort are both better dancers now than the were when they were on the show, because they have undoubtedly trained in other disciplines. 

I am not disparaging hip hop. I just don't think that Essence is a great dancer, and if you think that she doesn't have holes in her technique, I have a bridge I'd love to sell you. During the three person hip hop number that was served to Essence on a silver platter, I did not find her to be the strongest dancer in that number. She also needs to work on her faces when she dances. She may well end up being wonderful, but she is not there yet. To be clear, I don't think that many of the top dancers this season would have made it very far on past seasons of this show, and I'm still angry that they eliminated all tappers.

[realdancemom]

1 hour ago, displayname said:

That is, Bailey and Joshua Allen and Russell Ferguson, compared to any number of contemporary or ballet dancers (Chehon anyone?).

Those were the three hip hop dancers that I thought of yesterday when it comes to hip hop dancers that were good at other styles. 

And I was rooting for Cole to win for the guy winner during Chehon's season.

Edited July 29, 2022 by realdancemom

[DEL901]

I remember when Alex Wong drew Hip Hop with tWitch as his partner and Napoleon and Tabitha as choreographers, there was consternation.  Her training was totally opposite what was required for hip hop and they’d had challenges getting other ballet dancers to adapt.  But he was definitely the exception.  

[displayname]

3 hours ago, realdancemom said:

Those were the three hip hop dancers that I thought of yesterday when it comes to hip hop dancers that were good at other styles. 

In fact, all hip hop dancers who've won have been versatile (Joshua, Russell, Fik-Shun, Bailey). On the other hand, of the contemporary/ballet dancers who won, we had Melanie, Eliana, Chehon who really weren't versatile at all.

[rollacoaster]

2 minutes ago, displayname said:

In fact, all hip hop dancers who've won have been versatile (Joshua, Russell, Fik-Shun, Bailey). On the other hand, of the contemporary/ballet dancers who won, we had Melanie, Eliana, Chehon who really weren't versatile at all.

I think that speaks to the biases for/against certain dance forms. The ballet/contemporary dancers are allowed to be "good enough" in just their dance styles without having to be versatile in other styles. 

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know which dance disciplines have been most represented among the winners?

[Melonie77]

3 hours ago, rlc said:

To be clear, I don't think that many of the top dancers this season would have made it very far on past seasons of this show.

This really does seem to be true. This season the show is merely a shadow of its former self in so many ways. The dancers are just not as exciting as other seasons and there are really no stand-outs.

I'm assuming the substandard status of this season is due to the pandemic. I hope that they find a way to improve the quality for next year despite having to deal with a COVID-world. 

My fingers are crossed for Alexis to end up as the winner.

[displayname]

1 hour ago, rollacoaster said:

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know which dance disciplines have been most represented among the winners?

Contemporary/Jazz/Ballet (Nick, Sabra, Jeanine, Lauren, Melanie, Eliana, Chehon, Amy, Ricky, Lex, Hannahlei - making it 11/17 who've won a non-junior season.

[Mason]

2 hours ago, Melonie77 said:

I'm assuming the substandard status of this season is due to the pandemic. I hope that they find a way to improve the quality for next year despite having to deal with a COVID-world. 

I've done a bit of research since my earlier message.

I think a lot of the lacklustrousness is due to the taping schedule. It's not just a shortened season, the taping is done weeks out in some cases. So how much time does that leave for the dancers to work on their routines? Never mind that leaves absolutely no room for organic growth, for them as dancers or us as the viewing audience.

I'm still not certain how the studio audience is picked. The booking website gave the impression it was first-come-first-served, but seemed to be only for the original auditions. 

As for the choreographers... this is pure speculation... the budget (as well as allotted time with the dancers) has very likely been slashed, so how many are going to want to showcase what could all too easily become substandard work through no fault of their own.

[rollacoaster]

3 hours ago, displayname said:

4 hours ago, rollacoaster said:

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know which dance disciplines have been most represented among the winners?

Contemporary/Jazz/Ballet (Nick, Sabra, Jeanine, Lauren, Melanie, Eliana, Chehon, Amy, Ricky, Lex, Hannahlei - making it 11/17 who've won a non-junior season.

Thanks!

[crowceilidh]

I'm in the middle of watching the epi and came here to comment that the judging on the Essence-Keaton-Alexis number from JoJo seemed like a direct battle response to Twitch's take-down of Beau the dance earlier.

And other than that, so far I'm enjoying the dances.  There is no tension to this format.  Beau shouldn't have made it into the top 20, I don't care what JoJo thinks.

[luvthepros]

I just finished watching the show so I'm late to the party. I have not read any of the comments yet on this thread but I will offer my thoughts.........

As soon as the threesome's were announced, guys vs girls, I knew the guys were at a disadvantage. There is no way the choreographer would not dumb down the choreography because Beau cannot handle difficult choreo. Then, the guys get to dance "Broadway". WTF? Doesn't Beau get to dance anything but Broadway which is his "style"? Can TPTB be any more obvious with their bias towards this Ralph Kramden guy?

Cut to the chase........Thank goodness the audience FINALLY got it right. There was no way in hell Beau could have possibly beat out Keaton. Good-bye Beau.

I'm very glad Alexis is in the finale with Keaton. Those two are top 2 as far as I'm concerned. I'm neutral about Essence and I surely hope she does not win this season.

[luvthepros]

On 7/27/2022 at 10:08 PM, anniebird said:

Praise the lord - Beau is finally gone. I am not a dancer nor do I know anything about technique but he was so obviously inferior to ALL the rest of them (Top 20? Top 100?) I couldn't believe they kept pushing him through. It took the audience to finally get rid of him.

