S12.E07: Top 20 Perform

[Tara Ariano]

The Top 20 dancers perform.

[crowceilidh]

Robert Roldan ‏@RobertRoldan_  4h4 hours ago

Only 2 more days till the first live show of #SYTYCD !! Tune in for amazing dancing and a special performance

 

 

sir_twitch_alot  Spending the weekend listening to Bob Proctor drop knowledge. Love his audio books and lectures. Such a joy and inspiration listening to him live. Great positive inspiration. #letsGo #DreamerSeason #SeasonedDreamer @proctorgallagher

Accompanied by a picture of Twitch and someone I assume is Bob Proctor - that is interesting - you would think that team mentor wouldn't have time to attending lectures on the weekend before the first live show... Although I see how thinking about this stuff might relate to his mentoring.

[Rick Kitchen]

Travis is in New York for the Dance Awards (he's teaching some of the dancers), so it sounds like both of them are pretty busy.

[crowceilidh]

 

 

SYTYCD ‏@DANCEonFOX  22h22 hours ago

Tune in Monday night at 8/7c to see an amazing LIVE performance by #sytycd judge, @jasonderulo!

 

This one is completely unsurprising:

 

 

Squad Take-Over of the stage. Check us out with #TeamsStreet this Monday on #SYTYCD #TeamNappytabs

 

Here is a group photo of the "special performance" people (as referenced by Robert, above) - Marco's moustache is odd:

 

https://instagram.com/p/5BUn7VC0mQ/

[ElectricBoogaloo]

SYTYCD ‏@DANCEonFOX  22h22 hours ago
Tune in Monday night at 8/7c to see an amazing LIVE performance by #sytycd judge, @jasonderulo!

Well, it has been, what, two whole weeks since he has gotten on the stage. I really want to know how many times his contract stipulates he has to perform this season.

[Pallida]

I think I'm more excited for this episode to find out the actual format of the rest of the competition than I am to see the dancers.  (And it's not that I'm not excited to see full routines...but I really want to know what they're doing this season.)

[susannot]

So seriously we have two Russian b-boys on the second street team!! OK, the tall dark-haired Russian boy (Osip) is super, super hot.

[susannot]

And then the two stage dancer boys are geniuses. The Asian boy will win the show. You heard it here first.

[Watt]

Interesting to see Brian Friedman back.

[PhD-Purgatory15]

The camera work in Jaja & Co.'s routine was atrocious. Generally not a fan of trio and four person dances and that routine in particular reminded me why.

Gaby proved her cross-training chops right out of the gate (despite what the show would like you believe). She definitely held her own in that number.

We actually received "honest" critiques of a couple of routines...notably the Sex trio courtesy of Brian Friedman. Consider me mildly impressed.

A lot dancers made zero impression (I'm not counting the entire team dances here though). Asaf,Burim, Lily, Moises, the entire first street dance, Alexia, Ariana to name a few. YMMV or course.

They recycled Sara and Pasha's music from that Mandy Moore jazz piece w/ suspenders on the Team Stage number...

Virgil continues to be awesome.

Edited July 14, 2015 by PhD-Purgatory15

[Unusual Suspect]

First episode for me, as I decided to skip auditions. I have ... mixed feelings about this whole "street vs. stage" BS, but I will say, it seems like a solid crop of dancers. The lack of ballroom sucks, none of the numbers blew me away, aside from the guys ballet. While the Stage group number was okay, it's not wise to remind me of Pasha and Sara and one of my favourite routines from this show (and remind me of the lack of ballroom experts, AGAIN).

[pivot]

Holy Shit! Nigel finally called out the over-dramatic, flailing contemporary routines and how they have no emotion on the show. About time. I really appreciated that he did that with Travis's choreography because he is one of the worst at it.

Paula and Jason have both given useful comments.

Team Street is so much better than Team Stage at this point.

And I love Michelle Obama.

[crowceilidh]

I enjoyed a great deal of that show - there was a lot of dancing and I even liked Jason's number.  It wasn't all perfect, but it was pretty damn good and I thought the judging was actually interesting to listen to.  May it stay that way.

 

Neptune doesn't do it for me as a name.  In general, there was too much "contestants talking while being judged".  STFU.

 

I'm overall impressed and I've watched since s1 which means I've either gone senile or the show is doing something not-too-annoying.

I kinda loved the street group number.

And I know I hate Alexia already (and Kate).

I also think it was absolutely right to call out costume for those ballet boys' numbers.  They might have been appropriate in a different setting, but here they were awkward and somewhat emasculating.  They were just all wrong and I'm glad it was mentioned despite Cat shutting it down (on orders?)  

Edited July 14, 2015 by crowceilidh

[chaddyou812]

Wow, some of the camera work was laughable. In one of the first numbers they cut to a long shot and there was a camera guy and his camera wheeling on through the shot. In some of the street numbers, I could barely tell what was going on with all the shots jumping around. In my opinion, the choreographers should be deciding the camera blocking, or it should at least stay consistent. 

 

I don't have much to say about Team Stage apart from that the ballet boys were incredible and the routine with the 3 girls had potential until they took off their jackets and it turned into a porno.

 

Team Street has a lot of potential, but the way they were grouped was plain silly. Why didn't they just have a bboy number, a krump number, a jazz funk/waacking number, etc. ? Mixing their styles up like that just didn't work, and it did nothing to truly showcase the dancers.

