So You Think You Can Dance: Season 4 - Page 4

Re: So You Think You Can Dance: Season 4

I wondered after last week’s dumbed down and content free bed dance from last week, “exactly how much can Twitch and Kherington dance like shit and still get voluminous praise from the judges?” The answered lay somewhere between their Krump routine (wherein they failed to actually dance the last part of the routine) and their Tango (which was pitifully, pitifully bad). I will grind that axe further as I go along.

Speaking of axe grinding, I think a lot of people were surprised at the candor and the criticisms that were handed out tonight. I welcome this change (although it’s still not meted out equally). I want the judges calling out the dancers and pointing out their technical and performance shortcomings. Without it, you don’t know who’s dancing well and who’s just coasting on popularity. That said, I don’t know how they sit around and go on about Mark’s slight technical failing but Gev can dance as sloppily as he wants as long as it’s entertaining. When you don’t have consistency, it just seems like your playing favorites and downgrading some dancers and elevating others without due merit (why did I bother writing “seems”?) And that’s why Mia seemed so friggin’ bitchy tonight while Mary was actually on the ball (well, other than liking that Krump routine).

I am always excited by the announcement of an Alex DaSilva routine ever since Ryan and Melissa’s awesome Mambo from season one and because I am a trick whore, and Alex is always up for a trick filled routine. Unfortunately, most of the results have been uneven since season one because the dancers aren’t up to the choreography. No so tonight – with Chelsie working in her specialty and Mark being ever so adaptable, the couple was on fire, delivering the speed. precision and the performance. A lot of good synchronized work and damn sexy to boot. Chelsie spins soo fast – she looks like she can rotate one or two more time in a measure than any of the other dancers. But I wasn’t sure why they performed the drop after the music stopped other than they screwed up somewhere, got unsynched from the music and had to end with the lift. One odd note about Chelsie -- for a dancer who can really get into character in the more lyrical pieces, she tends to put on a frozen competition smile when she does ballroom. She even kept it going with feathers in her mouth last week.

So, Comfort is finally “in her own genre” with a Nappy Tabs hip hop routine? Didn’t she Krump with Chris a few weeks ago? Gimme a break. Out of their three attempts at straight hip hop, this was the best choreographed of the three. Too bad that Thayne was not synchronized with Comfort for the unison parts (which could have killed), and Thayne again cannot pull off hetero. I didn’t buy, for even a millisecond, that Thayne was macking on Comfort.

Tyce said Jessica and Will had to flow and look effortless. Well, I didn’t see that from Jessica, who kind of danced like a sack of potatoes. I saw a lot of awkwardness from Jessica coming in and out of lifts, and she looked clunky and hesitant. In the end, she just couldn’t get high enough to make the lift work. All of the hitches and hesitations left me unimpressed. If that were Will and, let’s say, Katee, I might have been impressed. Jessica dances like she’s the understudy rather than the lead.

Gev and Courtney? Boring. And boy, she was super-smiley tonight.

There were times when I wasn’t sure if it was Twitch or Lil C addressing the camera. Talk about separated at birth. And how hard hitting was Kherington? About as hard hitting as Kung-Fu Barbie. Her chest pops (which are at the core of krumping) were really weak – in the part where Twitch uses his hand to make it look like he’s controlling her chest pops, she just looks like she’s kinda breathing hard. Which was apparently for reals, since she appeared too exhausted to do anything other than go through the motions for the last 16 bars, as Nigel likes to say. Either that or she gave up (I can imagine her thinking, “gosh, I’m sooo tired. Ah, f*ck it – I’m in the top ten anyway”). And how forgettable was Twitch? It’s like he wasn’t even there. After that kind of suckiness, the judges must have some sort of harsh critique, right? Wrong! Nigel dismisses the last 16 bars as exempt from judging (as do the other judges) and no one even mentions how terrible her chest pops were. In fact, they say she was hard hitting! They should be ashamed of themselves. And they should never, ever have krumping on the show again. It has balls out sucked every single time.

Katee was gorgeous and amazing in her Viennese Waltz. Joshua had some footwork issues and looked ungainly in spots, but the lifts were flawless, and there was a series of synchronized spins across the floor that were awesome to watch. The dance was overall great and thoroughly entertaining. The tepid reviews from the judges due to technical issue are inconsistent considering the problems Gev and Courtney had that were glossed over, and this dance was way more entertaining and memorable than their ballroom routine.

