World Of Dance - General Discussion

[jewel21]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who hated Swing Latino. They definitely looked like a hot mess. 

JLo and the other juges definitely play favorities and it's annoying. It just makes them look inconsistant and hypocritical. 

[A.Ham]

Eh. I’m going to be the outlier here [unpopular opinion alert] and say I don’t mind the bias. After having watched season after season of contemporary bias on SYTYCD (it may as well be called so you think you can contemporary dance) this is like a breath of fresh air for me. I love Karen y Ricardo, and I would have loved to have seen Brooklyn Dancesport Club, who seemed to be practicing a rumba last week, but their qualifier was not shown or posted to YouTube.

Now, I agree Swing Latino was a hot mess last year, and I would not have scored them past qualifier rounds. Also, I do like some contemporary every now and then—Charity and Andres really impressed me so I hope they do well tomorrow. 

[Zuleikha]

And I'm super happy Eva Igo was eliminated. I just don't think she's a dancer, a contortionist, a rhythmic gymnast, but not a dancer. She really needs a choreographer. The duo that went up against her on the other hand were great.

Avery and Marcus did straight-up classic partner acro moves, so I don't really get this idea that they're fabulous but Eva Igo is a contortionist rather than a real dancer. Eva Igo has contortionist-level oversplits, but she's not doing contortion. She dances contemporary style and incorporates her oversplits. Classical contortion routines look very differnet. I don't think Avery and Marcus fusing in circus elements makes them non-dancers either. Dance doesn't have such rigid boundaries as all that. 

[Tikichick]

I believe the show was filmed in January.  I don't think the filming lasted much more than a week.  So the whole narrative about Jenna or the judges giving "suggestions" about how the contestants have to up the ante in their choreo and performance is just as fake as the idea these competitors select their duel opponents.  Clearly the contestants have to come with X number of routines locked and loaded on day one.

Really drives home just how contrived the Les Twins "injury" plotline was last year.

[Carrots4]

Quote

4 hours ago, Tikichick said:

So the whole narrative about Jenna or the judges giving "suggestions" about how the contestants have to up the ante in their choreo and performance is just as fake

 

Some of the advice seemed relevant to the final routine, such as Jenna telling Michael Damieski to change how he was coming out of a move. Are they just scripting Jenna to suggest things the contestant was going to do anyway? I have no dance background, so I agree this part could be fake, I’m just curious how the suggestions are being faked.

[Rahul]

I think Jenna's suggestions are well-intentioned and pretty spot on, although they may be given far too late to actually incorporate usefully at that point. 

[Tikichick]

23 minutes ago, Carrots4 said:

Some of the advice seemed relevant to the final routine, such as Jenna telling Michael Damieski to change how he was coming out of a move. Are they just scripting Jenna to suggest things the contestant was going to do anyway? I have no dance background, so I agree this part could be fake, I’m just curious how the suggestions are being faked.

 

6 minutes ago, Rahul said:

I think Jenna's suggestions are well-intentioned and pretty spot on, although they may be given far too late to actually incorporate usefully at that point. 

Acts have to be auditioned and vetted by production before getting the chance to go before the judges.  IMO it's painfully obvious there are lines being fed to Jenna and the judges.  Production schedule is way too tight for these acts to be making anything but the smallest of tweaks on the fly.  I have no doubt that's part of the "messiness" of Royal Flux's performance when they legitimately had an injury during production.  You can't reblock a complex team number seamlessly in a short amount of time -- let alone factoring in a limited amount of space backstage.

 I don't buy for a minute that the judges give an act such on target advice about a  routine for the next round and, voila, "You heard what we said and you listened and it was amazing!"

Competitors have to come in with atleast a minimum number of routines ready to run.  They may even be recommended, or simply some are smart enough, to have some spare options in their back pockets.  If nothing else, music clearances are a budgetary factor for the show.

 I was shocked to find out last season just how quickly the entire run of the show was filmed, legitimately about a week's time, possibly slightly more.  I found it perusing NappyTab's Instagram.    

[RomanKat]

1 hour ago, Tikichick said:

 I was shocked to find out last season just how quickly the entire run of the show was filmed, legitimately about a week's time, possibly slightly more.  I found it perusing NappyTab's Instagram.    

I remember it being about a month's time.  Checked back and found this list of taping dates for Season 1 indicating January 16 to February 12.  Per NappyTab's Instagram, taping started mid-January, with the finale taping February 19, 2017.  The acts didn't have much time between rounds, but they maybe had a week???  It's true that the qualifiers were packed into about a week's time, but that was just round one.  Couldn't find a list of taping dates for Season 2, but I think it's similar.