 

I also think the street choreographers need to realise that they need more grooving in their routines and less tiny little precision moves that the dancers rarely ever do on beat and don't translate well on camera. The best sections of the Team Street dances all came when the dancers were doing larger and groovier sychronised movements.

 

 

[TrudyC]

The camera work in Jaja & Co.'s routine was atrocious. Generally not a fan of trio and four person dances and that routine in particular reminded me why.

 

Yes. It bothers me when the camera focuses on one dancer and you can't see what the other dancers are doing. 

 

My favorites tonight: the group dances (all 3), Stacey Tookey's routine, the ballet boy routine, the street routine with JaJa, Nigel making that unexpected comment about the sytycd style of contemporary, and Gaby's tapping during that Stage group routine. I fast-fowarded through the black bra jazz routine, and I think that's the first time I've done that since I started watching last season. 

Edited July 14, 2015 by TrudyC

[pivot]

I thought the Team Street performance was truly excellent. Meh, on Team Stage. I've seen it all before but better.

Who dropped their stick during the Team Stage performance?

[Aethera]

Blah, I really am not pleased Asaf is back.

 

Dave Scott’s routine left me cold; I don’t know why…but I agreed with everything Jason said, and that’s…unexpected. I like all 3 of them, but Megz seemed weakest.

 

Stacey Tookey’s routine - Gaby was the standout. I think she’s going to be in a very different league than Valerie was last season. And that dress is terrific! (Also yes Paula, we all heard you say ‘modems’ instead of ‘modes’ of dance.)

 

Christopher Scott - I really don’t care about Asaf or Burim, but the girls were both great, and I thought the staging and choreo was really cool, though I agree the camera work sucked. I get why the judges stood for this one. Shut up Asaf.

 

Brian Friedman - he’s kind of awesome. I didn’t watch the first 2 seasons so I hadn’t seem him before. Is he polarizing, I wonder?. Hailee is great…she has presence. Marissa was barely in that rehearsal package, which is interesting, after all the love the edit gave her in auditions. I don’t enjoy her. Alexia, eh. I feel like Hailee stole that.

 

Benoit - Daaaamn Darion & Jim. I am so tired now. Those costumes were TERRIBLE though. So glad Paula said that. Distractingly bad.

 

Pharside & Phoenix - Yorelis was the best in that group, but Virgil was really good too. I think Ariana wasn’t as good as the others, but she beat expectations, so they were happy with her. Paula’s comments were dead on as well - they did drop during the transitions.

 

Travis - I kind of feel like Travis should not be choreographing since he’s the team captain. Maybe because I’m sick of him. Kate and Edson are well-paired. Really nice dancing, but I feel like I’ve seen this routine a lot of times. Kind of astonished that Nigel took a shit all over the Reaching Contemporary though, which I have grown so bored of. Most sensible critique he’s given in years.

 

Speaking of surprising judging - Jason had real, substantive notes with clear knowledge of dance. After the auditions and Vegas, I did NOT expect that out of him. And Paula has good commentary too…I don’t think she even called anyone special that whole time! So far, I’m surprisingly happy with the judging. Nigel is still tired and annoying, but at least he knocked Travis. 

 

“We’re running over, we need to cut”…what, I wonder, was Nigel cutting? Judge reaction to the group numbers?

 

Of course they stick the All-Stars on stage with Jason so I can’t FF that. So glad Jasmine is back.

 

Warren Carlyle - Please replace Tyce forever. Loved his comments on people. And that number was great, I thought. I tend to really enjoy group numbers.

 

Nappy Tabs - Yep, shut up Asaf again. Let’s just keep Virgil and the girls, please. That was great too. I think it wasn’t SO much better than Stage’s, but clearly Nigel was pretty excited about it. I like Nappy Tabs’ group numbers better than their couple numbers, and this held true to that.

 

Beasty is the new Buck?

 

So far I’m rooting for Jaja, Jim, Hailee, Virgil, Lily, Yorelis. Most of the Team Stage is not standing out to me right now…I think I know every Street Name and I definitely could not name half of Team Stage.

[s-k-s]

Did anyone catch who all the alums dancing with Derulo were?  I loved how he stopped even pretending he was singing.  

 

All in all, meh on Team Stage.  So happy that Nigel called out the angtsy contemporary piece.  All of the contemporary girls blend together, and neither of the  ballet boys hold a candle to Chehon or Alex Wong ...  

 

I'm pretty excited about Team Street.  Its refreshing to see some genuinely hardhitting hip hop again after years of water downed jazz hop.  Strong female hip hop has been virtually nonexistent on this show in recent seasons, unless you count Jasmine who was technically cast as contemporary.

 

I think next week we go back to the traditional format, with dancers dancing outside of their styles?

 

Edited:  Also, what the hell was Cat wearing?   

Edited July 14, 2015 by s-k-s

[tripsy]

I just want to call bullshit on the stage team getting more performances. WTF?  What kind of even contest is that when you cram street dancers up to 4 per group, including a group with two b-boys, a krumper and waacker, while pairing the two ballet and two contemporary dancers into duos? Why not separate the two b-boys and allow them to do their thing like the ballet guys did (that way the bboys would have had more of a chance to shine and the street girls would not have had their choreography dumbed down so the bboys could keep up).  Mixing the bboy with a krumper and a waacker would be like having the ballet guys dancing with the tapper and a jazz girl.

