Favorite Routines

[ThirteenthJuror]

Loved Ryan & Kathryn "Put Your Hands On Me". I think Ryan was the absolute best partner that season and he was the reason that routine went off so well. It shows you how much better Latin ballroom dances can be pulled off when you have one partner in the specialty to help the non specialist out. Ryan doesn't get enough credit from this show and I still find his treatment when he came back as an AS deplorable. They should use him more often.

[ToxicUnicorn]

Season 4: "Elevator" - Comfort was totally the star of this one

YES!  I thought I was the only one who adored Elevator.  It's my all-time favorite opening number.  (I finally got tired of Rama Lama, but believe me, it had a good run.)

Thank you so much for bringing it up.  

 

So good to see Ivan again.  I have always loved him.

[Zuleikha]

I love all the ones that everyone else does, but my one unusual favorite is the Top 20 Cobra Style opening number for S4. I loved the threatening attitude of it, the use of the small groups, the costumes, the synchronized small movements, the music... basically, everything about it. 

 

I also will defend the Fox dance every time. I teared up at that dance, and it was BEFORE I had a child! Sabra and Lacey were perfection with their faces and their body movements.

[romantic idiot]

Loved Ryan & Kathryn "Put Your Hands On Me". I think Ryan was the absolute best partner that season and he was the reason that routine went off so well. It shows you how much better Latin ballroom dances can be pulled off when you have one partner in the specialty to help the non specialist out. Ryan doesn't get enough credit from this show and I still find his treatment when he came back as an AS deplorable. They should use him more often.

 

I disagree a little bit. I think Ryan is a great partner, but honestly, he had the benefit of Ellenore. I think Jakob was the best partner in Season 6, actually - he was saddled with Ashleigh. But, I do agree that the show did not treat Ryan well and I am always glad to have him back. 

[traboule]

I love all the ones that everyone else does, but my one unusual favorite is the Top 20 Cobra Style opening number for S4. I loved the threatening attitude of it, the use of the small groups, the costumes, the synchronized small movements, the music... basically, everything about it. 

 

I also will defend the Fox dance every time. I teared up at that dance, and it was BEFORE I had a child! Sabra and Lacey were perfection with their faces and their body movements.

 

I really enjoyed Cobrastyle a lot too. A nice air of menace, like they're a pack of feral dancers. :) I wish I had found a better quality video of it online.

[ItsHelloPattiagain]

This routine from Season Five was the first to stick in my head (Kayla and Kupono). The expressions on his face just did me in.

 

 

And this was season seven Allison in the group dance - I just loved this whole routine (and all the dancers in this routine)

 

[Xazeal]

The Hummingbird routine with Hok and Jaimie is far and away my favorite of all time. I was completely blown away the first time I watched it.

 

Brandon/Janette's argentine tango and the Butt Dance are also way up there.

[crowceilidh]

Pedantically, I couldn't get out of my head how little the motions looked like any hummingbird I've ever seen and thus, I have never liked it. Must be my Sheldon Cooper side.

[waving feather]

With the talk of Mia as a choreographer in the other thread, I'm trying to think of some of her choreography that are favorites of mine.

 

Danny and Neil Contemporary: Dueling Princes. Now, I wouldn't mind seeing more of this kind of contemporary.

 

Danny and Lauren Contemporary. This is one of those couple contemporaries but it's so joyful! This dance just makes me happy. It's literally a couple frolicking happily, unlike 99% of the things that Travis Wall spits out. And Danny is just stunning! I don't think SYTYCD had a dancer like him since then. All this talk about S11 Ricky Ubeda, he still dances like a young boy but Danny dances like a man.

 

 

Wade also had a lot of brilliant choreography.

 

Neil and Lauren: Angel & Devil Jazz. This was just a fun dance with fun characters.

 

Season 3 Top 18 group dance: It Was All in Your Mind. Still my favorite big group dance routine of all time. I can actually tell dancers apart and it all came together beautifully (unlike S11 Sonya's Top 20 group dance). I never tire of watching it.

