Previous Seasons: Dancing into the Past

[Turkish]

I would add Chelsie to the group of great female ballroom dancers. She was only 18 when she was on the show, but she danced with such maturity and sophistication, and her hip/leg action was out of this world.

Yeah, I loved Chelsie too. 

[crossover]

I like Chelsie and Lacey too but I wouldn't put them in the same category as Anya and Iveta when it comes to ballroom.  I'd be happy if they got more of the Chelsie types and less of the Brooklyn types.  The ballroom dancers should be accomplished in ballroom.  Even I could see that Brooklyn wasn't polished enough during her audition.  I was surprised that she was chosen.  And let's face it, SYTYCD is becoming more SYTYCD contemporary.  So in order to have competent ballroom dancers for the top 10, they need to be able to do contemporary and be able to fake hip hop,

[ToxicUnicorn]

I happened across Robert Muraine's audition and realized that most of my favorite auditions have come from the guys (plus Mary Poppins) who have done "hip hop".  I can't remember them all over the years.  I think it all started with Bryan Gaynor's robot.  Does anyone else come to mind?

 

 

 

Oh, how could I forget Philip Chbeeb - Anothermi linked his latest in the Where Are They Now thread (top of page 3), which should be required viewing for everyone in the world.  Holy smokes.

[WarriorGirl]

Marko and Tadd from season 8 were amazing!

[Anothermi]

From the Top 18 Perform - Two Eliminated thread

 

realdancemom, on 27 Jul 2015 - 10:16 AM, said:

Yes, I was thinking that Mandy uses a lot of 80's music so that's why I thought she was the one that kept using Celine.  I didn't even realize that Mia used Celine that much.

 

I would have thought that Season 2 would be rife with Celine songs - because Mia was choreographing Celine's Vegas show and the "grand prize" was a spot in said show, but it only had one Celine song for the Lauren & Danny contemporary routine by Mia.

 

Season 4 was the Over Kill on Celine songs (thankfully the last time so many were used):

 

Mia did one -  the Top 5 Girls routine to Ave Maria

Tyce did one - Katee and Joshua with that great leap where he caught her mid-air split

Jean Marc did one - for tWitch and Kerington's Waltz

 

and both Katee and Courtney (different episodes) used a Celine song for their solo.

 

There was a well earned break from Celine until Season 8 when Mandy Moore dared to bring her back for a Caitlyn/Mitchell duet and Jason Gilkison used one for a Ricky Jaime/Anya duet.

 

The next season (9) we got her again because The Bench was reprised for the All Mia, All The Time episode.

 

The last Wikipedia entries with Celine's name beside them were in Season 11:

Mandy's 2nd use in a duet for Tanisha/Rudy, and

Jessica Richens used one for a solo

 

Maybe she's been banned?

 

Don't hold your breath.

 

 

 

 

 

[ToxicUnicorn]

I got to wondering: who are some past contestants you really liked who never got to show their true potential?

Definitely agree with S8 Nick Young.  I was looking forward to watching him get to the finale.

[displayname]

How does classical technique measure up among contestants across the series? Was Travis really as good as the judges said he was (I don't think so)? Who is the best among Kathryn, Lauren F. , Ellenore, Kayla and Jeanine? Who shouldn't have made the finale, or even the show? Is Lex really one of the best ever?

 

I love learning more about the dance technique that the contestants display, so I would love to hear the experienced/knowledgeable members pick apart the contestants that the judges raved about (or add their own praise!). For example, Amy wasn't nearly as good as the judges said she was, to my eyes, because she never seemed to really go for that extension, and had a poor centre.

 

I would love to hear about Hip Hop and Ballroom technique, too!

Edited August 31, 2017 by fan94

[pally]

IMO, Danny Tidwell, Chehon, and Alex Wong had the best classical techniques among the men.  Chehon won the competition, Alex would have won if he hadn't been injured, and Danny should have won but MIa Michaels disliked him and made it known.

[realdancemom]

Danny definitely should have won his season.  I was really sad when Alex was injured because I think he would have won.  For classical technique, Chehon also had great technique.  But, I didn't think he was versatile.

Out of Kayla and Jeanine, I think Kayla had the better lines, extension, and flexibility.  Both of them were versatile.  I know that Jeanine was good with turns because of her finale solo.  But if I remember correctly, so was Kayla.  So technically, I think Kayla was better.  But Jeanine was my favorite because of her personality and performance ability.  Eliana was a beautiful classical trained dancer.

Ivetta is one of the best ballroom dancers that they've had.  But she looked older and the audience doesn't seem to connect to older ballroom females. 

[luvthepros]

I'm not a dancer and don't pretend to be an expert but.....Danny Tidwell has to be the best technically trained dancer to appear on this show. He should have won his season, IMHO. Eliana is the best technically trained female to date on this show. She is a stunning dancer, as is Danny.

Just now, luvthepros said:

 

[Zuleikha]

I'm not good enough at ballroom to say authoritatively, but to my eye, Kiki does seem to be one of the best, if not the best from a technical perspective. He's very precise with his body.

[romantic idiot]

15 hours ago, Zuleikha said:

I'm not good enough at ballroom to say authoritatively, but to my eye, Kiki does seem to be one of the best, if not the best from a technical perspective. He's very precise with his body.

I know, right? I've been loving how sharp he is. And so precise with his arms and his hands. It's pretty cool. I'll have to drag out Pasha to see how they match up.

[displayname]

I guess this is an unpopular opinion: Tyce is one of the best contemporary choreographers on the show. Not Broadway or Jazz, but definitely contemporary. I can think of several routines in the past seasons which were one of the best routines of that season (Season 2's Why, Season 4's Silence, Season 5's This Woman's Work, his Season 9 dance with Kathryn and Chehon, Ne Me Quitte Pas from Season 11). And I loved his routine for Cyrus and Kaylee this season (14).

Edited September 14, 2017 by fan94

[realdancemom]

3 minutes ago, fan94 said:

I guess this is an unpopular opinion: Tyce is one of the best contemporary choreographers on the show. Not Broadway or Jazz, but definitely contemporary. I can think of several routines in the past seasons which were one of the best routines of that season (Season 2's Why, Season 4's Silence, Season 5's This Woman's Work, his Season 9 dance with Kathryn and Chehon, Ne Me Quitte Pas from Season 11). And I loved his routine for Cyrus and Kaylee this season (14).

I really like Tyce's contemporaries too.  You mentioned really good ones.   Agree about not liking his Broadway and Jazz.

[displayname]

6 minutes ago, realdancemom said:

Agree about not liking his Broadway and Jazz.

I will always remember the travesty he choreographed for Lauren and Allison in season 7.

[Anothermi]

1 hour ago, realdancemom said:

I really like Tyce's contemporaries too.  You mentioned really good ones.   Agree about not liking his Broadway and Jazz.

Yes, Tyce has done a lot of good contemporary routines. I did a list once, of the routines he did (and he was without a doubt the most used choreographer those early years) and I surprised myself by how many I actually liked. Far more than I gave him credit for. I think that is because when he did bad routines, they could be real stinkers. Plus I just couldn't with his smarmy humbleness when praised.

The nail in the coffin, still, and why I have a hard time with him, was when he choreographed "Eli, Eli"  for Chehon and All Star Kathrine. I'd recently caught up with SYTYCD Poland in the SYTYCD Elsewhere thread (TWoP). Tyce was a judge on the show that season and I was particularly moved by one of the pieces, as was Tyce it appeared. He used the choreography from that dance almost move for move but he did change the music it was set to. At no time was any reference made to the original choreographer. It WAS a powerful, emotional dance and Tyce, once again, smarmily & humbly accepted the accolades it got. 

It's left a bad taste in my mouth regarding ALL his choreography now. I can't help but wonder how much is really his and how much he got "inspiration" for, from lesser known choreographers. And I know choreographers re-use good movement sequences from each other all the time, but this was way beyond that. It's too bad really. I'd like to give him credit for what he's capable of, but I don't know what that is.

[realdancemom]

14 hours ago, Anothermi said:

Yes, Tyce has done a lot of good contemporary routines. I did a list once, of the routines he did (and he was without a doubt the most used choreographer those early years) and I surprised myself by how many I actually liked. Far more than I gave him credit for. I think that is because when he did bad routines, they could be real stinkers. Plus I just couldn't with his smarmy humbleness when praised.

The nail in the coffin, still, and why I have a hard time with him, was when he choreographed "Eli, Eli"  for Chehon and All Star Kathrine. I'd recently caught up with SYTYCD Poland in the SYTYCD Elsewhere thread (TWoP). Tyce was a judge on the show that season and I was particularly moved by one of the pieces, as was Tyce it appeared. He used the choreography from that dance almost move for move but he did change the music it was set to. At no time was any reference made to the original choreographer. It WAS a powerful, emotional dance and Tyce, once again, smarmily & humbly accepted the accolades it got. 

It's left a bad taste in my mouth regarding ALL his choreography now. I can't help but wonder how much is really his and how much he got "inspiration" for, from lesser known choreographers. And I know choreographers re-use good movement sequences from each other all the time, but this was way beyond that. It's too bad really. I'd like to give him credit for what he's capable of, but I don't know what that is.

I remember that controversy and somebody linked the Poland version on this forum.  Some technique moves were different since Tyce used Chehon's ballet technique.  I would say that the US version was technically more difficult.  But there was no doubt that he received "inspiration" from that piece.  It also made me wonder how much "inspiration" he uses from others. 

[Andie1]

On 9/3/2017 at 4:54 PM, romantic idiot said:

I know, right? I've been loving how sharp he is. And so precise with his arms and his hands. It's pretty cool. I'll have to drag out Pasha to see how they match up.

Denys Droduk who won SYTYCDC and was briefly on Season 11, can literally dance circles around Kiki, not only can he dance with more precision as he routinely beat him in every major ballroom competition, Denys can do split leaps, barrel leaps, pirouttes and tour en L'air.  

[Mason]

34 minutes ago, Andie1 said:

Denys Droduk who won SYTYCDC and was briefly on Season 11, can literally dance circles around Kiki, not only can he dance with more precision as he routinely beat him in every major ballroom competition, Denys can do split leaps, barrel leaps, pirouttes and tour en L'air.  

He was Julliard-trained, as I recall. Denys spoiled me forever; no ballroom solo, male or female, has ever come close to what he could do.

[realdancemom]

1 hour ago, Andie1 said:

Denys Droduk who won SYTYCDC and was briefly on Season 11, can literally dance circles around Kiki, not only can he dance with more precision as he routinely beat him in every major ballroom competition, Denys can do split leaps, barrel leaps, pirouttes and tour en L'air.  

Denys was a disappointment in WOD.  I was looking forward to watching him dance in it.  He was off and it made me wonder if they told him to purposely not dance as well.  His mistake was too blatant.  I don't know what to think with that show since that one seemed more manipulative than SYTYCD.

[Andie1]

45 minutes ago, realdancemom said:

Denys was a disappointment in WOD.  I was looking forward to watching him dance in it.  He was off and it made me wonder if they told him to purposely not dance as well.  His mistake was too blatant.  I don't know what to think with that show since that one seemed more manipulative than SYTYCD.

It sure seemed weird, and out of character. 

Edited September 18, 2017 by Andie1

[Mason]

1 hour ago, realdancemom said:

Denys was a disappointment in WOD.  I was looking forward to watching him dance in it.  He was off and it made me wonder if they told him to purposely not dance as well.  His mistake was too blatant.  I don't know what to think with that show since that one seemed more manipulative than SYTYCD.

Fik-Shun was clearly unhappy the entire time he was there. There was definitely something going on, and my guess is that at least some of the contestants didn't know going in. I'm guessing the same was true for Denys & Antonina. 

I sure wish someone would leak something :-)  

[realdancemom]

1 hour ago, Mason said:

Fik-Shun was clearly unhappy the entire time he was there. There was definitely something going on, and my guess is that at least some of the contestants didn't know going in. I'm guessing the same was true for Denys & Antonina. 

I sure wish someone would leak something :-)  

The groups/individuals sign contracts before they appear on the show.  I know they couldn't say results but there is probably something there about behind the scenes too.  In the other thread, Tikichick and I did mention that both of us knew groups that said they were cast as fodder and knew it when they saw the other contestants.  At first, we thought it was the same group but they turned out to be different groups.  So I'm sure they were not the only ones that thought that.

Fik-Shun did look unhappy while he was one the show.  His solos on SYTYCD were so creative and made me happy.  He looked happy too.  I did love his umbrella routine on WOD and thought he was low-balled.  He looked surprised when he saw the scores too.  Maybe, he knew he was going to lose but he still didn't expect his scores to be that low.

Also, crews that normally win and do happy energizing routines suddenly do more emotional personal routines on the rounds that they lose.  Then they were scored low for them.  That just seemed odd to me.  Of course, everything that I'm saying is all speculation including what I said about Denys.

[Keekski]

I got stuck in a YouTube rabbit hole last night and watched every Jasmine & Aaron routine. I love Aaron. He's my favorite male contestant on this show ever. 

[mojoween]

I was listening to the Glee station on Spotify (shush I like it) and “No Air” came on and it’s amazing how much I like that song based on one segment of this show from how many years ago.  I got chills during the violin break when I was listening to the song remembering that part of the dance and I haven’t even watched that routine in ages.

There are actually so few routines I remember from year to year but that will never leave me.

[Tikichick]

On 9/7/2019 at 9:42 AM, mojoween said:

I was listening to the Glee station on Spotify (shush I like it) and “No Air” came on and it’s amazing how much I like that song based on one segment of this show from how many years ago.  I got chills during the violin break when I was listening to the song remembering that part of the dance and I haven’t even watched that routine in ages.

There are actually so few routines I remember from year to year but that will never leave me.

And that's exactly the magic this show had going on for several years.  I'm really grateful for the artistry that the show brought to the screen for so many seasons, it was and is a rarity.  I'm thankful for all those little gems that I won't forget -- even as I forget all of the numbers and most of the dancers of this season within a couple hours of viewing.     

[slf]

If there's one thing I hated when I watched this show it was when classically trained dancers were struggling with other styles but would be praised more than, say, hip hop or self-trained dancers who also struggled with other styles but not moreso. And sometimes there would be comments about how the classically trained dancers must be so uncomfortable in this different style, wow, how impressive of them to try so hard! But then, again, dancers from less respected styles weren't given the same props. Nigel really is such a snotty little shit.

[AncientNewbie]

On 12/13/2019 at 7:10 PM, slf said:

If there's one thing I hated when I watched this show it was when classically trained dancers were struggling with other styles but would be praised more than, say, hip hop or self-trained dancers who also struggled with other styles but not moreso. And sometimes there would be comments about how the classically trained dancers must be so uncomfortable in this different style, wow, how impressive of them to try so hard! But then, again, dancers from less respected styles weren't given the same props. Nigel really is such a snotty little shit.

 

So much. So so so much. And because it's his show, he's never going to change. Until the eventual and entirely expected Me Too incident because he's clearly such a creep. 

[Jen123456]

Trying to find a video of a dancer , she had short hair in the back and longer in the front. Blonde. Did an amazing solo contemporary. Probably mid to early seasons. Anyone help?

[crowceilidh]

Kherington?

[displayname]

Kourtni Lind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7t7UdIAtrM

 

Or maybe Shauna Noland.