 

Having said that, I only care about JaJa and Jim, and even though I like Jim I don't love him (he's good, but he's not Alex Wong). I can barely remember the others from the auditions except for Asaf, and I remember him because of his outburst, not his dancing.  Can we just start by sending home all of the contemporary girls? Seriously, after watching every single show, including tonight, not a single one of them stands out from the other.  Put the same wig on them and they're pretty much interchangeable. 

[crowceilidh]

Alexia and Kate stand out for being irritating - I bothered to look at their names, so I know who I'm talking about.

 

I thought Jim was conspicuously more elegant to watch than the other ballet boy, but their costumes were so distractingly fugly, I had trouble seeing them.  

 

Also loved Nigel's call out of "reaching contemporary".  The show feels more grown up to me - I hope they can keep that vibe.

 

I liked the first street number a lot - Megz seemed really individually strong to me.  Was she the person who was screwing up the synchronization?  I couldn't tell who was weak there, too much visual input to sort out - but I was happy they got called on it by Jason.

[Watt]

I'm on the side of Asaf is hot, and if nothing else, entertaining to watch, and I thought he followed the choreography okay, though the bboys leaving during the hard choreo during group dance was lame.

So far I like Gabby, I'm living for Jaja, and Yorelis.

[rollerblade]

Surprise of the night - Paula provided good and coherent critique...  who knew she could actually speak lol.

 

Why not separate the two b-boys and allow them to do their thing like the ballet guys did (that way the bboys would have had more of a chance to shine and the street girls would not have had their choreography dumbed down so the bboys could keep up). 

 

The 4-person street routine was actually my least favorite of the night. I couldn't figure out the reason, but you may have cracked the code - poor girls having their choreo dumbed down. The whole thing felt very disjointed, it's like they superimposed two separate dances together.

 

 

I thought Jim was conspicuously more elegant to watch than the other ballet boy, but their costumes were so distractingly fugly, I had trouble seeing them.

 

This pairing is rather unfortunate for the black ballet dancer (sorry if that's an offensive choice of word, I don't know his name). Not that he's bad or anything... Even Nigel pointed out his different body type, and it was especially jarring next to Jim's long and elegant body line. I think Jim has a "better" ballet-body than Alex Wong, but Alex has such incredible stage presence that these two lack.

 

The twiddlely feet move was amazing though! I don't know the terminology, but it was the move Paula raved on and on about.

 

Also... Moises is a tapper?!

[Toaster Strudel]

I read "Bendit Swan Pouffer" with that crazy font... perfect name for a ballet choreographer, I'd say!  Bend it!

[Athena5217]

I was suprised that the First Lady named Michael Jackson as her dream dance partner. I agree that he was an awesome dancer, but all the child molestation allegations make him a bad answer for a politician's wife. I feel like Fox News will spin this as "First Lady prefers to dance with child molester over her own husband."

Paula gave more insightful critiques tonight than she did her entire time on Americal Idol. I don't know if the producers are allowing her to show she knows what she is talking about, or she's on new meds or the planets are aligned just right... Keep it up Paula!

I've missed Brian Friedman. Unfortunately, his routines never seem to be well received on the show. I think his choreography doesn't appeal to the masses the way Mandy Moore or Stacy tooky's does.

I wish all the routines had the same number of dancers. It's hard to judge a group of 4 against a group of 2.

Edited July 20, 2015 by Athena5217

[Drpepperey]

I feel like Fox News will spin this as "First Lady prefers to dance with child molester over her own husband."

I hardly think this is even newsworthy and I would be surprised if they even bothered...

 

I don’t like when Travis or anyone says “This should be a standing ovation number” or “if you do it right, everyone will remember this routine” because then it just hypes us up thinking it’s going to be amazing and then I’m kind of let down.. I have to honestly say that none of the performances were that great tonight. There were some good ones, some not so good ones. They should have paired the people with the most similar styles, considering it IS the showcase. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the group routines the most and I still love Jaja, JJ, Virgil, and Jim. I really do like Asaf because he seems fun and despite his outburst with Nigel, he seems like a nice guy. I have a soft spot for B1 because my dream is to live in Switzerland and he is from there. Most of the stage dancers are bland to me. I didn’t like that Travis choreographed the last routine with Kate and Edson, especially since Kate works for him. I like all of the street dancers minus Neptune and Ariana because I don’t see enough personality from them. I am hoping and assuming next week will be better because more styles will be danced and hopefully there won’t be groups of four… Three is okay but I really like two-person routines because it is easier to focus on the individuals. I think there should be two-person routines and then possibly have everyone do a second routine in a group if desired.

[Rick Kitchen]

Hated the Pearly Gates routine, they seemed to be standing around for a while and kept missing steps.

 

Jim and Darien's ballet was gorgeous, as was the jazz routine, and I really liked the Broadway number. But the NappyTabs routine KILLED it (did somebody fall off the stage?)

 

I don't know what Nigel was watching in that opening number, but it did nothing for me.

 

Cat seemed to be missing half of her shirt

[Rick Kitchen]

 

Of course they stick the All-Stars on stage with Jason so I can’t FF that. So glad Jasmine is back.

 

Damn, I had no interest in watching DeRulo, and so I didn't pay attention.  :(

[rollerblade]

I wish they didn't have to force the gender balance for Team Street. I'd replace the 2 useless bboys with 2 street girls in a heartbeat. The "write them out" half way through the group routine was so blatant, even Ray Charles could see it.