[PhD-Purgatory15]

So, Andres & Charity's routine was WoD perfection? Huh. That's, interesting...

Again, I'm pretty happy with how most of these duels turned out. Definitely on Team Desi Hoppers and Lock N Lol for sure. I wasn't as impressed the second time around with Alisa & Joseph, but I'm still glad they edged out Elektrobots.

Dragon House gave a much better representation of themselves, but it just never really meshed as a trio act. Maybe they should've recruited a couple more members and tried to make a go of it with 5 or even 6.

Last audition episode montage fodder was alive and out the door with Opus Dance Collective (the one girl's face after seeing back to back 80's from NeYo and JLo was just brutal), Three Extreme and the Lil Killaz Crew. The Lil Killaz are great B-boys for their age range, but they had no shot against the group I'm calling as the overall winner already, The Lab. I think the show wanted a young, teen or younger overall winner last year (Eva ended up as the runner up), I they get a young winner or a group of winners this season.

I was wrong, I thought the Rascals from last week would have the sad honor of the highest losing score throughout all the duels. Nope, Vivian Ruiz gets that honor now with a 95.3.

Edited August 2, 2018 by PhD-Purgatory15

[marykat71702]

Well, I didn't realize it was now on Wednseday, so I just now watched last weeks show thinking it aired last night. Oops.

I was really glad that Michael made it--I'm not a fan of the dances that look like the dancer is having a seizure throughout the routine.

Overall, I agreed with the judges' picks, which kind of surprised me. They usually send home the ones I like.

The choice between the Bradas and JaM project was tough. What would have happened if there was a tie, does anyone know?

I am so over little girls giving the "stank eye".

Jlo looked absolutely crushed about Eva being sent home. Personally, I'm glad she did.  Avery and Marcus were incredible.

Karen y Ricardo did have a couple of obvious bobbles that I'm surprised weren't called out. 

[AwesomO4000]

Sounds like it was a good episode... I'll have to wait to watch it on OnDemand, because our local station interrupted almost the entire show for live tornado warning coverage... where the warning is basically "we're serious guys. The conditions might possibly maybe be right for a tornado to maybe form in this small area right here nowhere near where most of you are. And now it's moved over here and still might maybe be showing the conditions where it could possibly be a tornado at some point..." Repeated over and over again for an hour or more. *sigh* I remember the days when a tornado warning meant that there had actually been a tornado seen.

I know, I know... danger and such... but hey, I wanted to see World of Dance dammit!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Upper division:

Karen y Ricardo vs Luka & Jenalyn - This was a good duel because it was two trick heavy couples against each other. Luka and Jenalyn had lots of tricks, which the judges love, but I was distracted by some of their sloppy technique and her unpointed toes. I also didn't like that it was just back to back tricks which made it seem more similar to the cheer stunt division where you see a guy and girl just do stunt after stunt. Karen y Ricardo at least incorporated more dance between their tricks. I also thought they had better performance skills. I'd rather have a better performance with a mistake (with the lift) advance than an average performance that had no mistakes but also didn't do much for me. I still don't think that Karen y Ricardo deserved 99, 99, and 97 scores for that particular performance though.

Pasha & Daniella vs BDash & Konkrete - Pasha & Danielle were polished and professional but I knew that the judges wouldn't score them as high as, say, Karen Y Ricardo because they didn't have as many tricks in their routine. I really enjoyed BDash and Konkrete's routine because they created a story and characters that would have been easy to get even without the carnival background that the show gave them. One of the things I liked is that they showed you don't have to have wall to wall tricks in order to keep the audience's interest. You can entertain by combining dance and story (but without an angsty backstory which we often see on SYTYCD).

Michael Dameski vs Angyil - Michael's routine was typical contemporary (angsty flailing interspersed with rolling around on the ground and some average tricks). After two routines, I think I've seen everything we're ever going to see from him (which is how I feel about Eva Igo too). Angyil was fun to watch and at least with her, I didn't know what to expect. The way I decided the winner of this duel was similar to what the Project Runway judges often ask: who do I want to see more of? For me, the answer was Angyil. I think she's better at what she does than Michael is at what he does.

