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SYTYCD S7 Top 9 Results Thoughts

Is it just me, or was that opening group number very sedate, all things considered? And by sedate, I mean… boring. Nothing really popped out at me. Sad to say.

I’m glad, glad, glad Ashley and Alex are safe and that they didn’t even really try to play that they were in danger.

Annoyed that Adechike is safe since I think he still deserves Bottom 3, despite last night’s nominal improvement. They probably had to scare Kent a bit…let’s see how he does next week.

When Lauren was sent to safety, I had a feeling both Billy and Robert were gonna be in the Bottom 3, that they were gonna play off the Billy or Robert thing they did going into the Top 10. When they were both in the Bottom 3, I was a little afraid for Robert, but I mostly just felt even more certain that Melinda was going home.

When it was between Melinda and Jose, I had a wild stray thought that Jose would be in the Bottom and we’d have a freaky all-male Bottom 3 this early in the season. Which would probably have meant Robert going home, if that had happened. But, then it was Melinda and I was pretty sure again that she was going home.

I looooove that they’re going to have the All-Stars re-dance some of their iconic routines. It’s like they heard all our talk and they listened to us. Makes me start thinking about what other routines we might see in the coming weeks.

So even though this results episode didn’t feel like it was much about the Season 7 contestants, I had a lot of dancing to enjoy anyway. Namely, the All-Stars. The Viva ELVIS spectacular was pretty awesome, and I enjoyed that Chris and Marquis got to dance again on the SYTYCD stage.

The solos went by in a blink. I enjoyed both Billy’s and Robert’s. And I was glad that Melinda danced acapella. I thought it was a bit fraudlent of Adam to pretend she even had a chance by offering advice on what she had to do to stay. That made me a bit sad.

I enjoyed the Ne-Yo performance a lot, too. It would’ve been cool if he danced with the All-Stars like last week’s performance with Debi Nova. But his dancers were a’right. πŸ™‚

So, I’m not surprised that the judges sent Melinda home. Or that the decision was unanimous. I thought it was a bit rude to tell Melinda by sending the other two to safety (they’ve done that before, though). They could’ve actually addressed her first, you know.

We’ve got to stop losing girls. We’ve only got 2 left and I really like both of them. So that’s it. Everyone, start voting for them, okay? I think we could thin out the herd of guys for a bit before we let either Ashley or Lauren be in danger again – k?

July 1, 2010 I Written By

SYTYCD S7 Top 9 Results Music

We all “know,” or think we do, that Melinda is going to be in the bottom 3. But what about the other two? Kinda up in the air. It’s getting tougher and tougher every week.

Top 9 Group Routine
Choreographer: Jamel Gaines
Song: London Symphony Orchestra’s “O Fortuna” – Orff: a.k.a. Brandon Bryant’s audition song.

All-Star Performance
Dancers: Courtney Galiano and Mark Kanemura
Song: Mirah’s “The Garden” – Advisory

Professional Performance
Choreographer: Nappytabs and Mandy Moore
Dancers: The Cast of Cirque du Soleil’s Viva ELVIS
Song: Elvis Presley’s “Didja Ever” – G.I. / “Return to Sender” – Elvis

Cat mentioned Season 4’s Chris Jarosz and Marquis Cunningham, who are a part of the cast. So exciting! I wonder what it was like being on the new SYTYCD stage, but still “back home.”

Musical Performance: Ne-Yo’s “Beautiful Monster” – Versus

And a spoiler line for the solos, just in case…
Read more..

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Win Tickets to Master Classes Hosted by Cliche Cosmetics

Cliche Cosmetics is hosting the Summer Dance Series, dance classes taught by SYTYCD alum – Katee Shean (S4), Melissa Sandvig (S5), Randi Evans (S5), Victor Smalley (S6) and Noelle Marsh (S6) –Β  and they’ve offered us free tickets for our readers!

Here’s the deal. The master classes are designed for intermediate to advanced dancers and will be hosted during August in Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale and New York. At least three members of the faculty will teach in each city. Check out all the details here.

We have one ticket per city to give away. So, if you want them, write in the comments below and tell us why we should give the ticket to you. If you win the ticket, you commit to guest-blogging your experiences for PureSYTYCD – and we want pictures!!! Tell us which city’s class you’d like a ticket for. Get our attention with creativity, inspiration and…compliments and bribes always help, too. πŸ™‚ Tell us how much the class will mean to you. Or tell us what a great guest blog you’ll write. Get our attention and you can win a free ticket to a SYTYCD master class in one of these cities!

