So You Think You Can Dance Season 7 | Pure So You Think You Can Dance

Missing SYTYCD Season 7 Favorite Routines

A few of us felt that there were some routines that got left out of the finale showcase of favorite routines. I’ve culled these from your comments and my own personal opinions. So, feel free to chime in via the comments and let me know if I’ve missed any myself.

1. Lauren and Kent’s “prom dance”
Choreographer: Travis Wall
Song: Howie Day’s “Collide” –
Why: This showed them both to incredible advantage, hitting their strengths and having enough chemistry to fill a stadium (which they likely will, on tour) and it included That Kiss.

2. Ashley and Neil’s Week 1 contemporary
Choreographer: Tyce Diorio
Song: Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway “For All We Know” –
Why: I dunno if this was Ashley’s best dance on the show, but it was pretty freaking incredible and it caused me and Marianya to question whether she and Neil were in love, they had such great chemistry. Plus, it was the dance that made me realize how much Neil had grown since his season.

3. Ashley and Mark’s Week 2 jazz
Choreographer: Travis Wall
Song: Annie Lennox’s “Wonderful” –
Why: Yeah, she basically got her own style again, but this showed that Ashley wasn’t a one-hit wonder, that she was a phenomenal dancer who was great at generating chemistry with her partners. Plus, Mark was really sexy and it’s always cool to see him dance again.

4. Robert and Courtney’s African jazz
Choreographer: Sean Cheesman
Song: “Norweg” – from Cirque du Soleil’s Saltimbanco
Why: This was Robert in Week 1 – I think a lot of us forget how good he was from the get-go. And considering how much he grew over the course of the season, how cool would it have been to see him dance it again with Courtney?

5. Robert and Anya’s Argentine Tango
Choreographer: Jean-Marc and France
Song: Bond Quartet’s “Libertango” –
Why: Again, this was Week 2, and considering how good this was already, it would’ve been amazing to see him do it again after everything he’d learned.

6. Robert and Kathryn’s Bob and Kathie jazz
Choreographer: Sean Cheesman
Song: Roisin Murphy’s “Sinking Feeling” –
Why: This was the beginning of “Robyn,” was the Robert-Kathryn pairing is called some places. The choreography was perfect for both of them, but there was some awkwardness, some small hitches. It would’ve been really, really cool to see them dance it after Robert’s solo growth and after the two of them danced together three more times.

7. Billy and Kathryn’s contemporary, which propelled Christina Perri to overnight success story
Choreographer: Stacey Tookey
Song: Christina Perri’s “Jar of Hearts” –
Why: Because it’s brilliant. Two amazing dancers, together to a great song and great choreography.

8. Lauren and Billy’s Mandy Moore jazz
Choreographer: Mandy Moore
Song: KC and the Sunshine Band’s “Boogie Shoes” –
Why: This is just flat-out one of my favorite routines of the season. Both cool and funky, it was danced by exactly the right pair of dancers, to the exact right song and the perfect moment.

9. Lauren and Mark’s Tahitian
Choreographer: Tiana Liufau
Song: Last Voices’ “Jungle” –
Why: Because it’s fun. And hard. It showed that Lauren was up (and down) for anything and really put her in a different place, in my opinion.

10. Lauren and Dominic’s hip hop
Choreographer: Tessandra Chavez
Song: Beyonce’s “If I Were a Boy,”
Why: This was Dominic’s first time on Season 7 and it was good to see how much he’d grown. Also, for me, it was one of the first moments where LoFro stood up to her reputation coming onto the show, the first twinkle in our eyes that she might win.

11. Kent and Adechike’s contemporary
Choreographer: Dee Caspary
Song: Tom McRae’s “You Only Disappear” –
Why: This was the first time I saw just what all the Adechike fuss was all about. Kent wasn’t bad, either.

12. Kent and Courtney’s jazz
Choreographer: Tyce Diorio
Song: Amy Winehouse’s “Amy Amy Amy” –
Why: Another one of those kisses. It was a grand combination of dancers, song, movement.

13. Adechike and Courtney’s jazz
Choreographer: Tyce Diorio
Song: Gizzy Gillespe’s “Manteca” –
Why: It was just so good. So light-hearted and joyful and just well-danced.

