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Top 4: Performance Finale Thoughts and Power Rankings

What a great performance finale filled so many dances, it was hard to keep track of them all. Honestly I don’t know how the Top 4 are able to get though that night without showing any exhaustion. The alway fabulous Jesse Tyler Ferguson is finally back at the judges table. His “hey Ricky” chant was hysterical, not to mention all the judges goofing off behind Cat was entertaining as well. Also, three of my favorite all-stars were apart of tonight’s busy show. Like I thought Aaron was the one that got to dance twice.

With a total of fifteen dances, it would take me all night to attempt to rank them all. So I’m going to pick out a few of my favorites and give my thoughts about them. Then I’ll do my final ranking of the dances and who I think might win.

Zack and Valerie: This was a great piece of choreography from Tyce. It was the acting that was the challenge in this dance. They both sold the story, Valerie almost had me believing she was blind.

Valerie and Jessica: I thought this style suited them both very well. They both looked like they were having fun. Just something about Bollywood that I just enjoy.

Zack and Ricky: I love Pharside and Pheonix. The theme was very familiar though…anyone else reminded of the two princes from season 3. These boys knocked it out of the park. My second favorite dance of the night. I think that the winner will come down to the two of them.

Ricky and Kathryn: I’m not surprised that this dance was beautiful. Everything came together and Ricky is just a beautiful dancer.

Jessica and Robert: This had to be her best performance of the night. I think contemporary his her strong point and was nice to see her finally get back to the girl we saw in the very first live show.

Zack and Aaron: A tap to “Piano Man”, I would have never thought of that but Anthony is a tap genius. Yes it was my favorite dance of the night. I love how their taps went with the music, just so smooth and entertaining.

I honestly think that winner will either be Ricky or Zack. I can’t make up my mind. Ricky has been consistently fantastic and there is no reason he shouldn’t win. Zack is kind of the dark horse for me, he has been able to do anything that has been given to him. It will be interesting to see how the votes will turn out. Valerie will probably place 3rd with Jessica in 4th.

So what were you favorite dances of the night and who do you think/want to win.

August 27, 2014 I Written By

Dance is one of my biggest passions. I grew up dancing at Augusta West Dance Studio (the same studio that Kathryn McCormick). I have a BFA in theatre/dance from Valdosta State University. Tap is my favorite style of dance.

My Thoughts on LA and Austin Auditions 5/21/13

First off I’d like to start off by saying how happy I am to have SYTYCD back on my television, and I think it’s time to update the opening credits for the show. I know random thought but Idol updates every year, so why can’t SYTYCD. Last nights episode we went back to LA for day two and then to Austin, Texas. I’m not going to go into detail about every audition just a few that stood out for me and if I skipped over anything that stood out for you please let me know, I like reading other people thoughts on dancers.

I like to start with a little comparing and contrasting between the two bone breaking auditions.

In LA we had Slick, who also referred to his style as Flex dancing. I tend to always find myself not wanting to watch them pop their joints in and out of socket but at the same time I can’t help but watch. I also though he was great performer and a had a great attitude. I think he held his own during the choreography round but I agree with the judges, not quite strong enough for Vegas.

In Austin we had Shane Garcia, who has a stutter and uses dance to “speak freely”. I’ll admit his story made me think of Lazero on Idol this past season. I had no doubt that he would be good but what surprised me was the feeling he danced with, which made him easier to watch compared to Slick. Like Slick, Shane held his own during the choreography round but unlike Slick, he got a ticket to Vegas.

So what are your thoughts on Slick and Shane?

 

Moving on, we had Alex Kessiger, Sebastian Serra, Two ballroom couples, Makenzie Dustman, and other the went straight throug to Vegas. Which of these dancers did you like and why? Makenzie, might be an early favorite for me and I loved how Jesse said she had been marinated in dance. Emilio “Millie” Dosal is my other favorite from the LA auditions. Just knowing he is part of Phillip Chbeeb’s crew, I knew he would be good and he almost had me with that fake out in the beginning. It was during the choreography round that I just couldn’t help but to watch him and I hope that he does well in Vegas cause I want him in the top 20.

Next up Austin, Texas and a new guest judge movie star Minnie Driver. Austin had plenty of talent, from new auditioners, to past favorites, and even some that weren’t auditioning for the show.

