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SYTYCD Season 7 Top 7 Performance Thoughts/Power Ranking

Well, this is the first week where predicting tomorrow’s result is easy…but typing it is difficult. Coming to terms with it is difficult.

Top Two

Kent – He had a great night. He really delivered energy and personality (and skillz!) next to Neil. I don’t think he outdanced Neil as Nigel claimed, but he definitely kept up. And he did what I thought was impossible and developed some real chemistry with Adechike in a great male-male contemporary. He’s maturing, but still keeping his personality, which is the right combination with this show. The cheers are so loud while he dances that I don’t know how he hears the music. He’s safe.

Lauren – She gets a lot of flak, but since my only sorta formal dance training is in belly dance, I have to say that the stuff she did in that Tahitian dance is HARD! You have to have incredible core control to do all of the thigh/knee stuff she was doing (she was doing shimmies while crouching, with her legs at different angles! Normally, you take a pretty solid stance when shimming, that would’ve put a lot of strain on her stomach and back, but it was all really smooth.) Not to mention she kept the tail on her costume bumping and that is seriously hard to sustain. The really impressive part is that no part of her body or face was telegraphing how hard she was working to do that. As impressive as I found all of that (I barely looked at Mark and that’s SAYING something), the real winner of the night was her Mandy Moore jazz with Billy. These two should dance together for the rest of their lives. I totally saw what Cat said about Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney. It was so effervescent and fluid and just fun. Loooooved it. Lauren can be really annoying in her interviews, but she continues to impress me with her dancing.

Middle Two

Billy – He’s been getting a lot of flak lately, too, after being a huge early fan favorite. He gained something back tonight he’s been missing for a while. He was so relaxed. He seemed to be enjoying himself – just plain enjoying himself and that brought back the Billy that I love. He had jive with Anya and was a strong, matched partner to her. They had great chemistry, which hasn’t been his strong suit lately. But, of course, the second of his routines, with Lauren, was just incredible, as I mentioned above.

Robert – I think every single one of his fans are going to take nothing for granted and VOTE like crazy to keep him out of the Bottom 3. He’s been there too often. There’s a good chance he’ll be there again, but I think he’ll be saved by Ashley going home due to her injury. As for his routines – I really liked the Travis Wall contemporary, but I think that the judges/producers tried to hard to make an “Emmy moment” out of it because it was about Travis’s mother’s illness and it was so heartfelt. That almost ruined it for me. It was very reminiscent of Tyce’s breast cancer peace, in my opinion. Especially the opening walk of the two characters. I absolutely adored the walk at the end and the symbolism behind it, but while I think it was well-danced by Allison and Robert, I think Travis has deserved an Emmy more with other routines. I’m glad he shared something so personal with us, but I resented being told to feel about it. I felt the same way with Tyce’s breast cancer piece, actually, and liked it more when I saw it on SYTYCD UK with less fanfare. His disco with Kathryn was a lot of fun. It had it’s problem spots but when you consider they probably only had a day or so to practice together, very good.

Bottom Three

Ashley – is in the EXACT same place Alex was last week. The same place Jessica King was in a few years ago. If her injury is what I’ve heard it is… she’s almost 100% going home tonight. Which makes me very, very sad because she quickly became my favorite once the performance shows started.

Adechike – Okay, so Chike hasn’t been getting much love from me. I’ve acknowledged that he’s a great dancer, but I feel that he doesn’t connect to his partners. His salsa with Anya was horrific – even though there were tiny patches that were pretty incredible. However, I *finally* saw what everyone else sees in him when he danced contemporary with Kent. He had chemistry with Kent!! I loooved this Dee Caspary routine. I thought Chike was so comfortable with Kent in the interview and that really played out in their performance. It was the first time I thought he got everything right. However… I think it’s too little too late. It’s only one solid performance in a night with two performances and after a pretty lackluster season. I think there’s gonna be some Chike backlash this week after all the gossip and controversy. I think he’ll be safe though, since Ashley’s almost certainly going home.

Jose – If Ashley weren’t surely going home, I’d bee 98% certain that this was Jose’s week to leave us. He was flat and unimpressive in his Broadway and he disappointed in his own style next to All-Star Dominic. I found the routine entertaining (the breaking), but it wasn’t everything it was built up to be. Just as Jose is not everything he’s been built up to be. Even the judges had to admit, after his Broadway, that he needs training and polish. He needs to layer dance on top of his gymnastics and tricking.

Some last thoughts before I go –

-I looove that Cat is speaking up more about her opinions. Her comments re: Billy and Lauren reminding her of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland was spot on. 🙂

-I kinda liked the disco tonight and there were lots of crazy hard things in there. But…isn’t there at least one single other disco choreographer in the entire world? I’m very tired of Doreana Sanchez’s choreography. And here’s why – I think the style is already so limited that to have just one choreographer makes it very, very boring. It’s basically all the same routine!! And if there aren’t any other choreographers for disco, maybe that’s a hint that the style is played out. Dry. Done.

