Last night's SYTYCD (better late than never?)

[kate]

Have I mentioned that I like that the couples are introduced together? I do. I like them a lot. It shorts the opening a little, which is good, and strengthens our concept of them as a couple.

OMG TRAVIS ON THE PANEL!!! IN A PURPLE VELVET(?) SUITCOAT AND LITTLE BLACK BOWTIE!!! :D :D :D

And Carmen Electra. Elektra? I… have no opinions about her.

Gah, I love Travis. And the group routines. I love the group routines a lot, too. More dance = win. New choreographer! I hope he's good. Justin Giles, and a piece about the seven stages of grief. Huh. I thought there were only five, but all of them sound familiar, so maybe I've just forgotten. Ooooh, Damien Rice excellent choice. I like the guy already. Interesting choices in the choreo there I like it; I could grow to like this guy. I enjoyed that piece immensely, actually, I expect that to make it into my 'favorite dances' collection.

Oh, Marko's package was sweet… until the drag queen bit. He is a pretty girl. I love Melanie a ridiculous amount, and hahahah, her boyfriend. Melanie and Marko dancing jazz with Ray Leeper, another new guy. I like the infusion of fresh blood. Honestly, I'm having a tough time getting past the costumes. Melanie's dress is distracting, and… I'm not fond of the choreography, turns out. I don't care for this too much, honestly. Too… loose. I don't think this couple is going anywhere, though, they seem to be favorites.

Yay, Sasha. I love her, and I love her sister. They're awesome. Alexander seems sweet, and he's a ballet dancer! That makes me like him more. SWAG CAMP. That's brilliant. And another new choreographer – Sean Evaristo. Sasha's killing it. Alexander is a little… mediocre. It's an easy routine, though – obviously for non-hip hop folk. It's interesting enough (though, wtf with the tree?) that I'm interested in seeing more from Sean. Hopefully with a different couple. Oh wait! I forgot they've already done Tabitha and Napoleon hip hop and they were brilliant! So, maybe the problem was the choreo… oof, bad comments – reminds me of earlier seasons (remember hip hop of non-hip hop folks in Season 2?).

Jordan… oh, she's so young. And sweet. I like her better after her video package. Tadd (another favorite of mine), a nice little package about his Filipino heritage. He's sweet! I like him even more. I love getting to know the dancers better. Okay, smooth waltz by Toni Redpath. Jordan looks gorgeous, with the dress and hair extensions. Actually, the detail on Tadd's outfit is nice too, and this is beautiful. That's some gorgeous choreo there. Nicely done, Toni. Also, I love Travis's remarks, very specific comments about technique – I miss those sorts of comments.

Clarisse and Jess doing contemporary again? /o\ Clarisse is a lovely young lady, and I love parents who just give whatever they can for their kids' dreams. Jess – what a little showman. Ahahaha, he needed an introduction to come out of his room when he was little. Ooh, more Justin Giles! I look forward to this. It seems a little hip hop-y. I like that Justin seems to bring other styles into his choreo. The best choreographers always do. Nice choreo, but I don't feel the connection between them, and I don't feel like Jess is managing his character very well. Clarisse did brilliantly; Jess had moments. I would've like to have seen Melanie and Marko do this routine.

Wow, Ashley had some HUGE heels on for church, there. I love her little cooking show! :D Gah, I'm LOVING the girls this season. Chris comes from a big family, yay. Whoa – go Chris for going to college. Wow, that looks like a really tough routine from Liz Lira (another new choreographer); and while I love their attitude, I have concerns about them pulling off this routine. Ooh, nice shoulder and hip action on Ashley. Wowza, that was a series of lifts, there. Wow. And Chris's hips are surprisingly better than I expected. Not fantastic, but he's working it a little. Sadly, I think this was the week of everyone being out of their genre and a little bit crappy. This was okay, but not great by any means.

Ugh, Ryan and Ricky doing jazz. Talk about unreal, she was in the musical ep of House and is a favorite of Mia. ;_; Okay, Ricky being a cheerleader is a little bit endearing. ANOTHER new choreographer – Chucky Klapow. I like him, he's a cutie, and I like the concept for the dance. So far, choreography-wise, this is my favorite, but I like the weird stuff. I like the Thriller shout-out there. This was good for the pair of them, too – I don't like Ryan and Ricky isn't a standout for me (the boys pale in comparison to the girls, I find), but the routine totally worked for them.