 

Am I too harsh? At least past breaker contestants stfu and do the choreography as required. If Dominic can Disco, Legacy can Broadway, and Jose can Bollywood....  Asaf whined about Hip hop? Pathetic.

[Lindsey]

I wish they didn't have to force the gender balance for Team Street. I'd replace the 2 useless bboys with 2 street girls in a heartbeat.

 

I thought about that, too, especially since they made the choice to replace Hurricane with Asaf (Napoleon is right, that kid is too pretty for his own good; someone needs to tell him it doesn't make up for the whining). I wish they'd have brought back one of the women, but Team Street is already six/four and I guess they didn't want to have seven women to three guys, even though the show has years of gender imbalance to make up for with street dancers.

 

It was great (and shocking) that Nigel called out the show itself for promoting the style of contemporary we usually see. Travis is a big part of it, but pretty much all of the contemporary choreographers on the show these days do the same kind of thing.  It makes me miss some of the early season choreographers like Mia, so much.  They at least mixed it up a little. When Kate was explaining that their dance was about a love affair gone wrong, all I could think was, "Of course it is.  That's what all the contemporary numbers on this show are about now."

 

The New York Times ran a profile of Sonya last week that mentions that SYTYCD "has come to represent what contemporary dance looks like" to people who watch the show.  I read that as a little bit of a dig against the show's style and wonder if Nigel wasn't thinking about that when he made his comment.

[chocolatine]

So seriously we have two Russian b-boys on the second street team!! OK, the tall dark-haired Russian boy (Osip) is super, super hot.

 

Neither of them is Russian. Asaf is Israeli (and really doesn't look or talk like a Russian-Israeli), and Burim is Swiss (but based on his and his brother's names I'm guessing their parents are from one of the Balkan countries).

 

Topic? I'm so happy Nigel called out the reachy, flaily contemporary. Better 7-8 years late than never. Didn't love any of the non-group dances. I really liked the idea behind Brian's number - and I'm happy that he's back, because he's done some really fun pop-jazz routines in the early seasons - but, like Paula said, the girls lacked the tongue-in-cheekness to pull it off properly. I did really like the Team Stage Broadway number and want to see more from that choreographer.

 

I'm glad I started watching this episode really late so I could ff through the captain pep talks, dance day promos, and Derulo performance (not even Jasmine could make me sit through that).

[ElectricBoogaloo]

One of the games I play while watching this show is trying to guess who choreographed the opening number each week. I assumed that Napoleon and Tabitha were the choreographers this week based solely upon the fact that it combined various types of street dancing with some contemporary/jazz. My other guess was going to be that they had two choreographers (one for each team), so I guess yay for Dave Scott?

 

I wanted to like the first number but it was too messy. Part of me is glad that Nigel mentioned that both Jessica and Eddie changed their names because I noticed it at the beginning when Cat was calling out everyone's names during the intro. At first I thought maybe there was another Jessica in the top 20 (one year on my high school dance team, we had three girls named Kim so they agreed to each take a different form of the name to decrease confusion when yelling out names during rehearsal, hence we had Kim, Kimmie, and Kimberly), but no. It just seemed weird to me because if you had a specific stage name, wouldn't you use it from the time you showed up to the first audition? I have a stage name so whenever I perform or I'm in a setting where I am meeting clients, I use that name from initial contact. It just seems weird to me that both of them only decided to use different names beginning now, especially since we have seen that this show will let you use any name you want (tWitch, Fik-Shun, Legacy, Bluprint etc). They are not opposed to people using their street names/performance names at all so I wonder what prompted both of them to decide to use different names at this point.

 

On a related note, when Nigel said that Lily is a waacker, I thought he had her confused with Jessica/JJ. I looked on the SYTYCD wikipedia page and it lists Jessica has a locker and Lily as a waacker. Am I crazy? I swear Jessica was described as a waacker/house dancer when she auditioned. Did we see Lily's audition because I don't remember seeing her before tonight?

 

When Nigel said that they were running out of time, I just rolled my eyes. You want to know how to stay on track? Cut the unnecessary crap like having Travis pretend to interview his dancers after their performance only to have him interrupt them before they can get out a complete sentence. I'm not going to lie - I have never warmed to Travis over all the years. I wasn't crazy about him in S2 and since they brought him back to choreograph, I have liked him even less because I think he is really overrated as a choreographer but Nigel wants to piggyback off of one of the more recognizable alumni from the show. But watching him interrupt his own team's dancers just made me like him even less. Interrupting is a huge pet peeve of mine. Wait until people are finished talking, damn it! It's called having manners. If you aren't clear on how this works, watch when tWitch talks to his dancers after their routines.

 

I didn't love Stacy Tookey's piece because it was the same old contemporary stuff, but I did like that she had a guy/guy lift. When I saw that this group was two guys and one girl, I was afraid it would be another one of those dances where the guys just keep taking turns passing the girl back and forth for lifts. Nice to see a male/male lift!

 

 

Brian Friedman - he’s kind of awesome. I didn’t watch the first 2 seasons so I hadn’t seem him before. Is he polarizing, I wonder?

He left the show after S2 because Simon Cowell offered him a contract, so I assumed his long absence was due to a combination of being busy (he has choreographed numerous Britney Spears music videos/tours, been a producer for America's Got Talent, served as a judge on X Factor, etc) and Nigel being bitter that he left (you know Nigel is a grudge holder).