Upper team division:

Bradas vs JaM Project - I wish the Bradas hadn't wasted so much time with the red scarf prop. They used it multiple ways which is a small bonus, but it just went on too long. I noticed one of them didn't have a cane at the end so I don't know what went wrong there, but I felt that prop was unnecessary too. Their dancing is good enough that they don't need the distractions of multiple props. They were really clean and had good energy so I wish they had used more of their time just dancing. I took tap as a kid but it's not something I love to watch. Despite that, I really liked the JaM Project in the qualifiers so I was looking forward to this match up. I felt like they were trying just a little bit too hard and that ended up taking away from how good they are. I know it sounds counterintuitive to non dancers, but sometimes if you try too hard, it throws you off by a millisecond which then makes the group look slightly unsynchronized. For me, this was the only really tight race in the duels because both groups were pretty evenly matched.

Junior division:

Eva Igo vs Avery & Marcus - Eva did what she always does, which is an angsty contemporary routine with a bunch of flailing and tricks. My nitpick about Avery & Marcus was the gratuitous use of pointe shoes. She didn't do much en pointe so I felt like it was an attempt to get a few extra points. Their routine felt a bit frantic and had an everything but the kitchen sink vibe, like they just threw in everything they could think of. Still, I'm fine with Eva being eliminated because if she had moved forward to the next round, it would have been the same tricks with a different costume and a different song.

Junior team division:

Untouchables vs Expressenz - I am still not a fan of the Untouchables. As Len would say, there was too much faffing about with the sheet. Just dance already. On a shallow note, I hate the name of Expressenz and ugh, another contemporary routine, but this one was well done and they were smart to include the requisite fouette sequence because that's always a crowd pleaser (and much more deserving of audience applause than when Michael did a double pirouette).

Rascals vs Fabulous Sisters - One thing I appreciated is that the Rascals went with simple costumes that were not crop tops and booty shorts. I know that's de rigeur these days, but I like when dance groups are confident enough in their dancing that they don't feel the need to have tight/short/revealing costumes. Yellow sweatshirts and regular jeans? To me that says they know their dancing speaks for itself. I also liked that they didn't feel they had to pack the routine with nonstop tricks. They had some crowd pleasers in there but they also had some awesome grooving. I thought the Fabulous Sisters were good but not great during the qualifiers, but I liked this routine much better. They created some lovely shapes during the intro and I liked the choreography for about the first 1/3 of the routine. They lost a little bit of steam in the middle bt brought it back at the end. This was the only other duel of the night where I wasn't 100% leaning towards one team. I would have been fine with either of them going on to the next round.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

marInspired - Upper (85+87+90=86.7)

Desi Hoppers - Upper Team (90+90+91=90.3)

Charity & Andres - Junior (100+100+100)

Lock N LOL Crew - Upper Team (89+89+90=89.3)

Royal Flux - Upper Team (86+89+90=88.3)

Opus Dance Collective - Upper Team (80+85+85=85.3)

Elektro Botz - Upper (85+85+91=87)

Alisa & Joseph - Upper (88+87+88=87.7)

LilKillaz Crew - Junior Team (84+87+86=85.7)

3 Xtreme - Junior (86+89+88=87)

Vivian Ruiz - Junior (95+96+96=95.7)

The Lab - Junior Team (95+95+95=95)

Dragon House - Upper (85+84+90=86.3)

Sean & Kaycee - Junior (95+93+92=93.3)

Edited August 2, 2018 by ElectricBoogaloo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

For some reason, the World of Dance youtube channel didn't include these two performances. I'm not sure how long these will stay up since they're not officially posted:

Bradas (90+90+89=89.7)

Pasha & Daniella (85+89+91=88.3)

Edited August 2, 2018 by ElectricBoogaloo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Front row: Expressenz

[GaT]

Even FFing through everything but the actual dances & the scores, this show is too long.

WTF was Jennifer wearing? It looked like some kind of wacky ballerina outfit.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Upper division:

Alisa & Joseph vs Elektro Botz - I liked Alisa & Joseph this week but I didn't love them. I felt the same way about the Elektro Botz. I gave a slight edge to the Elektro Botz because I found their routine slightly more entertaining.

MarInspired vs Dragon House - I want to like MarInspired more than I do, but it's just typical angsty flailing contemporary. The most interesting them about them that sets them apart is that it's a male duo. They had a few cool partner tricks but most of the routine was run of the mill contemporary. Dragon House did better this time around than they did in the qualifiers but I still found them a bit lackluster.

