I *reallllllly* need to talk about this one! 🙂
-First of all, can we all agree here and now that Ade is Ade from S5 and the S7 contestant’s name is Adechike or Chike? Cause this is going to get very confusing very fast, unless we set some ground rules. Lol
-I loved that little dance routine that some of the contestants did with their luggage in the opening montage.
-Wade and Amanda *seriously* need an Emmy for the opening All-Star/Top 11 “Fame” group routine. Like, now. I loved the “Alice in Wonderland”-funked up flavor to it. I love Wade’s choreography – how it can be both elegant and dirty at the same time. It’s like crack for us SYTYCD fans. Loooooved the “partner exchange” near the end and all of their poses at the end and Alex’s face. 🙂 Clearly, he loved being part of that routine.
-Cat rocks. “Thank you for coming to my tea party.” Cat, I’ll go to your tea party anytime. Just don’t ever leave SYTYCD, please. 🙂
-Wonderful to meet the new director, Nikki Parsons, and see her in the control booth. That was a nice, personal touch. Kinda like how SYTYCD AU showed us a lot of footage with the costumers.
-Everyone went mad when Mia was welcomed back. I’m mad for Mia, so I get it.
-11 seconds to say what we have to know about the contestants? Pretty cute. Especially Kent’s, “uh, I’m single.” 🙂 Not for long…
-Travis, Travis, Travis!! “Paris is Burning” is a gooooorgeous routine. Oh my goodness!! I love the idea of basing a routine on celebrating the fall of an empire. How not standard is that? Um, I mean unique. Creative. As cool as the whole routine was, and kudos to chipper LoFro for holding her own in a mental piece like this, the highlight for me was seeing Kathryn and Mark dance together. So…
-Season 8 should be a fall season that is JUST SYTYCD alumni dancing routines together, showcasing the dancers associated with the show. Kinda like the “pro dance” routine in the middle of the results show? But a season full of that. Why not? Then, back to regularly scheduled programming in the summer with Season 9. 🙂
-Cat’s right when she said, “Kent, you look quite mad.” And when she asked him who was his ideal woman and he said, “someone like my mom,” and then blurted, “Beyonce!” Toooo funny.
-Got a bit teary when Travis said, “Four years ago, I was on that stage and now I’m sitting next to these guys.” Wonderful!
-And speaking of “sitting next to these guys,” I love that they’re having the choreographers on the judges’ panel for their routines! Can we keep this for the whole season?!?! Why shouldn’t they chime in on what they thought about the routine? Sure, it’ll mostly be positive platitudes, probably, but every once in a while, we might get a disappointed reaction, etc.
-Tyce’s routine from Sweet Charity and the 4 girls, Alexie, Melinda, Allison and Lauren was killer! Loooved it! I agreed that I couldn’t really tell the difference between the All-Stars and the contestants. This was the one routine where I think that was really true.
-I loooved their dresses!! Especially Melinda’s!
-Cat was so cute when she said, “I wanna be in your gang, girls! Please, let me be in your gang!”
-Then, Cat pointed out that Tyce worked with J.Lo and Tom Cruise *this week* and I loved that he said there was no difference between that and working with the contestants/All-Stars.
-I thought Nappytabs routine with Jose, Twitch, Comfort and Dominic was really smart and creative. It was clearly predicting his journey from contestant, to alumni pro dancer and All-Star. 🙂 Clearly, Jose was loving Cat’s attention afterward. I wonder if Dom’s got some competition? And how he’ll react, if so? Lol.
-Speaking of that… I thought the Cat/Dom interplay was definitely scripted and cheesy, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t think it was funny/cute. 🙂 I did. Cat can pull off cheesy. And they kinda acknowledged that it was a “bit,” when Cat said, “we need to go somewhere with this.” Loooved when Dom said, “I can’t see you” and craned up at her. 🙂
-I loooved that Nappytabs confirmed my read on the routine and said it was about initiating Jose into the SYTYCD family. 🙂 Nice to have such supportive choreographers and fellow dancers.
