S13.E07: The Next Generation: Top 10 Perform + Elimination

[Tara Ariano]

Quote

The Top 10 dancers perform again, but this time one of them will be eliminated.

[calipiano81]

Still no posts?!

I am actually loving this season. The kids are amazing, and other than them being kids, I feel that the performances and choreography have been up to par with the adult seasons.

Plus, there is so much more dancing! It used to be, for the first 4-5 weeks of competition, the contestants only had one duet and the group number. The first week, the kids each had a duet, 2 group numbers, and a solo. This week, they had 2 duets, the group number, and a 30- second dance with their All-Star! (Why are they working these kids so hard?!)

On top of that, I always love having the All-Stars. 

So really, the only thing that's been disappointing to me about this season has been the minimal viewer interest and discussion about the show (which for me is usually an integral part of enjoying a show like SYTYCD).

[jackjill89]

I've really enjoyed the show. The eliminations are going to be difficult. These are kids. I know they compete and have had their share of losses, but to lose on live TV, that's rough. 

I've never been a big Maddie Ziegler fan. I think she is completely overrated. Her dancing in Sia's videos was right in her wheelhouse and emotional range. I feel like these kids could mop the floor with her, so her standing there watching rehearsals and giving advice seems ridiculous to me. 

[Primetimer]

The elimination stage is upon us. Which means that for every adorable dancer, we'll get one heart-wrenching elimination. Gotta start somewhere.

View the full article

[pally]

Wasn't the whole idea was that the all-stars were supposed to be mentors?  Then why are we not seeing them interact in any meaningful way with the kids.  Why is Maddie in the rehearsal hall giving lame advise instead of their mentors?

[The Hound Lives]

I watched my first full episode yesterday. I caught some of the auditions and was one of the people who bemoaned the kids angle. I can't say these kids aren't talented. What an impressive group of young talent. Unfortunately, it's just far too Nickelodeon for me. The corny little clips with the kids, the cheeseball mugging for the camera. I know they are kids and I do LOVE children but I guess I don't want to see them carry a show in prime time. Again though, they are talented and adorable (some of the time). 
With that said, the "All Star" performance (modern take on Romeo/Juliet) was HORRIBLE. Perhaps the single worst group performance I have ever seen on this show. It was so disjointed and lazy. Awful. I don't know who these All Stars are, I haven't watched regularly in a few years but that didn't showcase anyone's talent. 

I am glad I gave it another go, to see some actual dancing, but I'm checking out. The quality just isn't the same and hasn't been in a few seasons but with this new gimmick, I really, really don't care. The Emmy snub isn't surprising.   

Edited July 19, 2016 by The Hound Lives

[spanana]

While as a viewer I liked the amount of dances, I think they might have some kid breakdowns on the horizon.  A couple of people that do interviews with the show said that the kids are all already exhausted and were feeling the stress of having two dances this past week, plus short solo.  Also more dancers means lower quality dances IMO.

I thought the same on the lack of mentors last night.  Don't get me wrong in that I don't particularly want to see the mentors as I don't even like half of them, but I was expecting that we would at the very last see them advising their kids in the backstage clips.  Where instead we mostly saw the choreographers.

I didn't have a problem with the kids themselves, but I hate that judges mostly refuse to judge because they have to handle the kids with kid gloves.  I don't want to see them be mean and there were a few critiques last night, but mostly they just tell everyone how amazing they are. 

The other issue I have is you can already see the blatant producer manipulation.  The choice kids that the show wants to stick around get the choice pairings and the others don't.  It was no coincidence that the two most expected to be in the bottom last night, and were, were paired together.   You can also see it in who they choose to critique and who they don't. 

[Loves2Dance]

Honestly the show is just boring---I struggled to get through the first set of dancers before I sighed and realized there were more. I'm not saying the kids aren't talented---they absolutely are, but it gets boring and repetitive. They're also not very different in their clips, which is what broke up the adult version---they're kids, they're happy, they cry, they laugh...the end. 

As for who went home, I felt like her styled dance was awful. I would have never thought that was her style given the lackluster choreography and performance from her which is amazing because when we saw the reel I remembered liking her in auditions. Top 3 imo is gonna be Tate, Kida and Jordan/Emma; Top 2 Tate and Kida, Winner Tate

Anything else and I'd be surprised. 

