SYTYCD 7: Top 11 Performances Discussion Thread
Yay the first episode where the Top 11 dance for your votes!
[Emilie’s addition: Ade tweeted earlier today, “SYTYCD tonight. Rehearsing for show 1! Tonight is the night it ALL begins! Get ready to vote ppl..I already know who I’m calling in for :-)” Apparently, the All-Stars can vote for their favorite dancers, just like us. Insider voting!!! Lol]
Discuss away! 🙂
First live show!! They’re working on getting the camera angles right at first, but should be fun. Yay!
omg. Alex.
I wasn’t sold on him this season until this moment. Instant favorite. Chills on Week 1? Thank you for that, Alex.
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat, Alex?! WTH was that awesomeness?! FINALLY somebody understood what that gorgeous, amazing song is about! Sonya gets better and better.
Robin–YES! They were perfection. I forgot how spectacular Allison could be. And what Mia said about her having lived a lot of life since the show? Ain’t that the truth. It showed.
I did NOT think that Alex had that in him. I was floored.
And Kent’s cutie-patootie self held his own (kinda) with Anya, which is surprising to me as well.
Melinda so far is my big disappointment. And Lauren (for performance, not execution). I was also irritated at all the breaking moves in Jose’s hip hop routine. Like two 8-counts of head spins? Really NappyTabs?
I also felt more chemistry between Katherine and Adechike than the judges felt, I think. So far I think this little all star experiment is working well. *fingers crossed*
Good to be back and reviewing SYTYCD!
Firstly, this All-Star thing? Kinda rocks.
Billy (Broadway) – Not my favorite. He absolutely blew me away in the contemporary last week, but he really needs to man up especially since he will be dancing with women who need a MAN supporting them. I am worried about Billy doing lifts but I guess we’ll see how that goes. Great routine, good to see Tyce back on his game.
Christina (Jazz) – I didn’t see her as the predator AT ALL. I didn’t get a snake vibe, either. It was a strong performance though and Mark was an absolutely amazing partner for her.
Jose (Hip Hop) – The pose struck at the very end was so amazing! The rest of the routine wasn’t all that amazing in terms of how it was danced but I love the stuff Nappytabs has done so far this season.
Adechike (Contemporary) – Meh. It was so great to have Kathryn back that I just didn’t watch him. I totally agree, it was almost as if she had to CONVINCE him to be attracted to her – in his own fantasy! I also felt he wasn’t very strong in terms of presence. He’s not a favorite of mine.
Melina (Jive) – Love this girl so much. I did notice that she wasn’t hitting it as hard as I’d like but I think she’s so pretty and gives such great performance that I voted for her. I want to keep her safe until she lets me down.
Alex (Contemporary?) – HOLY HELL. Was NIgel in tears? Does that EVER happen? I was blown away although towards the end I thought Allison was having caffeine withdrawal or something. Beautiful overall, was utterly captivated.
Alexie (Hip Hop) – Iiiinteresting song choice for Hip Hop. I think that may have contributed to Alexie’s movement. It wasn’t a hard song and didn’t demand hard movements, so I think her dancing suited the song choice AND subject matter perfectly. I think the cute/sexy approach she took was also an excellent choice considering the scenario. I didn’t find fault in the number at all.
Lauren (Contemporary) – Ok, I do agree with the judges on how she wasn’t paying attention to Ade. She was giving him some but not all. Still, I loved the routine, I LOVED the song choice and I thought Mandy Moore topped her brilliant table routine with this couch. So much could have gone wrong and it was gorgeous to watch. I voted for her, too, because I think she can do so much better.
Kent (Cha Cha) – I expected Kent to dance this so much differently. He did what I want Billy to do and he stepped up the masculinity, made his presence known, and tried to dominate the woman. Since that woman was Anya and she IS a beast, that was a little tough but he did so well! And his personality…whenever he talks I feel like he’s just about to shove his foot in his mouth and then he just gets all adorably humble and cracks me up. I hope he’s around a while to make me laugh more.
