So You Think You Can Dance - Season 14 (1 Viewer)

[Josh Dial]

So You Think You Can Dance is back for season 14, premiering Monday, June 12, 2017. The show has reverted back to its high point, bringing back the All Star format, dropping the child dancers (contestants are ages 18-30), and abandoning the silly stage vs street format. Mary Murphy is back on the judging panel, along with newcomer Vanessa Hudgens.

 

[Hanson]

THANK GOD!

I boycotted the last season not just because kid dancers just didn't have the overall talent of adults, but because the sight of the kids dancing with adults had a really creepy vibe.

 

[Josh Dial]

We'll be watching the premiere late, but from what I've read on Twitter, there have been some really strong auditions.

 

[Hanson]

A couple of stand outs but no singluar, "OMG!" moment. I agree with that one joke auditioner -- not that impressed with Hudgen's dance skills.

BTW, I have a friend who is absolutely convinced that Vanessa Hudgen's looks like Michael Jackson. I do not see this, and neither does my wife.

Anyone else watching World of Dance? Some of the contestants are jaw dropping, especially the kids, which is ironic since I refused to watch last year's SYTYCD because it was kids.

 

[DaveF]

We're back after a year's hiatus! I've got the premiere on, now.

 

[DaveF]

Wow. Great auditions to start the series

I loved the plastic-wrapped sandwich guy. His routine had everything in it. If he can do the more classical style (ball, jazz, modern, etc) he could win the show.

Darius was beautiful.

The Russian twins had one of the most moving, emotive, gobsmacking auditions the show has ever had. I don't know what to think of them as prospective competitors, especially as individuals. But wow, what an audition!

 

[DaveF]

An amazing, surprising Dassy!

All the feels with mom and daughter doing hip-hop. And a young woman who'll we see on stage with her Step group later this season, inspiring young women to grow and give back.

And an impressive young man whose technique was beautiful but presence needs more depth.

 

[Josh Dial]

Audition Episode 2 wasn't as good as Audition Episode 1.

I thought Sade Austin's whacking was too out of control, and I was surprised when the judges said she was clean. I thought her footwork in particular was sloppy.

Blessin' Giraldo's step routine was also pretty messy. I actually thought she looked better in the choreography round--albeit clearly not trained. Hopefully she'll take some classes in other styles and come back in a few years.

The samba from Jensen Arnold and Tristan Sosa was fine, but nothing outstanding. I thought Tristan was far better. It looked like Jensen's shoe was undone at the end, but my spouse (a dancer) advises me that the strap was simply pulled so tight it was all the way out the other side of the buckle so as to look undone.

Matthew Deloch was quite good--some of the best pirouettes we've seen from a male dancer in a few seasons. Routine was supremely boring (as most auditions are), so it will be nice to see what he does with one of the show's choreographers.

Dustin Payne's animation was solid, as was Dassy Young's (though her clothing was so flowing that it masked what appeared to be really good isolations).

Two episodes in, and so far the best we've seen is from Alexis Gilbert back back in episode 1. She's definitely top 10 material.

 

[Hanson]

So sad how many dancers lost a year of the show because of the failed kids experiment. Every time someone said, "I last auditioned two years ago..." I ground my teeth in anger. What a stupid waste of time.

I can't remember the last time someone came out and just LOOKED the part like Arielle Disciascio and yet totally did NOT deliver. I was ready to tag her as the anointed one until her first jump -- she didn't get very far off the ground and landed with a thud. She's flexible enough, but all she did was pose with her leg over her head. Nigel was right to recommend her for choreography.

Lex Ishimoto is definitely a front runner. The fact that he can do hip hop and contemporary and seamlessly switch between the two is a gigantic advantage.

I didn't recognize all of the All Stars in the preview. I caught Comfort and Fik Shun as well as Cyrus and Robert, but a lot of the women did not look familiar. I assume they had to be finalists on the show to be All Stars?

 

[Josh Dial]

Totally agree with you, Hanson. I thought Arielle was a fine, but completely lacked emotional engagement; the routine was junk too--more like a "jazz" contemporary whose sole purpose is to connect poses and moves. Boring.

Lex is the front runner at this point, followed by Alexis Gilbert.

Re all stars, in addition to the ones you mentioned, I also saw Allison, Gaby, and Marko.

 

[DaveF]

I was not expecting much when Lex in his pre-interview said he was going to improv. That seemed a foolish approach to the show's audition. But his training and knowledge are deep and impressive. His was not my favorite performance of the auditions, but he now seems likely to win.

I was a little disappointed with Arielle. She seemed poised to be a star, but she isn't good enough.

I also liked Claire Rathbun.

 

[Josh Dial]

The first week of The Academy was quite entertaining. A three-week audition process is interesting (did this happen with the kids season? I didn't watch). The quasi-The Voice teams is also a neat twist, though I wonder how much impact it will have on the season itself. Will the chosen partner dance with their All Star the entire time, or will they switch it up depending on the genre they pull? You have you think the dancer who ends up with Allison will have an advantage. Robert, too, but come on: Allison is this season's star All Star!

 

[Hanson]

If the team mechanism is anything like the one in the Voice, it behooves the dancers to be the best dancer on their team by not joining the more accomplished dancers like Allison. If only one dancer makes it out of each team, there's going to be a bloodbath coming on team Allison. Lex my have figured this out by joining team Gabrielle instead of Allison, but he might have been better served by joining team Jasmine. Then again, he might have chosen Gabrielle because she's a proven all around dancer across genres.