14. Jose and Comfort’s hip hop
Choreographer: Marty Kudelka and Dana Wilson
Song: Otis Redding “Try a Little Tenderness” –
Why: I loved the unexpectedness of this routine. I was firmly anti-Jose by this point, but I couldn’t help loving this cool little routine. Even though he was eliminated right after this routine, I think it, together with his contemporary with Allison (theme from “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” which I couldn’t find on YouTube) are two of Jose’s finest routines because they play to his strengths.

15. Contemporary group routine with Allison and 10 male dancers
Choreographer: Mia Michaels
Song: Sting’s “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” –

Professional Performance
Why: As amazing as the routine was with Allison, it would’ve be awesome to see Lauren dance this, as was intended before she was injured.

So the finale would’ve had to have been 4 hours to include all these routines, plus the ones that they did spotlight. I know a lot of you wanted Spencer Liff routines and more of Kathryn’s routines as well, but I had to cut myself off sometime. Tell me in the comments which ones you would’ve picked!

Odd and Random SYTYCD News Roundup

Haven’t done one of these for a while and there is a LOT of SYTYCD-related press lately, of course.

–Mia Michaels responds to claims that she’s racist.

–Cat Deely predicts the winner using “hormones.”

-SYTYCD Canada winners Nico and Tara-Jean talk about what they’ve done since winning the show, with themselves and their prize money. And another with Nico and Tara-Jean about the new season of SYTYCD Canada.

–Cambio has several “episodes” in Christina Perri’s life, following her around in very short clips. 🙂 Kinda cool for behind-the-scenes and in episode 2, she sings a few lines from Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind,” which is fun. Part 5 has little behind-the-scenes clips of the SYTYCD performance, including rehearsal with Neil and Allison on stage. 🙂

-Here’s a cool piece that talks with the All-Stars, a few of whom say which musicians they’d like to tour with and what they did to prepare to be back on the show.

–E! has a great summation of the finale and some great gossip from the Top 3. Including which one wants to audition for Glee.

–EW, as always, has a great write up and dubs Alex by my favorite nickname/acronym ever – AFW (for Alex.Freaking.Wong.). Lol.

–Interview with Robert.

–Mia’s starting a new show.

–The New York Post highlights some of Cat’s hits and misses this season, pointing out that her male counterparts can wear identical designer suits every week, but she has to change it up. Further proof our Cat needs an Emmy. 🙂

–Lessons American Idol could learn from SYTYCD.

–An interview with Melissa Sandvig and Brandon Bryant about a performance together.

–Interview with Twitch.

–Interview with Adechike.

-A piece to get you geared up for SYTYCD Canada.

That’s it from me for now. Feel free to share any links for great stuff you might’ve noticed!

Alex Wong – Single Ladies Routine

Just happened to come along this while I was bored today. Alex is still a winner in my heart. If he wasn’t injured he would’ve won the title last night.

I haven’t seen the finale yet but will after work tonight

SYTYCD Season 7 Finale Part 2 Thoughts

Well. My local FOX channel pre-empted the finale for the first Saints pre-season game. Luckily, I was able to watch the show online using a live link that John sent me. Amazingly, he took to Twitter to find it and someone came through for us!

Anyone know of a live online stream of SYTYCD? I guess the Saints game is pre-empting the SYTYCD finale in some places. about 4 hours ago via HootSuite

THANKS!! RT @loulzb: @tvblog http://www.channelsurfing.net/ live stream for the finale! about 4 hours ago via HootSuite

Thanks to our Twitter followers, @loulzb in particular, I was able to update the music post as the show happened and NOW, I’m watching it on the local FOX channel, so I get a refresher for my thoughts post. Unexpected benefit of cruel pre-empting. 🙂

-I adored this group routine. I liked that Melinda got a bit of a spotlight, but I thought it was weird that she was the only Season 7 girl who got to stand out, except for Lauren a bit near the end. That being said, it felt a bit like a LXD performance, so I was thrilled to learn it was choreographed by Christopher Scott. I loved Twitch and his bevy of gorgeous girls. LOVED Alex in the chair with his hand-dancing. Loved that All-star Lauren and Comfort were in suits like the guys. Lol. 🙂

-LOOOOOVE Cat’s pink dress. So girly and gorgeous.

-I’m glad they made fun of Nigel, Mia (“gorgelina”) and Adam again. It doesn’t quite make up for all their annoyingness this season, but it does come close. 😛 P.S. I forgot to say that I loved that we could hear Mary laughing why they were roasting Nigel’s hair. 🙂

-Love that Kenny Ortega, Stacey Tookey and Mary are here. I don’t mind that Tyce is here as well. 🙂

-Since I already know who wins, I chuckle when Lauren admits that she was “dancing for votes” in her routine with Twitch. 🙂 And I sighed with happiness when she sayd that it felt like she and Robert were flying in their contemporary. And that Mia’s comment about her dancing after the routine with Pasha was the best compliment of her life.