Ashley (Contemporary) – Wow does Neil look good all grow’ed up. Anyway, I thought the end of the routine showed what they wanted, but the middle parts were graceful and gorgeous but not filled with love. I felt like this was them trying to convince each other that it was worth working it out but then at the end giving one last “I love you so much” before parting ways forever. I’m not sold on Ashley yet.
Robert (African Jazz) – This is the African Jazz I needed to see from Noelle and Russell last year. This was powerful and graceful and flowing and frantic and bestial and amazing. I am not a fan of Robert when he’s talking but he’s a great dancer!
So You Think You Can Dance Lightmare
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
What’s With the Blinding Lights???
We all know that when you take a photograph you shouldn’t have the sun blazing behind the person or else you lose all the detail!!!
Well apparently the designers of SYTYCD new stage either forgot about this simple concept or else they do NOT want TV viewers to actually see the people dancing. WE CANNOT SEE!!!!!!!!!!!
Why did you ruin the show?
We were HUGE fans of the show and agree with the judges that performance and emotion must be portrayed in order to make the dance special. On the old stage there were NOT massive blazing and blinding lights behind the dancers. On the new stage these crazy lights make it impossible to see the details which make the performance great, and sometimes the lights are so bright you cannot even see the dancers limbs!
Again, why did you ruin the show???
Turn off the background lights and turn on the overhead spotlight.
We love Sonja!
Alex and Allison, OMG, just WOW.
Robert and Courtney’s african jazz turn out better than I could have ever hope, I really like him. Out of the guys he will be the one to surprise us.
Kent stole my heart tonight. He is just so darn cute and he had a blast on that stage and you can tell. He truely loves to dance.
Ashley will be the girl we wont see coming. She and Neil sold the emotion of that piece. I kinda agree with Mia you couldnt quite tell what emotion she was trying to portray, but when the cut to Neil at the very end I knew what it was.
Billy and Lauren broadway I liked. Loved the song choice. I dont think Billy will be leaving yet but being the first dance it kinda got over shadowed by everything else.
Jose was lucky to get hip hop again but I thought i was better than thursdays. Its great to see Comfort in her element.
Adechike and Kathryn I agreeed with the judges on this that I really didnt get any emotion from him. Kathryn on the other hand was smokin. Oh and red lighting on red costumes does not work ever.
Lauren and Ade. Loved Mandys song selection, I would have never thought of using it. The dance was performed really well just needed a bit more chemistry.
Alexie and Twitch agreed with the judges she needs to not be so cute but I like the cute and I vote to see Adams star search clip.
Melinda and Pasha jive was enh. The performance was there just not the technique.
Christina and Mark. I thought she did well its just seemed to move a bit to slow for me.
Loving the live thing so far on the judges. Love that Mia is attempting to keep the boys in line but I love her laugh. Just a little weird without Mary there just cause Im so used to seeing her. Over all a good night glad the judges decide who goes home first.
Just watched the intros pretty disappointed with the camera shots that was used on the first 4 dancers. You couldn’t even see Adechike and another dancer I couldn’t remember who but seriously if they needed a new director to do a live show I hope it gets better next week or get rid of her
Not my favourite show and not a good outing for the new format imo.
Billy – Outdanced lauren, everything was cleaner, higher and harder, Lauren looked abit slow in some places so outdancing her isn’t that much of an achievement. The routine didn’t wow me though, chorey/style probably had a part to do with that (never been a huge broadway fan).
Christina – the choreographers have got to realise that the audience can tell when a dancer is doing jack all by now.
Jose, Ade 2.0, – I thought they both were outdanced and outpreformed by their partners.
Alex – o.O at the dancing by the both of them, allison’s emotional connect with the piece was haunting. Alex’ imo was not, I also thought that he wasn’t very organic in doing any of the Sonya’d type spasms. Great but hugely overrated.
Lauren – I love the way she can move but I do agree with the judges abit.
