So You Think You Can Dance Top 20 Rants
It’s now all official and we know who will be in the So You Think You Can Dance 2009 top 20. All over the web people are twittering about who they like, blogging about it, and commenting on blogs like mine. So, I might as well take a minute to write down a few of my rants (both good and bad) about the So You Think You Can Dance top 20.
Brandon Bryant – A lot of people are up in arms about Mia Michael’s comments to Brandon Bryant. Now you may remember that I said that Mia Michaels was a mean judge, but this time I’m actually backing Mia. Ok, she was a little over the top in her criticism but I think she was right. There’s something missing in Brandon’s performance in Las Vegas that’s not quite there.
Maybe it’s like his friend Natalie Reid who said that she couldn’t live up to her expectations. Brandon definitely can’t live up to the expectations of a crying Mary Murphy. However, for me I’m not sure it’s all about living up to expectations. I just think with certain styles of dance he’s going to have troubles and not blows us away like he did in his audition. Plus, he is a little bit arrogant in his ways. He’s not like Danny Tidwell arrogant, but just a touch of that maybe. Luckily unlike Danny Tidwell, when Brandon Bryant talks the arrogance doesn’t seem to come out. That’s a really good thing for him.
I also love the conspiracy theory someone suggested in the comments that maybe Mia Michaels was trying to avoid the Will Wingfield issue of being considered a judges favorite and having that hurt your chances with the vote. I don’t think Mia did that on purpose, but I definitely believe that Brandon Bryant will benefit from his fans voting extra for him thanks to Mia.
Ashley Valero – Can you say 4 times? That’s a lot of tryouts. I couldn’t be happier for her. Looking forward to see more of her dancing.
Alex Wong – Second to most heart breaking moment of the night. Whether you liked Alex Wong’s dancing or not you had to appreciate his desire to dance. It’s unfortunate that he wasn’t able to get out of his contract. I’m not calling for a boycott of his ballet company, but man it’s sad he went to all that work and now has to go home to only do ballet.
Kasprzak Brothers – Most heartbreaking moment of the night. I’m sure Fox wants ratings, but this was just cruel. “Worst nightmare” was an apt description. I also really hated that Nigel said they always thought they could only let one person with their style into this year’s top 20. That’s crap to me. You put in the best dancers. If they’re all contemporary then so be it. I hate to hear stuff like this.
I’ll admit that I ended up watching this episode twice already and as I sat back and just enjoyed it the second time, I was really excited to see so many of the dancers in the top 20. I don’t think this season is going to be the best one ever, but I also don’t think it will disappoint either. Plus, Wade Robson and Shane Sparks are BACKKKKK!!!! (in case you missed that news)
I wholeheartedly agree with what you said about the Kasprzak bros. I mean, don’t they have a large amount of contemp people in the top 20 right now? I think having those two wouldn’t kill people if we subtracted one of the contemp males or Tony (preferably the latter).
I too agree about the brothers. I loved them both and would love to have seen them both make it. As for Mia, I still think that she was her cruelness to Brandon was not necessary. Tell him he made the Top 20 and tell him to get his spark bake but don’t berate him. I wish that we had gotten to know some of the other 20 that we had not seen before. Looking forward to next week.
It’s not Mia’s job to make the dancers feel good; it’s her job to tell them what she sees as a dancer and a choreopgrapher. She was calling him on an emotional distance from his wonderful technique. I can see what she’s saying. His choice of Carmina Burana music for his audition was super dramatic, and he demonstrated his great technique, but I did not feel an emotional connection to his dancing, nor did I see the flow between his movements. He has to watch out not to pose because he is so good. Being a dancer means also opening yourself up to serve the dance and the choreographer’s vision. If he can’t or won’t do that, then he will be extremely hard to work with, and Mia sees that. I trust her experience and her judgement over my 60 seconds of seeing him on my TV.
Like Joanna, I usually give the judges the benefit of the doubt. After all, they see everything and not just what the editor-magicians want us to see. I think what is bothering most people out there, however, is the way in which she delivers her criticism this year. “What you bring as an artist irritates the sh*t out of me.” What? What does that even mean?! She speaks so aggressively; she’s like a verbal bully. She says nasty things because she can, like she enjoys the pain her words inflict.
As a comparison, Lil’ C also doesn’t like Brandon, but no one is complaining about his criticism. He doesn’t make it personal. He simply says what is bothering him without the emotional baggage of curse words, disdainful voice inflection, or aggressive body language.
It’s fine for Mia to have problems with Brandon’s dancing, but that’s not what she said she had a problem with–all the analysis given in this blog wasn’t in her comments.