-Liked seeing Sharni Vinson from Step Up 3D in the audience. Gonna go see that tomorrow. 🙂

-I’ll never, ever complain about getting to see Neil dance, but I didn’t think that that Kent-Neil Broadway was one of the best of the season. I would’ve rather seen the Ashley-Neil dance from the beginning of the season.

-However, I was in complete agreement with the Billy-Ade “Made World” routine as one of the best of the season. Gave me chills, again.

-Quest Crew is AMAZING!!! That routine was kickass. It’s performances like this that makes me wish there was an IMdb for dance routines so we could ID all the performers. But, great music, great choreography, great daaaaancing. Phenomenal.

-Love the Gaterade commercial. But how come they didn’t mention that they’re considering dancers as athletes in their “evolution”? Hmmm?

-Oh wow, Mama Mia! I love that you chose “Fallin'” as a stand-out of the season, considering how mean you were to Adechike. How mean *we* were. I’m so glad to see this again. Is it my imagination, or is it even better than the first time around?

-I gotta say, this “L-O-V-E” routine is pretty steamy. 🙂 And silly. And steamy.

-Nah, I dunno about the Kent-Anya cha cha being one of the best of the season. It’s fun. It’s one of Kent’s best, I guess. But there are other routines I would’ve liked to see…oh what the hell. This is fun. Awww, Alex is standing up for them and clapping!

-That’s adorable that Tyce called Nappytabs “America’s Favorite Couple.” And I totally dig his choice of the Robert-Dominic circusy hop hop “Scars.” One of my all-time favorite SYTYCD performances. And this is coming from someone who doesn’t always love hip hop, mind you. Ahhh, so nice. Robert, you’re *my* favorite dancer. I’ll see you on tour. Oh wait, did I type that out loud? And Cat humming the classic circus song. Tee hee. Lovely and creepy.

-That Dance Day footage was pretty fun.

-Nigel’s gonna tap. Sigh. Then he comes out on crutches and a big fake cast and says the “Season 7 curse” got him. Lol. Holy shiiiiit! That little kid is *good*! Ooops, did I type profanity just then. Well, he’s that good!! God, I could watch that kid tap forever. Looks like he could’ve tapped forever, too. Lol. Oh to have such energy. Cat’s right, he was “cool as a cucumber.” How was he so composed?

-And now the Manzari Brothers. They’re pretty awesome, but that kid was a tough act to follow. Still, there are two of them in unison. I’m kinda waiting for Melinda or the three tappers from Season 6 to jump in and join them. That’d be awesome, to have little Luke, the Manzari Brothers, Melinda, the three tappers from Season 6 and maybe even Nigel all tapping onstage. Well, that didn’t happen but these guys were pretty incredible. 🙂

-Oooohhh, we get to see the Lauren-Pasha Argentinian tango. Seeeeexxxy. Okay, I pretty much didn’t think at all during that. No thoughts. Just, I loved seeing that again. Can’t believe she could do that. And that she and Pasha have that much chemistry.

-Awww, I love that Adam called the Robert-Allison Travis Wall routine the “manifestation of everybody’s need to be cared for.” I don’t think I realized before that Allison pretty much leaps backwards and Robert’s there to catch and lift here. Pretty incredible. More incredible every time I see it.

-Soo cool to see Russell dance with Lil C!!! This isn’t my favorite style of dance, but I love it’s pretty cool to see Russell dancing as slick as a seasoned pro. 🙂 Where has Lil C been this season? I’ve missed him.

-Another glimpse of Sharni Vinson in the audience. Who’s that girl sitting next to her with the red hair?

-Heee hee. Cat asked Russell if he was ready to give up his tiara!! And he was he was ready for the tour! Bet you are, man, considering you won forever ago and didn’t get to tour with your own season. :'(

-Arrgggh. Could’ve done without seeing the Jose-Dom b-boy routine again, but I guess they had to have it. I mean, even if we had to feature Jose, there were other dancers he did better. Okay, it was a bit better this time.

