My Personal Favorites on SYTYCD 2009
It’s kind of early to pick a true favorite since some of the So You Think You Can Dance top 20 we barely know. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t have some early favorites. Here are my favorite dancers from the SYTYCD top 20:
Caitlin Kinney – I don’t know why I fell in love with this girl, but I did the first time I saw her dance. I like her look. I love the way she carries herself. She was a little emotional, but once you become a fan of someone you let things like that slide. She does seem kind of tall (or am I just seeing it wrong) which should prove interesting in doing the partnering.
Janette Manrara – Amazing lines and incredibly beautiful to watch dance. I’m interested to see more of her personality, but I’m certain the choreographers will have a hay day creating routines for her.
Asuka Kondoh – Representing ballroom and Japan all at once. I’m going to love watching her dance. I’m just afraid that her dancing will have to do the talking. I see her not doing as well in the personality department, but I guess we’ll see. I still love her dancing.
Vitolio Jeune – I think this guy is going to make us laugh every week. We haven’t seen much of his dancing, but someone who can make us laugh is going to do well.
Tony Bellissimo – He’s not a true favorite of mine, but I think he’s going to provide some nice storylines. My 2 predicted storylines: 1. Hitting on Cat (like Dominic) 2. Showing huge improvement like Ivan did on SYTYCD Season 2.
Phillip Chbeeb – I hope that he’s in the bottom 3 every week so we get to see him do a solo. I think he’s also going to shock us with the various styles. I could be wrong, but I think he’s going to impress us.
I can’t wait for next week’s performance shows.
Caitlin and Tony both seem very tall, maybe they will be partnered.
I think Janette is one of the best of the girls. In general, the guys seem much stronger than the girls. I predict a guy will win it all.
SaraK,
I think the partners are just drawn out of a hat. So, might happen, but might not.
I think as a group the girls are top to bottom stronger than the guys. However, the top guys seem to be better than the top girls. So, I can agree that a guy could win this year, but I’ll hold out my final judgement until at least the first dances.
Yeah, I’m not really making any calls til I see a few weeks of performances, this was just a quick observation.
I’m not so sure about the random pairings. That might be what they claim, but I don’t 100% buy it.
My favorite girl is Caitlin- I, too, love the way she dances and carries herself.
I’m more excited about the guys this year, though. My favorite guy is Evan, and am ecstatic that he finally made it to the top 20. I was so disappointed last year when he did not make the cut. And I’m equally excited that Phillip made it to the top 20! Both of these guys are just phenomenal and I can’t wait till next week!!
I haven’t seen anything from over half the dancers yet, so I can’t call a favorite, but in the interview footage, Jason comes across as someone I like. I’ll be ready to call favorites after I’ve seen them all perform. Some of them are so young!
Evan and Phillip are my faves!
JulieN,
You and I are going to get along well if Caitlin is your favorite girl;-) We also agree on Phillip. For some reason I’m not on the Evan bandwagon. I don’t dislike him, but I’m not really a fan either.
Joanna,
It is still early and so I’m open to change my favorite as needed;-)
I agree they are so young. I was looking through their short bios and they’re all talking about what high school they went to. Crazy huh?
Was it me or has Mia become super harsh? I mean, maybe in the past seasons we didn’t get to experience her “true” self, but her comments to Brandon……or am I alone in this. I’m trying to see every side but at what point do we draw the line?
You’re not alone Meloney. A lot of people have been saying the same thing. I’ve mentioned it in a few of my posts myself. Nigel calls her being “Real” I call her being an actor. She might even be trying to be a teacher, but those aren’t teaching styles that I think are worth much.
I, too, love Caitlin. She just seems like the perfect, lovable big sister i always wanted. And her dancing is beautiful, too. I’m still bummed about the brothers & I’m shocked that you don’t dig Evan like I do. Hopefully Ryan will audition for season 6 while he’s still young enough. What about Melissa? Her ballet routine with the red material was phenomenal ! Love this site. Keep up the good work.