Katee Shean, SYTYCD 4 second runner up Melissa Sandvig, SYTYCD 5 Top 6 Randi Evans, SYTYCD 5 Top 10 Victor Smalley, SYTYCD 6 Top 20 Noelle Marsh, SYTYCD 6, Top 20

[7.6. Update and disclaimer: I never mentioned our deadline. We need all of your mini-essays by the 15th so we can make our decision before the first class – and already it’s going to be a hard one. I must disclaim – neither Cliche Cosmetics nor PureSYTYCD can pay any travel or associated expenses. We’re combining our efforts to bring you the opportunity to take the class for free, but make sure you’re in the position to get to the class and stay in whichever city you select.]

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SYTYCD S7 – Which *new* partnership surprised you the most?

What did you think of the dances? Which pairing were you pleasantly surprised about?

Since there were a few repeat partnerships… this is just all the *new* ones. Now as much as I was surprised that there was some man on man action this week, I wasn’t terribly surprised that it would work well… SYTYCD has a long history of strong male/male dances.

So when it came to pass that there was going to a man on man dance last night, naturally I had very high expectations for this dance…. but that’s just me. πŸ˜€

Season 2 – Tranji (Benji & Travis) – Hip Hop choreo by Shane Sparks
Song: Da Muzicianz & Mr Collipark – Gyrate Gyrate

Season 3 – Neil & Danny – Contemporary choreo by Mia Michaels
Song: The Presets – Are You the One? Are

Season 4 – Twitch & Joshua – Trepak choreo by Youri Nelzine
Song: Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker – Trepak The

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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 Top 9 Performance Thoughts/Power Rankings

Once again, I’m going to combine my Top 9 performance thoughts and power rankings this week.

This one’s gonna be rough. Roouuuggggh. I’ve been reading a few of your comments to help me out here, but I’m still pretty confused.

Top Three

Alex – Is there any question? I think we can all agree on this one. And this is coming from me, the “hater” of hip-hop. Helllloooo…let’s just say I’m most likely to like hip-hop if it’s NappyTabs. And if Twitch is dancing, I’m always in love. But Alex is what made this routine, which was choreographed brilliantly for him and all, but he held his own with TWITCH BOSS! I mean, boss is in his name. πŸ™‚ And Alex killed it. Did you hear that audience? Cat kept saying it was the loudest crowd she’d even seen on the show. It sounded like they were in a stadium. I especially loved Mia’s, “Who the hell are you?” Even though, I’m not really that surprised Alex rocked because he’s just phenomenal. When I saw the SYTYCDism spoilers that Alex and Twitch were dancing together, I made very girly sounds. πŸ™‚

Billy – The judges came down hard on him (but they kinda have to, since he’s been a judge favorite all along, right?), but it was a gorgeous routine. Billy still has a lot of fans and I thought the combination of his mentioning Legacy as his role model, dancing with Kathryn (who danced with Legacy) and a powerful routine from Stacey Tookey put him up top. He was a bit stiff and arrogant while getting his feedback, I think, which makes me like him less. But the routine was lovely and his solo was strong as well. Overall, I think the judges were hard on him because they’re trying to give him a possibility at a “journey/arch” that he might not be perceived as having since he’s so technically good.

Ashley – When Top 11 started after Vegas Week, I was thinking, “Who is this girl?” I had no idea who she was. But I loooooooooove her now. Yes, she needs to dance something other than contemporary. But she’s been able to show something different in this routine and it was a chilling and wonderful routine with Ade. She has quickly become one of my favorites and will be my biggest solace when we probably lose the girl who has been one of my favorite from the beginning.

Middle Three

Robert -I love him. He got BIG cheers, supported Jose (yes he can, when Cat asked rhetorically if Jose could hold his own) and had great chemistry with Courtney. But, he danced with Courtney again to a blah-ish Sonya (not her best, at least) routine thatΒ  happened earlier in the show, which makes it sadly a bit forgettable. He was compared to Mark, however, and I think he does suit Sonya’s choreography. I hope it doesn’t put him in danger cause I loved when Sonya was taking America to task for not voting for Robert. He definitely deserves to stay.

Lauren – I thought it was a fun Broadway, and though I don’t always love her personality, I do enjoy her dancing. I thought both she and Neil were technically strong and had great lines, but there wasn’t a lot of chemistry between them. She’s starting to get a lot of flak, but a lot of people still really love her, I think. Also, I think the wardrobe malfunction and the resulting brou-ha-ha (“I enjoyed that tremendously,” and “I bet you did”) will make her stand out. She got a lot of time – and honestly kudos to her for carrying on with her entire strap dangling. I think that would have been just a bit distracting.