[Keekski]

2 hours ago, jackjill89 said:

I've never been a big Maddie Ziegler fan. I think she is completely overrated. Her dancing in Sia's videos was right in her wheelhouse and emotional range. I feel like these kids could mop the floor with her, so her standing there watching rehearsals and giving advice seems ridiculous to me. 

AMOTHERF*CKINGMEN.

[spanana]

40 minutes ago, Loves2Dance said:

Honestly the show is just boring---I struggled to get through the first set of dancers before I sighed and realized there were more. I'm not saying the kids aren't talented---they absolutely are, but it gets boring and repetitive. They're also not very different in their clips, which is what broke up the adult version---they're kids, they're happy, they cry, they laugh...the end. 

As for who went home, I felt like her styled dance was awful. I would have never thought that was her style given the lackluster choreography and performance from her which is amazing because when we saw the reel I remembered liking her in auditions. Top 3 imo is gonna be Tate, Kida and Jordan/Emma; Top 2 Tate and Kida, Winner Tate

Anything else and I'd be surprised. 

I think Tahani will be there at the end.  Not winning necessarily but I could see her in the finals.

Edited July 19, 2016 by spanana

[sofiah]

I liked it.  What a great bunch of kids.

Emma is absolutely adorable, and so is Tahani.  Tate was surprisingly good at hiphop. I think Tate and Emma are my frontrunners.  I love Jordan but I am not super impressed by her dancing, but as a contemporary dancer she's kind of got the stiffest competition in her genre (with Tate).  I'm looking forward to watching her in other genres.

I thought Maddie was better this episode then last episode.  I actually don't have a problem with her judging -- she may not be a better dancer then these kids (although she is probably a better lyrical/contemporary dancer then most of them - with the exception of Tate) but she still knows what constitutes good/bad technique.  I would actually enjoy her commentary more if she focused on that more then always talking about "the amazing connection" and "going to that place".  

[Tikichick]

I agree with much of the comments.  The kids are talented.  That alone isn't going to bring the performances that I tuned into the show for.

Waaay to much Maddie Ziegler for me.  Previous comment was right that she doesn't have the chops to be critiquing these kids, several of whom are far above her level of skill.  She's clearly having trouble coming up with much to say and the producers are clearly falling down miserably on feeding her critiques which she stumbles to spit out.  Left on her own we're left with a litany of amazing or the cringe worthy yours guys.  Step it up, producers.  Can she go help Jason out on whatever gig he's working, because she brings nothing to the show, nothing.  If budget is tight, make the cut.  She's not building up your audience I'm sure. 

Twitch brought something great to the panel, not only his million dollar personality, but some real critique the kids can use to actually grow.  That should be a goal of good critique, especially when dealing with kids.

Last week the show was forced to pimp the All Star game yet again, an effort which failed by the way, and this week they had the kids schilling some squirrel cartoon.  If the network decides to revamp the show to target the senior market we'll have them pushing the Depends at us next.  Gee, makes me want to tune in so very much.  Not.

Daniela must have been quite the problem in rehearsals if they put it in the package and it was enough for them to move off of their clear intent to boot Shaeden(sp?).  I did notice she could not be seen at the very end of signoff, either hidden in the pack or sobbing offstage already, not standing next to Cat to wave a sorrowful goodbye.  I wonder how that problem is going to be addressed ahead of next week?   The kid format really reveals the producer manipulations in a way the old format managed to keep the thinnest of veils from revealing the wizard at the controls.

My show just can't go out this way, it just can't. 

[spanana]

I do think they are going to have to figure out a better way to handle the eliminations.  I was thinking that Masterchef Jr. handles their eliminations pretty well, but the difference is they never eliminate one kid at a time.  They always eliminate two so the kids don't have to walk out alone and they have someone else to lean on.  Plus it's a taped show.  They aren't being eliminated in front of a studio full of audience members.  It's taped, there is no audience watching, and they can always let the kids calm down and then go back to film some talking heads or something.  This is just so immediate.  I'm just thankful they didn't reveal the bottom two until the end and at least spared the kids having to carry that stress throughout the whole show.