 

I agree that Hailee was the standout in Brian's femme fatale number. Even when she wasn't front and center, my eyes were drawn to her. Please take note, token sexy girls - you don't need long hair to whip around in order to be strong and sexy. I liked that the choreography was more about the girls being confident and strutting their stuff than being overtly sexual or vulgar.

 

While part of me thinks it was great that Brian put on a pair of stilettos during rehearsal, I hated his "If I can wear this as a man in these shoes, y'll better be able to do this as a lady." These girls are 20 year old dancers so there is a fair chance that they aren't used to wearing heels either (I can tell you when i was that age, I could count the number of times I had danced in heels). Just because he is a man doesn't mean he is the one at a disadvantage. I'm pretty sure that he has probably spent more time dancing in heels than all three girls combined.

 

Brian's routine also reminded me how much I LOATHE when they use the swoopy circling camera. Nigel is the one saying that "sex straight out there tends not to be sexy"? This coming from the guy who loves all the come hither hair flinging floor rolling auditions.

 

I don’t like when Travis or anyone says “This should be a standing ovation number” or “if you do it right, everyone will remember this routine” because then it just hypes us up thinking it’s going to be amazing and then I’m kind of let down.

Yeah, I really didn't like when Travis said those two things, mostly because you could theoretically say that about any routine ever choreographed. What really annoys me about that statement though is that there are several routines from this show that have received standing ovations or are always remembered not because of the choreography or the dancers but because of the fucking sob story that the choreographer TOLD the audience during the intro package. I know that doesn't apply to the ballet dance but it annoys me every time I think about certain dances that the judges revere (Mia's dead daddy dance is at the top of that list) that wouldn't have had the same emotional impact without the background story. For me, a dance should stand on its own without anyone having to tell you what it's about or why it's so [insert adjective here]. Luckily the ballet routine stands on its own merit because we finally got to see some amazing technique without any contemporary flailing.

 

Note to Travis, the word is chorEography. It's not chor-ography. He said the same thing last week too.

 

What I really liked about the ballet routine is that some of the side by side was in the same direction and some of it was mirrored. Some of it was the two guys doing the exact same steps but some of it was different so it wasn't just synchronized side by side choreography the entire time. They each got their own moments to do different leaps and turns. I really hope that both the ballet boys make it far in the competition. Did they really do entrechats six? I thought they were quatre.

 

Nigel has ceased having anything useful to say for, well, years but I agree that Darion and Jim have different body types which can make a big difference in ballet (which is why I didn't get Nigel comparing Jim to Alex Wong during auditions - I don't see any similarities except that they are both Asian ballet dancers).

 

I wanted to like the heaven dance more than I did. I kept waiting for it to get awesome. The only part I really liked was the tutting totem pole. I agreed with Paula's critique. You have to stay in character for the entire dance, even when you're just standing or walking.

 

Ha, like Edson, everything in my body pops but I've been like that since I was 15. One of my high school boyfriends hated it. I remember when he once said accusingly that I could crack every joint in my body. Non-dancers don't understand that it just happens. Dancers don't do it on purpose. I never crack my knuckles though!

 

Normally I'm not a fan of reality show contestants saying, "I'm the oldest/youngest one!" but on a dance show, I'm okay with Kate mentioning that she is the oldest one on the stage team. I am loving how many dancers we have over the age of 20 this season (3 on the stage team and 9 on the street team: the oldest dancers are Jim (26), Kate (27), Virgil (28), B1 (29), Megz (29), and JJ (30) - I think the last time we had so many older dancers was S1!). Compare that to, say, S10 when Aaron (25), Carlos (24), and Tucker (23) were the only three dancers over the age of 22 (that was the same season that all of the girls in the top 20 were 18 or 19, except for Jasmine who was 20).

 

Oh, Nigel. On the one hand, I'm glad he is finally saying that these contemporary routines suck. On the other hand, for him to say that SYTYCD has CREATED this contemporary style with reaching and motion is just him being egotistical about how powerful he thinks the show is. That style of contemporary existed before the first episode of this show ever aired. Sure, it has become more well known due to the ridiculous amount of flailing contemporary numbers we have been forced to watch in 12 seasons, but make no mistake that SYTYCD did not actually create this style. And it's partly HIS fault because he continues to hire the same choreographers (like Travis) who keep giving us the exact same routine over and over. The hilarious thing is that I found this particular routine less egregious than many others we have seen on this show, but somehow this was the straw that broke the camel's back?

 

I resisted the urge to resist Jason's performance only because I wanted to see the All Stars. Totally not worth the three minutes I wasted. I couldn't even tell who most of the All Stars were. I admit that I cracked up when he just stood at the front of the stage yelling, "WOOO!"

 

When Travis said he was excited to lead Team Stage to victory with Warren's Broadway dance and then said, "I know we're going to kill it," I was afraid that they were going to have him dancing in the group number.