 

Season 6 Top 20 group dance: Comanche. So good.

 

Season 5 Top 10 group dance: So Much Betta. The Japanese inspired dance. Just visually interesting and the music choice is awesome.

 

Season 6 Group dance: Aha! The creepy statues coming to life. The musicality is amazing.

 

Mia and Wade definitely had a big hand in making SYTYCD popular back in the day by their choreography. 

Edited July 14, 2014 by waving feather

[Princess Sparkle]

Season 3: "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See" - no idea who is who, but love this one

 

Wade did that routine, and I agree, it was fantastic.  He's my favorite choreographer on the show, and I wish he was still worked with the show.  

 

I also will defend the Fox dance every time. I teared up at that dance, and it was BEFORE I had a child! Sabra and Lacey were perfection with their faces and their body movements.

 

 

I'll defend it with you, I thought the fox dance was excellent, and I remember being appalled at the way Nigel spoke about it on the show.  I mean, if he didn't get it, fine, but no need to disparage it.  I thought Lacey was a standout in that piece. 

Edited July 14, 2014 by Princess Sparkle

[marcee]

Twitch and Katee Contemporary "Mercy" So You Think You Can Dance Season 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DAhDHhDf0g

Still my absolute favorite. I felt their kiss was one of the sexiest on TV - and that routine was super hot and emotionally charged from beginning to end.

[LoquaciousAudacity]

Season 3 Top 18 group dance: It Was All in Your Mind. Still my favorite big group dance routine of all time. I can actually tell dancers apart and it all came together beautifully (unlike S11 Sonya's Top 20 group dance). I never tire of watching it.

 

 

 

This one was actually choreographed by Shane Sparks to Wade's music. One of my favorites too. 

[dcalley]

Season 4: Katee and Joshua were just pure magic. 

"Slow Dancing In A Burning Room"

I like this better with a different song:

[waving feather]

Another group routine I love is the Flamenco/Jazz from season 8 Top 12 choreographed by Kelley Abbey. I love that every dancer was so in character.

 

In fact, season 8 has many good group dances. XR2 by Sonya for season 8 Top 20 is also awesome.

 

Velocity by Chris Scott for season 8 Top 10 guys (the Matrix dance) is very entertaining:

 

Posion and Wine contemporary by Dee (?) was lovely.

 

All in all, I always loved how much the season 8 dancers got into the group dances.

[Alison]

I spent a good portion of my weekend rewatching old routines on YouTube, thanks to this thread, and discovered a few more I'd rank among my favorites:
 

Kherington and Twitch's Viennese Waltz:

Lauren and Kent's "Collide" prom dance:

Janette and Brandon's cha cha:

[SpectreH]

Hi all, so I've been watching the show since Season 2, so I have a ton of favorite routines.  I'm going to go with ones that haven't already been named in this thread.  One of my favorites that is actually not a real routine is Allison's farewell dance in Season 2.  Just the music and the emotion and I remember the shock at the time that she was getting eliminated so early.  She's a popular all-star now and incredibly talented but people forget she barely made the top 10 in her season.

 

Also I think a bit underrated but I really like the Twitch and Kherington Paso Doble.  They did pretty good for non-ballroom dancers in bringing the intensity.

 

I think since Season 4, I have enjoyed Seasons 9 & 10 the most.  I have many routines from those seasons that I like.  

 

S9 Witney and Lindsay's intro ballroom.  That dance had a lot of energy and sizzle.that I found lacking in the Season 10 and 11 intros.

 

I also liked the S9 baseball intro for Brandon, Cyrus, and Cole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TSp7Ivbr98

 

I also liked the S9 routine with Hayley and Dmitri

 

And my last one for now, S10 Edge of Glory with Paul and Mackenzie.

[Alison]

Twitch and Katee Contemporary "Mercy" So You Think You Can Dance Season 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DAhDHhDf0g

Still my absolute favorite. I felt their kiss was one of the sexiest on TV - and that routine was super hot and emotionally charged from beginning to end.