-Yay!!! Charlie Bruce is dancing with Neil!!! While this wasn’t my favorite dance she did on SYTYCD UK, I think it’s a great routine for her and Neil. And gosh, how strong is he! And the trust she has to have in him to throw herself at him like that and know he’ll be there. What a gorgeous pair. I’d love to see them dance together again and again and again.

-The Top 3 on stage together and they’re all clearly in costume for future routines – which gives away what they are. Robert’s is hysterical and he grins when everybody laughs at him. I love that he strikes a pose for us. I love you, Robert!

-Awww, Robert’s #3. Poo, I wanted him to win. He’s so sweet and incredible. He seems relaxed.

-Hmmm, I wonder what Lauren and Kent are saying to each other on the win there. Maybe she’s saying to him, “Robert’s twice the dancer you are, which is why I’m in love with him, just like Emilie, but better cause he loves me, too.” 🙂

-Awww, Robert!! “Thank you to everyone who picked up the telephone for me” and “it’s really bust me.” Wow, he seems so centered and at peace. Adorable. And he says something silly about the flowers and we get a wide Robert grin.

-LOL to the back and forth between Cat and Adam. “This is serious. You might want to use an eyebrow.” Lol

-Okay, I liked “My Chick Bad,” but I liked “Power” from last night way better. Maybe they just didn’t want to show it again back-to-back and wanted to highlight something from earlier in the season. Still. Okay, I’m remembering that this was fun. And Adam’s right that this was one of the first “moments” for Lauren. She kicked ass and then rode it/him off the stage. 🙂

-Cat decided to pick a routine!! 🙂 Ha ha ha, as she said. And it’s so nice to see this routine again, even if it’s a video and Alex can’t dance it live. Let’s just hope he can dance it and other great routines in the future. Aww, thought Alex was gonna cry there at the end of the video, in the audience. Love you, Alex!!

-THANK YOU, STACEY for choosing that Robert-Billy Bollywood. So fun! So energetic! I still feel that Robert danced it better than Billy. Couldn’t take my eyes away from him the whole time. Poor him having to dance after being eliminated.

-Oh, Mamma Mia! You picked good again! Sooo glad to see this Kent-Neil Travis Wall routine again. WONDERFUL! Perfect song, perfect dancers, perfect dancing. So emotional and moving and gorgeous. Travis Wall needs an Emmy after this season! Him and Nappytabs killed it this season.

-Yay, Black Gold!!! John says their performance was taped, but that they sounded like the Beatles. 🙂 All I know is that while it was cool to see all that footage from the season, I kinda wish we’d just gotten to see the band. AND, they had audio during their performance. Boo!! But I liked seeing (and mostly hearing) the performance again, because I caught a glimpse of Alastair this time. I wasn’t sure if he’d performed with them the first time cause I didn’t see him. 🙂

-Can I just say that I ADORE Ellen DeGeneres??? And that she made her entrance by hanging on the door a la Katee in her infamous “Door” routine with Twitch! AWESOME!! Can’t believe she’s gonna do this. Pretty awesome. She’s actually dancing quite a bit. And dancing well. Awww and they brought Alex on stage. “They said dance legend and I thought…Ellen!” 🙂

-Wish Lauren got to change out of those baggy pants. Loving watching their “journeys.” Riiiiiight before Cat announces it, I know it’s gonna be Lauren. Yay!!! Russell comes up and gives her the gaterade bottle. Adechike is the first to come hug her. Robert is hugging somebody off to the side. Who’s that? Kent? Big cluster with the confetti. Lauren breaks out to dance on her own and Robert hugs her (see, they love each other! lol). Dom and Twitch come and lift Lauren up. Yay, guys, thanks for doing it! 🙂

And that’s the end of the show. Whew. Big breath.

-Lauren’s only the 3rd female winner in 7 seasons, after Sabra (S3) and Jeanine (S5). Apparently, they can only win in odd seasons, which doesn’t give me much hope for Season 8’s girls. 🙂 But we’ll see…

-Where was Ashley??? One of our commenters pointed out that they never mentioned she had to withdraw due to injury, same as Alex. I think if Jose could dance an iconic routine, Ashley should’ve too. Looove her. She was in that gorgeous red dress at the end, so we know she was there. Boo to no love for Ashley. That being said, ALL of the Top 11 guys got featured (Robert and Kent of course, Adechike and Jose, Alex and Billy were all featured in dances), yet only Lauren was featured outside of the group routine. Really? Not cool, SYTYCD. If anybody else should’ve had a routine, it should’ve been Ashley. Might I nominate “For All We Know” with Neil? I would’ve much rathered seen that than the Kent/Neil baseball Broadway or the Jose/Dom b-boy battle or even the Kent-Anya “My First Kiss.” Seriously. Or, hello, we could’ve seen “Wonderful” with Mark? Come on! Or “Cosmic Love,” with Ade. And what about how she killed that hip hop, “How Low” with Dominic?!?! This girl danced her booty off this season with some of the finest male All-Stars, always holding her own. She deserved some love from SYTYCD tonight. Some recognition of all she’s accomplished.