 

Ugh, I didn't find Napoleon pretending to yell at the street dancers during rehearsal funny at all. When tWitch said that the girls were dancing together well and the guys were struggling with the choreography, I thought well, yeah, because the judges put some guys in the top 20 who didn't excel in the choreography rounds. They had to know that this was going to happen. I noticed that during the parts when everyone was doing the same steps, Asaf was behind, even when it was just a head movement. I can't believe he suggested to Napoleon that maybe there were some parts he could just not do. And then lo and behold, the very last synchronized section, he slid off the front of the stage and he and B1 were off stage for that entire section. Asaf is not going to last long if he can't learn choreography. I really pity whoever he has to dance with him next week if it's any kind of partner dance. Even if it's a group dance, I will still feel bad for whoever is in his group because he will undoubtedly complain about the choreography again.

 

ETA: I couldn't find Lily's original SYTYCD audition on youtube but I did find this video of her dancing with Jaja!

Edited July 14, 2015 by ElectricBoogaloo

[OakGoblinFly]

I thought most of the performances were "meh" at best with a slight (and I do mean slight) edge to the stage dancers.  

 

I thought most of the street performances were a hot mess; individually they were fine, collectively - not so much.  Choreography is going to be their Achilles Heel; the girls picked it up decently enough - the boys really seemed to struggle.  I wonder if Team Street will get modified choreography while Nigel et al bang the "and you're a street dancer, no formal training" refrain. 

 

Team stage was all over the place; some very good (the first routine with Gabby and the boys) and some a hot steaming pile (the jazz girls).  I don't think team stage has a chance of winning this - (at least based on the judges' comments).

 

The first street group was so out of sync it was distracting.  And really, dude - you change your name to Neptune because you're about peace and love?

 

I did not like the two B-boys and I thought the judges were full of it when they commenced with the tongue bath.   The girls (Lily and JaJa I think) killed it and were the only redeeming part of team street.  Israeli B-boy annoys and can't get off my screen fast enough.

 

Was there any dancing in that Phoenix and Pharside routine?  It was all about personality and I thought a little too "twee" (to borrow a Nigel phrase).

 

I enjoyed the routine with Gabby (and why was she the only one who didn't get to dance "in her style"?) and the two boys more than I thought I would - it was my favorite of the night.

 

I like watching the two ballet boys - grace and athleticism at its best

 

Wasn't a fan of the three girls in the jazz number (and I blame the choreographer for that) - they're entirely too immature to pull something like that routine off.

 

And Nigel, really?  You pull out the "you didn't connect" and "I don't understand the story" for the last stage pair - transparent much?  Where was the "story" or "connection" for any of the street routines (excepting one dance to Bruno Mars which was a literal interpretation of the words)?  Why must every routine have a "story" - why can't dance be moving art for the sake of movement?

 

Cat - please never, ever wear that type of outfit again.  The shoes were great, so you can keep them - just burn that atrocity of a dress.

 

Surprisingly Paula and Jason gave (mostly) coherent and helpful critiques - and they did it while being kind to the dancers.  I hope they keep it up and don't fall into the party line.

[Haleth]

Wow.  I completely forgot this was on.  Not a good sign.  Guess I'll have to wait to catch it On Demand.  (It was probably preempted for weather reports anyway.)

Edited July 14, 2015 by Haleth

[phoenix780]

I haven't been able to watch the full first performance episode yet, and I've barely paid attention through auditions, but I'm thoroughly confused by the format.  I thought the whole point of street vs. stage, and picking people without testing outside of their genre, was because they would stay in those categories.  Then I thought I heard Cat announce starting next week they're doing different styles, which is like...why?  Don't we know they'll likely struggle, especially "street" (though based off what I've seen thus far I think they chose some weaker "stage" people than in years past, so maybe it won't be that uneven)? 

 

I hope they're at least going to break "street" into animation and all that, force the stage dancers to try and do genres with really specific specialized movements that take years of practice, instead of allowing them to get away with generic Tabatha/Napoleon "hip hop."

Edited July 14, 2015 by phoenix780

[ElectricBoogaloo]

And Nigel, really?  You pull out the "you didn't connect" and "I don't understand the story" for the last stage pair - transparent much?  Where was the "story" or "connection" for any of the street routines (excepting one dance to Bruno Mars which was a literal interpretation of the words)?  Why must every routine have a "story" - why can't dance be moving art for the sake of movement?

ITA - it drives me insane that they act like these routines must have some kind of story. You know what the story of the ballet boys dance was? WE ARE AWESOME BALLET DANCERS. THE END.

[LadyMustang65]

Liked to loved all the street routines last night.  Liked the first stage routine with Gabby, loved the ballet boys,  and hated that underwear dance - whatever that was supposed to be.  That was just awful awful awful.  I'm pretty sure there was one more stage dance but I have zero recollection of it so it clearly made no impression whatsoever - good or bad.  Aside from Jim, Darian and Gabby, at this point I have zero interest in any of the stage dancers.  So far I'm liking all of the street dancers, even Asaf (but yes, shut up sweetie), but JaJa and Yourelis are probably my favorites right now.  It will be interesting to see how things go next week.

[Whimsy]

I don't understand why Team Stage is heralded for learning choreography when they're from the street, etc.  I mean, Jaja, for example (and probably many of the others) are part of a crew and they obviously choreograph stuff.  That video above proves that.  Obviously, there are some street dancers (like Asaf) who just do their own thing and not someone else's choreo with other people involved but I think that's not the case for a lot of these "street" dancers.  Not to take anything away from it.  I absolutely loved ABDC, which is why I love seeing the cross-over between the two shows.  I just hate the way this show tries to create these defining lines between dancers (every year, not just this one). 