-We had a lot of male-male numbers tonight (what with Ashley out and Lauren being the last girl in the race, likely) and they were doozies! Loved Kent and Neil’s baseball routine! As well as Kent and Adechike’s contemporary. The Jose/Dom “battle” was aiiiright. Until they made Dom bow to Jose and I was just.not.cool.with.that. S’okay. We all saw who left with the sword. 🙂

-I think it took changing all the rules for the producers and all of us to realize what we love best about the show. I’m glad we’ve had this mix-up because it’s shown us that bringing back All-Stars and same-gender routines really do work. But it’s also shown us that we really like seeing the contestants grow together in partnerships and that the producers need to be careful not to overproduce = manipulate us. If they can even help it at this point.

– I’m *very* sad I didn’t get to see Ashley dance this week and that she’ll probably be leaving.

-It was a good week for dance, even if Alex wasn’t there. I think a lot of the dancers realized they could actually win and kicked it up a notch this week. It’s a weird season. All the rules changed and now all bets are off.

July 14, 2010 I Written By

SYTYCD Top 11 Results Show Discussion

Alright – judging from all the conversations going on here at the site today, I know y’all are going to have a lot to say about tonight’s episode. Here’s a space for you to do it.

Who do you think is going to be in the Bottom 3 tonight? Who do you think’s going home?

Ready…set…DISCUSS! 🙂

June 17, 2010 I Written By

SYTYCD 7: Meet the Top 11 Discussion Thread

So here it is! The show that introduces the Top 11 to the All-Stars and to the audience… and if SYTYCDism’s spoilers are to be believed, we’re in for a hell of a night.

Meet the Top 11

Since Emilie’s busy, I’m (Marianya) starting out this discussion thread, just comment away as the show progresses!

June 10, 2010 I Written By

My life can be summed up in the following two quotes: 1) "I am married to engineering and am its faithful wife by day, but at night my wanderlust takes hold and the arts becomes my jealous paramour." and... 2) "Engineering is my safety net. Writing is my passion. Acting is my escape when the other two become too much." So where does dancing fit in? Pretty much anywhere at this point... =)

SYTYCD S7 E4 Vegas Week Discussion Thread

Already, the 45 minutes we saw of Vegas Week were inTENSE, so I imagine tonight be just the same, if not more so. Here’s one handy dandy place for you to kick start your Episode 4 Vegas Week discussions. I will be treating all of your comments as SPOILERS! because I won’t be able to watch the show until later. But don’t mind me, go ahead and theorize, bemoan, suppose, lament, appreciate and discuss to your hearts’ conent.

June 9, 2010 I Written By

SYTYCD S7 Nashville/Dallas + Vegas Week Begins Discussion Thread

Okay, so maybe you’re not done talking about the L.A./Chicago audition episode last night. But, here it comes (in 21 minutes for me), so ready or not…DISCUSS! ;”)

I’m excited that we’ll see a bit of Vegas Week tonight, though that’s a LOT for one 2-hour episode. What do y’all think?

June 3, 2010 I Written By

SYTYCD Season 7 PREMIERE! Discussion Thread

Can you tell I’m excited? Are you excited? Here’s a place for ALL your thoughts about tonight’s episode – the first of crazy wonderful Season 7.

May 27, 2010 I Written By

SYTYCD Salt Lake City Auditions Discussion Thread

This is the last audition episode. While they’ve been fun (especially New Orleans), I’m excited to move on to Vegas week tomorrow night. Will Salt Lake end the Season 6 auditions with a hoot or a holler?

October 6, 2009 I Written By

SYTYCD New Orleans Auditions Discussion Thread

How about those dancers in New Orleans? I’m expecting them to be not just the best of Season 6 so far, but of any season of So You Think You Can Dance ever. Okay, maybe I’m a little biased. But not by much. Lol A friend of mine recently said a friend of theirs is on the show tonight and is a phenomenal dancer. And we already know Adam Shankman was excited about one dancer in New Orleans.

Did they rise to my high expectations and yours?

Either way, there’s no way a second dose of SYTYCD this week is a bad thing. 🙂

[After the show…]

And they brought it! Several solid dancers from New Orleans that I suspect might have a chance at Top 20. Can’t wait for Vegas.

But first, I was lucky enough to watch the taping of Jakob Karr’s audition and he was the dancer that Adam Shankman Tweeted about, as I reported on my blog back in June. I hadn’t matched the name to the dancer, but I was hoping that it was him. Also heard a lot about Justin Kenney (the b-boy they took a “huge gamble” on by sending to Vegas) from other folks at the auditions and I’m watching for him now, too.

And I’ll be watching for Diana Drexler (whose grandfather died and she was able to perform) in Vegas as well.

Who will you be watching for?

September 30, 2009 I Written By

SYTYCD Atlanta Audition Discussion Thread

Here’s a secret. Even though New Orleans is now my home, I grew up in Atlanta. I’m curious to see how the dancers from those two cities compare. Just a bit of personal interest there.

How did the dancers in Atlanta do? Any standouts? Any dancers that you hope to never see again. What about dancers that you want to know everything about. Let everyone know what you thought about the So You Think You Can Dance Atlanta auditions.

Personally, I really liked the guys in Atlanta – Jamal Jackson and Victor Smalley look promising, as well as Billy Bell and Travis Hamilton.

And don’t forget that tomorrow is another episode of SYTYCD. Yes, that’s 2 episodes of SYTYCD in one week. One hour was far too little.

September 29, 2009 I Written By