You can thank Jo Jo for "pushing him through". She really pissed me off every time she would praise him.

[luvthepros]

On 7/28/2022 at 3:01 PM, displayname said:

I outright challenge Alex Wong to take a year or two and try to dance like Comfort does.

And....the same token goes for Comfort. She can take a year or two or twenty and I'll bet Comfort could never dance ballet like Alex Wong. NEVER!

[luvthepros]

On 7/29/2022 at 5:43 AM, Melonie77 said:

I can't believe they put Beau in another uniform.
Once again all I could see was Ralph Kramden dressed as a bus driver.

Is it just me or is there a really strong resemblance between Gleason and Beau not only in appearance but the way they dance???? 
Jackie Gleason was a riot and Beau's comedic skills echo his. 

I enjoyed Beau the first week for his skills as a performer and was surprised that he danced better as part of the top 12 than he did in his audition. After the weeks went by though it was obvious he couldn't keep up and it became upsetting to see him stay beyond people like Anna and Thiago.
I'm glad he is gone now but I hope he continues to find joy in dance beyond the show.

Thank you for posting the Gleason dancing video. PURE GOLD that is.

[displayname]

1 hour ago, luvthepros said:

And....the same token goes for Comfort. She can take a year or two or twenty and I'll bet Comfort could never dance ballet like Alex Wong. NEVER!

That was never a question. Since the talents of hip hop dancers were being questioned, I pointed out none of the ballet dancers who've been on this show could ever dance like Comfort. I don't need to point out the opposite when the opposite was never being questioned.

Although I WILL say that I don't think, simply as a performer, Alex Wong ranks particularly high for me on this show. Amazing ballet technique and he could do amazing things with his body, but there have been better performers on the show, with greater ability to pour emotion into their dancing, and I'd include people like Danny Tidwell, Ellenore, quite a few of the winners (even Eliana, whom I criticized for her lack of versatility), and yes tWitch and Comfort in that group.

Edited July 30, 2022 by displayname

[Beezella]

9 hours ago, luvthepros said:

Cut to the chase........Thank goodness the audience FINALLY got it right. There was no way in hell Beau could have possibly beat out Keaton. Good-bye Beau.

The audience had been putting Beau in the bottom many times and the judges (JoJo?) kept saving him. This time only the audience voted. If someone had the numbers, the studio audience would be a tiny minority of the total number of people who watched the show and had opinions.

I thought there was only one more show. They rushed the whole rest of the show and now there are going to be 2 shows with just 3 dancers left? I suppose they will eliminate one person next week and have a final with just the top 2. And maybe allstars. So much this season  was very odd.

[Melonie77]

10 hours ago, luvthepros said:

As soon as the threesome's were announced, guys vs girls, I knew the guys were at a disadvantage. There is no way the choreographer would not dumb down the choreography because Beau cannot handle difficult choreo. Then, the guys get to dance "Broadway". WTF? Doesn't Beau get to dance anything but Broadway which is his "style"? Can TPTB be any more obvious with their bias towards this Ralph Kramden guy?

I thought the same thing and I rolled my eyes when I saw they were dancing Broadway. But what really surprised me is that they put them in costumes resembling uniforms yet again. I think that was the third time they dressed Beau in something that brought the image of bus driver Ralph Kramden to mind. Did the producers see the resemblance too?

10 hours ago, luvthepros said:

Thank you for posting the Gleason dancing video. PURE GOLD that is.

Oh Gosh, I literally laughed out loud at the part where Gleeson really gets into it - the part where the ballroom dancer joins him in the kitchen.
The 1950s Honeymooners was before my time but it still aired for decades after it ended and I remember seeing it as a child. It's certainly an iconic show and I wonder how many other people may have noticed the resemblance to Beau. It's definitely a funny comparison but I do honestly admire Beau's comedic side. I just didn't think he should have been kept on this long.

11 hours ago, luvthepros said:

You can thank Jo Jo for "pushing him through". She really pissed me off every time she would praise him.

I have a feeling JoJo may be a bit of a stubborn 'brat'. IMO she is too young for the role of judge on the show. 

[Melonie77]

On 7/29/2022 at 5:44 PM, Mason said:

As for the choreographers... this is pure speculation... the budget (as well as allotted time with the dancers) has very likely been slashed, so how many are going to want to showcase what could all too easily become substandard work through no fault of their own.

This is a really good point. I noticed that many of the usual popular choreographers did not participate this year. 

[Melonie77]

On 7/28/2022 at 3:27 PM, realdancemom said:

The show also waters down hip hop and ballroom numbers.  You're not going to see a non-hip hop dancer doing break dance like Bailey, animation like Cyrus, etc. in the hip hop numbers.  The cross train dancers do what I call studio hip hop.

Beau's participation this year brought back memories of Cyrus for me. While Cyrus was a better dancer within his style than Beau, he had a lot of trouble with other styles and I remember the show having to work around his lack of cross training. He was kept in the back of some group numbers and I think I remember one routine where he was not included at all. I did love his animation though and his robotic dance with Twitch is one of my all time favorites.

[luvthepros]

8 hours ago, Beezella said:

The audience had been putting Beau in the bottom many times and the judges (JoJo?) kept saving him. This time only the audience voted. If someone had the numbers, the studio audience would be a tiny minority of the total number of people who watched the show and had opinions.

I thought there was only one more show. They rushed the whole rest of the show and now there are going to be 2 shows with just 3 dancers left? I suppose they will eliminate one person next week and have a final with just the top 2. And maybe allstars. So much this season  was very odd.

Yes, you are right. The audience did put Beau in the bottom and it was Jo Jo who would not let him go.