I love the way Chelsie and Mark play off of each other and bring acting into their dances. This one was good, not great – I feel about it much like I felt about last week Jazz routine – it had some moments, but there wasn’t enough substance to the choreography for these two to really shine, and Chelsie didn’t finish any of her kicks. The critiques about Mark’s lack of technical expertise made my head spin – hello? Gev and Twitch? I am wondering if they are trying to get this couple in the bottom three and setting up a shocking boot of Mark. It’s all so maddeningly manipulated.

I didn’t think Comfort and Thayne’s contemporary routine was all that bad – it was better than Courtney & Gev’s Mandy Moore attempt. Comfort looked pretty good, and this was probably Thayne’s best performance. A critique for Comfort for faking technique? Hello – Gev and Twitch! All I want is some motherf***ing consistency. Seriously, it’s ridiculous.

Will and Jess do Jive. Is this a crash and burn? Yes.

Unlike Mark & Chelsie or Joshua & Katee, Gev & Courtney just don't commit fully to their characters. At one point in the Mandy Moore jazz piece, they start fighting over a map. But they aren't really going at it – they never sell that they are fighting over it – it's just a prop. Neither of them really wanted it, they just didn't want to drop it. Compare this to Chelsie kicking away Mark’s briefcase – it’s not just a prop – it’s there for her to unload her anger and frustration. This week, Chelsie bats around Marks head like a speedbag. Gev and Courtney just don't have that passion when they dance – the only reason people think they have some sort of connection is the unrequited love showmance they keep pushing week after week. The connection itself never comes through during the performance. And that's why they're so forgettable.

I sat through Khitch’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith inspired tango repeatedly yelling, “this sucks! This is awful! WTF?!” I was convinced the judges would overlook Twitch’s horrendous footwork, his stiff posture and his penchant for just standing around while Kherington does stuff. That he lumbers around the stage and can’t even come out of a spin without stumbling. That he has no technique and sucks at lifts. That he had a blank expression on his face the whole time instead of anything resembling passion. She appeared to be sleepwalking through the routine, only occasionally busting out her Ed Grimley face (again, “f*ck it, I’m in the top ten). Less Brad and Angelina and more Stiller and Meara. Nigel said it wasn’t “honest”. Nigel should be honest and explain that Twitch is the worst dancer left in the competition – even Comfort can pull off a contemporary or waltz, and she’s front and center and not hiding behind Kherington. So this is how bad you have to be to actually get something from the judges that isn’t full on praise and hype if you’re Khitch. Oddly, this wasn’t even their worst performance. I tend to think that after ignoring the worst part of a bad krump routine, the judges realized they had gone too far in the straining credulity department and decided to criticize the pair here. Sort of like when a ref blows a call for one team and then calls a bad one for the other team on purpose to even things up. Nigel, you suck as bad as those refs.

It took just as much energy if not more to pull off this Bollywood routine, and they didn’t quit towards the end. For that reason alone, Katee & Josh >>>>> Twitch & Kherington. What a great routine, and what tremendous execution. Joshua didn’t look out of his element here, and he hasn’t on the past – it seems that with two dances a week, something’s got to give (last week’s casualty was a poorly executed West Coast Swing). And after all these weeks, I’m finally warming up to Katee – she’s running neck and neck with Chelsie as the front running female dancer. As it is, she probably the best overall female dancer in the competition. The best part of the dance were the shapes and the synchronicity. Their unison dancing, in a style they were wholly unfamiliar with, was superb. The best routine of the night, hands down. The “best routine of the night” title has gone to Josh & Katee or Mark & Chelsie every single week so far. In many ways, it’s kind of a shame they’re breaking up the couples next week.

Re: So You Think You Can Dance: Season 4

Josh, I understand where you're going, and the reactions of many viewers who will like or hate different performances support your ideas. But the problem with the show is this: The judges should be impartial. Period. They should be showing the audience what is a good dance and why. And other than a rare moment of clarity from Mary last night, the judges have failed really, really badly at this mission. I also believe that the judges are trying to craft storylines and move certain dancers forward. In this resepct, the judges are simply being dishonest with the audience. That is disgraceful. I think it is the judges' duties to not be just another audience member, and to be impartial. For the most part, they've gotten off that track.

The closest thing I can think of is Olympic judging. Yes, they have their own preferences, and nationality creeps into the results. But they'd never give a 10.0 to someone who couldn't stick the landing. And yet we get that on SYTYCD every week -- 10.0's and 9.9's to undeserving dancers while doling out 6.6's to dancers just to knock them down a peg or to fit some narrative they're crafting.

I believe that the judges gave Courtney and Gev tongue baths while ripping into Mark and Josh for relatively minor (in the context of the show) infractions to even the playing field. They needed someone to make some headway into the top three couples so that the final six isn't as set in stone as it appears.

Re: So You Think You Can Dance: Season 4

FYI, