S16.E08: Final Cut- The Top Ten Girls

[Drogo]

After making it through the grueling Academy rounds, the Top Ten women will take the stage, each partnered with an All-Star guy, for a choreographed duet, outside their own style.

[RTS]

Was it only my broadcast that cut out during several dances?  Just as I was getting into at least 3 dances, it was infuriating... I'll have to find tubes or something.

[jewel21]

I'm bummed they chose Madison over that other girl that killed it performing hip hop. 

[Samwise979]

51 minutes ago, RTS said:

Was it only my broadcast that cut out during several dances?  Just as I was getting into at least 3 dances, it was infuriating... I'll have to find tubes or something.

Mine too!! Didn't see half of the show. Missed the last top 5 decision but since it was between Madison and another girl I knew who was going to make it. Not that I agree with it though!!!

[HerkyJerky]

Yeah, you just knew that they were going to pick the cute, young blond girl and the bald girl regardless of their dancing skills...

[Maya S]

So Genessey got through last year since she killed her duet despite struggled during Academy Week but Nazz doesn't get the same deal?  

[PhD-Purgatory15]

Missed Mariah's performance, and the very beginning of Melany's due to storms in our area. Didn't matter. Knew going in that Melany was pure fodder to make up the numbers, and Mariah was a "pet" that was a total lock for Top 5.

It ended being three pets (Mariah, Sophie, & Madison), 1 pick for show purposes (They want the brother/sister Sosa duo to both be in the Top 10...so Stephanie gets in over the more deserving Nazz), and 1 rare "pick the better overall dancer over the pure, unicorn hip hop dancer". So Anna gets the spot over Sumi.

Sophia and Ashley were also there, to just make up the numbers...

[displayname]

Entirely beside the point but Fik-Shun is so amazingly good.

[Quickbeam]

Madison is just meh for me and it has nothing to do with her alopecia. She's more like a tumbler. I think better dancers went home to give her a space. I really was hoping Nazz would get a spot. 

[Prairie Fire]

The new format continues to be worse than the original. I liked it much better when the auditions happened without an audience - and their first partner dance was also their first time with a cheering audience and audience voting. It made that "first Top 20" show something to look forward to, when you saw your favorites on the big stage in front of a crowd for the first time after making it through Hollywood week.

Now, they've reversed it and with no good reason. There's an audience for auditions but not for the first partner dances? I was trying to pretend last night's show was kind of like the "first Top 20" show from the old days, but with all the changes - no live audience, no audience voting, the rushed intro clips, no Cat Deeley, and making this part seem like it's still part of Academy week - it's definitely not the same.

[BensBritches]

I was beyond underwhelmed by all the girls, other than Nazz. So of course she gets axed in favor of the "inspirational" dancer. I personally find Madison to be clunky and heavy as a dancer and I just don't see anything that makes her so special (other than her alopecia). It seemed like she got the longest intro (again with the boyfriend!), the longest dance (but this was probably just a misperception as I wasn't enjoying it) and she seems to be featured in every shot or backstage footage there is. Ugh.

There is just nothing catching me this year with this group. I'm really hoping the guys do better, because I was bored to death with the girls. Maybe it was the lack of audience, but I also hated listening to the judges reactions during the dances- as if they've never seen the moves presented last night before. The dances themselves, again other than the Fik Shun/Nazz one were just a load of blah. Nothing to see, nothing to "oooh" and "ahhhh" over.

And I just can't with Lori Ann's (no clue how she spells her name) nails...

[AlleC17]

I do not get how Madison is 'inspirational'.  She is a solid dancer, but really nothing that special.  I was sad to see Sumi cut, and hope she takes classes in other styles and tries again next year.  Hoping there is a boy that stands out because this group isn't doing much for me so far.

[realdancemom]

Sorry Nazz.  You were the best one last night but the top five was already set before the night started.  You weren't one of them.

This is a meh bunch of girls.  Hope the guys are better.  I remember I liked the guys better last year.

[displayname]

I thought Nazz, followed by Sumi, were by far the only dancers worth watching. Neither made it.

Edited July 30, 2019 by displayname

[realdancemom]

17 minutes ago, displayname said:

I thought Nazz, followed by Sumi, were by far the only dancers with watching. Neither made it.

I liked Sumi too and thought Anna was ok.  But I need to watch them again because I'm not sure if it's because I preferred Sumi over Anna before this round.  Also, for the last few weeks, I can't help but think that Anna was chosen over both Sumi and Desi partly because of her looks.  Sumi is cute but there is a slight language barrier.  I loved when Lex was talking to her in Japanese.  However, since they didn't show Sumi doing ballroom, she might not be versatile enough for the show.  I just know that I haven't been that impressed with Anna in any of the rounds.  She looked better last night but still didn't really wow me.

[luvthepros]

17 hours ago, jewel21 said:

I'm bummed they chose Madison over that other girl that killed it performing hip hop. 

I'm FURIOUS and very disappointed Madison got through. She dances so heavy, and just looks cumbersome to me. What the hell do these judges see in her?

Edited July 30, 2019 by luvthepros

[luvthepros]

3 hours ago, Prairie Fire said:

Now, they've reversed it and with no good reason. There's an audience for auditions but not for the first partner dances? I was trying to pretend last night's show was kind of like the "first Top 20" show from the old days, but with all the changes - no live audience, no audience voting, the rushed intro clips, no Cat Deeley, and making this part seem like it's still part of Academy week - it's definitely not the same.

Top 20 to Top 10 is still the Academy process. I preferred not having the live audience. Adacemy week, to me, is still the audition process. In fact, I would prefer not having an audience until they begin the live shows.

[rlc]

In what universe are Anna and Madison better dancers than Nazz? Shocker, boring Sophie made it through. Wonder which male dancer they’ll pimp a fake romance with.

Spent most of the hour thinking I’d rather watch Lex and Marko dance together.

[luvthepros]

How old is Nazz? Is she a ballroom dancer specialist? I'm too lazy to review the show on my DVR.

[realdancemom]

9 minutes ago, luvthepros said:

How old is Nazz? Is she a ballroom dancer specialist? I'm too lazy to review the show on my DVR.

Don't know how old she is.  She's a ballroom dancer and was featured in the second show.

[MVFrostsMyPie]

I haven't watched last night's episode yet (TBH, I don't bother watching SYTYCD until later in the week when there's nothing else to watch even though I used to look forward to it every week in the good ol' days), but it's a shame Nazz didn't get top 5. She certainly was a lot more interesting to me than the others. 

I think I'm going to skip this season, or just catch up some of the performances on youtube when I'm bored and there's nothing else more appealing to watch. Ugh.

So I guess Madison will probably end up winning the whole thing, right? Boring. 

Edited July 30, 2019 by MVFrostsMyPie

[displayname]

1 hour ago, realdancemom said:

I liked Sumi too and thought Anna was ok.  But I need to watch them again because I'm not sure if it's because I preferred Sumi over Anna before this round.  Also, for the last few weeks, I can't help but think that Anna was chosen over both Sumi and Desi partly because of her looks.  Sumi is cute but there is a slight language barrier.  I loved when Lex was talking to her in Japanese.  However, since they didn't show Sumi doing ballroom, she might not be versatile enough for the show.  I just know that I haven't been that impressed with Anna in any of the rounds.  She looked better last night but still didn't really wow me. 

(I should really stop posting via mobile 😤)

I know it's never how the judges select, but I'd rather they picked performance quality over "versatility", especially because these "versatile" people don't really get the technique down to enough of an extent in cross-genres for me to ignore their lacking performance quality. Sumi is on a different level artistically speaking compared to Anna, plus to me she actually did a fairly good job in this hip-hop infused contemporary (and things like that are interesting to watch, to boot). They've had Jaja who was from The Czech Republic over, so the language barrier reason would be kind of bogus if that's indeed why they let Sumi go. (And while Jaja did lose to Gaby, which was probably due to the language barrier/ hip-hop vs contemporary biases, because she was artistically stronger, she still at least made the finals)

Edited July 30, 2019 by displayname

[Maya S]

17 minutes ago, luvthepros said:

How old is Nazz? Is she a ballroom dancer specialist? I'm too lazy to review the show on my DVR.

She went on as a Latin ballroom dancer but she's been working more in hip-hop lately.  I felt in her original audition she and her partner weren't as strong and as sharp as the Sosa siblings but I absolutely loved her duet with Fik-Shun and now I'm bummed that we won't see her perform more.  

Madison can have good lines at times but she always seems to be a half-beat behind everyone else.  She gave Kiki nothing during their duet and her retractions and dismounts out of lifts were very slow and clumsy.  I can't believe I actually thought with it down to her and Nazz that Nazz would make it through 🙁

While Sophie did dance the actual speed of a fast Latin dance, she was very messy.  I haven't been a fan of Sharna's choreography since her DWTS season with James Hinchcliffe and she seems to be relying more and more on countless lifts when there aren't rules against them.  Sophie seemed to have more in the air than Mariah did even though Mariah's dance style was known for lifts.  I think if Sophie had Emma and Sasha as choreographers her footwork wouldn't be disregarded in favor of the lifts.  

I felt like Mariah did the best of the contemporary girls out of her style.  The Salsa wasn't perfect, her steps were sometimes too big which affected her hip action and almost caused her to lose sync with Jonathan but out of the three contemporary girls doing Latin/Salsa, she was the best at understanding and interpreting the feel and technique of the dance.  She's also petite which helps with lifts but she still landed them really well.  

Anna was good, she's not my favorite but she was one of the better dancers last night.  However, if she could get by with a good duet despite struggling in Academy Week, then Nazz should've gotten the same treatment.  

Stephanie was a bit bland and her landings weren't as smooth as they could be but she's a wonderful Latin dancer and if she's just as cross-trained as other Utah ballroom ladies then she might do better with different contemporary choreography.  

Ashley did all the moves right and flawlessly but her facial expressions didn't match her dancing so I wasn't surprised to see her go.  I was rooting for Sofia but she got the short end of the stick with that awful choreography.  Melany hit all her moves but her expressions were one-dimensional especially next to the expressive Fik-Shun.  Sumi was great with Lex and I was shocked she wasn't chosen.  

Based on the duets I would have chosen Anna, Mariah, Nazz, Stephanie and Sumi.  I knew it was too good to be true with 5 ballroom ladies and 3 contemporary ladies.  

[atlantaloves]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhh Man, Nazz should have made it, I am through.

[AllAboutMBTV]

Nazz was the only audition I rewound and watched again. So of course she was cut. Honestly, this show.... (And you'd think I'd know by now!)

[mojoween]

What was the point of this show if they were going to cram Sophie through anyways?  She got tepid feedback and was not the fifth best of those ten ladies.

I would have taken Nazz and Madison over Sophie eight days a week, if they were my final choices.

Sophie is not versatile.  I can’t wait for the live shows to not vote for her.

I have to admit that I do like Mariah.

I was laughing at poor Marko getting paired with such tall ladies.  And Lex never wowed me (I could tell how obviously good he is, but I never fell in love with him) but I would watch an hour of Marko and Lex doing all sorts of routines.

[MVFrostsMyPie]

I assumed Sophie was from Utah cause she looks like every other blonde dancer in the show’s history from Utah, but this show is growing in diversity y’all- apparently she’s from Tennessee! 😆

[Jobiska]

Totally independent of whether Madison is a good dancer or not, how condescending of them to say she was put through because she was inspirational to others.  I mean, if she's a smart kid she probably knew that was part of her draw all along, but still.

[Rahul]

Such BS and producer manipulation. They picked some of the WEAKEST girls in the bunch. Madison–who dances like a sack of potatoes–over Nazz? It’s clear she’s been chosen for the novelty of having a baldie alopecia sufferer. Anna and Sophie were also not up to the task AT ALL. I cannot formulate any more thoughts because I am livid. I just want to delete this show off my DVR.

[cali1981]

Let's all remember that the judges are doing more than choosing dancers for the live shows. They are casting a reality TV show.  This is especially true of Nigel with his producer's hat.  Given this, they will always select cast members who will  make the show more dramatic and interesting, same as any other TV show.  That's why Madison (and I take nothing away from her dancing) was a stone cold lock to make the top ten.  Let's see what happens next week in regard to Eddie Hoyt, the tapper who didn't make the show his first time around.  Will his "oh, he's so sincere and he tries so hard and he's an underdog" story line hold sway.  Anyone wanna bet against it?

[Lifesabeach]

Uucckkk!  I’m out.   S1E1 ➡️ watcher checking out. Now. Off my DVR.  I find nothing compelling in this charade any longer.   Too bad, 😕it was great at the beginning but like most interactions, its’ time has run out, for me at least.  AFM 🐥

Edited July 31, 2019 by Lifesabeach
Going to resign with correct grammar 🤓

[Cuatro1234]

8 hours ago, MVFrostsMyPie said:

So I guess Madison will probably end up winning the whole thing, right? Boring. 

I think they do really like her dancing (as well as her alopecia storyline).  They’ve had other female dancers with alopecia audition before and not put them through. 

To my untrained eyes, Mariah seems head and shoulders above the others   I’m wondering if they are engineering her win already by casting less competition for her?  If she’s the only standout girl, and the boys’ votes are split (Gino, Benjamin, Eddie), she may end up like LoFro and get all the girl votes.

i missed costumes and an audience tonight   That would have at least given some credence to the idea that making the Top 20 was more special than just making it through another round of auditions. 

Edited July 31, 2019 by Cuatro1234
Bc “I misses” doesn’t make sense, how come autocorrect doesn’t work when you need it to!

[calipiano81]

On 7/29/2019 at 7:57 PM, jewel21 said:

I'm bummed they chose Madison over that other girl that killed it performing hip hop. 

I thought Madison and Nazz both deserved to make it in. It was Anna (Ray Leeper jazz) and Sophie (Sharna Burgess cha cha) who I thought should have been cut.

I thought, of the three ballroom routines, Madison had the best technique and showed the most confidence. I liked how she straightened her legs and also had good hip action and rhythm.

Madison seems to be getting a lot of attention, but at least for this episode, I thought it was deserved.

Edited July 31, 2019 by calipiano81

[nx74defiant]

When they showed Sophie being thrilled and so happy to make the top 10, the thought that came to me was: Oh honey you are just there as cannon fodder.

[realdancemom]

10 hours ago, calipiano81 said:

I thought Madison and Nazz both deserved to make it in. It was Anna (Ray Leeper jazz) and Sophie (Sharna Burgess cha cha) who I thought should have been cut.

I thought, of the three ballroom routines, Madison had the best technique and showed the most confidence. I liked how she straightened her legs and also had good hip action and rhythm.

Madison seems to be getting a lot of attention, but at least for this episode, I thought it was deserved.

I agree with you.  I thought Madison did well on Monday and during the ballroom round.  I also agree with you about Anna and Sophie.  Although, I did like Sophie in the hip-hop round after somebody pointed out how good she was at it.  I rewatched and she was.

Also there hasn't been anything said about Sofia but I thought she also did well for what she was given. 

[Jsage]

16 hours ago, cali1981 said:

Let's see what happens next week in regard to Eddie Hoyt, the tapper who didn't make the show his first time around.  Will his "oh, he's so sincere and he tries so hard and he's an underdog" story line hold sway.  Anyone wanna bet against it?

Bet against it...no, because I agree with you about Nigel. But pray somehow, magically,  it won't happen...put me down for a yes!