My favorites in the Top 20 are Evan Kasprzak, Caitlin Kinney, Janette Manrara and Philip Chbeeb.
Ali,
I hope Ryan auditions again as well. I think he has at least one more year of eligibility right?
I agree with you about Melissa’s ballet routine with the red material. That was amazing when she was floating in the air. I’m just not sure they can replicate that beauty on the show and so I’m holding out judgment on Melissa until I see her dance more.
I am definitely pulling for Phillip and Evan; the girls have to make themselves a bit more memorable to me before I pick a female favorite.
Like I’ve said, I still worry that Tony’s going to be the next Comfort (mediocre dancer gets much farther in the competition than they should). I hope he proves me wrong, because right now, he’s my least favorite.
Sara,
I think the better comparison for Tony is Ivan from season 2. Comfort is close, but I think America wasn’t really behind Comfort that much. A lot of America was completely behind Ivan and wanted him to stay as long as possible even if he wasn’t as talented of a dancer. He was just more likable than Comfort. I have a feeling that a lot of America is really going to enjoy the entertainment factor and improvement that Tony will bring to the show.
I myself felt Ivan from the start and was pulling for him. But as far as Tony, that’s yet to be determined for me and I LOVE being proved wrong. I don’t recall his audition though, truthfully….I don’t recall about half of the auditions of the Top 20 even with Tivo
Meloney,
I agree that they didn’t do a very good job highlighting the auditions of the top 20. Maybe they just made some bad guesses when they were editing the auditions or maybe the auditions of the top 20 weren’t as compelling. Either way, I think SYTYCD found the perfect balance of auditions. They kept it short and sweet. Now we’re to the meat of what SYTYCD is all about. I only remember 3-4 auditions from the past seasons. However, I remember dozen of dances from the top 20.
OK so i just caught up with this week’s episodes. 1) i can’t believe natalie didnt make it. it was odd who they gave others chances , but they seemed to cut her so rashly. HOPEFULLY she’ll be back for next season in the fall and make it!! But i’m so happy for Brandon, Jason, Kayla (not because we share names, but kinda), Kupono, Paris, and Phillip! I wish I could see and hear all their reasons for keeping people. I always feel like i see something different than the judges and we can have total different opinions. but i suppose they are the experts 🙂 anyway….can’t wait for next week!
The brothers kind of annoyed me, they were charasmatic and all, but i wasn’t really a huge fan…although i do think they picked the right one. he seemed more talented of the two.
PS.. why was Mia hatin on Brandon so much? Dang….she had a bone to pick with him. hopefully he’ll be able to prove her wrong in the competition.
Natalie Reid Season 6!
Has there been a discussion about whether or not professional dancers should be allowed to audition for the show? On one hand, why not? On the other, I kind of like the idea that “undiscovered talent” makes the show and it launches them into a career.
I was really sad that the one guy (too lazy to go look up his name) has a contract and couldn’t be in the top 20. He was awesome.
I, too, am a fan of Asuka.
My husband thought that the show shouldn’t allow professional dancers on, but I disagree. These dancers are of such a high quality, you’d REALLY cut out a lot of the talent pool if you banned professionals. These people live dance. Even if they aren’t in a company, they’re dance teachers. The only way to still get high caliber dancers and avoid the professionals is to lower the age limit.
That said, you know that producers are looking for the good stories…the “undiscovered talents,” the people who started late or who almost quit or something. The background stories are entered into the casting equation, I think, so there’s no need to make any rules banning professionals. Anyway, just because you belong to a company doesn’t mean you have a huge advantage; this is a competition to find America’s *favorite* dancer, not necessarily the best one.
I don’t think there has been too much discussion on professional dancers participating on SYTYCD. My feelings are definitely that the better dancers the merrier. The cool part about the show is even if you’re a professional dancer, that doesn’t mean you are a professional dancer in other styles. So, everyone is getting stretched even if they are professionals.
At the end of the day, these kids need to work and this is a way for them to get more work. Professional dancers put a better product on the show, and so I’m good with that. I just think they should check the contracts before people fall in love with someone.