Caitlynn and Mitchell doing a Mandy Moore contemporary routine, this ought to be good. Awesome, Caitlynn is a tomboy; I love chicks like that (yeah, that was totally me as a kid). Her dad is sweet too. Mitchell… wow. I love this dude. I like that he wants to make sure his partner is safe. NAW MARKO READS ROMANCE NOVELS. Ahem. You know, I can always tell it's Mandy Moore from the music. I understand having music that speaks to you, but hers is so dated. These two are totally safe. Lovely routine, lovely dancing, and emotional connection and lifts out the wazoo. Totally safe.

I miss disco. Where's Doriana?

And the ladies' routine with Ray Leeper doing sexy jazz. How interesting the choreography for the women always seems to be evil and murderous. I feel like there's a terrible message there – like, because the women are stronger than the men this season, they're portrayed as evil. I know, individual choreographers, whatever, but this is the second or third routine like this. It's starting to grate. I didn't like this choreo either, and I'm not fond of Ray's apparent love of garters. Damn. That was not cool for me.

This was really a bust show for me. Let's see, what do I think about the bottom three, hmmm. I think dancewise, Ashley & Chris, Jordan & Tadd, and Sasha & Alexander. Popularity-wise, Ashley & Chris, Jordan & Tadd, Clarice & Jess. It'll be interesting to see.

AW, BILLY IN THE AUDIENCE! :D I LUUUUURVE HIM.

Okay, so. Now I have to wait to get the results show. *sigh*

Comments

[amadi]

Travis was so awesome, and made Carmen Electra entirely superfluous. She added nothing.

I still don't know which is Ryan and which is Ricky. Bad me.

I forgot and missed the results show. I have to see if I can watch online.

Up for cross-posting this to Dance on TV?

[kate]

Ryan is the girl; most people know who she is by virtue of hating her guts. She's stirred up quite a negative reaction, oddly!

Travis WAS awesome. ♥_♥

And I'll definitely post a link over there - there wasn't any reaction to my last round-up post, so I didn't want to bother the community again if there wasn't any interest.

[amadi]

Ryan is the girl. And see, I totally had that backward!

Ah, I think Dance on TV is just a quiet comm. I'm not sure how to resolve that. :D

[kate]

Hm. Well, I think maybe I'll make a post over at dw_community_promo and see if I can drum up some more interest! And I'll start separating out the opinions from the round-ups and start posting round-ups for SYTYCD, if that's okay. :D

[amadi]

I think the opinions are what make your round-ups fabulous! I mean, we watch these shows for the reaction that the dance brings out in us.

Or maybe I've just read too many of the snarkfest recaps on Television Without Pity over the years. :)

[kate]

Oh, no, I just... especially because elynross posts SYTYCD stuff and our views seem to be diametrically opposed. I wouldn't want to put people off because my opinions differ with their own (I worry that's what happened last time). Also, I've gotten way more response on this post than I did over there; maybe I'll post the reviews there and link to them her, reverse what I did this week (and maybe this will drive up membership for the comm, too).

[jumpuphigh]

I loved Ray Leeper's routine for Melanie and Marko but hated the group number at the end. It felt very male gaze to me.

I usually hate Mandy Moore's choreography but really loved that piece as well.

Ryan and Ricky? Forwarded it cause Ryan is so boring to watch. Of course, now we know why the judges are orgasming over Ryan. Nice to have connections, I guess.

I forwarded Sasha and Alexander, too. I never watch the choreographer comments cause I like interpreting the dance without preconceived notions but was that supposed to be a homage to the 1980's? I didn't like it at all.

Marko's drag queen comments made me cringe - a lot.

I still haven't seen the results. At this point, the only dancer I'm consistently excited to watch is Melanie. She's just getting better and better.

[kate]

I wanted to like Ray Leeper, especially because Melanie and Marko are my favorite couple, but I just didn't. His love of garters is so not my kink and while they danced the hell out of the choreography, it didn't speak to me. Also, I'm starting to get sick of the women are murderers angle. Why can't they be strong and kind?

Also, huh, I like a lot of the dancers, still (though this week was a real downer for me - I haven't had that disappointing a week in a really long time). I like Melanie, Sasha, Ashley, and Clarisse for the girls (and the others have grown on me, except for Ryan) and Marko, Tadd, and Jess for the boys (though Mitchell and Alexander are growing on me). Ryan and Chris can go the hell home, I'm done with both of them. Ryan because she's annoying and can't dance in a group to save her life (why is she ALWAYS out of line?) and Chris because his musicality is sadly lacking; watching the intros, he was just a huge oddball, way off the beat and he stuck out like a sore thumb.