Of course they had to start with the adorable Anthony, who at only 4 is showing promise that he will be a star in dance. He was easily one of my favorite moments of the entire show. Also, to hear that Cyrus inspired him to dance, I think is fantastic. I hope he keeps up with it and maybe will see him on Season 24.(lol…if the show is still around). Very sweet to send him to Disney World.

Donovan Gibbs and his family had a touching story to keep their dance studio open and to sell their house is a brave move. I think Donovan will be one to watch to see how he does in Vegas. Loved when his dad got to show everyone where his son gets his talent, I don’t about anyone else but I would’ve given dad a ticket to Vegas.

Plenty of other great dancers Hayley Erbert, Daniela, Nick Muckleroy, and Dannon O’Brien(pleasantly surprised by him. There was a female hip hop dancer they show in the montages that I wish they showed more of, and I willing to say we will probably see her in the top 20.

Last but not least the Exorsist Hampton Williams is back and this time he brought back up, his girlfriend Darlesha Goggans and their daughter Kira. Kira another 4-year-old that just made my night, and I love how Dad and Mom joined her and it became a family dance. I was totally captivated by them and I hope we get to see more of them. On a side not how cute would it be if the two 4 year olds Anthony and Kira dance together.

 

Next week they are off to Boston and Adam Shankman will be on the Judging panel.

 

May 22, 2013 I Written By

Dance is one of my biggest passions. I grew up dancing at Augusta West Dance Studio (the same studio that Kathryn McCormick). I have a BFA in theatre/dance from Valdosta State University. Tap is my favorite style of dance.

Podcast: SYTYCD Season 9 – Auditions: Los Angeles

Listen to the podcast

Episode 45 direct download

Subscribe to podcast on iTunes


Time Stamps
0:00 – Introduction
1:05 – Contemporary girls: Alexa Anderson, Eliana Girard and Sam Lenarz
7:26 – Jazz girls: Megan Branch, Jasmine Mason
11:18 – Choreography round guys: Jontel “Johnny Waacks” Gibson, Caley Carr, David Matz and Jonathan Anzalone
16:21 – Vegas-bound guys: Cole Horibe, Stephen Jacobsen and Marshea Kidd
22:30 – James & Nick Aragon, the “Ninja Twins”
24:34 – Wrap-up: Variety in the Top 20

Episode Length: 27:34

We’re still working to get caught up with our podcasts so that we’re releasing our thoughts close to the airing of the most recent episode. We apologize for the delay and we hope that after this one we’ll start releasing our podcasts on a more reasonable schedule.

If there’s one thing we love about this show, it’s that the audition episodes consistently bring out new and exciting dancers for us to enjoy. The Los Angeles auditions proved to be quite fruitful, with the contemporary girls Alexa Anderson and Eliana Girard impressing us with their skill sets and the character of their dances. We’ve been saying it for a while now, but we love it when contemporary dancers add some aggression into their style. There was also the sheer beauty of David Matz’s metal ring performance, which embodies everything we love about the quality of this show’s audition episodes. Cole Horibe’s audition was a welcome surprise, displaying a mix of martial arts ferocity with fluid, elegant movement that left us excited and wanting more. We also had the feel-good story of Marshea Kidd surviving a terrible car accident which nearly ended his life. That he could walk after what happened, let alone dance in the way he showed us, was a small miracle.

There was more to the episode of course, including the ridiculous first routine by Stephen Jacobsen that led many to speculate that the producers staged this for “controversy.” And who can forget the hilarious variety show that was the “Ninja Twins”! You can hear our thoughts about these and more in this week’s episode of our podcast!

Let us know what you think after listening to the podcast! You can leave us a comment here or on our blog, Reflections on Pop Entertainment. You can also follow us on Twitter and tweet with us. You can also visit our Facebook page, like us, and leave a comment there! We love feedback and will respond either with a comment or in our next published show.

June 7, 2012 I Written By

Over the past few years my fiancée Meghan slowly brought me into the world of television, turning me into a full-fledged fan of both scripted and reality shows. So You Think You Can Dance turned into one of my favorite reality shows as it is a competition that takes itself seriously, providing the audience with artistic choreography and talented dancers. It's certainly not something I ever expected to get emotionally invested in, but here I am! Meghan and I are very analytic when it comes to the things we enjoy. We constantly discussed and analyzed shows with each other and after doing this for a couple years, we decided that we should turn these discussions into a podcast. We created Reflections on Pop Entertainment, a podcast that provides commentary and analysis of popular entertainment as found in visual mediums, particularly television and film. So You Think You Can Dance Season 8 is the first television series we're covering with weekly podcasts and has allowed us to find our voice as well as actively contribute to the fan community. We hope that you'll enjoy our installments as they are posted to Pure So You Think You Can Dance!

