SYTYCD Season 7 Top 10 Performance Discussion Thread
So, what are you thinking about tonight’s show? Still reeling from the elimination last week, the first of this new format? Have you read SYTYCDism’s spoilers and are now particularly looking forward to or dreading a particular performance?
The administrative girls here at PureSYTYCD have already been highly anticipating which male All-Star will dance shirtless.
Whatever your thoughts, here is the place for them!!!
I figured Pasha would go with the shirtless Bolero…Paso of choice..very nice Paso tonight. Jean Marc choreographed a hot routine…I wasn’t taken with the music particularly, but it was a strong dance
Did anyone else feel like they targeted some of the strong dancers (aka most of the guys) and put them into styles that were TOTALLY out of their comfort zone to “level” the playing field and hopefully get more votes for the girls?
Also, I must say that I loved all of open shirts on the guys tonight…
I think you’re right Kimberly. I also don’t think Alex was as far away from the Broadway style as they claimed. At least two of the moves were definitely smoking for me: when he slithered under her legs toward the audience, and earlier when she slid down his leg. He also handled the hat work well.
Beth, I also thought there was a lot of “smoulder” in those two particular moves by Alex and Lauren. I don’t know what the judges were smoking.
LoFro surpised me – I thought she has improved from last week.
My wife and my sister seemed to enjoy the show put on by Robert (and Pasha), if their hooting and hollering at the TV is any indication.
I think you are right. It also eems to me that the judges were very hard on the really good dancers (unnecessarily so) and light on a few that are not as strong. I was feeling opposite for just about every dance… and that is not usually the case. I also miss Mary’s take on ballroom.
The judges seemed like they werent entertained. I was watching with friends and really didnt listen to what they had to say.
I did enjoy the lack of shirts and unbuttoned shirts for the guys tonight. I love Travis’s piece, dont really care that it wasnt quite jazz. Lauren and Dominic had the best dance of the night. Saw Dominic being sneaky to get closer to Cat…lol. I was the Bollywood routine that I just really enjoyed watching.
Overall enjoy watching in Hi-Def and that they let the all stars stay out the for the judges comments.
Amanda I totally agree with you. I shocked myself and actually really really liked Lauren and Dominic, it was my favorite dance of the night. Kudos to our new choreographer, she took a big risk using that background as the theme for her piece, but I think it worked really well. Really cool to see how much Dominic has improved since his season.
Putting Travis’s and Tyce’s side by side, I can see what the judges were saying about Travis doing more contemporary, but I still really enjoyed it. That lift where Ashley dove through Mark’s arms and he flipped her over, LOVED that. Nigel seemed like, after Christina, he was in an incredibly cranky mood, yuck.
Bollywood made me smile, Jose really put his heart and hard work into it and it showed. Was it as technically good as Katee and Joshua from S4? No, but I didn’t care. They looked like they were having fun. And Kathryn looked AMAZING.
Kudos to Billy, I thought he did a good job. They were so hard on him! Buck isn’t his forté, but I thought he danced full-out to the best of his ability.
Ugh, I don’t know what it is about Christina, but I don’t see why the judges are so obsessed with her. My eyes were on Pasha through the whole routine; I tried to watch her, but I kept going back to him. She seemed to be in a permanent state of Adam’s “hungry jazz” face, not appealing. I wanted to like it (though I thought it was great choreography from Jean-Marc and France) but I just couldn’t get into it.
Oh Kent, he continues to make me smile. I didn’t think Courtney ate him alive as much as the judges made it sound like, but she definitely had the upper hand at some portions. I think it’s all part of the growing process; I really enjoyed watching him tonight.
The judges were really hard on AdéChiké too, and I thought kind of overdid it. Technically, it was a beautiful dance, very much in line, I thought, with Mandy’s piece that Melissa and Ade danced in S5. I enjoyed only seeing glimpses of his face because it made me appreciate the molding of the movements and the emotion. I know they’re trying to help them grow, but this is 2 weeks in a row AdéChiké’s gotten tough comments.