[Tikichick]

1 hour ago, spanana said:

I do think they are going to have to figure out a better way to handle the eliminations.  I was thinking that Masterchef Jr. handles their eliminations pretty well, but the difference is they never eliminate one kid at a time.  They always eliminate two so the kids don't have to walk out alone and they have someone else to lean on.  Plus it's a taped show.  They aren't being eliminated in front of a studio full of audience members.  It's taped, there is no audience watching, and they can always let the kids calm down and then go back to film some talking heads or something.  This is just so immediate.  I'm just thankful they didn't reveal the bottom two until the end and at least spared the kids having to carry that stress throughout the whole show.

I noticed elimination wasn't mentioned until they announced and I was wondering if they might have a bye week to allow them more exposure, but then they went into elimination right at the very end.  It's a very hard thing and the older contestants get emotional, so I expect it to be harder with kids.  I'm sure all contestants are more emotional anyway simply because the competition itself is flat-out exhausting.  It is interesting they're having the kids do so much dancing from the start.  Makes me wonder how they're going to fill the episodes as the number of contestants shrinks.  With prior seasons that's been when they add dances.  I think especially with kids they're likely at their limit already.

[realdancemom]

Daniela did start to cry when they announced her name but then we didn't see her.  Cat ended up talking to Jonathan.  So she might have went backstage.  I did like that they kept emphasizing that these 10 were chosen over thousands of kids.  As others mentioned, I knew Shaeden and Daniela were going to be in the bottom.  Then when they were paired up, i didn't know if they were going to eliminate two this week.  I guess that would have made a very short series since there are only ten of them.   Does that mean there will be a trio next week?  I'm guessing that Daniela was cut since she was having difficultly picking up her own style.  She also has a shy personality and they seem to want outgoing kids.  Also, Ruby and her are similar but I do think Ruby is better.  Even though, there is another hip-hop boy, Kida and Shaeden have different styles.  I think Shaeden is out next week anyway since he is one of the few that the judges give critiques. 

I did like how instead of solos, it was duets with the All-Stars.  These kids are talented but last week, some of their solos were weak.  It seems like the All-Stars helped choreograph the duets.  I really like Jordan's and Sasha's.  Glad Sasha chose her since the pair is different from Kathryn/Tate. 

These kids are definitely cross-trained.  As Nigel and Twitch mentioned, in the adult version, a lot of the hip-hop people didn't have studio training so they were only great in their style.  I can say the same thing about the strictly ballroom contestants.  It seems like all these kids can pick up choreography.  You can tell the difference when it's not their specialty, e.g. JT with hip-hop and Tahani with the jive.  But overall, there are no trainwrecks or obvious dumbing down of choreography.

It seems like TPTB are rooting for Tate and Kida.  I think Kida is a little overrated.  He's great in his style but I'm not convinced in other styles yet.  Tate, OTOH, was fantastic in hip-hop.

ETA - The All-Stars must be in some of the rehearsals.  We did see Marko talking to Daniela when she wasn't feeling confident even though it was her genre.  Jonathan was there too.  I think the All-Stars are mostly there so that the kids feel comfortable.  I think that's why Maddie is there too since she's about the same age.

Edited July 19, 2016 by realdancemom

[Tikichick]

Tate was quite a surprise in hip hop, at least for me.  Knowing how strong her ballet training is I thought hip hop might not be such an easy fit for her, but she nailed it.  Of course she got the reminder to "get down in the pocket more".  I wouldn't have a problem with the critique if she hadn't have killed the number.  I can see that's a holdover from their playbook to ding the "trained" dancers and praise the daylights out of the "street" dancers for their surprising abilities.  Come on, they were playing that game season four with Comfort -- who had trained in ballet and other styles quite a bit by that point.  Cannot stand that little manipulation of the audience.

I will say the choreographers are doing a great job and some of them seem very energized and inspired working with the kids, so that's refreshing.

[MillyVanilly]

As expected the elimination was sad, I was glad they did it very quickly and then (hopefully) allowed Daniella to go and get a hug from mum/dad backstage. I thought she always looked a little bit scared in everything she had danced so I was not surprised. She also had 0 attention during the week in the academy and I figured she was probably "fodder" (she is of course exceptional and wonderful and dances beautifully, no doubts there but in terms of this season in particular she was not in the spotlight and I would have been surprised to see her continue on).

I am highly surprised that I am liking Jenna's little mugger a lot. He was my favourite last week AND this week. How? Their jive was my favourite routine of the night. I like the tapper girl too, she is a spunky little thing and she is very cross trained and a giving partner I thought - she made her duets look a lot of fun.