Upper team division:

Opus Dance Collective vs Desi Hoppers - Opus Dance Collective was relatively clean but boring. They had a cool partner lift but other than that, this was just average for me in choreography, formations, execution, etc. I found the Desi Hoppers much more entertaining. They had lots of interesting formations, level changes, and transitions. They could tighten up the synchronization a little bit, but they were the winners of this duel.

Royal Flux vs Lock N LOL Crew - The first half of Royal Flux's routine with all of the lifts and stuff seemed too labored, overly complicated, and kind of messy. The dancing in the second half seemed a bit too simple. I liked the Lock N LOL Crew better. They managed to be synchronized even with a lot of people and I thought their fans were an effective prop (unlike some of the props we saw in the first week of duels). I thought it was ludicrous that Lock N LOL Crew's score was barely higher than Royal Flux's score.

Junior division:

3 Extreme vs Sean & Kaycee - 3 Extreme was pretty clean and in sync but I found myself wanting more. What I really liked about Sean & Kaycee is that they obviously have a great partnership. Even when they aren't looking at each other, they are clearly aware of each other and so in tune with each other. I thought their choreography was better than 3 Extreme's so props to Sean for being such a talented choreographer at such a young age!

Vivian Ruiz vs Charity & Andres - I liked Vivian more than I liked Eva last season, so there's that. Although I am definitely not a fan of flailing contemporary, I liked about 80% of her routine. What I really like is her control. Sometimes with flexible dancers, they're more like rubbery Gumby dolls who just throw their legs around. Vivian has great control with her flexibility. I also loved her slower fouette turns. Some dancers whip them around quickly because the momentum helps them to keep rotating, but slower pirouettes and fouettes require control and technique. I also liked the fun personality she showed when she looked right at the judges. I also loved her toe point. I am so tired of seeing dancers with lazy feet. There was too much flinging in Charity and Andres' routine. Between the hair flinging, the arm flinging, and the partner flinging, I wasn't a fan. I also thought some of it was a little sloppy. I would have put Vivian through instead of Charity and Andres. They definitely did not deserve three 100 scores for that routine.

Junior team division:

The Lab vs Lil Killaz Crew - The Lab was so clean and full of energy. This was their best performance on the show yet. If they can bring another routine like this for the next round, they will be set. I thought their routine in the qualifiers was clean, but this one was definitely a cut above that. From a distance, you wouldn't even know it was a junior team (well, except for the two shortest kids). The Lil Killaz Crew is pretty good for a kids' group, but unfortunately that isn't good enough at this level of competition. Most of the other competitors in the two junior divisions don't get the caveat that they're pretty good for their age because they aren't just good for their age - they're just good dancers period. I'm not saying the LKC is bad or anything. They're just not up to the caliber of a lot of the other junior contestants. Their breaking is fine but the other stuff is not great so I'm not sure if they aren't good at non-breaking stuff or if they just need a better choreographer. Whatever the case may be, the Lab was the clear winner in this duel.

Edited August 2, 2018 by ElectricBoogaloo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

The top qualifying acts from each division chooses a rival for a head-to-head elimination battle.

Original airdate: 8/8/18

Edited August 9, 2018 by ElectricBoogaloo

[saber5055]

I think I agreed with the judges again this time, except about that 100 perfect score for Charity & Andres. Even I saw several missteps before cutaways to the judges' AMAZED! faces. Even without those slight goofs, I didn't think the routine was "all that."

I loved The Lab. I also really liked Alisa & Joseph. Those two were maybe my favs of the night. For both of them I stopped what I was doing to watch and enjoy. All the red lighting really helped The Lab.

LilKillaz Crew was boring as was Opus Dance Collective. I vote Opus as the worst of the night. Maybe Royal Flux tied with them for worst, but I quit watching them, they were so boring. And the routines aren't that long! If I start daydreaming during any dance, I know it's not that good.

I loved Desi Hoppers too. So that makes three favorites I want to see go to the end. The rest were okay, and I was glad Dragon House stepped it up some from their previous episode.

This season I think is better than last, especially now that Eva Igo (ugh) is gone.

[atlantaloves]

Did Alisa and Joseph get through for the next round? We had a 30 minute weather storm warning right after they finished and I didn't get to see. Somebody let me know.  MANY THANKS GUYS!

[jewel21]

Once again I agreed with the judges and all my teams went through. Two weeks in a row, who would have thunk it?

I really enjoyed Desi Hoppers and The Lab. 

I also really liked Vivian Ruiz and was sad to see her go, but I did think her competition was better. No good enough to get a perfect score, though.

And I believe Alisa and Joseph did go through, atlantaloves.  