I love Stacey Tookey, and I agree with the judges that the concept of her piece is powerful, but Melinda’s dress kinda killed it for me. I thought Melinda danced it well, but I had trouble getting past her outfit. It felt like the costumer just found every type of flower, vine etc at Michael’s and put them on the dress, too much.
I liked Tyce’s broadway okay, but it wasn’t on the same level as Jason and Kayla’s “Mr. Monotony” or Kayla and Brandon’s piece from the finale. I can’t put my finger on what it was, but something just didn’t sit right with me.
Robert and Anya were totally hot tonight. He tends to “pull his face around” a lot, to use one of Nigel’s quotes, but I thought they rocked it. I have no experience in ballroom, so I can’t speak to the technique, but I really enjoyed it. This was the one time I actually liked having the light board behind them because it created a kind of sexy shadow.
Overall, I think I enjoyed the night more than the judges did, which makes me wonder if people they gave good comments to are going to be the ones in danger tomorrow if viewers vote for those who got harsher comments to spite the judges, I don’t know. At this point, the only one I would put in my bottom 3 is Christina and maybe Melinda, I really don’t know who is going home tomorrow.
@MARGARET. spot on. i do not disagree with a single comment you made. aside from stating the simple truth that the costume director MUST be a gay man. there were sooooo many open shirts.
i had way more fun with it than the judges did too.
I also agree with about everything Margaret said – the judging was really odd when the picked on someone like AdéChiké (probably my favorite dance of the night), but let other’s slide by who didn’t dance as well. I know he was in his style and the other’s weren’t, but that’sthe luck of the “draw” right?
I’m also not a fan of when the judges waste time disecting the costume. It’s not the dancer’s choice what they wear! At least Mia acknowledged that she wasn’t the best qualified to judge outfits. 🙂
Is it too late to retroactively vote for Kathryn to win last season? 2 weeks i na row she’s been spectacular.
I also agree completely with Margaret!!!
Adechike’s dance was my favorite of the night, and I thought he vastly improved from last week (though I wasn’t sold last week on his utter incompetence). I thought everyone danced well this week and the judges were in a pity pot.
I just can’t get into Melinda–maybe it was the dress, or maybe just the fact that I don’t feel her dancing is true and authentic and from the heart. I feel that she’s putting on a show. And that bothers me to no end.
And Cristina–though good–just isn’t technically in a place that is up to par, IMO. Her lines are shorter, her movements cut off. I just don’t get it.
I fear that Adechike will go home and he doesn’t deserve to.
@Margaret – once again, you and I are totally on the same page 🙂 The judges’ obsession with Cristina is a head-scratcher for me as well – she still has what Nigel called “lazy feet” and there were a couple instances where it almost looked like she was missing steps entirely. And they are STILL trying to perpetuate the notion that she’s a ballroom dancer! Drives me crazy – homegirl dances SALSA. One dance. She does not dance BALLROOM – multiple dances – a la Pasha & Anya. Grrrr.
Judges did seem unusually cranky last night, and seemed especially hard on Alex, Billy, & Robert. Alex, while he may not have nailed the “feel” of the broadway number, still looked great; Billy did far better at krump than they gave him credit for; and Robert was every bit the leading man than Anya needed in that Argentine tango – not sure where judges saw him looking “stressed”. I agree with someone above who mentioned the judges trying to “level the playing field” – I’m thinking that the idea is to put the stronger, more popular dancers through the ringer (Lauren, Billy, Alex, Robert) while lavishing praise on the weaker ones (Jose, Cristina, Melinda, Adechike). Kent is the wild card (they seem to somehow praise and criticize him in the same sentence – lots of backhanded compliments), and Ashley is altogether fading into the background for me.