Kent – wowing with his averageness. Other contestants should take note, if you make yourself out to be an inexperienced hick (even if its a complete lie) and do ok it comes off much better than if you oversell yourself. Anya was noticably holding herself back.
Ashleys – routine feels like a redux, I did feel that she came of better than some of the other girls though.
Robert – should remain just silent and look pretty and shirtless to, the dancing was pretty good, it was more ‘jazzy’ than ‘afro’ though.
The new format works for me. The all-stars bring a lot to the table, and force the contestants to come with their “A” game. However, I agree, the intros were badly directed. The camera cues were so off at the beginning.
RE: Lauren in the first piece. Thought she actually hit harder/stronger and held character better than Billy. Couldn’t take my eyes off her.
Comfort was buck – better than when she first appeared on the show. José was dancing hip hop?
Kathryn destroyed Adechike.
Liked Alex and Allison, a lot. Felt very connected to the emotion of the piece. Especially Allison.
LoFro has been dethroned as my fave. Ade was fierce. We’ll see if she can get more connection with her next partner.
Who’s going home this week? My guess, Melinda or José. Lauren is near the bottom, too 🙁
Did it bother anyone else when the girls in the audience were shouting out Alex’s name and distracting from what should have been an intense piece? I don’t remember quite that amout of obstreperousness from previous years.
I don’t know what it is about tap dancers, but it appears that they can’t transition into other genres as easily as the other dancers. I fear that Melinda is at risk for going home tonight. I offered my commentary on the show at my blog:
http://notjustanotherjen.com/2010/06/a-tapper-cant-jive-but-a-cowboy-can-shake/
Know of any other people writing on the show that are doing a McLinky?
@Leslie, I’m so glad you brought that up!!! I noticed it too, and not just for Alex, for a lot of the dancers (I remember specifically Ade and Lauren), and it sounded like the same person. I found it hugely distracting.
Yeah, Margaret, I think it’s the verbal equivalent of dancing around behind a newcaster and then watching yourself on 6:00 news. They probably listen for their voices on their recordings of the show. There’s got to be floor security. I hope they start tapping these girls on the shoulder in future. and ask them to keep it down (at least during the lyrical pieces).
Obviously I LOVED the hip hop routine with Jose and Comfort. I rewatched it on YouTube and was blown away by it AGAIN. Is it me, or did that leap Comfort did into Jose’s arms look kinda contemporary-ish (or something like that)? The song that they danced to “Beautiful Monster” had been released about a week ago, I found out. My friend Marisela was at my house during the show, and she was like, “Oh this show is so STUPID.” I kinda got mad at her for that. Turns out that she hates contemporary dances because they look “retarded,” (which isn’t true at all) and she thought they used them too much. Sure, they may not interest me much, but there have been great ones. The only dance she liked was the hip hop, which was surprising because she’s hard to convince something is good.
The Alex/Allison routine was overhyped, in my opinion. I was on my computer during the show, stopping to watch the performances. During that performance I kind of lost interest 😛 and went back to my computer. I glanced up every once in a while, but what I saw still didn’t interest me. I’m sure it was great, just not for me. Mia saying that it was the best performance from all the countries in SYTYCD history was WAAAYYYY over exaggerating. I considered changing the channel after that 😛 Somehow, hip hop routines are always the stand-out for me. If I like it, lots of people hate it. But when I looked at the reviews for the show, LOTS of people seemed to enjoy it.
@ dave – you should check again, Lauren was slow at several points and she didn’t fully finish several of her moves to catch up to the music. I think she was in character for most of the routine but she was abit of a mess.
@ Lesie – the stage managers actually encouraging the screaming o.O Though I don’t think they expected that nutter, there’s an issue with the new stage (+season 6) where the cheers seem more distant and made it seem as if the routine was less excited so their fix to that is make the sheeple squeal louder ^^
@ Lola- I agree it wasn’t the best performance imo either but imo Alex+Allison is the most technically advanced pair to dance together in the competition to this point and the routine was beyond the level of contestants like Kent, Alexie and etc…