-Oh yeah! I forgot that I also wanted to say – WHERE WAS KATHRYN?!?!?! She was the only All-Star who danced *every single week* (if my memory serves) and she was in not one single memorable dance from Season 7?!?! I call bullsh*t.

OK, that’s it for my rant. That being said, I really loved this finale. It was a lot of fun and I can’t wait for SYTYCD Canada! And Season 8!

Oh and for Nigel to listen up and put on that SYTYCD Alumni Variety Show with alumni from *all* the shows all over the world. Pair it up with Glee and you’ve got some serious Fall fun. I’m telling you…

SYTYCD 7: The Results

Stay tuned as the bloggers on the site breakdown the good, the bad, and the meh of this season of So You Think You Can Dance…

For a quick recap go to Emilie’s Cheers and Jeers and Margaret’s Highs and Lows as well as some floating rumors/news for Season 8 for a taste of what’s to come.

SYTYCD 7: The Finals

So let’s have at it…. the last two polls for the season…. first…

And now…

SYTYCD 7: Why Robert Should Win

So I’ll be the first to admit it, Robert was not my favorite… he has never really been my favorite… and he will probably not be my favorite. So why am I writing this? Simple, because Robert’s the “dark horse” in the competition. We as an audience know practically next to nothing about him during the audition episodes leading into Vegas and even during Vegas we still know next to nothing about him. He was one of those dancers that probably was very low key during the whole audition process preferring to let the dancing speak for itself.

And did it speak.

The best comparison that I could think of off the top of my head was Danny Tidwell the runner up to Season 3 of So You Think You Can Dance. Danny – if you recall – is Travis Wall’s adopted brother, who originally came from not so good family circumstances, came to Denise Wall’s dance studio for lessons and walked the who knows how many miles (10 miles according to Wikipedia) between his home and the studio to wait for the next lesson. He was talented in his youth despite starting at a later age. Denise took this lost soul under her wing and brought him up to be the dancer that we all remember him as. On the show Danny was quiet and reserved – most likely as a by-product of his youth growing up – which to some people came across as arrogant on screen. He was part of the Bottom Three boys several times during the show before eventually coming in second place in his season (runner up to Sabra Johnson).

In many ways Robert Roldan is the Danny Tidwell of Season 7… Robert’s childhood was broken in some ways and he relied heavily on his mother for growth and strength, eventually they found a stable family home and structure allowing Robert to blossom into the dancer prior to the show. In the duration of the show, Robert always did well in his routines but he never really shined. He was always very good at picking up choreography and getting the characterizations of the stories, however, for one reason or another the audience simply were not able to connect with him.

So what happened? Where did the surge come from? Personally I believe it started with the contemporary piece with Allison Holker choreographed by Travis Wall. It was a story that Robert was able to grab hold of, to cherish and get lost in. He was able to find a way to relate to the material… and once he was able to relate to it then his love and joy and connection came across the screen so much more. Suddenly (or not depending on one’s point of view) Robert was able to harness a connection to every piece given, and instead of doing well but forgettable, he was doing well AND memorable. Suddenly his dancing has a sparkle that isn’t exactly easy to forget.

His surge is coming later in the season, but there have been previous winners of the show that had surges later in the show or rather peaked at the right moment to outshine the rest in the final performance show their season (Season 5’s Jeanine Mason and Season 6’s Russell Ferguson).

Towards the beginning of the series, people voted on their favorites since day one, so for the first few seasons the obvious favorite since day one became the winner (Season 1’s Nick Lazzarini, Season 2’s Benji Schwimmer, and Season 3’s Sabra Johnson). Season 4 saw the shifting of the gears where America’s isn’t necessarily voting for their favorite dancer, but rather the one whose dancing shined the most… eventually moving into Season’s 5 and 6 where the winners weren’t outright favorites from the beginning but rather the quiet unknowns whose dancing won over America little by little every week. America loves a good underdog, and this season it’s Robert… the other contestants have every chance of winning as well, but if patterns are any indication, I see America continuing on the trend of the underdog and chose Robert this time around.