 

Another example is when the judges say "you're a [whatever style] dancer!  I can't believe how well you did [whatever style dance]."  Most "stage" dancers are SO cross trained!  I mean, just taking when my kids did dancing as an example- when they were little ONLY ballet and tap were available.  As they got older, then other styles were introduced.  I know so many kids who take 3 or 4 different styles of dance at the same time.  They go to classes every day of the week, taking different styles throughout that time frame. 

 

Besides all of that- when I was watching I thought the B-boys didn't do that bad considering their limited range until I read the comments here and it made me reevaluate.  Dumbing down the routine for the girls really explains why I didn't love that routine, which makes me sad.  Also, I didn't even notice the boys exiting the stage when the choreo got hard, but by then I really wasn't paying full attention to the episode.  I FF'd quite a bit. 

 

Speaking of FF- I started FF'ing the judges comments less than half-way through so I missed that Paula mentioned the ballet boys' costumes.  I am so glad she did!  At first, I couldn't figure out why their movements seemed off to me.  Then I realized it was the costuming and I couldn't see anything BUT that for the majority of the routine, which is a disservice to the dancers and choreographer. 

 

Another disservice- as we've said year after year- is the camera work.  I know it's not "fancy" or whatever, but this show just needs to have a camera at the front of the stage and leave it there- unmoving!  You have more than one dancer moving over the entire stage.  I hate when the cameras tell me where I should be looking.  I want to see the WHOLE routine!  Sometimes, if I like the routine, I'd like to rewatch and maybe focus on another aspect of the dance myself.  It's harder to do when the camera is all over the place, showing the judges, etc.

[WhineandCheez]

Can someone list the All Stars that were in Jason's number?  I saw Jasmine and perhaps Fikshun--was the tall blonde Kayla??

 

The African American stage dancer in white in the heaven number--her transitions were not good. Asaf-- (I went from loving him to my god he's annoying in 2 weeks)--except in his number, I kept seeing a BBoy being off in the count and assumed it was Asaf--but it was Burim.

 

Those female street dancers- damn they are all good.   I came into it thinking Jaja was going to steal the show, but all of the female streets (Except the one in white I mmentioned above) steal your eye more than Jaja does. The one who said she was Comfort's partner, and tried out in black and white striped tights--she draws your eye right to her like a laser!

Edited July 14, 2015 by WhineandCheez

[luvthepros]

......... the NappyTabs routine KILLED it (did somebody fall off the stage?)

 

The devil and her prey went to hell.....hence jumped off the stage for effect.

[waving feather]

My favorites are definitely Yorelis and JJ (Jessica). All about them right now. They just draw my eyes whenever they are on stage. It certainly doesn't hurt that both are gorgeous. Sadly, I agree that Jaja is not standing out that much among these fabulous female street dancers. Lily is great, too.

 

I have a soft spot for Burim. I enjoy him more than Asaf.

[Wootini]

I have to say that as soon as they all came out for the initial group number, I immediately spotted Asaf and groaned audibly. In fact, every time he was on camera for any reason, I would groan, and I think I started to annoy my husband. Asaf is pretty and hot and really good at what he does, but his arrogance makes it difficult for him to learn choreography. He did okay this week because he was only made to do mostly what he's comfortable with. I just hope that when he completely screws up a Broadway number the audience can look past his face/abs and not vote to keep him around. I just can't stand him. His attitude is terrible. 

 

And yes, the camerawork in this episode was spotty. Also, wardrobe was slacking off this week as well. A lot of the costumes were terribad.

 

Okay, from what Cat said, next week, we're going to mix up partners and styles and it's basically going to be the regular show again? The only way it seems this Stage vs Street battle is playing into it is that instead of getting rid of one boy and one girl each week, they're getting rid of one stage and one street. So it should come down to oh, let's say Jim vs. Virgil for the final two and then they will determine if stage or street wins the season. (I'm just predicting based on my favorites!) On the one hand, I'm a little disappointed that the new format isn't really changing that much, but on the other hand, I'm glad they're not monkeying with the show TOO much. :)

 

I enjoyed most of the routines. None of them were really painful. Well, except for Derulo's singing. I only watched the beginning and the dance break. Once I realized that the masks were making it impossible for me to see who the All-Stars were, I started fast forwarding. But then when more dancers came out on stage, I watched the instrumental dance break, and that was kind of cool. I also was curious to see if he was lip synching. He didn't seem to be. He seemed to be singing live to an overpowering backing track. To be fair, though, Derulo did have some decent criticism as a judge this week. He and Paula really stepped it up now that we're in the show proper.

 

I still don't know everyone's names. The street girls and stage girls are mostly blending together aside from Jaja and Marissa, who I remember because I know her from the last season and Step Up All In and because she's awful and annoying and trying too hard, respectively ;) Jim is amazing, and I also really like Gabby. I threw them some votes last night after the show. Also Virgil. He's like FikShun, but less irritating. (FikShun got on my nerves as the season went on because I didn't think he was as good as everyone kept saying he was.)

 

But boy, Asaf needs to go. Him and Marissa. They can both go next week and I will be SO HAPPY.

Edited July 14, 2015 by Wootini

[Primetimer]

The Top 20 kicks off with strong performances and Nigel lecturing women half his age on the type of sexiness he expects from them.

Read the story

[Carrots4]

 I know it's not "fancy" or whatever, but this show just needs to have a camera at the front of the stage and leave it there- unmoving! 