I'm definitely in the minority, because that dance leaves me cold. I love Twitch and thought Katee was beyond talented, but I've always found "Mercy" to be kinda overrated. I get why people like it, but it does nothing for me.

[dusang]

I'm definitely in the minority, because that dance leaves me cold. I love Twitch and thought Katee was beyond talented, but I've always found "Mercy" to be kinda overrated. I get why people like it, but it does nothing for me.

 

I like it but I don't love it.  Quite frankly, as much as I love Twitch, Mia handed him the competition with this and the bed dance with Kherington -- Mia could have destroyed him with technique-heavy routines but instead she gave him personality driven prop pieces that became fan favourites.

Edited July 22, 2014 by dusang

[RachelKM]

I'm definitely in the minority, because that dance leaves me cold. I love Twitch and thought Katee was beyond talented, but I've always found "Mercy" to be kinda overrated. I get why people like it, but it does nothing for me.

I also never really cared for it, despite loving both dancers.

 

It's the same with Bleeding Love.  I loved Chelsie and Mark and have watched almost every other routine either of them did about a hundred times a piece (more for Kiss Kiss and The Garden), but just don't get the appeal.  No Air totally worked for me, but the Bleeding Love love has always baffled me.

Edited July 22, 2014 by RachelKM

[SpectreH]

This raises the question, "What makes a favorite routine"?  Re-visiting all these routines the last couple days got me thinking.  What makes a routine memorable?  For me, I think it's a combination of the music(often the favorite routines use great songs), the movement complements the music, and usually a last X factor of either emotion, or energy, or sexiness(I call it sizzle).  I think people may sometimes disagree on favorite routines because,, either they don't like the music(not everybody loves the same songs), or the emotion did not touch them, or they were unaffected by the other X factors.

[RachelKM]

This raises the question, "What makes a favorite routine"?  Re-visiting all these routines the last couple days got me thinking.  What makes a routine memorable?  For me, I think it's a combination of the music(often the favorite routines use great songs), the movement complements the music, and usually a last X factor of either emotion, or energy, or sexiness(I call it sizzle).  I think people may sometimes disagree on favorite routines because,, either they don't like the music(not everybody loves the same songs), or the emotion did not touch them, or they were unaffected by the other X factors.

Well the revisit to the Mia routines definitely showed that the X Factor is an issue. Though,I think some of what was lost in the execution for the Mia night the excitement and discovery of a new routine.  And that is hard to recapture which is why sometimes even the redos for the finale using the same dancers are not quite as satisfying.

 

But for me, it this it is all of the things mentioned, the music, the choreography, and the performance.  And this last one is a combination of the skill and connection of the dancers, both to one another and the music.  But even when I don't love a song, sometimes the use of it and the performance will elevate it for me.  I've even seen routines to songs I thought I didn't like where something about the performance works anyway.

[Rick Kitchen]

Ivan and Alison's first tango:

 

 

and their second:

 

[traboule]

 

And my last one for now, S10 Edge of Glory with Paul and Mackenzie.

 

They were actually my favorite couple from that season, as much as I loved Team Tall as well. I think this routine really exhibits the fantastic control that Paul and Makenzie have in their dancing.

[SpectreH]

Well the revisit to the Mia routines definitely showed that the X Factor is an issue. Though,I think some of what was lost in the execution for the Mia night the excitement and discovery of a new routine.  And that is hard to recapture which is why sometimes even the redos for the finale using the same dancers are not quite as satisfying.

 

But for me, it this it is all of the things mentioned, the music, the choreography, and the performance.  And this last one is a combination of the skill and connection of the dancers, both to one another and the music.  But even when I don't love a song, sometimes the use of it and the performance will elevate it for me.  I've even seen routines to songs I thought I didn't like where something about the performance works anyway.

 

I agree, the Mia Michaels night demonstrated that quite clearly.  Most of the routines lacked the magic of the original.   I also agree that often the repeat performance in the finale is not as good as the original.  Maybe it is the lack of urgency?  Or the intensity of training for that one performance, instead of 3-4?  Well this is why dancing is an art and not a science.