Maddie Ziegler's empty eyes haunt me. It is particularly bad in the clips at the studio when she has been fed lines... children of the corn like she recites "you need to save some energy for the end". I feel mean because she is what - 14? But the child is so very stiff and uncomfortable! At the live shows she is no more and no less bad than Paula "you attacked that with a lot of attack" and Nigel "I think you did well outside your style" (nevermind that the casting alone weeded out all of those not able to do well outside of their style). Twitch is awesome and I will miss him next week.

I still think JT will ride his cuteness to the top 3 probably with Tate and... maybe Kida (though I thought he was the weakest boy this show, particularly in the jazz number). My personal top 3 as of right now is probably Tate, the mugger (Jake?), and the tapper (closely followed by Tahani). But I am fickle and this may change by next week.

[crowceilidh]

The show is surprisingly tolerable (especially if you ff through the judges as I do).  I agree that the allstars number R& J was a mess.  I wonder if they'll split the allstars into smaller groups as they need to fill more time.  There is a pleasant amount of dancing in this version.  I still would rather watch older people dance, but the kids are pretty good.

As the allstars and their contestants are dancing together in every show, I think they probably get a lot of mentoring time in even if we're not seeing it.

I'm not really liking any of the male contestants - Tate and Jordan and Tahini are all faves at the moment, but I'm willing to switch.

Loved Cat's outfit - the change to pantsuits reads strangely to me, but Cat looks awesome in them.

The cross promotion drives me batty.

I didn't like Twitch's attempts to make quotable quotes.

[WhineandCheez]

No one is mentioning Ruby.  I think she's the winner. She and Paul could become partners today, she's very mature looking and so is her dancing.  I predict future Anya-type greatness from her.  Daniella looked like a little kid with toothpick legs next to her.  I think they axed Daniela as a reaction to her pro partner's (name?? who is he anyway) ridiculous man-braid.

This thread is no fun to snark on anymore.  How much snarking can you do on kids and still sleep at night??

[Grandma Saracen]

Jordan's winning me over with her personality; I liked the way she and Ruby danced together - they're a study in contrasts (personalities, styles), but it really worked.

Damn, Jake's charms are working on me. Meh. He and Tahani are a little much together, but I like her, too. 

Tate's dancing is always beautiful. I like what she and Kida bring out in each other, but he's not a favorite.

Emma seems so much like someone I might have grown up with - a very familiar face. I like her personality and the way it seems she's willing to work hard at multiple styles. 

[calipiano81]

2 hours ago, WhineandCheez said:

No one is mentioning Ruby.  I think she's the winner. She and Paul could become partners today, she's very mature looking and so is her dancing.  I predict future Anya-type greatness from her.  Daniella looked like a little kid with toothpick legs next to her.

Ruby and Paul are my favorites! (Although it's a little bit by default since Paul is one of my series' favorites). They are well-matched and I love watching them dance together...who would've thought we'd be seeing good ballroom this season?

And from what I've seen so far, Ruby is looking quite versatile. So yeah, she's my pick! Although, not unlike the adult seasons, her maturity amongst super cute kids is likely to end up hurting her in this competition...

Edited July 20, 2016 by calipiano81

[Blueeyedgirl]

The show is much better than I thought -- I'd still prefer the 18-30 year olds, but this isn't bad.  I am impressed by these kids.  Technique is so much better than I thought it would be.  And their ability to remember so much choreography, especially the younger ones, is phenomenal, really.

I think JT is cute as a button, and he clearly has great chemistry with Robert -- and looks like his mini-me -- but he is too young.  He has incredible technique, but incredible technique for an 8 year old, and I feel like I am watching a dance recital when I see him dance.  A really good recital, but a recital.  For goodness sakes, he still has baby teeth!

What happens now with the all-stars as the contestants are eliminated -- are they off the show, too? 

[realdancemom]

10 hours ago, calipiano81 said:

Ruby and Paul are my favorites! (Although it's a little bit by default since Paul is one of my series' favorites). They are well-matched and I love watching them dance together...who would've thought we'd be seeing good ballroom this season?

And from what I've seen so far, Ruby is looking quite versatile. So yeah, she's my pick! Although, not unlike the adult seasons, her maturity amongst super cute kids is likely to end up hurting her in this competition...