Podcast: SYTYCD Season 8 – Top 4 Performance and Finale

Summary
For the finale of So You Think You Can Dance season 8 we give you a super-sized podcast with 15 more minutes of content. We were happy with Melanie’s win and were pleasantly surprised that the top two dancers this season were both women, which has not happened before on this program. The performance episode was not up to the high standards of past seasons which was disappointing for us, but there were some highlights such as Marko and Lauren F.’s wonderful contemporary piece by Tessandra Chavez and the captivating performance by Melanie and Sasha in the second Stacey Tookey routine of the night.

The results show reminded us of many of the great routines from the season, although we were surprised by how the judges picks seemed to place less emphasis on everyone except for Melanie, Marko and Sasha (even Tadd only had one non-group routine repeated). This portion of the show has historically served as a warm-up for the forthcoming tour and features many of the routines that are expected to show up. But here we had many routines that involved all-stars, none of which will likely be on the tour. It was unexpected for the judges picks to lack variety.

We conclude the podcast with a discussion of the show’s production and the effect it’s having on the pacing and the way we get to know the dancers. We pinpoint that the approach towards the show changed in season 6, when they moved to the live show format. At this point the packages became shorter and contained more schtick and the judges comments started having less substance due to the time constraints of a live program. We also discuss the choreographers and that some of them tailor their work to their selected dancers and that others do not and whether this is a fair way of doing things. Finally, we discuss the variety of dancers in the top 20 in later seasons versus the early seasons and the effect this seems to have on the type of choreography we see each week.

Please let us know your thoughts by dropping us a comment here after listening! We love to hear feedback and what you thought of the show. We also encourage you to check out our twitter feed!

We want to thank everyone that has tuned into our podcasts during the course of the season! We’ve enjoyed doing this and its been a learning experience for us! We’re planning to do podcasts for season 9 of So You Think You Can Dance, so check back with us in May 2012. We’re going to continue doing our Big Brother podcasts and will be adding The X-Factor to our weekly discussions when it premieres on September 21st. We are also adding a Week in Review podcast in the fall for all the other shows we watch during that time. So if any of that sounds interesting to you, then follow our blog Reflections on Pop Entertainment and watch for our updates. If you’re only interested in our So You Think You Can Dance material, we’ll see you again next summer!

Episode Length: 44:53

Time Stamps
0:00 – Introduction: Congrats to Melanie! Guest judges: Katie Holmes and Kenny Ortega and the choice to have celebrity judges
2:37 – Melanie and Marko’s disco
4:15 – Sasha and Mark’s jazz
5:44 – Tadd and Joshua’s hip-hop
7:10 – Melanie and Robert’s contemporary
8:29 – Sasha and Marko’s broadway
10:46 – Sasha and Tadd’s chacha
12:57 – Marko and Lauren F.’s contemporary
14:36 – Tadd and Melanie’s jazz
16:01 – Melanie and Sasha’s contemporary
18:27 – Marko and Tadd’s gumboot stepping
20:28 – The order of the placing: 2 girls in the top
22:22 – Results show: The new top 20 routine and tap routine
24:28 –  Results show: The judges picks were stacked towards Melanie, Sasha and Marko and didn’t seem to be a retrospective of the season
28:58 – Post-season discussion: The direction of production and how it affects the show – pacing in live shows vs recorded shows, an increasing focus on the judging panel, choreographers tailoring their work to the dancers, variety in the dancers in the Top 20 (stacked towards contemporary/jazz now), variety in routine genres (less ballroom now, more contemporary/jazz)
42:34 – Wrap-up: What are your thoughts on our post-season discussion? What we’re going to be doing in future podcasts (Big Brother, The X-Factor, Week in Review)


Listen to the podcast

Episode 15 direct download

Subscribe to podcast on iTunes

 

August 15, 2011 I Written By

Over the past few years my fiancée Meghan slowly brought me into the world of television, turning me into a full-fledged fan of both scripted and reality shows. So You Think You Can Dance turned into one of my favorite reality shows as it is a competition that takes itself seriously, providing the audience with artistic choreography and talented dancers. It's certainly not something I ever expected to get emotionally invested in, but here I am! Meghan and I are very analytic when it comes to the things we enjoy. We constantly discussed and analyzed shows with each other and after doing this for a couple years, we decided that we should turn these discussions into a podcast. We created Reflections on Pop Entertainment, a podcast that provides commentary and analysis of popular entertainment as found in visual mediums, particularly television and film. So You Think You Can Dance Season 8 is the first television series we're covering with weekly podcasts and has allowed us to find our voice as well as actively contribute to the fan community. We hope that you'll enjoy our installments as they are posted to Pure So You Think You Can Dance!

