I’ll be updating my thoughts on tonight’s episode live (with a little lag, I’m sure, while I’m working on the music). Feel free to begin the discussion in the comments. What are you most looking forward to tonight? Dreading?
Spoiler space just in case…read on after the break…
Check back for the full list of tonight’s music, updated live.
Justin Giles’s Top 7 Guys group contemporary routine: Damien Rice’s “Prague” – 
(this is a hidden track attached to “Eskimo”)
Melanie & Marko’s Ray Leeper jazz routine: Lady Gaga’s “Americano” –
Sasha & Alexander’s Shaun Evaristo hip hop: Miguel’s “To the Moon” –
Jordan & Tadd’s Toni Redpath smooth waltz: Secret Garden’s “Nocturne” –
Clarice & Jess’s Justin Giles “hard hitting” contemporary: Celeste Lear’s “Light Through the Branches” –
Ashley & Chris’s Liz Lira salsa: Tito Puente’s “Mambo Beat” –
Ryan & Rickey’s Chucky Klampow jazz: David Bowie’s “Fashion” –
Caitlynn & Mitchell’s Mandy Moore contemporary: Celine Dion’s “To Love You More” –
Ray Leeper’s Top 7 Girls group jazz routine: Eartha Kitt’s “My Discarded Men” –
I just found the video below where Nigel Lythgoe and Cat Deeley talk about SYTYCD 2011 and how the judges will work on season 8 of SYTYCD. Nigel says that the rotating judge is back for SYTYCD 2011. Adam Shankman is busy filming a big movie and so Nigel says he’s not available to be there every week. That leaves Nigel and Mary (I wish it was Toni instead of Mary) as the permanent, every week judges and then a third rotating judge.
The rotating SYTYCD judge will likely be the choreographers from the show, but Nigel leaves it open to other people. For example, I’m sure Nigel would welcome someone like a Paula Abdul as a guest judge, but I think she’s going to be busy with X Factor. Unless she’s a guest judge as a way to promote X Factor. That could be interesting.
Of course, I’ve always thought that Nigel should bring a fan judge on. Maybe a popular SYTYCD blogger as a guest judge would be pretty interesting I think.
It’s all Kelly’s fault. 🙂 Our reader said:
I think we need another “What music would you like to see on the show?” post.
You see how she demanded that I do another suggested music post? Well, Kelly, here it is.
This time around, I didn’t make any big thing out of the assignment. All weekend, I basically just listened to music like I always do, but since I knew I was gonna do this, I dropped songs into a special file and promised myself when I got to 10, I’d post.
Well, it’s time to post. And this time, I’m gonna go one step forward and say who I think would best choreograph to these songs. Well, some of them. You may have to help me with the others.
Suggested Music for SYTYCD
1. Project Jenny, Project Jan ft. So Percussion’s “You Said” – This would make a great Wade routine.
2. Kate Earl “Impossible – It’s got Travis written all over it.
3. Beck’s “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime” from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
4. Jill Barber’s “Goodnight Sweetheart” – Has a country flavor to it, but might be a good Mia Michaels or Stacey Tookey routine. Am I crazy???
5. Paolo Nutini “Last Request” – Totally Travis. Well, I thought this was my brilliant idea, but actually, this song was used on the last season of AU, choreographed by Paul White and Anthony Ikin. Check it out:
They could totally just have this routine on Season 7. Lauren and Kent. Lauren and Billy.
6. Kate Earl’s “Cry Sometimes” – Nappytabs or, strangely, Mandy Moore
7. James Morrison’s “Better Man” – Travis again. Or Mia. Or Stacey Tookey.
8. Sydney Wayser’s “Ghost Song” – Darn. It’s not available on iTunes. Her other song “Carousel” is, though. Anyway, I envision jazz by Sonya or even maybe some funky neo Broadway by Joey Dowling. Or crazy crazy by Wade. Check out the YouTube video below (and download the song for free from Daytrotter).
9. My Brightest Diamond’s “Apples” – Either Wade or Mia.
10. Eminem ft. Rihanna’s “Love the Way You Lie” – Lil’ C or Shane Sparks. I just heard this song coming home from work today. I usually don’t like rap or hip-hop very much. But this one shook me. I’d love to see what either of these choreographers made of it.
So, I challenge you. What songs do YOU suggest for the show??
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!
Maybe you’re all talked about this past week’s episodes, but it took me a while to catch up with them because of work and I still have my thoughts. Hope you don’t mind, hope you find this interesting.
