So You Think You Can Dance, Season 2
2/27/14 11:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kateI’m watching through SYTYCD to make that “Kate’s favorites” vid, and it occurs to me that while I watched Season 1 (while I was with Finn, so only half of it because we broke up in the middle and that fucked a lot of things up for me – Lost, too), I don’t really care enough to even rewatch to see if there are any dances I want. Season 2 was the first season I watched on my own, that I felt was mine, if that makes sense, and I voted and I was invested, and I was heartbroken when favorites went home and I checked the boards because I couldn’t understand why people didn’t understand the difference between having a great personality and being a great dancer. (Which is ridiculous, really, because I adored Ivan and was sad to see him go even though he was probably the least versatile dancer there.)
Rewatching it now, it’s a really interesting exercise in looking at something that’s evolved quite a lot since back then. Looking at Mary Murphy, Mia Michaels, and others, it’s kind of amazing how young and gorgeous and immature they were. The focus on bad auditions and mocking people who couldn’t actually dance but had no idea is frustrating and sad. Also sad was the genderfluid person (there was another name for it, maybe gender chameleon? I can’t remember what xie called hirself) who… well, wasn’t good enough for the show, but basically, who was dismissed because it’s a pairs competition and they wouldn’t have been able to pair hir up. That was crap – and this show has had some major issues with gender and queerness for a long time, and continues to. They’ve gotten better in the last few years (they are actually responsive to crit – they’ve stopped featuring bad dancers and stopped mocking them) but still, not the greatest.
They did show Travis’s entire audition, though, and holy shit, he could dance. When people talk about “having your center,” Travis is the king. He can spin so fast, and so long, and you can see his head snap around to spot, and you just know that he won’t ever lose his balance or fall over. I still feel he should have won.
It’s interesting to me because I remember 15 or 16 of the top 20. I can’t remember even 1 of some of the middling seasons there (season 6 – who? Russell who?) but I remember almost everyone from this season. Sure enough, one of those I didn’t remember (Erin) was out in the first week. Strangely, I remember Stanislav, even though he was out in the first week. Probably because he was a ballroom dancer? I assume the others I don’t remember will be out very early on, too. It’s amazing how many of the people from this season have stuck with me – Benji, Donyelle, Travis, Martha, Ivan, Allison, Dmitry, Heidi, Ben (I LOVED BEN – so sad that he was not really ready for this competition – he was definitely a precursor to Billy Bell), Musa, Natalie. I’ve written Dmitry into fic. I’ve written SYTYCD fic with Travis as a secondary character. These people are the ones that hooked me so definitively into this show.
Basically I’m all aflutter for these dancers that I love so very, very much. It was such a fantastic season – they worked so hard, and they were all such a delight to watch grow and get closer. I love this show. I love this season. I love these people.
Rewatching it now, it’s a really interesting exercise in looking at something that’s evolved quite a lot since back then. Looking at Mary Murphy, Mia Michaels, and others, it’s kind of amazing how young and gorgeous and immature they were. The focus on bad auditions and mocking people who couldn’t actually dance but had no idea is frustrating and sad. Also sad was the genderfluid person (there was another name for it, maybe gender chameleon? I can’t remember what xie called hirself) who… well, wasn’t good enough for the show, but basically, who was dismissed because it’s a pairs competition and they wouldn’t have been able to pair hir up. That was crap – and this show has had some major issues with gender and queerness for a long time, and continues to. They’ve gotten better in the last few years (they are actually responsive to crit – they’ve stopped featuring bad dancers and stopped mocking them) but still, not the greatest.
They did show Travis’s entire audition, though, and holy shit, he could dance. When people talk about “having your center,” Travis is the king. He can spin so fast, and so long, and you can see his head snap around to spot, and you just know that he won’t ever lose his balance or fall over. I still feel he should have won.
It’s interesting to me because I remember 15 or 16 of the top 20. I can’t remember even 1 of some of the middling seasons there (season 6 – who? Russell who?) but I remember almost everyone from this season. Sure enough, one of those I didn’t remember (Erin) was out in the first week. Strangely, I remember Stanislav, even though he was out in the first week. Probably because he was a ballroom dancer? I assume the others I don’t remember will be out very early on, too. It’s amazing how many of the people from this season have stuck with me – Benji, Donyelle, Travis, Martha, Ivan, Allison, Dmitry, Heidi, Ben (I LOVED BEN – so sad that he was not really ready for this competition – he was definitely a precursor to Billy Bell), Musa, Natalie. I’ve written Dmitry into fic. I’ve written SYTYCD fic with Travis as a secondary character. These people are the ones that hooked me so definitively into this show.
Basically I’m all aflutter for these dancers that I love so very, very much. It was such a fantastic season – they worked so hard, and they were all such a delight to watch grow and get closer. I love this show. I love this season. I love these people.
no subject
on 2/28/14 01:47 am (UTC)I really wish they would release dvds of just the performances from each season. I would buy the shit out of those.
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on 3/1/14 06:00 am (UTC)But Travis... two of the dances on my favorites so far are Travis's full audition and Travis dancing for his life. Oddly, he and Martha (though I LOVE Martha) never seemed to hit it out of the park for me. I can't WAIT for the bench routine with Heidi. :D :D :D I love him, his dancing, his choreography. Did you see him dance with Amy last season? God, he's still so amazing. It was terrific to see him dance again.
I would buy them too! But I hear that the trouble with that is the music royalties would basically make them not remotely profitable. Sadfax.
no subject
on 3/2/14 02:03 pm (UTC)Yesss, I loved that dance he did with Amy. But then, I'm pretty sure I would watch the Travis Wall Just Does Stuff For An Hour show, so. ;P
Yeah, music royalties are a bitch. That's why it took so long for Daria to get a dvd release (and you better believe I snapped that sucker up the second I found out it existed). It would've been too expensive for them to pay for all the music clips in the series, so they ended up replacing it all with an original score. It's still great and keeps a lot of the feel of the original run, but it'll never be quite the same.
no subject
on 3/11/14 03:28 pm (UTC)I just finished S2 and I forgot how much it irked me that Travis didn't win. I love that they were all close and I enjoyed Benji, but just... Travis was an incredible performer too, and he was more controlled than Benji. He could give a performance without going overboard. The Wade Robson fashion routine for the top 4 - I couldn't keep my eyes off him! He was just head and shoulders above the rest of them.