I really like Ruby and Paul too.  Paul was also my favorite male during his season.  I was rooting for him and Jasmine.  I'm also happy with the ballroom this season.  It's a lot better than last year with adult contestants.

I also think Ruby is versatile.  I feel bad for her.  When I watch some of her clips on youtube, I see a lot of comments stating that Paul made a mistake and should have chosen Sophia.  Ruby is the right choice for Paul.  Sophia matches more with Kathryn but she has Tate.  IMHO, Tate is better than Sophia.  Another thing against her is that some people do feel uncomfortable watching her dance sexy with Paul.  They are not trying but that's just Latin dancing.  I do think that Jean Marc could have chosen a different song last week but I loved their dance.

I don't want to knock down Daniela either.  She has long legs and is very flexible.  During her audition, she showed that she has beautiful arched feet too.  I'm thinking that she is taking or has taken ballet along with Latin ballroom. 

[tessat]

I haven't watched the show since the auditions because I don't like eliminating kids in front of an audience but wondered how things were fairing and decided to watch the dances on youtube. I really enjoy the dances but couldn't believe how awkward Maddie looked at the judges table and then she opened her mouth. I wish her well but she's definitely not well suited for this type of role and exposure. I came here to see if others have expressed their thoughts and see we're all pretty much in agreement.

[BensBritches]

Quote

This thread is no fun to snark on anymore.  How much snarking can you do on kids and still sleep at night??

I was coming on here to say something similar. I think this thread/board isn't very active because a lot of folks defected and others just don't find that its fun to snark on little kids. Plus, the dancing is better than I expected it to be and the kids aren't overly obnoxious at this point... but...

I'm still bored with this show. First, I believe all the kids are crossed trained, so there really isn't too much "out of their genre". I'm not at all surprised when one of the kids does well in a style that isn't their main focus, so that takes something out of the whole point of the show for me. The notion of dancing out of their genre has always been greatly exaggerated on the "real" SYTYCD, but it seems silly to even go there with these kids.

SYTYCD-adult version has always been filled with eye candy, both male and female-  there was always someone to lust after for me... so taking that aspect of the show away has really reduced my interest, no matter how good the kids are.

But what I'm bothered most by is the fact that all the pairs of all-star/kid had to be along racial or ethnic lines. It's really offends me. Like a white contemporary dancer couldn't mentor a black one, or a Latino ballroom dancer couldn't mentor a Russian/Eastern European one... If this was designed all along to be a "mini me" contest, then I guess that would be different, but I am just bugged by the whole process of how the kids were "picked" by the all-stars. Even if they aren't going to be dancing with their all-stars much anymore, I can't move beyond it. That's just my own bugaboo, but it's taken a lot of my enjoyment out of the show.

And Nigel, I am pretty sure it's "Key-dah" and not "Kid-dah", but you know, go on with your bad self mispronouncing people's names! Everyone else on the panel called him "Key-dah" didn't they?

That's enough negativity from me for one day!

[Tikichick]

I don't believe for a minute the All Stars did the selecting of the contestants.  We got a mini me comp because the producers thought it was a neato idea guaranteed to appeal to the audience.  Um, no.  It's part of what ripped off that whisper thin veil hiding the people at the controls behind the scenes.  It insults the audience's intelligence.

Unfortunately for Maddie the fact that she very publicly stepped away from academics to focus entirely on dance is really being laid bare in her stint at the judges' table.  

[EVS]

One of my reality competition show pet peeves is when there are 4 judges. Too much time is wasted listening to 4 people saying the same thing. It is even worse on this show because there is less constructive criticism, imo.  Between that and the annoying interviews/cross promotion, the show is too long for me. I ff through quite a bit of it. 

I am also concerned that they are going to burn those kids out too quickly. I think they are learning too many dances each week. 

Nigel briefly mentioned that the teams picked their partners and dances from a hat. I believe they picked the dances, but the partnerships seem to 'perfect' for me (height, personality, etc) to be random. Maybe I misheard that part. 

Finally, for me the girls are stronger than the boys overall, but I had a feeling a girl would go home first since there are already more girls than boys. 

Overall, the show isn't as bad as I thought it would be though. There are some very talented dancers. 