Season 7 Cheers and Jeers

Just like I did for Season 6, I’m gonna break down what I feel were the highlights and the low points of Season 7. This is gonna be a doozy since there were so many changes this season.

It might be odd to do the Cheers and Jeers post before the season’s fully over, but there’s a good reason for this. Over the next few days, the writers here at PureSYTYCD are going to do posts focusing on elements from this post, the best and the worst of Season 7, up until the final performance show Wednesday and the finale on Thursday. Maybe we’ll update after the finale if anything in particular calls for it. 🙂

Don’t you hesitate to chime in your own thoughts!!

Cheer: The All-Stars
Who isn’t glad to have the All-Stars dancing on the SYTYCD stage again? I think this is a wonderful bonus of this season, seeing some of our favorites from all the previous seasons back again. It’s such a wonderful idea that I think FOX should do a variety-type show JUST showcasing great dancing every week and have rotating SYTYCD-alum and choreographers each week. No competition. No judging or voting. Just dancing. Just great dances from our favorite choreographers and dancers. They could call it The SYTYCD-Alumni Variety Hour. It could work in the fall because it’d just be one hour a week. They wouldn’t need to find three hours over two days. They could use dancers/choreographers whenever they’re available and they’d basically have a weekly, hour-long advertisement for their summer season. They could even spotlight some routines from previous season AND other countries where SYTYCD airs. What a great way to celebrate the SYTYCD family, yes? Okay, I got a little distracted there.

Jeer: The All-Stars

Yes, this is a jeer too. While I love every single All-Star they brought back (and I wasn’t so sure I would at the beginning of the season), there are still TONS of other dancers from other seasons I’d love to see come back. There are so many great combinations and re-combinations we can try. And as awesome as having the All-Stars back has been, they did distract from the contestants a bit (especially in the group numbers). The biggest way they distracted from the contestants was…

Jeer: No constant partnerships

By eliminating the partnerships that used to exist up till Top 10. It used to be that dancers had the same partner every week (unless their partner got eliminated), so you could really see them help each other and grow together. They brought out wonderful things in each other and it helped us get to know their “personalities.” This season, the partnerships rotated every week. Even though Robert danced with Kathryn so much they might as well have been partners (lol), I think we all missed the chance to see the partnerships this season.

Cheer: Changing partnerships

That being said, it was kinda cool to see everybody dance with everybody (for the most part) from the get go. And I have always kind of wondered what would happen if they changed every week from the beginning. It kinda added a certain element of freshness to the mix.

Jeer: Top 11 vs. Top 20

Bring back the Top 20! It was necessary to lower the number of contestants in order to accomodate the All-Stars, but we got to know fewer dancers this season, which made it hard very early on to lose dancers. The dancers who weren’t already clear favorites going in (Alexie, Ashley to some degree, Robert), didn’t have nearly as much time to win us over and they ended up in the Bottom 3 as fans rushed to protect the dancers they loved (OR had seen in Vegas Week the most). Also, I don’ t know if this should be a separate jeer or not, but I did NOT appreciate that the girls were out-numbered from the get-go this season.

Cheer: Losing one dancer versus two

I’m glad that they decided to go with the one-a-week rather than send one of each gender home because there were plenty of times in previous seasons when I thought it was really unfair that we had to lose a girl and a guy each week, no matter what. What if, in the future a guy and a girl were both eliminated each week up till Top 10, but then after that, only one dancer goes home each week?

Jeer: The same three judges

The last few weeks, we’ve had four judging with a rotating guest judge (Kenny Ortega and Toni Redpath!), which just further illustrated that having the same three people giving their opinions every week gets really stale. I said it in the fall when it was Nigel-Mary-Adam, and it’s no different with Nigel-Mia-Adam. Having three static judges DOES.NOT.WORK. Well, it did on SYTYCD Australia, in my opinion, so maybe it’s just that regardless of who our judges are, they need to find new things to say and new ways of saying them. But mostly, I think the easiest and best fix is having either a rotating fourth seat or ALL SEATS rotating. I honestly wouldn’t mind if there were three different judges every week. Nigel, you’re gonna be so busy producing American Idol again, why don’t you just take a bit of a break? And I wouldn’t mind if they each talked less, either. Especially if we always already know what they’re going to say.