[jumpuphigh]

Those are the two that I want to go home, too. Chris was not in sych with the rest of the guys in their number as well and it was really distracting. Ryan, well, you know.

I do like the other women as well and I enjoy Marko (although less now after the drag queen package) and Tadd but I'm not excited to watch them. Until this week's show, I was excited about Sasha as well despite her being paired with Alexander but I think I need to see her with someone else in order to get excited about her again.

[kate]

Oh - you're the one that didn't like Alexander, now I remember. I didn't go back and watch that first episode, so I still haven't found him particularly creepy, but their routine wasn't anything to shout about either way this week. Sasha did seem a little dulled down; I wonder if it was just all the choreographers being new or if there was something different about the production. The whole show was just 'eh' for me. I'll be interested to see the results, for sure.

[jumpuphigh]

He hasn't been as creepy since that first episode although I still catch some more subtle creepiness on occasion.

I went and looked up the results because I can't be bothered to wait to see the results show. We can talk about them once you've seen it. There are things that need to be said.

[kate]

Okay, I looked it up too and WHAT THE HELL.

Seriously, Ryan can go home ANY TIME. They had one of the best routines of the night and still were in the bottom! Clearly America is not as enamored with her as the judges!

Also - STOP SENDING THEM HOME IN PAIRS! These people need to be mixed up - there's no reason for them to send Ashley home just because Chris went home. GRRRRRRRRRRRR. I'm ANNOYED that they keep sending couples home. That's stupid.

[jumpuphigh]

Yes, to all of that. I was going to say that and also:

The judges may rescue Ryan again next week but the week after that, she won't have the judges as a safety net.

[kate]

God I can't wait to be able to vote her off.

[jumpuphigh]

I'm not voting. I think I had to sign up for Facebook to vote online and I just don't play that game. Plus, I only use a cell phone and I'm not going to spend my minutes on voting.

Nonetheless, I am looking forward to her being gone, gone, gone.

[kate]

Ahaha, back when I had a cell phone, this was the only thing I spent minutes on (I hate talking on the phone), though technically I wasn't spending any because my minutes after 7pm were free. No cell phone anymore, so I won't be voting either, but America's been voting in line with my desires, and I bet if you went to the SYTYCD boards you'd find a lot of venom about Ryan. So I don't expect her to make it very far. Then again - Benji's sister was like that in Season 3, very divisive, and she made it to the top 4, so. *shrug*

[jumpuphigh]

I saw positive comments about Ryan when I was looking up the results. There may have been eye-rolling on my end.

[elmyraemilie]

Yes to much of the above. Nigel has a real thing for Ryan, but he's the only one. She's wimpy--there's no core there, it's all fluff, and she's annoying. The tippy-toeing around the stage and waving her arms to show emotion grates on me no end.

Poor Chris--he suffers so every Thursday, you can see how wound up and terrified he is of the judging.

It was a weak show. IMO, there was a combination of lackluster choreography and exhaustion on the part of the dancers. Sasha is like an Energizer Bunny, but she didn't have a lot of spark this week. Those kids need some time to sleep and play.

I have to "me-too" your comment about mixing up the couples. I'd also like to see some new styles--disco, as you mention, and Bollywood as something other than a group number, to name two.

[kate]

Yeah, I have no idea what the judges see in Ryan. I'd like to see her live just to see if it's something that's not coming across on TV.

Yeah, Chris had a tough season. Sometimes it's like that, poor guy. One more week of the same couples - maybe next week they'll feel okay sending home a mismatched set, since they'll be switching it up after that. And with allstars, I hear! :D :D :D

You know, you have a good point. Everyone did feel sort of dull, like they were tired. I hope that goes away. It always seemed to me that once we hit the top 10 things started to get exponentially tougher and the dancers got more focused as a result. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. (Maybe it's something to do with the schedule - maybe they usually work Mon - Weds, but this week with the 4th of July they only got Tues - Weds, and so they were run ragged a little?)

I dunno about Bollywood. I do enjoy it - the group routine was fabulous - but there was a different feel to the one that Katee and Joshua did in Season 4 than to these. These feel... watered down, to me. Bollywood was one of those styles that if you worked your ass off and got it, you'd be an instant it, but if you didn't get it, you'd be screwed. Now it feels more like any other genre, tough but not precise in the way I expect Bollywood to be, you know? But I would like more of it. I'd really like to know why they choose the styles they do; why are contemporary, jazz, hip hop, ballroom, and broadway accessible enough for any good dancer to get in a short period of time, but ballet and tap are not? I understand they're both specialized and intricate, but... I dunno, man. I'd like to see a greater diversity of dance, definitely.