[Tasya]

I have a different opinion of Maddie, but that's not surprising since most on this forum seem to hate her from Dance Moms. I think she's doing fine, she's a kid in the midst of adults and if she came off the same as them I think that wouldn't be good. My pre-teen niece loves her on the panel and fast forwards through the other judges but stops for her. She also really loves Maddie in the rehearsals. She's as coherent as Jason and Paula so I don't get the criticisms on what she's saying to the contestants. None of them are offering real advice on what these kids can do to improve because it's certain that not all of them have been as good as they have been praised to be. 

As far as the contestants, before the show started I was predisposed to like Kida because of his very sad back story but he has this smug vibe that is really turning me off. I am loving Jordan, Tate and Ruby with Tahani coming in fourth place. I'm over JT and his cuteness and Jake and Emma are not doing anything for me. I think that the producers would like to see a final 5 of JT, Tate, Ruby, Kida and either Jordan or Tahani. I'd sub in any of them for JT though because I just can not take him. 

[Adusk81]

Things I am liking:

Tate. She is pretty much perfect. She should and probably will win this. She is a few steps above the other good ones and shouldn't even be on the same show as the others.

The Ruby/Jordan pairing. I really liked both of their numbers. They are quite talented. I'd say the best two behind Tate.

The JT/Robert dynamic. It's really captivating almost in a lion king kind of way. It seems so genuine.

The Emma/Gabby dynamic. It's adorable. It may not be amazing but it's damn adorable and makes me smile. 

Kathryn/Tate. Very powerful pairing that should take the whole thing.

Sasha/Jordan. Second most powerful pairing that I'd be happy to see take the whole thing.

 

Things I am not liking: 

standing ovations. Just stop it. We get it, they're kids. Stop handing out trophies for showing up. It's cheesy as can be.

Maddie whatever. Useless. Why is she there? Can she say a sentence without amazing or you guys in it? She's really upping the cheese factor.

Plugging ice age like it has anything to do with the show. Now we have spam on the show. Lovely. 

Paul/Ruby. She's great. I like him. The two together is beyond creepy and I'm surprised it's allowed. 

JT without Robert. Kid is a mess of flapping arms and weird hip swinging. It just isn't good. At all. 

Kida's overratedness. He's not that good. Why is everyone pretending he's that good? 

Shaedon.

Jake.

 

Other thoughts:

Jonathan is so damn sexy. I'm sad he's done. 

Tahani is boring but has potential. 

Jenna looks like she might slash your tires if you cross her. 

Twitch is so much better than Jason.

burritos are delicious.

[phoenix780]

It really is just kind of OK. Nothing too irritating, nothing that stellar. I wish it wasn't an hour because of potential burnout (as a viewer, too). Or if it's two hours I'd like to keep them all around and give points or something (which I'd also like for the regular version to keep filler to a minimum). 

Point is, that's kind of all I got. It's pleasant enough entertainment, just not worth talking about yet, imho. 

[Lemons]

1 hour ago, Tasya said:

I have a different opinion of Maddie, but that's not surprising since most on this forum seem to hate her from Dance Moms. I think she's doing fine, she's a kid in the midst of adults and if she came off the same as them I think that wouldn't be good. My pre-teen niece loves her on the panel and fast forwards through the other judges but stops for her. She also really loves Maddie in the rehearsals. She's as coherent as Jason and Paula so I don't get the criticisms on what she's saying to the contestants. None of them are offering real advice on what these kids can do to improve because it's certain that not all of them have been as good as they have been praised to be. 

As far as the contestants, before the show started I was predisposed to like Kida because of his very sad back story but he has this smug vibe that is really turning me off. I am loving Jordan, Tate and Ruby with Tahani coming in fourth place. I'm over JT and his cuteness and Jake and Emma are not doing anything for me. I think that the producers would like to see a final 5 of JT, Tate, Ruby, Kida and either Jordan or Tahani. I'd sub in any of them for JT though because I just can not take him. 

I agree about Maddie.  She was cast for the kids in the audience, not the adults.  She speaks like an ordinary 13 year old, not a mini adult.  

I thought the girl who got voted off was good tonight.  That little one, JT continues to look like every boy in an all girl dance studio at the yearly recital.  Terrible.  Tate needs to loosen up her posture for hip hop, otherwise she can probably excel in every style.  jordan has such great potential that I like watching her.   Tahini killed that jailhouse break dance.   The boys aren't as interesting to me and are kind of annoying.