[CelticBlackCat]

17 hours ago, marykat71702 said:

I was really glad that Michael made it--I'm not a fan of the dances that look like the dancer is having a seizure throughout the routine.

I forgot to give my two copper pennies that I like Michael D. and did not appreciate the "dancing" of Angyil.  I don't get how standing with almost no footwork and spazzing out is called dancing.  I'm Team Michael all the way!

[BuckeyeLou]

Yes, Alisa & Joseph did go through, I really enjoy them.  My favorites of the evening were DesiHoppers, they are so innovative & unique.  I did not think Vivian Ruiz's purple leotard was very flattering on her body.

[suebee12]

Just finished watching and I am tired of seeing the judges in the middle of the routine...I don't need to see their reactions...I want to see the dancing! Also, I would still like to see the complete scores broken down.

[atlantaloves]

Yes yes yes, I am so happy that A and J got through, there was a similar act last year that were totally robbed, this gives me a little hope.  Those guys are real dancers. Thanks Buckeye. 

[luvthepros]

Why are the top qualifiers of each division choosing who to duel? IMHO, the duels should be paired as such: top qualifiers duel the next highest scorers, 3rd scorers duel 4th scorers, 5th scorers duel 6th scorers, etc. Doesn't that make more sense than to have qualifiers who scored much higher than their chosen qualifier to duel? Seems very unbalanced to me.

[luvthepros]

17 hours ago, GaT said:

Even FFing through everything but the actual dances & the scores, this show is too long.

WTF was Jennifer wearing? It looked like some kind of wacky ballerina outfit.

I'm FF through everything but the scores to see who advances. I will only watch one or two actual dances. Michael D was one, Karen Y Ricardo and I will watch Denys and his wife when they finally duel. Other than those acts, I'm bored with this show. Bring on SYTYCD.......soooo much more exciting.

[PhD-Purgatory15]

It's a little bit of a no-win situation for the show. You either have the highest scoring acts battle the lowest (1 v. 16, 2 v. 15 etc etc) and have tons of blowouts like the Desi Hoppers over the Opus Dance Collective, or you have like scores battle each other which totally screws over the higher quality groups and individuals.

So my guess is they give each of the higher scoring acts a choice between like 2 or 3 lower scoring acts they can choose between (Maybe. Maybe they have even less choice than that). And then in that way they can manipulate the matchups to an extent, and hopefully get a few duels where it's legitimately up in the air who might win (like the Elektrobots v. Alisa/Joseph duel).

I did find it interesting, that when Marinspired was asked, they said they chose Dragon House (the lowest scoring qualifier in their "bracket") purely because they were the lowest score on the board. You'd like to think that was honesty, but possibly after those groups who scored higher than Marinspired got their picks out of the way, maybe Dragon House was just the one act from the bottom of that leaderboard left. Just spitballing though, I don't have any bts info on this :-)

[marykat71702]

Yowza. There was some impressive dancing tonight!

Again, I'm pretty much ok with the ones who stayed.

I feel bad for Vivian. If she had gone against anyone else, she probably would have made it through.

Marinspired--I'm kind of on the fence about this one. While I understand that dance tells a story, I watch dance to escape what's going on in the world. 

The Lab--the one boy reminds me of Cameron Boyce from the Disney Channel. They were good.

The Desi Hoppers were fun to watch.

While I enjoyed Joseph and Alisa, his cockiness bothered me a little bit. There's confidence, and then there's arrogance.

[lampwick]

Okay, I’ve watch Lock N LOL Crew about 12 times now.  The musicality in that performance was off the charts.  That’s what dancing on the beat looks like, and I loved it.  I even loved the song/music.  Bad song choice can sink some of these performances.  Either dance on the beat, or dance on the off beats, but these dancers who commit to a routine and then pick a song afterwards do themselves a huge disservice when it doesn’t match up.  

[spanana]

I'm just here for Sean and Kaycee.  I don't expect them to win and this show bugs to no end how you only see a dancer once every so many weeks, but I find them a breath of fresh air and I love how they work together and how in sync they are in just about every capacity.  They really match each other well.  I don't know if Sean is a prodigy, but this kid is going to be a pretty big choreographer at some point.  He already has half of the big name choreographers in the industry behind him and Kaycee is no slouch either.  These two have done some great routines together, better IMO than they have done on WOD so far (which makes sense considering they are taped and sometimes they have others choreographing for them).   My favorite is their recently posted Tessandra Chavez video they recently did.