[realdancemom]

On 7/30/2019 at 2:55 PM, displayname said:

(I should really stop posting via mobile 😤)

I know it's never how the judges select, but I'd rather they picked performance quality over "versatility", especially because these "versatile" people don't really get the technique down to enough of an extent in cross-genres for me to ignore their lacking performance quality. Sumi is on a different level artistically speaking compared to Anna, plus to me she actually did a fairly good job in this hip-hop infused contemporary (and things like that are interesting to watch, to boot). They've had Jaja who was from The Czech Republic over, so the language barrier reason would be kind of bogus if that's indeed why they let Sumi go. (And while Jaja did lose to Gaby, which was probably due to the language barrier/ hip-hop vs contemporary biases, because she was artistically stronger, she still at least made the finals)

I finally got a chance to watch the routines again.  My opinion is basically the same which means that I still agree with you.  I think the judges comments were tailored to who they wanted in the top 10.  Anna's technique was not good in the jazz routine.  She even fell out of a pirouette.  But she only got praises.

I still prefer Sumi's contemporary.  I could see what the judges were saying about showing more emotion but I still would have picked her over Anna.  That's why I previously said that I think Anna was chosen partially based on looks and because Sumi has a slight language barrier.  I never really saw Jaja having a language barrier. 

I think there should be a balance between versatility but also excellence in their own style.  For example, during Jaja's season, I loved watching Jaja and Jim's solos because they were excellent.  This season, with all the contemporary dancers that audition, I'm sure Mariah, Sophie, and Madison were not the best contemporary dancers.   I think Mariah has potential but still needs a few more years of technique.  Sophie hardly had any technique in her audition and she's not mature enough to pull off sexy.  As Mary and I pointed out last week and Nigel this week, Madison needs more dynamics to her dancing.  Others have noted that she dances heavy.

Also Stephanie like Witney, Lindsay, and Jensen, trained at the same studio.  They are versatile since they trained in lots of different styles but they are not the best ballroom dancers.  The latter are the ones that mainly concentrate on ballroom.

[Haleth]

Anna was terrible in the jazz routine. Seriously, how in the world did she get through?  Sumi or Nazz would be more interesting to watch. 

Madison is over praised. Sophie is blah. It’s so obvious the top 5 were preselected for their stories or looks rather than their talent. 

Yay, Mariah?

Go to the 18 min mark.  https://abc.go.com/shows/gma-day/episode-guide/season-01/197-072919-bella-thorne-speaks-openly-about-social-media-and-her-mom

Edited August 2, 2019 by Haleth

[ElectricBoogaloo]

The academy rounds and these routines with all stars are far less surprising these days than in the early seasons because any dancer who plans to audition for this show should be cross training for years in advance. As a result, no one outright failed. The performances in this round ranged from competent to good. No one really wowed me either though. But ultimately, it didn't matter because both this round and the academy rounds exist to allow the judges to take their faves and cut everyone else.

Mariah's salsa with Jonathan was fine but I thought she did better at the lifts and partner trick than she did with the actual salsa. She has a beautiful smile! To be honest, I thought she did fine in the ballroom round at the academy so I didn't get when the judges originally criticized her for not being strong enough.

Melany had a huge challenge in her hip hop routine because Fik-shun is so charming when he performs, especially in his own style. Nigel's criticism about her smiling too much was ridiculous because Fik-shun was smiling too.

Ashley's contemporary with Lex was fine. Nigel harping on facial expressions is just his way of nitpicking when he can't find something specific to criticize.

Anna's jazz with Marko. Awww, I loved Marko's brief appearance in the rehearsal footage whn he told her that if she didn't know where to look she should look in his eyes. He seems like such a great partner. The judges gave her a lot more praise than I thought she deserved. There were sections where it looked like she was marking or wasn't 100% sure of the choreography.

Madison has been a pretty guaranteed lock for the top 10 so I knew that unless she completely screwed up her cha cha with Kiki, she was going through (and even if she had been terrible at this routine, they would have put her through by saying she did well during the rest of her time in the academy - there's no way she was not going to make it to the live show). I thought she was a bit too controlled and passive. I didn't see all the sass and power that Nigel said she had in that performance.