Podcast: SYTYCD Season 8 – Top 12 Performance and Elimination

Summary
Wrapping up the first half of the competition brought a satisfying conclusion to some partnerships while others seemed to run out of steam and were in need of a change. The bottom 3 was relatively uncontroversial as was the elimination of Ryan and Alexander. As we discuss in the podcast, we believe the judges inadvertently set Ryan up for failure by refusing to give her constructive criticism early on in the show, which generated a fan backlash that landed the Ryan/Ricky partnership in the bottom on three separate occasions. Alexander, while never being in the bottom before, hasn’t been consistent in his ability to emote compared to the other remaining guys and this is likely why the judges sent him home.

We enjoyed the Jordan/Tadd Travis Wall piece, both of Melanie/Marko’s routines and Jess’ performance in the Christopher Scott hip-hop was the surprise of the night. We’re looking forward to mixing up the couples and the were very happy with the returning all-stars! This should rejuvenate the competition and break some of the remaining dancers out of their comfort zones and further their growth.

Please let us know your thoughts by dropping us a comment here after listening! We also encourage you to check out our blog and twitter feed to keep up to date with us!

Episode Length: 32:48

Time Stamps
0:00 – Introduction: Thoughts for Alex Wong, Emmy nominations and guest judges
4:11 – Bottom 3 couples overview
4:57 – Bottom 3: Caitlynn and Mitchell
7:36 – Bottom 3: Ryan and Ricky
11:45 – Bottom 3: Sasha and Alexander
14:27 – The elimination of Ryan and Alexander
16:38 – Performance night: Jordan and Tadd – Great Travis piece and strong opinions about using “Out Tonight” from RENT
21:32 – Performance night: Melanie and Marko – Wonderful conclusion to a great partnership
24:12 – Performance night: Jess and Clarice – Jess nailed that hip-hop piece!
27:35 – Next week’s all-stars! Melody, Allison, Comfort, Chelsie, Kathryn, Pasha, Twitch, Brandon, Robert
31:37 – Wrap-up: Leave us a comment, visit our blog to see what else we’re doing and we’re really excited to see Harry Potter this weekend!


Listen to the podcast

Episode 8 direct download

Subscribe to podcast on iTunes

I Written By

Over the past few years my fiancée Meghan slowly brought me into the world of television, turning me into a full-fledged fan of both scripted and reality shows. So You Think You Can Dance turned into one of my favorite reality shows as it is a competition that takes itself seriously, providing the audience with artistic choreography and talented dancers. It's certainly not something I ever expected to get emotionally invested in, but here I am! Meghan and I are very analytic when it comes to the things we enjoy. We constantly discussed and analyzed shows with each other and after doing this for a couple years, we decided that we should turn these discussions into a podcast. We created Reflections on Pop Entertainment, a podcast that provides commentary and analysis of popular entertainment as found in visual mediums, particularly television and film. So You Think You Can Dance Season 8 is the first television series we're covering with weekly podcasts and has allowed us to find our voice as well as actively contribute to the fan community. We hope that you'll enjoy our installments as they are posted to Pure So You Think You Can Dance!

Top 12 Performance Thoughts and Discussion

Here’s a nifty spot for you to write in your thoughts on tonight’s performance episode. I’ll be updating my own thoughts, though I’m sure there will be a delay since I’m posting the music live as well. Get your talk on!

Okay, I gotta start. There is SO MUCH to talk about already.

First of all, Cat’s lovely and I think Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s gonna be a great guest judge. Excited to see Sonya and Cat’s response to the “mum and pop” of the panel pretending to kiss was funny. Even if Nigel and Mary aren’t funny, Cat’s always hysterical responding to them.

I wasn’t quite prepared for how quickly everything got started and I missed them saying there would be 2 performances from each couple, but yay!

Spoiler space…lalala

Read more..

July 13, 2011 I Written By