-Ida Saki withdraws: I can totally understand her feeling like she has to leave and I thought she was humble and respectful when she expressed this to the judges. While I do agree with them that some of her motivation might have been not being *great* at something for the first time, I feel like they, and especially Nigel were extremely and inappropriately hard on her. Maybe this was a dramatic set-up to build tension if/when she comes back next season. Who knows.
-Alex’s spins in Tyce’s choreography were…wow.
-I’m sorry, but I didn’t really like Giselle Peacock’s dancing. I was surprised I didn’t, because so many people are pulling for her here on the site.
-Was Travis wearing a League of Extraordinary Dancers t-shirt during his choreography round? 🙂
-Wow, Cristina! I thought she was amazing dancing with two contemporary dancers and holding her own.
-I thought the judges’ “arguing” was kinda false – and loud on purpose – to build tension. Blech.
-I really hope Nicole Knudson comes back next year.
-Laughed when Adam said, “It could’ve been a mess, instead it’s a yes.
-I loved when Cat threatened to kick Kent’s ass because of his self-doubt. 🙂
-And wow, those three guys! Anthony Burrell (his thighs!), Alex Wong and Kent Boyd. I’m even more sad that Anthony’s not in the Top group after this performance. Will he come back? Will he use the SYTYCD platform and exposure to do something great and soon?
-I was amused by Kent’s speech to the judges about dancing with Anthony and Alex. Reminded me of Paul in A Chorus Line.
-I loved that the Top 24 got a “training reward” since there wasn’t going to be an official Top 20. Grover Dale seemed to be an amazing reward with them and they did seem kinda refreshed/inspired after.
-Wish we could’ve seen more of the solos cause I loved the ones we did see. Also, the “tell us why you deserve Top 10” element REALLY reminded me of A Chorus Line.
-Loooved Toni’s dress when she went to tell Cristina she’s in the Top 10. The fake-out was kinda mean. I loved that Pepe’s family is so supportive of Cristina.
-I really, really liked Adrien Lee and I felt like we didn’t get to see much of him till the end. Then, it was a no from Mary. I was sad. I hope he comes back next season. Also, I thought seeing her back mic was really tacky, as was her trying to talk to him and comfort him when his family was trying to console him.
-Nigel was brutal with his no’s on the phone. At least from the clips we saw, especially Lexie’s.
-Lauren is really funny and I liked that Nigel was outside when they didn’t think he was coming. Carol the letter carrier was a little odd – I kept wondering if she was going to come in and then why she didn’t. It would’ve been cute if Carol celebrated the good news with the family. After the inevitable fake out, I laughed so hard when LoFro said, “Oh my god, Nigel.”
-Mia’s visit with Anthony felt like one of the realest things on the show. Intense. I hope he gets just how much we all love him and that we really do want to see him on the show. Her face when he said, “I really want this” and she knew she had to say no….
-Tyce living it up in Miami was pretty jarring after the frankness of the previous scene.
-I liked Lil C’s fake out with Ashley, and that she’s his favorite.
-Wow, more brutal Nigel phone calls from Columbus. Then the damn sports car segment.
-Tyce having fun in Miami felt more amusing (rather than jarring) this time.
-I looooved that Melinda took the visit at her mentor Harold Cromer’s place. I loved the oddness and sweetness of her relationship with him. Also laughed when Mia said Melinda’s dancing could be “a little crunchy” sometimes. And Harold’s endorsement of Melinda. I bet after the cameras were off, those three had some drinks and Melinda soaked up a lot of phenomenal dance stories, between Harold and Mia.
-I did laugh that Nigel got lost and called Mary, an Ohio native, from Marysville, but called it Mary’s vile.
-Wow, Alex’s fellow dancers freaked out when they got the good news. And they were clearly star-struck by Tyce. I thought that was cool.
-The Billy/Robert decision felt kind of scripted to me. But maybe only because I’d already read SYTYCDism’s spoilers and knew what was coming. As I’ve said, sometimes I like Billy’s new swagger, sometimes I don’t. I thought it was sweet that Robert was clearly about to give up his spot cause he thought Billy deserved it more. And it was cool the way Robert/Billy told their fellow dancers. 🙂 And yeah, I think it’s pretty clear Billy did use the f-word when he said, “Adam, you’re __ awful.”
So, that’s my thoughts for the last of Vegas Week and the Home Visits. About to post my Thoughts for the Meet the Top 11 Episode, so check that out, too.
