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Top 10 Power Rankings

Bollywood is always a fun way to start off a show. Of course I noticed we were missing a guy, took me a minute to figure out that Tucker was missing. Cat revealed that due to an infection in his knee that he will not be performing his duet. Also, that he will be in the bottom two automatically. This week Alan, Tucker, Nico, Jenna, Malece, and Amy were in the bottom six. I didn’t think that they would have saved Jenna, but they must see something in her that I’m missing by not being at a live show. Anyways, I pretty much knew who they were going to save and who was going home. Malece and Alan were the unlucky two that were cut tonight, and I hope Nigel will make sure they will be on the tour. I will include their dance in my rankings.

Top 3: These three received standing ovations from the judges.

Makensie & Paul: Mandy created another memorable piece, just without the insane lift (ex. Melanie & Neil Total Eclipse of the Heart). However it wasn’t really needed. They have a great chemistry with each other and you can almost feel the emotion through the TV. Just an overall a beautiful dance to a Lady GaGa song (I like to think GaGa might have thrown a shoe up on the stage).

Jasmine & Aaron: This was a classic gritty NappyTabs hip hop. I really don’t know what else to say other that Jasmine did nail the routine and so did Aaron. Plus I’m just happy for the possibility of Aaron being able to do a tap number now that the all-stars are available.

Hayley & Nico: I have to agree this was one of the best Broadway numbers we have seen in a while. They both did what Sean wanted them too and threw themselves into the characters of the dance. This for me was the best both have done all season. That one lift with the leg was just wow.

Middle Two

Jenna & Alex/Tucker: I love Alex filling in for Tucker, didn’t realize he didn’t get to do ballroom his season. Loved the pirate theme, and Jenna in her element and truthfully I understood why they saved her last night.

Amy & FikShun: The beauty of this dance for me I just don’t notice if the technique is there and I really don’t care either. It seemed that the judges felt the same way. FikShun grew in this dance and I was so proud of him, he did a great job. Amy was great too.

Bottom Cut Dancers

Malece & Alan: I’m not sure if these two were old enough to truly get the vision that Mandy wanted. It’s a dance I would have loved to seen Aaron and Jasmine do.

Group dances: I love both the guys and girls. I think I like the guys hip hop a little  bit more.

Bottom 4: Tucker, FikShun, Jenna, and Amy going solely on how I ranked the dances but Tucker is the only one I know for sure. Now bring on the All Stars.

August 7, 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 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

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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!

Cut Footloose Contest

Hi Everybody,

Paramount Pictures and Herbal Essence is having a Cut Footloose video contest where you can create and post a video of your dance moves for the chance to go to the premiere of Footloose, which is out Oct 14th. Check it out:

Go here to see the rules, upload your video and vote on the video “battles.” There’s also a message from Kenny Wormald, who stars in Footloose with DWTS alum Julianne Hough. It would be really, really cool if one of our readers won the contest and could tell us all about the premiere!

Here’s the trailer if you want to get hyped up for the movie and the contest:

August 5, 2011 I Written By

SYTYCD Season 7 Top 6 Results Music

Let’s jump right in.

Top 6 Group Routine
Choreographer: Kelley Abbey
Song: Lea DeLaria’s “All That Jazz” – All

Professional Performance
Group: I missed the name of the American Ballet Theater dancers! Marianya says they were Yuriko Kajiya and Jared Matthews
Song: Minkus’s “Don Quixote” – Minkus:

Featured Performance
Dancer: DJ Smart (Season 7 Top 24 dancer)
Song: Kanye West’s “Say You Will” – Say

Dance Day Videos
Song: FloRida ft. David Guetta’s “Club Can’t Handle Me” – Club

All-Star Performance
Dancers: Lauren Gottlieb
Choreographer: Wade Robson
Song: Roisin Murphy’s “Night of the Dancing Flame” – Night

Musical Performance: Enrique Iglesias ft. Pitbull’s “I Like It” – I

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

July 22, 2010 I Written By

New Judges on So You Think You Can Dance 5

I’ve previously talked about the new SYTYCD 5 dances that we can hope to see on So You Think You Can Dance 2009. I also have suggested some new SYTYCD 5 music that they could consider using on So You Think You Can Dance 2009.

The question now is who could be the new judges on So You Think You Can Dance 5.

I wish I could say that Mary Murphy was going to be gone and replaced by someone else. However, I’ve read that her and Nigel will be back for another season.

The first person to top my list of judges on So You Think You Can Dance 2009 is Kenny Ortega. Not only is he the mastermind behind the choreography on High School musical, but he really knows what he is talking about. He has a great way of describing what people are doing well and not doing so well.

I’d love to see Luther Brown make an appearance on So You Think You Can Dance US. I don’t want him there every week, but I enjoyed his feedback on So You Think You Can Dance Canada.

I’d also love to see almost any of the judges from So You Think You Can Dance Australia. Those judges were raw and interesting. Much more so than the SYTYCD US judges.

I don’t want to see any of the supposed “judges” who were on Superstars of Dance. They were a joke and shouldn’t be on television again.

I’d love to have Benji Schwimmer back as a judge, but I hear he might be on So You Think You Can Dance Canada as a full time judge. Dmitry, Chelsie, and Lacey are busing on Dancing with the Stars. How about bringing the too quickly discarded Allison Holker as a judge? That would be really neat.

I just hope that SYTYCD US isn’t submitted to the lame and rather arrogant Blake McGrath as a judge. His choreography is cool, but not as a judge.

Oh yeah, I still think that So You Think You Can Dance should bring in a fan of the show to be a guest judge on one of the shows. Possibly someone who knows the show and has followed it quite extensively. Someone who knows how to write about the show and share impressions of the show. I might know someone who runs a blog called Pure So You Think You Can Dance that would be willing to do it *wink* *wink*

Who would you like to see as new judges on So You Think You Can Dance?

March 3, 2009 I Written By

Just call me Charlie...but where are my angels?