[waving feather]

One of the most underrated routines that I love is the Tap routine by Aaron & Melinda Sullivan choreographed by Anthony Morigerato to When I Was Your Man. Melinda was brilliant in this. Just the right emotion and her technique and performance were graceful and lovely. The best female tapper the show had IMO. I hope she gets to come back and tap with Zack if he makes Top 10. Aaron was also good but he could be doing less with his face in this routine.

 

http://youtu.be/zIhoO3pue_c

[dusang]

Speaking of "X-factor" -- I'm not sure that this is my favourite dance but I will never forget the total shock I felt when Joshua started moving his hips in this samba:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT_kvDtKv_k

 

ETA: What am I missing on how to embed the videos??

Edited July 23, 2014 by dusang

[Bella]

Speaking of "X-factor" -- I'm not sure that this is my favourite dance but I will never forget the total shock I felt when Joshua started moving his hips in this samba:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT_kvDtKv_k

 

ETA: What am I missing on how to embed the videos??

 

Here's the trick on embedding videos: don't link them as links. Just paste the URL in as if you were doing text.

 

We have a Test Zone where you can play with it. 

 

ETA: Here's your video.

 

[dusang]

Thanks @Bella!

[ToxicUnicorn]

Speaking of "X-factor" -- I'm not sure that this is my favourite dance but I will never forget the total shock I felt when Joshua started moving his hips in this samba:

 

Those shockers - bboy can do Latin, contemporary can do hip hop, ballroom can do jazz - have been some of the most gratifying moments of the series.  I'm a little sad that we've all but lost those as the series has moved more and more toward selecting heavily cross trained dancers.  I mean, have we had any shockers since Alex Wong lost his mind with Twitch?  I can't remember any.  Bring those back! 

 

Then again, I take a pretty dim view of everything S8-10 (to be more accurate, everything since Alex and Billy got injured). 

[LoquaciousAudacity]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcdRtF2urAA

 

I forgot about this dance by Mark and Chelsie. It's a Mia Michaels routine and Chelsie is just a beautiful white fluffball in it. I also noticed Pasha and Anya (!!!!) assisting while Mia was teaching the choreography. That made my heart happy! 

 

Speaking of making my heart happy, the Twitch/Kherington Viennese Waltz. It was just beautiful and the end where he's dancing with her in his arms gets me every time. It makes me think of a father dancing with his daughter, cradling her in his arms. It was just a lovely piece and it flowed beautifully. 

Edited July 25, 2014 by LoquaciousAudacity

[Pemyquid]

So here are some of my favorites that I haven't seen mentioned yet.

Body Language, Pasha and Sara Quirky Jazz with suspenders, one of the first if not our first Mandy Moore piece. We never see anything like this on the show anymore.

Ain't No Mountain, Kameron and Lacey One of the very few hustles ever done on this show.

Lacey made this look great due to her West Coast Swing background (that triple turn ending with her foot on Kam's shoulder that Adam Shankman commented on was straight out of her West Coast swing play book). And Kameron was a fantastic partner, as always.

Falling Slowly, Karla and Jonathan Our introduction to Stacy Tookey. Mature, connected, not to flaily, lovely music and choreography. I'm so glad Karla got to dance this before her untimely departure from the show.

Sincerely Jane, Twitch and Audrey This was the comical hip hop with these two as a bickering undead couple. Audrey did a fantastic job keeping up with Twitch, who is the master of comedic hip hop.

Edited July 31, 2014 by Pemyquid

[Pemyquid]

I hope this link works. This is my all time favorite dance from SYTYCD Australia. Choreo by Jason Gilkinson, who also choreographed Put Your Hands On Me(?)

[dcalley]

So here are some of my favorites that I haven't seen mentioned yet.

Body Language, Pasha and Sara Quirky Jazz with suspenders, one of the first if not our first Mandy Moore piece. We never see anything like this on the show anymore.

I mentioned it! I love it. Did you see Witney and Jenna reenacting it when they were quite young? It's in another thread I will find and then link to here for you.