[PhD-Purgatory15]

So, animation/popping is more than just spazzing out. When it's done really well it can be breathtaking.

 

I thought Angyil was a good, not great soloist in her style and her routine felt a little unfocused. She relied a little too much on full-body pops for my taste. But to me, Michael D. is the epitome of why I just can't get into contemporary dance. Twenty seconds of rolling on the floor to start, multiple times where you grab your head (going crazy) or your heart (going to die), reaching out with a clenched fist (to fight the man or the universe), random leaps to nowhere in particular, and yes some visually interesting gymnastic moves.

Edited August 6, 2018 by PhD-Purgatory15

[ElectricBoogaloo]

@spanana - FYI there's a separate thread here for the contestants' non-WOD performances :)

[CelticBlackCat]

^ I got 0:30 into your posted video about how animation/popping is done right, and got bored.  Even Michael Kim admits it's not accepted as totally legitimate by some people.  Sorry, it's not something I enjoy watching or appreciate from a perspective of talent.  Diff'rent strokes and all that.  :)

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Confessional: Charity & Andres

Confessional: Alisa & Joseph

Front row: Sean & Kaycee

Rehearsal: Charity & Andres

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Move of the week: marInspired

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Marissa & the Heartbreakers vs Poreotics

[PhD-Purgatory15]

This was an interesting set of duels.

Jax over Lucas. There was no way Lucas was winning this. Selfishly, I'm okay with this....because that means Second to None (a teen tap trio) are the last tappers standing. Maybe that forebodes a win in a duel (probably not, but I can hope since I really liked their full Ytube audition).

Jonas & Ruby over Freshh. Wow, I don't think Derek covered himself with glory on this one. He scored the two acts a full 8 points apart? Way to bring that ballroom bias into the mix dude. Do I think J & R should've won? Yeah, but it should've been by a pretty close margin like how NeYo and JLo scored it.

Poreotix gave like a B- performance by their standards and it was still enough to beat the Heartbreakers pretty comfortably.

The Ruggeds over Pursuit, I wonder if they got a "stature" bump because they apparently have pretty good credentials in World B-Boy competitions. I wasn't really a fan of Pursuit in either performance so The Ruggeds getting the win doesn't bug me too much....but they've shown no ability to really put together a B-Boy team routine that is going to get them much more than scores in the mid 80s.

I wonder if the trio was really set up for the Cub Cakes to win, but then Flip came along and literally put down a performance that the judges didn't think they had in them across the board.

Connection over Funkywunks, really the quintessential 6 of 1; half dozen of another duel. I would've been perfectly fine with either team moving along. By the last duel, it feels like most hip hop visuals have already been done by somebody earlier in the two hour episode...so other than the run across the back move that Funkywunks came up with, nothing really stood out as a wow moment. Just solid, in sync dancing for the most part from both.

Edited August 9, 2018 by PhD-Purgatory15

[GaT]

Bunch of boring dances tonight.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Can we please turn off the judges' microphones during the routines? I am so tired of hearing them yell, "HEY!" while someone is dancing. STFU, judges. It's bad enough that I have to listen to their useless and asinine comments after the dancing. I don't need to hear them interjecting DURING the performances too. When Derek loudly said, "I love this song!" at the beginning of Jonas and Ruby's routine, I wanted to slap some duct tape over his mouth.

Upper team division:

Poreotics vs Marissa & the Heartbreakers - Poreotics gave an okay performance (with a fun beach concept) but I still liked it better than Marissa and her backup dancers. I think both groups have a lot of potential but Marissa is so stuck on being the star of the show that she isn't giving the rest of the group the opportunity to shine and that's really holding them back. Poreotics needs to really improve their choreography or they will be going home in the next round.

The Ruggeds vs Pursuit - The Ruggeds were clean for the most part. I liked that they took the judges' previous critiques and added more dancing between breaking tricks. Their transitions were also more natural (as opposed to trick, walk to new formation, trick, pose). I liked their old school costumes. But most of all I liked that we really got to see their personalities. On a shallow note, I hated everything about Pursuit's costumes: the blah shade of purple, suits with bare feet, and just the fact that the suits hid their lines and seemed to hinder their movement at certain points (unlike FLIP who seemed totally unhindered by their suit jackets). I didn't love their choreography and I really did not like that sequence in the middle with the group lift. It went on too long and wasn't an impressive stunt, especially considering how long it went on. I had to laugh when Pursuit was asked why they chose The Ruggeds for their duel and they said they didn't realize that The Ruggeds had won international awards until afterward.