Agreed. It was especially bad during the number with Jaja, Lily and the b-boys when the camera would focus on each b-boy in turn when they were doing synchronized movements. It wrecked the whole look of the dance. The studio audience loved something, but it wasn't what I was being shown at home.

[crowceilidh]

I don't have any Derulo hate - I think he's a good singer and dancer from what I've seen.  The thing I really appreciate is that he gave advice to contestants that he then had to live up to on stage.  He doesn't act like an epically insane ego-monster, so that had to be a little nervy for him to do. It was disappointing that the stage was so dark that it was extremely difficult to identify the allstars.

[Mertseger]

Yes, Brian, we are all so SHOCKED and SURPRISED that you own stilettos.

 

Wow, some of the camera work was laughable. In one of the first numbers they cut to a long shot and there was a camera guy and his camera wheeling on through the shot. In some of the street numbers, I could barely tell what was going on with all the shots jumping around. In my opinion, the choreographers should be deciding the camera blocking, or it should at least stay consistent. 

 

That was almost certainly a badly timed call by the director. Live shows are difficult, and SYTYCD usually makes them look easy. But the director also blew a return from commercial, though it was interesting that Paula and Cat were also unsure whether it's "Squat" or "Squad". Also some of shots chosen were seriously badly framed. It made me wonder if this episode was the first time in the chair during a live show for whoever was at the helm.

 

Complements to the audience for once: no "Boos" for mildly negative critiques. And kudos to Jason for leading with a genuine critique. He was much better than expected. And Paula is significantly better at critiquing dance than she was at critiquing singing.

 

Edited:  Also, what the hell was Cat wearing?   

 

Indeed, the worst Cat outfit in several seasons. Back to the horrors of S2 even. She is gorgeous and a goddess, but a bandeau does not suit her form at all.  

Edited July 14, 2015 by Mertseger

[kechara]

I thought B Free's criticism of Alexis(?) being too competition was spot on. She was like that in every number. It took away from her ability for me. Also, I remembered while watching (not fondly) the cheerleader routine that Lacey and someone had to do back in season 3. He sure does like the raunch.  eta - might have been DanKaraty.
I feel like Randy on AI- It was just ok for me dawg.

Edited July 14, 2015 by kechara

[OakGoblinFly]

I'm confused with the format too ...... and shouldn't the reverse be true as well;  "force" the street dancers to perform routines that aren't watered down or give them a pass because the "pointed their toes?"  I cannot stand the condescension (or flat out lies) by the powers that be.. 

Edited July 14, 2015 by OakGoblinFly

[MrsMoltisanti]

I was looking forward to the show for many reasons and was mildly disappointed when it was over. I did not need DeRulos performance. Why bother? I would have rather seen Anya and Pasha come back and do something. OR Benji and Heidi with some West Coast swing. Or Danny Tidwell, please!

I think this is the year Travis flies out of my brain finally and drains any little like I had for him all those years ago. Please more Twitch, as he is a more sensible fellow and likeable. I would watch an hour of Twitch riding on a subway over Travis.

I really like JJ. She is my favourite. So far I am not really liking many yet, but perhaps some may grow. Are there any ballroom people at all?

Surprisingly on PBS last night there was a show called Americas Ballroom Competition with Mary Murphy and Tony Sheridan hosting and they are knowledgeable and it made me miss ballroom with a passion. How will this season pull off anything ballroom is beyond me.

I like Paula on this show.

[radiochik]

I was so excited to see Brian Friedman back on the show. I really miss him and Dan Karaty. 

 

The outfits for the ballet number were awful - they were distracting me from the actual routine. 

 

I love Virgil but I hated the Heaven routine.  It didn't showcase any of the dancers abilities and just wasn't good.

 

The only reason I was surprised with Nigel's critique of Brian Friedman's number is that I totally expected his creepy dirty old man side to come out as per usual.  Instead it was an actual critique.  Not bad. 

[ari333]

I too, enjoy Paula very much here. I'd love to see her dance and let Jason sit the hell down. He was doing moves and SHAH! that MJ did (much better) 30 years ago.

 

I had a friend named Asaf (same spelling) and it was pronounced ah-SEF. He was an Arab so maybe that's the diff. Everyone says his (the show's Asaf) name differently and he doesn't correct him which is shocking since he cannot keep his hole shut on other things. His thanking his other 3 group members rubbed me wrong and I don't even know why exactly, but it did annoy me.

 

What is it with the granny panty thing?

 

I loathe that wipe your nose street gesture and anything with body part dislocation. HATE.

 

I liked the all white stage group number bc for me it was Fosse-esque with the snapping and BOOMs... the music and some of the moves. The street group number was very Janet Jackson 1990 Rhythm Nation. but I still liked it.

 

The ballet men are awesome, but sweet baby jesus who dressed them? DEAR LORD.

 

Did Uncle Perv aka Nigel forget to thank the female choreographer when he thanked Chris Scott? Are we, the viewers, too stupid to know that the two men with the same last name are two different men?

 

Please, Show, stop trying to make Megz' eyebrow happen.

 

I think the three ladies did the best they could (considering) with that grind my crotch, here's my vagina, underpants dance... and I'm  no prude by any stretch ever. I understood that they have to wear what they are given and do the steps and direction that they are given.

 

Cat's dress. That is all.

Edited July 14, 2015 by ari333