Speaking of Ashley – while I agree that Travis’ piece wasn’t so much jazz as it was contemporary (and using the same music he did for a fantastic solo he did when he was a contestant on season 2 set the bar awfully high for me), I felt bad for him as all three judges continually raked him across the coals all night long. We get it – it wasn’t jazz. No need to rub salt in his wounds by remarking that Tyce’s routine was indeed jazz (anyone catch Travis’ face as that was being said? Poor guy!). I’ve never seen a choreographer get criticized that much while on-air, and Travis’ routine was much better than some of the god-awful ones that have only gotten a slap on the wrist (Laurie Ann Gibson’s hip hop for Victor & Karen last season comes to mind, as well as Philip & Channing’s samba by Tony & Melanie that Adam called out for being “lifty”).
I think it’ll be interesting to see who falls into the bottom 3 tonight – I have a strange feeling that Ashley will be there, as well as Adechike and maybe Cristina again.
For AdeChike, I noticed what the judges were saying. It was beautiful but I could tell that he had to remind himself to smile. It seemed so natural to Allison and that pointed out just how unnatural it was for him. His heart was not in the performance, regardless of how beautiful it was.
Lauren’s lyrical hip hop stole the night for me, although Kent’s jazz was a close second. I thought he was as devilish as he could have been and it worked really well.
Cristina just doesn’t do it for me as a dancer.
Alex’s broadway was fun and entertaining, but I don’t know enough about Fosse to be able to comment on whether that was Fosse-esque or not. The thing is, when the dancer is given a task to dance a Fosse-esque routine, selling that style is just as important as the performance. I had fun watching it though.
Billy’s krump…he invested everything into making that work but it was like watching a car accident in progress. Terrifying but I couldn’t take my eyes away. I think Kent would have done better though.
Robert’s dance wasn’t entertaining at all for me, and I think it was actually because he and Anya didn’t have the type of chemistry for an Argentinian Tango. It felt fake.
Jose’s Bollywood was hilarious. His necklace flew off and almost beaned Kathryn in the head.
Ashley had a fantastic night, and I thought she actually did show us something new. She was…everything they wanted to see from the week before, and it was a beautiful routine.
Melinda was good but I was shocked the judges loved it as much as they did. I love her as a dancer but I want to see her in hip hop. I think she’d rock there.
I miss Mary’s energy on the panel. My biggest complaint of the night is how boring the judges were. I was really disappointed by how blah they acted throughout the night.
Hmm on the subject of Adechike I have to disagree a little. I did think that he made the effort to show emotion this week and is improving, but I think he deserved the hard comments he got. Last week he danced in his own style with a fantastic choreographer and partner and, while technically good, he didn’t connect with his partner or the emotion. This week when dancers like Billy, Jose, and Robert were outside their elements, Adechike AGAIN was dancing in his. Since he hasn’t been challenged outside his style like the others, he should be absolutely flawless. Technically he was beautiful but he still wasn’t quite there in performance for me and I think that’s why the judges have been deservedly hard on him. He is showing improvement though and that’s huge.
I’m not a fan of the dress either (was that broccoli on it?!?) but I was impressed by Melinda, like the judges.
I was a little annoyed with Nigel tonight though. It’s true that Travis’ piece was not jazz, but I have to wonder what made them give Travis a jazz piece anyway since he’s not really known for it. Has he danced or choreographed a jazz routine before? Pointing it out once was fine, although I thought Nigel was a little hard on him since it was a great routine even if it wasn’t in the style it should have been, but when Nigel rubbed it in again I thought it was completely uncalled for. Travis looked upset and I thought he had a right to be.
On the flip side, does this mean the judges are going to do more calling out of the choreographers? Too often they seem afraid to say anything and the dancers get the blame for not being “hot” or “energetic” enough for what is just not a great routine.
I thought they were a little harsh on Alex too. He wasn’t flawless but he danced in synch with Lauren and they looked good out there together.