Connection vs Funkywunks - In the qualifying round, I thought Connection was good but not AWESOME. I thought they really improved here. Their choreography and personality was much better this time around. I disagree with Jennifer - I liked their song choice. It was fun and gave them a lot to work with and they used it well. I love that Funkywunks picked a 90s theme and fully embraced it without making it a total joke. They were synchronized as a group and clean with their movements. This was the one of the few match ups tonight that was close. In the others, one group was clearly better or their dance styles were so different that it was like apples and oranges, but in this case they were dancing in a similar style and were pretty evenly matched. The cynical part of me suspects that the judges kept Connection because they are trying to keep several of the international teams for the next round.

Junior division:

Jaxon Willard vs Lucas Marinetto - The camera work during Jaxon's perfomance was terrible. ZOOM OUT, FOR FUCK'S SAKE. This is World of Dance, not World of Face. This routine was a great example of how a dance can have a story behind it but is still great BEFORE we are told about the concept (unlike, say, that Las Vegas dance which had a touching story but a crappy dance). I am not a huge tap fan but I felt so bad for Lucas doing that light upbeat routine against Jaxon's "my dance was about my anger toward my birth mother" routine. I knew that short of Lucas doing the best tap routine EVER, he was not going to be able to beat Jaxon due to the judges' emotional reaction.

Jonas & Ruby vs FRESHH - Jonas and Ruby are that great combination of amazing dancers AND amazing performers. They have the technique and the flashy tricks, they know what will get a reaction from the crowd, and they know how to sell a routine. FRESHH was also great. They definitely took the judges' request to show more personality. They were all having so much fun and they were fun to watch. Like Funkywunks, they totally committed to the 90s choreography. I think if they had gone up against someone else, they would have made it to the next round because they were clean, synchronized, with great transitions and formations (especially considering how hard it is to do interesting formations with only four people), AND they're an international team (Canada), but there was no way the judges were going to eliminate Jonas and Ruby. I wish we could have kept both of them.

Junior team division:

FLIP vs Cubcakes vs Dem Raider Boyz - I thought the threeway duel was a little bit unfair, but I guess they didn't have a choice. FLIP was really clean (and I'm really glad they knocked the Cubcakes out of the competition) but I kept waiting for the choreography to crescendo. They seemed to stay at the same level for the entire routine though which was a little disappointing. I loved their black and white striped pants which emphasized their clean lines and looked sharp against the backdrop. I almost turned off the Cubcakes routine after only ten seconds because this is the shitty kind of kiddie competition dancing that I hate with the fire of a thousand burning suns. The constant overexaggerated facial expressions, the visibly horrible technique, the "sassy" attitude, the 40 pounds of extra glitter - just no. The fact that one of the dancers injured herself right before the performance surprises me not one bit because when you teach little kids how to do tricks with shoddy technique, you're just asking for injuries. I would guess she hurt herself doing a bad back handspring. The girl they had doing back handsprings during the routine made me cringe too. If you're going to teach these skills to CHILDREN, you need to teach them proper technique. It just makes me so mad when I see these little kids doing tricks with bad technique. I liked Dem Raider Boyz but they just weren't clean and synchronized enough. Their arms weren't always at the same angles and their timing wasn't always together.

Edited August 10, 2018 by ElectricBoogaloo
Typos

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

In this round, the top qualifying acts from each division will choose a rival and face off in a head-to-head elimination duel.

Original airdate: 8/15/18

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Upper team division:

Poreotics (86+89+88=87.7) vs Marissa & the Heartbreakers (82+85+85=83.7)

 

The Ruggeds (85+84+85=84.7) vs Pursuit (80+84+83=82.3)

 

Connection (85+86+85=85.3) vs Funkywunks (84+85+86=85)

 

Junior division:

Jaxon Willard (97+98+93=96) vs Lucas Marinetto (86+89+89=87)

 

Jonas & Ruby (90+90+94=91.3) vs FRESHH (90+88+86=88)

 

Junior team division:
FLIP (90+88+93=90.3) vs Cubcakes (88+88+88=88) vs Dem Raider Boyz (86+84+86=85.3)

 

 

[HerkyJerky]

I LOVE seeing So You Think You Can Dance alumni on this show!  Emily last week, Ruby this week, and it looks like Rudy will be on next week...

[WhineandCheez]

Quote

Marissa and her backup dancers.