Sofia's jazz with Marko was good. She sold the routine with her performance.

Sumi's contemporary with Lex was better than I thought it would be based on her tears during rehearsal. I totally disagreed with Nigel's criticism about her not being emotional enough during this performance. I liked that it was contemporary without being overly angsty. I want to see more routines like this so let's keep Talia around! I knew that the judges wanted Anna as their hip hop girl in the top ten so Sumi was cannon fodder.

Nazz's hip hop with Fik-shun was good. There were a few moments when her feet were a little sloppy, but other than that I thought she did really well.

Sophie's cha cha with Kiki was fine and there were some brief moments in the beginning where she looked comfortable enough to show some personality, but for the most part this performance was lacking.

Stepanie's contemporary with Robert was fine but the partner tricks felt a big labored. I can't tell if that was due to her having trouble with the transitions or if it was a weakness with the choreography.

On 7/30/2019 at 12:33 PM, realdancemom said:

since they didn't show Sumi doing ballroom, she might not be versatile enough for the show. 

If that's true then Eddie the tapper is definitely not versatile enough for the show because he was stinking up the place during ballroom. The difference is that Eddie is one of the judges' pets and Sumi is not so they were looking for any excuse to cut her and keep Anna as their token hip hop dancer. Even if Eddie falls flat on his face next week, they will still praise him.

On 7/30/2019 at 12:43 PM, luvthepros said:

I'm FURIOUS and very disappointed Madison got through. She dances so heavy, and just looks cumbersome to me. What the hell do these judges see in her?

They're hoping tears about her journey, her alopecia, her boyfriend, etc.

On 7/30/2019 at 1:05 PM, rlc said:

Spent most of the hour thinking I’d rather watch Lex and Marko dance together.

Same here. Make it happen, show!

[realdancemom]

5 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

If that's true then Eddie the tapper is definitely not versatile enough for the show because he was stinking up the place during ballroom. The difference is that Eddie is one of the judges' pets and Sumi is not so they were looking for any excuse to cut her and keep Anna as their token hip hop dancer. Even if Eddie falls flat on his face next week, they will still praise him.

Yup, Eddie is not versatile either.  Anna was his partner and she wasn't that great either.  But like you said, Eddie and Anna are the judges' pets.  And I didn't think the judges' comments matched the performances this week.  It was based on who they liked.  Anna only received praise and no constructive criticism.

[realdancemom]

Also, I previously mentioned that Sofia was good for what she was given.  Re-watching her routine, I actually think the judges just didn't want to praise her too much because they weren't going to pick her.  So they just made up stuff about the choreography which she doesn't have control over and that she didn't give enough attitude which she did.

She didn't get enough credit for doing a jazz routine in heels.   Now, she's used to heels because she's a ballroom dancer but jazz is different.  She didn't fall out of her pirouette like Anna did and Anna wasn't wearing heels.

[Lunula]

Pretty shocked that Sophie made it instead of Nazz. I felt Nigel’s critique that should’ve brought the same fire throughout Academy week was ridiculous. How did she make it to the top 10 if she hadn’t killed it? Are you really saying she wasn’t the strongest? I like Madison, so I had no problem with her, however, no way Nazz didn’t deserve a spot.

And I have to say...it annoys me to no end that this show - and even the title of this thread - refers to these women as “girls.” 100% irked.

[Cuatro1234]

I have to say that I really enjoyed these dances without the longer video package explaining how this dancer represents Green Envy’s 2nd cousin who had an abusive mom with bipolar disorder and toe cancer before leaving for a military deployment.... Not that some of the backstories aren’t powerful, but it’s also nice to let each viewer see what each sees and come to his/her own interpretation.  

[displayname]

On 8/2/2019 at 2:06 PM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Same here. Make it happen, show!

I was actually unimpressed by Marko's dancing in his appearances on this episode lol. I never thought he was a particularly great dancer, though. But I'd rather watch him and Lex than Roldan.