I’ve never gotten the same feeling from adechike as the judges do and some on this board seem to. To me, he seems to show more authentic emotion than Cristina or Melinda do…especially if you compare last week and this week’s dances. It didn’t feel forced to me–especially when he’d close his eyes while embracing Allison, and he would look over at her and smile in the midst of a move…just like “real” love…furtive, stolen glances. I guess I”ll keep my fingers crossed that Melinda sits in the bottom 3 again…
I’m worried I’ll lose my second fav tonight…so it’ll be two weeks down, two of my favs gone. I mean, I’m already down to one girl that I really like (Ashley)…without Adechike, well, I’ll be majorly bummed. ’tis the life of SYTYCD, I suppose!
I just wanted to make a comment on the judges’ critiques on the genres. I think that this is something that has always been an issue with SYTYCD. Contemporary does not mean the same to all people. There is contemporary jazz ( which is what we usually see) and a contemporary that is more postmodern (which Mia brings to the table sometimes). I think that the judges should do a little psa or something if they want us to understand what it is these genres really mean.
Ooo and one more thing… about the krump routine…. I can’t seem to recall an instance where the judges said that a white, privileged male portrayed the raw anger that comes from a disestablished community…. so Billy’s critique was not, nor will it ever be, a surprise to me.
@Andre – There has been one white, privileged male on the show that actually got good reviews for his krump – Travis. Then again, he & Martha’s routine in season 2 was the very first krump the show had ever seen, so maybe the judges were just wowed by the novelty of it…but I do recall they were impressed by both Travis & Martha’s aggression. I enjoyed it. As for the girls, the only female I can recall getting praised for her krumping was Kherington – and I don’t think it was all that well-deserved. I only remember it being ok. And if I remember correctly, they weren’t all that impressed by Comfort’s krumping. It’s strange. Anymore, no one seems to do well with krump – it’s almost becoming the new quickstep (kiss of death dance). Kinda disappointing.
Haha wow, I think I’m just a grump compared to everyone else here as I agreed with Mia on almost everyone except the Melinda and Christina.
For the guys:
Adechike – Was totally owned by Allison, the camera angles didn’t help but she was just understood the piece better imo.
Alex – The performance wasn’t there and to be honest I’m not surprised in the least. Technically he’s probably the best dancer on the show but there’s a reason why he’s been placed towards the back in both Wades and Tessandra’s group routines.
Billy – Just kinda sucked but he did better than I expected. Comfort probably limited herself imo.
Jose – Was definately the worst of the night technique wise imo. Did better than I thought he might of though.
Robert – watch his legs, they weren’t great.
Kent – Just proved to me that he was chosen largely due to his personality. He’s not very exceptional and I don’t buy the hard worker crap, he’s been dancing almost twice as long as some contestants and the main reason they’re better is they worked their arses off for it.
I did think Lauren and Ashley pulled off their dances pretty well in comparisonthough.
I truely do think tonghts bottom three will be a toss up because the judges were no help at all and it did make me miss Mary. I disagreed with them more than normal last night, I know they are trying to help them improv but geez it seemed like they didnt like anything. I thought Alex did well with the broadway, I love the Fosse style, it was the costumes that didnt help but the dancing was good. I felt bad for Billy, yes he didnt pull off the swagger but he gave that dance everthing he had. Anyone else feel tired from just watching the krumping. Adechike was lack luster for me again. I loved Robert in the Argintine tango he might not have been perfect but I didnt really care, I love that Anya stood up for him. I do think Kent was choosen for his personality you cant help but to want him to do well. Tonight show will be interesting.
totally agreeing with you leon!!!!
except…i do enjoy kent.
i think the men who dance with all star allison are gonna have trouble this season bc she is soooo good and our eyes just focus on her alone.
i’m not loving this season 7. the top 11 cast is too young for me. i enjoy the dancers with more experience under their belts (25-30 year olds). the choreography/costumes have not been memorable and don’t get me started on the music- it’s been awful!
not sure why hip hop has gone down hill over the years? give me dave scott over nappy tabs anyday.
i AM loving the all stars and how they’ve all grown!
bottom 3 tonite should be alex, melinda, jose with melinda going home.