Kent – This is a tough call. It’ll either be Kent or Jose in this or the first Bottom 3 spot, in my opinion. But, they’re kinda on the same level, I think. Both didn’t dance strongly this week, both have huge fan bases. I do have to say I don’t think enough has been said about Dmitry’s phenomenal choreography here – smart and sexy work. While Jose got better feedback (and I liked his performance better), I think Kent’s fan base is a little more rabid AND I think that he’s perceived to have danced better in genres outside his own…

Bottom Three

Jose – Whereas Jose has been giving a lot of “Legacy choreography” – stunts within the choreo that show off his skillz and remind us why he’s on the show. I liked Jose’s performance tonight, but I agree with some of the comments I’ve seen that he didn’t do a lot of real dancing, more like excellent partnering. I think the routine (and most of his routines) have cleverly disguised his weaknesses and the judges are mostly glossing them over. So while I think he may be in the Bottom 3 tomorrow night, I think he’ll be a the “top” of the Bottom 3, which will mean he’ll be back next week.

Adechike – A lot of people are raving about his Dave Scott hip-hop tonight. After watching it back three times now, I think he made *some* improvement. But you know what? He had all the personality of a prop, to me. He might as well have not been there. The only times I noticed him was when he was being sloppy and cheesy. It’s kinda the reverse of Melinda for me – I don’t get the hate for her and a lot of people probably won’t get (or agree with) me putting him in the bottom 3. But honestly, I think that any little sign of improvement was going to be seen as a huge step for him because he danced like a stick with two beautiful women in his own genre in the weeks before this. I think he should be getting a lot of heat for that and I don’t care if he danced a slightly better hip-hop this week. I would’ve rather’d seen that routine with *anyone* other than him. Even not always loving hip-hop, I could see how that could be a great routine. With somebody else.

Melinda – I love her, but… it seems like I’m one of the few left who do. Especially if you count the judges. I thought Mia’s comment was so gross. What is the constructive point of telling her “we might have made a mistake keeping you” on national t.v.? Why not, “You didn’t dance your best, or as strongly as you needed to”? And, after watching the routine back, it galls me to admit this, but it was pretty awful. I enjoyed it in the moment, I did. I thought there were some especially awkward transitions into jumps, lifts and tricks and a moment that might’ve been choreographed or might’ve been a colossal mistake. I think the only thing that could save Melinda now is the sympathy vote after Mia’s ugly, pointless comment or if ALL of Melinda’s fans stay up all night voting for her.

I’m not happy about it, but I think Melinda’s going home. (Or maybe it’s a plot to use reverse-psychology are the voting audience….) I hope that it’s two guys in the bottom with her and I’m fairly confident in my picks. Though, as I said earlier today, I think we’re ripe for a shocker.

Some last thoughts before I go –

-I love that Cat’s talking more than ever – especially about the routines. Even if she’s not a dancer, she should get to put her 2 cents in after all the years she’s hosted and participated in the show. I like knowing what she thinks!

-I thought the solos were all pretty strong and interesting. I wasn’t thrilled with Ashley using the same music as last week’s group routine – I think it was too soon and indicated (whether this is fair or not) that she didn’t try as hard to be unique. Same thing with Adechike – he used at least the same song as his dance for his life in Vegas and it might have been the same solo, I’m not sure. I thought Lauren had the strongest solo of the girls and I was very impressed by Kent’s solo (his “new Billy Belly status” has never been clearer). I enjoyed Jose and Melinda’s solos quite a lot as well.

-The minute Alex’s footage started and up to the last minute on screen was some of the best SYTYCD has ever had to offer. Pure enjoyment. Even though Adam’s “This is your world and I’m just visiting” comment was regurgitated (Marianya reminded me he said it to Ashleigh last season), I think the emotion behind it was truly genuine. How could it not be? You could see the mass hysteria going on in that studio. I think NappyTabs were incredibly smart to forsake an easy route “battle” dynamic for this routine and in doing so, they made this an incredibly memorable routine, one that showcased both of its incredible dancers. If this is the quality of dancing we have to look forward to, I don’t mind *as much* that we’ll probably lose Melinda and be at 2-6 girls and guys.

-You know…some of the problem with this season’s female-male dynamic may originate with the choreographers. Hear me out… I suspect that the choreographers are just plain more inspired by the guys and they’re using the choreography to showcase and protect the guys, yet they’re not doing the same thing for the girls. Especially when you consider the enormous amounts of ballroom that the in-danger and eliminated girls have danced. The ballroom routines usually don’t have intense back stories, are very technically fussy and difficult, usually have less appealing music (hey, I’m considering the types of songs YOU tend to click on) and are a hit-or-miss when it comes to audience appreciation.

-Did you see Legacy on stage with all the dancers at the end? He and Kathryn seemed to have a bit of a reunion. πŸ™‚

Well, bring on my heat for all the cranky-puss comments about Ade. I know a lot of you are going to think I’m crazy for my power rankings this week, so time to hear it! πŸ™‚

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