[calipiano81]

Quote

Paul/Ruby. She's great. I like him. The two together is beyond creepy and I'm surprised it's allowed.

Why is it difficult to appreciate the technical elements and artistic movement of Latin ballroom dancing like we do for all the other dance styles? Because I'm pretty sure that's what Ruby and Paul are focused on.

Honestly, I think it's all mental. If nothing was known about their ages, I don't think anyone would find them creepy.

Edited July 21, 2016 by calipiano81

[Cuatro1234]

When they first announce the Top 10/AS pairings, I was also bugged by the racial matching.  The pair that didn't match was Joshua/Sheadan, and they got rid of Joshua. 

I have to commend the costumes tonight.  I thought  they were almost all terrific.  I liked how the ruff or collar of JTs non-Broadway costume made him look taller, I loved the African jazz costumes and how they showcased the movement with the fringe-y shoulders and sleek but colorful lines, I loved the bright pop of the solid colors in Tate's and Kida's Jazz routine and how the lighter color on Kida helped him stand out (sometimes darker-skinned dancers get a little lost on the stage).  I loved how the girls' outfits were fun and fit the styles without being too sexy.  The only miss for me was the darker purple dress on Jordan when Ruby had the lighter blue.  Again the skin tone issue; I'd have switched them. 

I also think that the choreography, since it can't all be boy/girl love story at this age, was fresher. 

I would have loved to see Jakob Carr in that prince/princess Broadway.  Sigh.  I loved the Jakob/Ashleigh Mandy Moore cane routine in their season. 

My favs are Jordan by a long ways, Tate, Kida, and Jake despite his annoying pasted-on smile.  Second tier: Ruby, Tahani, Emma, Sheadan.  Ready to see JT go now. 

Edited July 21, 2016 by Cuatro1234
Because it's Kida, not Kids

[Tikichick]

We can't blame the producers for the absence of Joshua.  Joshua's behavior and legal issues are responsible for Joshua not participating any longer.

[realdancemom]

5 hours ago, Tikichick said:

We can't blame the producers for the absence of Joshua.  Joshua's behavior and legal issues are responsible for Joshua not participating any longer.

This.  Also, Ruby and Paul are not the same racially.  He's Armenian. 

ETA - I also believe Gabby said she is Cuban and Emma looks Caucasian to me. 

Edited July 21, 2016 by realdancemom

[Anothermi]

36 minutes ago, realdancemom said:

This.  Also, Ruby and Paul are not the same racially.  He's Armenian. 

LOL!!

[spanana]

Quote

Nigel briefly mentioned that the teams picked their partners and dances from a hat. I believe they picked the dances, but the partnerships seem to 'perfect' for me (height, personality, etc) to be random. Maybe I misheard that part. 

I don't believe any of it was random.  The pairings, certainly not.  Because look at the pairings...we had JT paired with Emma, who is the smallest girl.  We had the two who unfortunately were cast as fodder, and who the show knew were in the B2, paired together.  All kids were paired with someone of comparable size.  Nor do I ever really believe the dance assignments are random.  They give the stronger assignments to those they want to stick around.  No different than usual SYTYCD shenanigans outside of the kids probably do believe it's all random.

Unfortunately the other thing that didn't help Daniella is I'm sure there are a faction of fans who are voting more for their favorite all-star than anything remotely having to do with the kids--particularly at the beginning.  While I know Jonathan from his work on here and DWTS and various other projects, he wasn't on SYTYCD long enough as a contestant to make any sort of lasting impression on viewers. He doesn't have that built in SYTYCD fanbase.  He's mostly known to fans of the Chmerkovskiys on DWTS because he used to be very involved with that whole crew and if any of those people ARE watching, they are probably giving more support to Jenna, who is Val's supposed girlfriend/friends with benefits or whatever they may be at this particular moment in time.

As for less comments, yes, I think it's harder to snark on kids and be able to live with yourself.  I also think the show just doesn't pull that many viewers.  It's only bringing in about 2.5 million viewers per week so must see television, this is not.

Tahani looks like an older version of Riley Curry, as in Steph Curry's little girl.

Edited July 21, 2016 by spanana

[Cuatro1234]

In terms of racial "matching," I doubt any of the pairs TRULY match completely, but they look similar.   Also, let's hear it for more racial diversity than probably any other Top 10!