Poor Robert. The editors had a little fun at his expense showing one snub after the other.

 

[Josh Dial]

If the team mechanism is anything like the one in the Voice, it behooves the dancers to be the best dancer on their team by not joining the more accomplished dancers like Allison.

I think the best strategy on The Voice is to always join Team Blake if you get the chance. He's produced the most winners, and tends to have the most singers in final rounds. Even some of the singers who make it far on the other teams are stolen from Blake. The exception here is for female country signers (especially young female country singers), in which case you will be set against each other in the battle rounds Highlander-style.

 

[Hanson]

Sorry Josh, they axed your girl.

I never liked the way they did the team eliminations on The Voice, and I don't like it here. It ensures you won't end up with the best of the best.

 

[Josh Dial]

Sorry Josh, they axed your girl.

I never liked the way they did the team eliminations on The Voice, and I don't like it here. It ensures you won't end up with the best of the best.

Crazy decision. She was worthy of the live show (though her group routine was weak).

 

[DaveF]

Well, the Russian twins were never heard from. Asindividual dancers they must not have been particularly good.

I didn't really like the forced elimination after the all-nighter choreography dance. In principle all teams being equal, it's fine. But at this stage they're getting great dancers cut and mediocre dancers remain.

I don't watch The Voice so I don't know what's likely to happen with the All Stars and their teams of three dancers.

Still, this season is interesting and showing a lot talent. I think SYTYCD's teaming approach is much more successful to what's happening on Face Off this season.

 

[Hanson]

Took me a while to finish the first competition episode. Most of the finalists weren't really surprises, but even so, I was holding my breath during Gabby's segment. It made no sense for the show to hype up Lex only to take the anonymous tapper, but there's was always the chance they did it for shock value. That said, that routine was INSANE. The Fred Astaire/Nicholas Brothers mash up was easily the most entertaining tap routine ever on the show, and while it's obvious Lex has had tap training (I mean, either that or he's actually triplets, each trained in their own specialty), I was shaking my head at his facility. He could have gone on the show pretending to be a tapper so the judges could have freaked out that he could dance other styles. It's freakish. It's improbable. It's so overpowering that they decided to saddle him with the "personality" albatross to make it a fair fight.

The Travis Wall routine was flat out amazing. Travis gets the what the SYTYCD audience is looking for in ways the other choreographers can't quite reach consistently. Dynamic lifts, visually interesting shapes, and pure emotion. And yet some of the lifts looked a bit unsteady - I wasn't 100% sure if that was by design or not, but one of the lifts required Robert to grab his parnter full boob to keep steady, and I'm pretty sure that wasn't by design. BTW, they claimed Robert was 6' and his partner was 5' 7", but there's no way they were 5" apart in height. Not even 3" difference when they were standing next to each other, and both were barefoot.

Paul's routine wasn't dynamic enough to be interesting. I was waiting for a lift that didn't come until the very end, and he almost dropped her when it came. Boring.

Apart from Lex and Travis, the other highlight of the evening was Jasmine and the fabulous Robert. I'm not sure how well he'll do overall, but that Scott routine was so ridiculously entertaining and they both killed it, although I thought Robert actually out danced Jasmine. I was laughing the whole time.

When Comfort picked Mark, it wasn't a huge surprise since I literally never saw the other girl on the show before. Frankly, I barely remember Mark either, but damn, that was weird.

After Mark and Comfort, Marko chose Koine, marking the 4th dancer of Asian descent. They've probably had 4 Asian contestants before, but that was before the All Star format when there were 20 contestants.

My guess is Kiki is the first boot. Forgettable routine in the 3 slot and a low wattage personality. BTW, Kiki looks like a slightly more handsome Thomas Middleditch.

 

[Hanson]

Hmm... my bottom 3 radar is a bit off. I thought Kaylee and Mark would round out the bottom three with Kiki. I went 0-3 with that guess. Sad to see Robert go, not sure what Sydney brings to the table. I can understand why Logan was in the bottom 3 (middling choreography that started early on a long night) and I fully understand how Nigel passed him back immediately (he might be the most physically gifted dancer on the show).

After that outstanding tap routine last week, Lex's Argentine Tango this week was less... impressive. It was slow moving and Lex didn't have much to do other than lift Gabby. I actually wasn't all that impressed with anyone outside of Logan and Koine this week, although Dassy's Bollywood was just on the cusp before losing steam towards the end. Koine and Marc's insect dance was the best thing I've ever seen from Sean Cheeseman. That was the dance of the night for me. Not the Kiki hip hop for sure. Not sure what the judges were smoking, but that routine suuuuuuucked. At one point it stopped cold for 10 seconds so he could shoot off a money gun to make it rain. I was groaning and covering my face out of embarrassment watching it. Plus, the Thomas Middleditch resemblance is just distracting now.

 

[DaveF]

Logan is my new favorite. He's a skilled dancer and is also very emotive. His performance last week was superb. It's worrisome that he was bottom three.

Lex is not going to win: technically he's tremendous but he's not a performer in the way that SYTYCD requires.

I enjoy Dassy, and always feel bad for whomever gets stuck with a Bollywood routine. She got through it.

I really enjoyed Kaylee and Cyrus' hip-hop dance. Very fun routine.

The Cheesman dance was amazing and I hope to see that come back for an encore performance.