I.e. WHY/HOW is he arrogant, where has he behaved in such a way (since we the viewers are judges, we should probably see that, and knowing the producers of this show, they have in the past NEVER resisted showing moments of dancer arrogance, cough Blake, cough).
She didn’t say any thing constructive outside of cursing him out/ yelling about his reputation, and hence didn’t give him comments that would allow him to improve.
“You annoy the @#$@ out of me” doesn’t offer a basis to CONSTRUCT improvement, does it?
I hope Nigel gives her a stern warning for getitng out of pocket. Being mean is fine, being an unconstructive bully is not.
I completely agree with you about Alex – he has such a pure love for dance, I felt like this show would have been perfect for him. His reaction was devastating – but at least he has the Vegas week experience to look back on and cherish.
I also agree about the brothers. They have such a strong bond, it was compelling to watch. I too had a feeling they were only going to pick one, but felt it was wrong that they left it down to the two of them – but it makes for good tv i guess.
Looking back, I’m also sad we didn’t get to see any of Kelsea Taylor during Vegas week, I was looking carefully even at the people they showed who got cut throughout. Does anyone happen to know when she got sent home?
Mia’s a piece of work. That we’ve figured out. I still can’t figure out if Mia was acting for the camera when she got all raunchy or if that was her true person coming out.
Cassie,
It was unfortunate to not see more of Kelsea Taylor and not even see her say Good Bye. I don’t think the show anticipated people falling in love with her thanks to an awesome song and a great dance.
My source told me she went home in the ballroom round. I hope she comes back again for fall SYTYCD.
Adam Shankman had something to say about Mia being mean to Brandon. Read what he said here:
http://www.snapcrackleandpop.com/2009/06/why-does-mia-michael-hate-brandon.html
Kathy,
Using the fact that Mary Murphy liked him is the best reason I should ignore the over the top comments by Mia. Let’s see, Mia’s opinion of a dancer or Mary’s? That’s an absolute no brainer for me. I’ll take Mia any day of the week over Mary.
I will go with your drama argument. The producers loved it I’m sure. Also, I think Mia actually did Brandon a favor, because now his fans will really unite to prove Mia wrong.
John,
I totally agree with you that Mia did Brandon a favor as you said in your post. Perhaps I should have added that in addition to Mary, Debbie, Adam and Nigel all voted for him to go through to the top 20. I love Mia as a choreographer, but not so much as a person. My big problem with the situation is how mean Mia was. And how personal she made it. Lil C wasn’t blown away by Brandon either, but he didn’t get nasty about it. I think it was interesting to read Adam’s take on it.
As far as Mary goes, despite her hot tamale train outbursts and screams that could curdle milk, I actually agree with her most of the time, and I think she judges people on their talent rather than a perceived bad attitude. And I love the way she really feels the performances.
Thinking about it, you know how the American Idol judges all have their distinct personalities? Well, I think Nigel Lythgoe is trying do the same thing with this show. It’s much easier this season to pigeonhole all of them, isn’t it? With Dan and Brian and Shane, they were more wishy-washy. You can’t say that of any of the judges now.
Kathy,
I disagree with you on Mary. I can’t say I disagree with her usually, but that’s because she says nothing of value. She just repeats what other people have said and uses generalizations that could apply to any of the dancers.
I agree that Nigel wants to create the same kind of good cop bad cop that was done on American Idol. America’s Got Talent does the exact same thing with the judges. As a fan it’s easy to see them doing it.
The Adam Shankman quote did explain something for me…it described Brandon as smiling throughout Mia’s extremely harsh criticism of his dance, a criticism which I think was mostly edited out. It was the smile that angered Mia, so that her complaints about his attitude makes more sense. She thought he was laughing at her, as if he were so convinced of his amazing dance ability that he didn’t need to listen to her. That was why she thought he was arrogant. In reality, however, he was simply responding to the tension by smiling. I do that too, sometimes; if I’m in a really tense situation, I start to giggle – to the fury of those who are already upset.
This actually makes me less mad at Mia. If she did misread him in that way, I could totally understand why she got so angry. She’s a very artistic, passionate person; she doesn’t hold back. That’s just who she is. I believe she was in the wrong, but now I can understand it better. Thanks, Kathy.
Mi Michaels bully & foul mouth attitude do not have to be part of the show there are many more constructive ways to say/critic a dance or dancer without Mia michaels foul mouth. She feels that she has so much to offer and after all the shows up to now my large family and I have not seen why. She is sloppy in attire (runs/raggedy) sweater worn in Las Vegas tryouts. Sloppy hair Hasn’t anyone mentioned a decent dress attire for judges/representing the show on television. She had caused us to decide not to watch the show anymore as long as Mia Michaels is a jude or part of the show. We have taught our children NOT to speak to other people The way that Mia Michaels has..