[Tikichick]

28 minutes ago, Cuatro1234 said:

In terms of racial "matching," I doubt any of the pairs TRULY match completely, but they look similar.   Also, let's hear it for more racial diversity than probably any other Top 10!

???  I don't think this show can claim racism as one of their historic flaws or faults.  Remember, those All Stars come from their past pool of contestants and winners, and most of them have been employed with the show a time or two since their competition stints. 

[Cuatro1234]

No, but it's been a long time complaint that some groups, such as women of color, have been under-represented. 

[realdancemom]

45 minutes ago, Cuatro1234 said:

No, but it's been a long time complaint that some groups, such as women of color, have been under-represented. 

I think the show tries to divide contestants among gender and dance genres first.  Since Season 1, the cast has been racially diverse.  Season 1 had eight female contestants.  Three of them were women of color:  Melody, Destini, and Sandra.  If you count Kamilah (not sure what race she is), then you have a fourth. 

[Blue Plastic]

I'm trying to hang in there.  Some of the kids are really good but others are still very small and don't match up well with their All-Stars or their fellow contestant partners (the girls are almost all significantly taller than the boys) and of course it's even more out of balance visually when one of those tiny little boys is dancing with a grown woman.  Robert's little partner looks like an itsy bitsy pet when they dance together.

Watching each child make a joke and talk about that animated movie was downright painful.  I kept trying to fast forward but my Tivo is not very resopnsive so I think I missed some stuff I actually might have wanted to see just because I was trying to avoid the cutsie kid interviews.  Spare me, please.

Then of course the little girl who got booted was apparently devastated and mysteriously disappears from the screen.  If these kids are going to be in dance, they will have to get used to rejection I guess.  I didn't see the part where she was having difficulty learning steps in her own style, but I thought she was better than Shaeden in the actual performance.  Also Tate way outdanced Kida (actually Fikshun is outdancing him too).  It looked to me that there was a move he just completely gave up on during the pink and yellow dance, but nobody said anything about it during the supposed critiques.

Edited July 22, 2016 by Blue Plastic
Punctuation

[Mason]

On 7/20/2016 at 1:48 PM, BensBritches said:

And Nigel, I am pretty sure it's "Key-dah" and not "Kid-dah", but you know, go on with your bad self mispronouncing people's names! Everyone else on the panel called him "Key-dah" didn't they?

 

Yeah, Niggle, say it right!!

[Tikichick]

17 hours ago, Cuatro1234 said:

No, but it's been a long time complaint that some groups, such as women of color, have been under-represented. 

Those complaints are baseless in regards to this show IMO.   Has to be one of the most diverse casts in all of television.  

[ElectricBoogaloo]

It's definitely harder to snark on little kids, but I am just so disappointed in this season. I'd say there are maybe three or four contestants who dance maturely and then everyone else makes me feel like I'm watching a spring recital. I think maybe if the minimum age had been raised to 12, it might not have been quite as bad. JT is definitely too young for this level of dance. His technique is not great and he doesn't finish his movements. Whoever compared his performances to the one boy in the studio recital nailed it. He's getting by on cute but his skills and the maturity of his performance are just not there. Similarly, the jailhouse jive was a fun idea but between the dance level and the performance ability, it was like watching a recital number where I found myself thinking how much more I would have enjoyed it if I could see older/better dancers doing the choreography.

Off the top of my head, Ruby and Tate are the frontrunners for me. They are the most mature dancers and they seem the most capable outside of their styles of dance.

And Nigel, I am pretty sure it's "Key-dah" and not "Kid-dah", but you know, go on with your bad self mispronouncing people's names! Everyone else on the panel called him "Key-dah" didn't they?

This REALLY annoyed me. There are only ten contestants. The judges have been watching them for several weeks. There is no reason why any of the judges should be mispronouncing someone's name at this point. It's not like this is the first day of school and Nigel is reading a list of brand new names from the roster. It's even worse because the other judges and Cat ALL pronounced Kida's name right before Nigel did. If you're going to coddle these kids and give them barely any constructive criticism because you feel the need to bolster their egos, pronouncing their names correctly seems like the least you could do. It's really fucking rude to keep mispronouncing someone's name. Heh, Mr. EB has a (somewhat joking) theory that the British deliberately mispronounce words just to be dicks (watch any British show that involves cooking and you'll hear the way they pronounce French and Italian words like pasta). Nigel is doing nothing to dispel that!