Jeer: The Mia/Mary debate

You know what, having Mary on all the time got stale, just as Mia judging every week has been stale. But having Mary completely gone this season made some people sad (not John) and further illustrated how annoying Mia could be as a judge. I never thought I’d say a negative word about Mia. Looove her choreography when it’s on. And I think she’s good for saying the ballsy things that other people won’t say – i.e. her honest opinion. But I think that she needs to figure out how to be kinder without feeling like she’s sold out or lied. Because she was catty and nasty and just yuck a lot of this season. In the language Mia speaks (aka noises), she was really aarrgggghhhh!

Cheer: Our lovely Cat Deely

Ah, Cat Deely. She spoke a lot more this season! She was funny (and sometimes not, but that’s okay) and she really stuck up for the dancers (i.e. the Jose/Adechike Bollywood issue). The rumor that she may leave the show is a major jeer, but I refuse to believe it because Cat is a major part of why this show works, in my opinion. When all else fails, there’s always Cat.

Jeer: Musical guests

This season, as in the past, the musical guests just kinda take up airtime that would be better served featuring dancing. Some of the musical guests have sucked this season. Notably exceptions were Christina Perri, Debi Nova and Natasha Bedingfeld.

Cheer: All-Stars dancing with the musical guests

But, it’s been great to see the All-Stars dancing with the musical guests, in part because their our SYTYCD All-Stars and in part because these are the jobs they’d really get in the world outside SYTYCD.

Cheer: All-Stars dancing routines from their seasons

Yes, just yes. This was such a great idea and I think we should’ve ditched some of our musical/professional dance performers in order to accomodate this.

Jeer: Not enough All-Star routines from their season

Really, there just weren’t enough. And where were the routines from the All-Stars who were representing their season by themselves? What a missed opportunity to bring back OTHER favorite SYTYCD alum to dance with them. Seriously, whose idea was it to bring Christian TV on instead of showing us more All-Star routines?

Cheer/Jeer: All-Stars dancing in the group numbers

Well, on the surface it’s never a bad thing when the All-Stars dance because we love them and they’ve been polished by their time on the show, as well as the time since their seasons. However, it really distracted from the Season 7 contestants – to the point of not being fair at all. And it was great when an All-Star could step in for an injured dancer, but it just added to the attention that an All-Star got rather than a contestant.

Jeer: Withdrawals due to injury

Just like the static judge thing, the multiple injury thing was also a jeer from Season 6 (go and check). But having Alex and Ashley both have to withdraw due to injury, and then Billy and Lauren also both being injured (and sorta, maybe Jose, if you believe Nigel Lythgoe’s lame excuse for him missing group routines), it’s just too much. Figure out how to fix this one quick, FOX. Yes, injuries happen to dancers. Yet. But. Too many injuries.

Cheer: The return of the hat

I liked seeing the actual footage of the drawing from the hat again. I’d missed it a lot.

Jeer: The clearly assigned dances, despite the hat

Yet, it was clear that the producers were at least occasionally selecting dancers for specific dancers, as a way of maybe helping or hurting them. The biggest example of this is, obviously, Jose dancing a b-boy routine with Dominic.

Cheer: Music!

SYTYCD always has great music, don’t get me wrong, and uses classic songs in new ways. But I really enjoyed the music of this season, I have to say. Even though I wasn’t right about most of my Predicted List (lost a lot of cool points on that one), I’ve discovered a lot of new music, as I always do with SYTYCD AND seen a lot of my favorite songs attached to great routines.

Jeer: Lopsidedness in routines/dance backgrounds

While there were a LOT of great routines from this season, there was a strange lack of ballroom dancing and a lot more Bollywood than we normally see. Which, I actually didn’t mind, myself, because I love Bollywood and the ballroom routines are more likely to fade away from my memory, even if I liked them in the moment. But more than that, we had A LOT of jazz, contemporary and Broadway. Which is funny when you consider that not only did we have a LOT of contemporary dancers in this Top 11, but our Top 3 are all contemporary dancers. Well, Lauren’s listed as jazz, but sorry, same difference. So while I like our Season 7 dancers and I’ve liked a lot of routines, I do find it odd that we had of our Top 11, 7 were contemporary-jazz-lyrical dancers. So I feel like we didn’t see dancers as out of their element as they might’ve been in previous seasons. We started out with great contemporary dancers and ended up with great contemporary dancers.