-Yay, Jason Gilkison!! I liked the “Work” routine, but it kinda reminded me of the DiLillo Couple/Karen Hauer routine from Season 6’s “Meet the Top 20” showcase episode, which Jason also choreographed. And, as much as I like Cristina (and, I do!!), everybody was overshadowed by Pasha in that routine. Pasha!!! Do I really need to say more? I think he could’ve handled another dance partner. Also, Pasha needs to be a pro dancer on Dancing with the Stars. Anybody agree? Also, did anybody else notice that Cristina was the only dancer to get called out for something technical? She was told she has kinda “lazy feet.” I don’t think any of the other dancers got anything but positive feedback.
-Cat’s “These girls danced their dresses off! That’s called shaking it!” Lol.
-Mia’s contemporary “This Bitter Earth” was PHE-NOM-ENAL!!! She’s baaaaaack! I love her creative choreography. The idea of a routine about “time, the journey of life,” is just incredible. I wonder if she got first pick of dancers? 🙂 Billy, Alex and Ade all stood out to me, but I especially loved Ade’s full committment to the “old man” end of the spectrum. More than any of the other routines, I felt like these 3 guys got to represent themselves, got significant “solos” within the routine, which was not just due to Mia’s choreography, but also to the camera work. It was beautiful. I especially loved the point where they were spread across the stage and swayed in unison with each other. And when they walked off the stage together.
-Mia’s comments after the routine, “It was an honor,” with her hand on her heart and to Ade, “Welcome home.” And calling Billy a freak and Alex a beast. 🙂 Cat saying, “Let’s hear it for the freak and the beast.” Looool. 🙂
-I didn’t like that Adechike called himself the underdog. Maybe he feels that way, but it seemed a little too forced to me. I dunno.
-Sonya is amazing. Adechike, Ashley, Robert, Neil and Courtney were all really good in “Freak.” Only thing is that I think Courtney and Ashley were too easy to mistake for each other because they have the same coloring, height and hair color. The guys were all vastly different and because there was an extra one, they kinda got little solos in the routines, so they stood out. Course, I wasn’t complaining when Neil got his moment to show off his spins and jumps. Yaaaaaay, Neil’s back!!!
-Robert did an impression of Sonya!! Awesome!!!! I laughed so hard. And I loved that Sonya called Adechike on calling himself an underdog – though, she did it in a positive way. 🙂
-At the end, Mia leaned over and whispered in Nigel’s ear. Wonder what she was saying? It almost looked like she was kissing him. Lol.
-It’s weird that the judges/Cat didn’t address Kathryn and Mark at all, but then they did address the rest of the All-Stars. It’s like the new director, Nikki Parsons, called down from the control booth and said, “Guys, it feels/looks weird when you completely ignore the All-Stars. Talk to them, let them talk.” And it was a good thing when they did.
-I would’ve loved to have seen how the contestants/All-Stars were chosen for which choreographers/routines. I would’ve much rathered seen that or rehearsal footage than have the judges/choreographers say a single word about the routines. Why say anything when they’re not judging?
-Seriously, we need an entire season of just showcases like this one. It’s like Survivor’s “Fan vs. Favorites,” but eeeeeeven better because it’s about dancers. And it’d give SYTYCD dancers an even larger platform, a longer life on t.v. What do y’all say?
I can’t believe I’m going to attempt this, but I’m gonna do a Meet the Top 11 routine ranking (1 is the best, 7 is the “worst” in my personal opinion):
Meet the Top 11/All-Star Routine Ranking
7. The Nappytabs’ Jose-Twitch-Comfort-Dom routine was probably my least favorite, mostly because of the genre of hip-hop, more than anything else.
6. Despite Pasha’s hard work, Jason’s “Work,” was not as good to me as many of the others.
5. Tyce’s “Sweet Charity” with Alexie, Melinda, Allison and Lauren. So well danced!
4. Loved Sonya’s “Freak,” but it had soooo much competition for my favorite.
3. Travis’s “Paris Is Burning” had so many things to love. It’s a hard call, was almost #2 or even #1. Tomorrow, it may be.
2. Mia’s “Bitter Earth” routine with Ade, Alex and Billy gave me chills.
1. Sorry, but it has to be Wade and Amanda’s full-out group routine “Fame.” Stunning!!!
Alright, a lot of you are probably going to disagree with me. Ready? Set? Go!