Sometimes I think we’re seeing different dances than the judges because the dances that I didn’t like, they had praises for. My mom and I thought that the music used for Cristina’s dance overpowered her so the dance seemed too tame in a way. We both really liked Alex’s dance because it was in sync and it was enjoyable to watch. Adechike didn’t really do much for me and his smile kept randomly coming which made my mom and I laugh and feel uncomfortable. Ashley and Mark were pretty good but I honestly was watching Mark most of the time…probably because he looks damn good with an open shirt these days. Billy tried really hard and stayed up with Comfort. I think that is what should count. He performed the piece so he shouldn’t be criticized because it was weird to watch. I wasn’t a fan of the judges last night. Robert is annoying the hell out of me and the fake throw-up thing was gross. He also looked extremely stressed out during the dance so I didn’t like it. I lost interest in Melinda from the start so tonight’s dance did little for me. Plus, she seemed really stiff to me. Jose brought his style to Bollywood and I didn’t like that. Bollywood was meh for me. Lauren did probably the best of the night and I really liked that dance. Dominic so pissed off afterwards so that was odd. Kent is obviously here for personality but I think he’s a good dancer too. I can’t help but like EVERYTHING he does because he’s adorable in doing it. He looks and acts a lot like a family friend of ours so I keep rooting for him. I think the show would be boring without him because everyone else seems to have such fake personalities (like Robert)!
Anyway, I think Melinda, Jose, and Cristinia…maybe Adechike…will be in the bottom 3 with hopes of Melinda going home.
If you can, check out some of the tweets from the All-Stars, they’re very much in line with what we’re saying.
Neil: “I really enjoyed the dancing last night. it’s a shame the rest of the show was so negative”
Travis: “Thanks so much for all the love and support you guys! Trying to remain classy and mature on here”
Travis: “You have to remember everyone is entitled to their own opinion. So I respect the judges opinion…but what’s mine…THEY WERE UNBELIEVABLE!!”
Janette (she assisted Tyce): “Show was amazing tonight!!! Judges were rough, but the dancers were great about it! Well done Season 7!!! :)”
SYTYCDism: “If you want turns in seconde and jazz fingers put “competition jazz” on the card…”
Allison: “So everyone was so brilliant tonight on #SYTYCD …I love u guys so much!!!”
Courtney: “”Thank you guys for watching tonight! I’m so proud of Kent! He is amazing! Really fortunate to share the stage with such incredible talent :)”
Lauren G.: “Thanks for watching tonight! 🙂 All of the dancers were out of this world!!!!….Judging was a little too rough if ya ask me”
I think the judges just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, I fast forwarded through their comments anyway.
I rewinded and rewinded and rewinded. Travis mouthed off ‘…was directed at me’. Poor guy but Tessa’s and his piece were the best and most memorable of the night.
All I can say is the All-Star girls are smoking hot.
Robert’s pants were too tight… I could see a side performance of moose knuckle tango.
Was anyone else upset by Cat’s behavior tonight? I thought the feeble attempt to be flirty with Dominic after their emotional performance proceeding the critiques was absolutely inappropriate and out of context. Lauren and Dominic were noticably moved by their performance, and Cat came across as wanting to draw attention to her. Like, yeah yeah, good performance, but look! I’m being cheeky with Dominic again! It just …ugh.
Cat also cut off Courtney later in the show when Nigel directed a comment to Courtney about eating Kent alive…Cat just stuck the mic in front of her mouth and said something about ketchup. I dunno.
I realize this has nothing to do with the dances. I had to vent, though.
im not at a computer but Nigel tweeted about travis’s piece last night and it was way harsh. Id copy and paste it up here but like i said not at a computer. But glad to see the all stars supporting the contestants.