Cheer: Phenomenal routines

Let me end on a positive note. We did have a lot of amazing routines this season. Look for a top routines post from me soon for more on that, but I’m sure you all have your favorites and can name at least two or three of the ones I’m gonna highlight. 🙂

Look for posts in the next few days from all of us here at PureSYTYCD, which will break down many of the best and worst elements of Season 7 in further detail.

Who was in Step Up 3D (Spoilers)

Okay, so, I went to see the movie yesterday with a couple of my dance friends. The movie was excellent and was pretty surprised they used up to 7 previous SYTYCD contestants in the movie. The 3D version is a definite see if your cinema is showing the 3D version

Here’s what I spotted and also caught with the end credits of who was featured:
Stephen ‘Twitch’ Boss (Season 4 Runner-Up) – Major character in the film who played Special Effects wiz Jason
Joshua Allen (Season 4 Winner) – Had a small role as part of his winner’s prize as ‘Samurai’ crew member in the first half of the movie. He wasn’t featured in the end for the final crew battle
Jonathan ‘Legacy’ Perez (Season 6 Contestant) – Had a minor role in the movie who played Legz was part of the ‘Pirate’ crew
Katee Shean (Season 4 Contestant) – Was featured as a background dancer in the Tango scene during Natalie’s Masquerade birthday party
Ashlee Nimo (Season 2 Contestant) (sorry if I got the spelling wrong) – Was part of the Pirate crew in the final crew battle
Musa Cooper (Season 2 Contestant) – Was a blink and you miss role. He was seen at the beginning of the movie where Moose started his first day at college where Moose spotted a group B-Boy dancers competing against each other outside NYU. Musa was the guy holding cash in his hand with a black hat
Cedric Gardner (Season 3 Contestant) – I didn’t notice him in the movie but spotted his name in the closing credits
Dave Scott (Choreographer) – Was featured as one of the crew members in the first crew battle of the movie couldn’t remember the Crew name sorry. He was also choreographer for the film
Hi Hat (Season 7 Los Angeles Auditions Judge) – Choreographed the steps in the movie and was also featured as judge in the final crew battle
Adam Shankman (Judge of SYTYCD) – Was Executive Producer of the film.

Share your thoughts on the movie. And if there was anybody I missed feel free to comment

Kent Boyd Will Win So You Think You Can Dance Season 7

For the record, I just want to say that I started this post back on July 21st. So, I’ve thought this to be the case for a long time. It’s not like I’m just hoping on the Kent Boyd bandwagon now. Which is especially interesting because I’m actually on the Lauren bandwagon as a fan, but despite my bias I still think Kent Boyd has this season of So You Think You Can Dance in the bag.

First of all, I think history is really on my side. The best comparison that can be made for Kent is with Benji Schwimmer. The type of fan following that Benji had really reminds me of the way fans are for Kent. They just love the little guy. Plus, really what’s not to like? He’s just a sweet, sincere guy.

The fan following for Kent is just awesome. They adore him. Plus, he really has excelled on the show and he hasn’t shown any signs of arrogance at all. That’s the attribute that America seems to love most (and I know I do too).

Nigel also did Kent a huge favor by saying it was close. I’m sure that many Kent fans were sitting back, thinking that Kent just had it in the bag (like I do). By Nigel saying that it’s close, the whole teen group that loves Kent will be voting in droves for Kent.

I think that @Beth_Pettit on Twitter described it best when she sent me this tweet:
@puresytycd Kent could fall off the stage & land on his face in the middle of a routine and I’d still probably vote for him. He’s pure magic

The good part for me is that I love Lauren and Robert is great too. This might be the first time that I’d be happy with any of the final 3 winning. It’s just too bad that Lauren and Robert really don’t have a chance against the powerhouse Kent!

As I think about it, maybe the fact that I like Lauren Froderman so much might be the best reason why Lauren has no chance of winning. At least considering how all of my past blonde girls were quickly booted from SYTYCD.

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Missing SYTYCD Season 7 Favorite Routines

Odd and Random SYTYCD News Roundup

Alex Wong – Single Ladies Routine

SYTYCD Season 7 Finale Part 2 Thoughts

SYTYCD 7: The Results

SYTYCD 7: The Finals

SYTYCD 7: Why Robert Should Win

Season 7 Cheers and Jeers

Who was in Step Up 3D (Spoilers)

Kent Boyd Will Win So You Think You Can Dance Season 7

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