I hate how they keep pleading for acknowledgement because they do everything "in 5 inch stilettos."  Obviously it's their decision to add that stripper-vibe by performing in high heels (at least they aren't acrylic platforms). Kudo to the poster that said it's all about Marissa and not enough being a team.

I felt bad for the crew against Ruby and partner.  They were very good too, and since there were many of them, many more opportunities not to be in sync. Anyone else ever get the idea, whether from here or from SYTYCD, that Ruby's Dad is a whip-cracker, all work all the time kinda guy??

Cubcakes got a ridiculously high score for being out of sync often.  Cute little stank faces are mostly what they were about.

The dumbest thing I ever heard was JLo and Derek complaining to one crew that their music was too good.  God....

Edited August 9, 2018 by WhineandCheez

[saber5055]

Again I agreed with all the judge decisions except Funkywunks. I liked their routine better than the winner, the theme was a hoot and kept me watching through the whole thing. Watching, smiling and getting a kick out of the Hammer music. Derek said they goofed up a trick, like the guy was suppose to hit a pose but didn't. How did Derek know that? Maybe because the judges see all these routines before the show so they can decide/be told by JLo which ones to vote through?

Alrighty then.

Marissa and the Heartbreakers at least wasn't so stripper-ish this time, but WTH with JLo dwelling on how hard it is to dance in heels. Since all ballroom women dance in heels, and this year on AGT a group of breaker MEN are dancing in heels. Meanwhile, the "spider/sprinkler" move is so creepy, all it made me think of was demon possession and I expected her to spew green vomit as her back legs danced around her head. Just a big NO to that move unless you're auditioning for the next Exorcist movie.

Then the judges encourage the Cubcakes to continue with their stank face mugging. Gah. Stank isn't going to be so cute when they get OLD.

Felt sorry for the tapper guy. He was good but no way was he going to beat The Beautiful Jaxon. But he made it this far, so good on him for that.

Is Derek required to jump out of his seat and show everyone how to perform some dance move EVERY week? Yeah, I guess he is.

I was a big fan of the black-and-white striped pants. They stole the show.

Edited August 9, 2018 by saber5055

[Whimsy]

9 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

The fact that one of the dancers injured herself right before the performance surprises me not one bit because when you teach little kids how to do tricks with shoddy technique, you're just asking for injuries. I would guess she hurt herself doing a bad back handspring. The girl they had doing back handsprings during the routine made me cringe too. If you're going to teach these skills to CHILDREN, you need to teach them proper technique. It just makes me so mad when I see this little kids doing tricks with bad technique. I liked Dem Raider Boyz but they just weren't clean and synchronized enough. Their arms weren't always at the same angles and their timing wasn't always together.

Exactly.  Based on the editing of the show, she was doing some sort of tumbling and hurt herself.  My daughter was a cheerleader for 8 years and we went to TONS of competitions.  This is why cheerleaders are strictly prohibited from tumbling/stunting unless they're on mats.  Also, I've seen so much bad tumbling technique at these competitions that when I saw that girl tumble all I saw was frog legs.  I'm really glad Cubcakes didn't make it to the next level, honestly. 

[Lily H]

I despise precocious and annoying children, so a hearty BUH-BYE to the overrated Cubcakes and their stupid stankfaces.  FLIP was fantastic.

[WhineandCheez]

Did anyone think J Lo looked 20 pounds heavier in that weird outfit?  her arms especially.  My Bf, who follows no media and knows nothing, walked by and said, "Is JLo pregnant?"

And why is Jenna so incredibly stiff?  She carries herself like she's made of steel.  And FLIP stole her pants.

Edited August 9, 2018 by WhineandCheez

[Lunula]

On 8/2/2018 at 3:11 AM, GaT said:

WTF was Jennifer wearing? It looked like some kind of wacky ballerina outfit.

I was wondering WTF Jenna was wearing. Seriously, every single time I see her on this show I feel like they need to fire wardrobe. Everything looks too small, ill-fitted or plain ugly. I can't remember one outfit she has worn in 2 seasons that I thought was flattering on her...which is saying a lot considering she has a rockin' body.

[Lunula]

I am not understanding why we have these categories for the dancers of "Upper" and "Junior" as well as "Upper team" and "Junior team" if there is only one prize in the end?

Second, why do we have Jenna watching the acts and giving her advice when they clearly have already completed their choreography and aren't going to change anything based on her critique? So much time wasted on this show...

Finally, I am not typically a fan of solo performances on this show - but Jaxon Willard is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

Edited August 9, 2018 by Lunula