@Amanda – Are you sure it was Nigel? Doesn’t look like he’s tweeted in a day or so, but then again my Echophon has been acting up. If he did he may have deleted them – I would too if they were exceptionally nasty and I was getting harassed by fans who were defending Travis. That, and it’s just kind of tacky to still be bitching about it at this point, I think. But I’m glad to see the all-stars and fans rallying around Travis & the contestants 🙂
I wonder if he deleted it, I just checked Twitter and Nigel’s last post came at 12:33AM yesterday, and it didn’t have anything to do with the show. Interesting…
Okay. WHAT THE HELL WERE CAT AND DOMINIC DOING AT THE END???!!!!! XD If you look back, at the end when everyone is dancing, Cat and Dom are being all sneaky and hidden in the back, with their arms around each other. I couldn’t stop laughing for about a half-hour. 🙂 I do agree with Kat, though (ironic). Dom and Lauren were like, so serious and moved by their performance, and all of a sudden Cat asks Dominic if he wants to go deeper. I was like, “Cat, I love you, but don’t RUIN THE MOMENT!!!!!” It was weird seeing the usually happy and energetic Dominic being all serious… and it’s weird seeing him back on that stage and outside of Quest Crew! Speaking of Quest Crew, I saw Dom wearing a Quest shirt during rehearsal. 🙂
This is strange to admit, I was actually scared for Dominic before his performance. What if it totally bombed? But who knew it’d be the BEST OF THE NIGHT?! When it came to the part where he was supposed to lift Lauren, I was like, “Please don’t drop her, OH PLEASE DON”T DROP HER,” but I didn’t need to worry. I can tell Dom has improved and gotten stronger since his season, if those muscles in his arms were any indication. 🙂 The judges were unnecessarily hard on the performers, though. I caught Travis rolling his eyes at one of Nigel’s “Now that’s jazz,” comments. Poor Travis! 🙁
yeah just looked Nigel must have deleted it. I saw it posted last night shortly after Travis’s piece was performed. It was something along the lines of repeating that it wasnt jazz. Also he mentioned travis in the tweet taking a dig a travis twitter name something is ova. I wish I could remember it. Anyways about Cat and Dominic, he so started it and i really think she was trying to lighten the mood.
@Amanda: Wait… who are you talking about? Who started what? 🙁
@Lola
I agree about the comment from Cat to Dom was really awkward, but my read of the situation with Courtney was that she didn’t know what to say to the question and Cat stepped in to steer the conversation to something else.
I thought the Cat/Dominic thing was kind of hilarious. I could see his hand creeping up in the back of the shot. I’m not sure she thought about what she said before she said it, but the judges had been congratulating Lauren on going to that “deeper place” this week, so Cat’s comment became a rather awkward/rather hilarious lead-in.
btw, Travis’s Twitter handle is Travlsova, so I’m assuming that’s what Nigel was getting at. Why was he in such a crappy mood last night? Yuck, it made watching the dancing way less fun because I knew he was going to bash a lot of people.
@Lola I meant Dom started it with his hand creeping up on Cat’s shoulder. I still say she was trying to lighten the mood with that comment creepy or not still funny to watch Doms reaction.
@Margaret yeah thats what I was talking about with the whole twitter thing. My friend showed me it after Nigel tweeted it and I couldnt believe it. I wish I could remeber what it said but we were drinking wine so…yeah
Has anyone watched the show in Hi- Def? Cause the stage looks much better in HI-Def
@Andie: I should have called the bolero, rather than shirt on, then off! But, I was practically right…almost right…almost…
@Kimberly: I agree with the “targeting” and with also with the lack of shirts. Lol. I think I was referring to your comment in my Power Rankings post. Thanks!
@DaveV: Lol about your wife and daughter hooting and hollering. You must have a lot of fun watching it with them. 🙂
@Margaret: I agree that I love Dom’s improvement.
@Kevin: Amen to the waste of time regarding costume hate. Also, to retroactively giving Kathryn the title. 🙂
@Kat: I think Cat was probably told to play up the Dominic thing and felt like she had to squeeze it in. That’s what I thought. Still hated it… Also…I think she was trying to protect Courtney by answering for her, probably sensed that Courtney was uncomfortable and didn’t really want to answer.
Actually, I was talking about when the end credits were rolling and everyone was dancing. I saw that Cat and Dom were together in the back, with their arms around each other’s waists. It was weird.