Edited August 1, 2014 by dcalley

[romantic idiot]

I love this one too. And the thing is, both of them are non specialists doing this. Bgirl and ballroom boy. I can't imagine something like this being down now, which makes me sad. 

[Pemyquid]

Dcalley, a big oops! I really did read the thread, I swear! ; ). Thanks for posting that video of young Witney and Jenna, it's very cute. I feel really old now too...

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Hi all, so I've been watching the show since Season 2, so I have a ton of favorite routines. I'm going to go with ones that haven't already been named in this thread. One of my favorites that is actually not a real routine is Allison's farewell dance in Season 2. Just the music and the emotion and I remember the shock at the time that she was getting eliminated so early. She's a popular all-star now and incredibly talented but people forget she barely made the top 10 in her season.

Heh, I always remember that she barely made the top 10 in her season because it STILL annoys me so much that at the time the judges were so busy pimping Ivan week after week and falling all over themselves to compliment him for not completely failing while basically ignoring Allison who was consistently killing it. I am all for growth, but I don't think dancers like Allison should be penalized because they came into the competition already awesome dancers.

[mojoween]

The "Rama Lama" that Wade danced in himself during one of the finales is my favorite routine of all time. I could not believe how sexy he was and his charisma jumped off the screen, sat on my couch and asked me if I had any chocolate. Rowr.

Amelia quickly lost favor with me but "Lovecats" with Will was so charming. Will really grew on me throughout the season and this routine is when I first took notice. His height helped because I just love tall boys and he really was such a cutie. It also doesn't hurt that the song is perfection.

(I think this is from the finale because all the judges are fancy and there are like five of them)

Edited August 4, 2014 by mojoween

[WarriorGirl]

My favourite of all seasons was Marko's dance with Melanie choreographed by NappyTabs, to "I Got You" by Leona Lewis in season 8. It sends shivers down my spine, especially the kiss near the end. I do not like Melanie, but both of them in this had superb chemistry.

Others are:

"Bleeding Love" by Mark and Chelsie

Woodpecker routine by Miranda and Robert

"Get Outta Your Mind" by Alex and Twitch

"Prague" Opening Top 7 Guys season 8

"I Know It's Over" by Allison and Marko

"Brojstor" by Jordan and Tadd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y85DVLOaTfA

[WarriorGirl]

Anything that Katee did.

Any of Melanie and Marko's routines

Rama lama bang bang (love Wade Robson)

Neil and Lacy's Time

Melissa and Ade doing Tice's tribute to his friend with breast cancer

Lacy and Danny's Samba (some of the best side by side hip actions ever)

Benji and Heidi's black mambo

Kayla (IMHO that season's best dancer) and Kupono's Addiction

and a hundred more that I could list. The quality of the dancers and choreography on SYTYCD has always been first rate.

 

In regard to Kayla, I can still vividly recall Kupono and her reprising Addiction on the season finale (after she had been eliminated) and when it was over, them standing there and getting a thunderous, prolonged standing ovation from the audience and the judges. There was a great camera shot from behind them out to the theater that showed the reaction. It was a striking testament to the the two of them, to MIa and the piece itself but I always felt that it was also an appreciation for Kayla's body of work that season. 

"Addiction" stunned me, it was so good. And I agree, all Marko's dances, both solo and with Melanie (I can't stand her though).

[Miss Dee]

Thanks to you guys, I've been YouTubing videos of Joshua Allen all night. He is my favourite SYTYCD contestant... then, now, and always.

[rollerblade]

If you like Velocity (the Chris Scott Matrix dance), let me introduce you to the Season 7 finale group dance Ra - which I though was better than Velocity. But I'm biased haha. Each of the Top 11 get their spotlight, even Alex Wong in a wheelchair. Love the ending pose where the Top 3 finalists being the ones left standing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfhIm3nzeFw

 

Also a favorite from season 7 - Fame, choreographed by Amanda & Wade Robson.

 

I think the Chris Scott and the Robsons are better choreographers for group dances. Chris Scott especially, his choreo for partner dances are rather cringe-worthy.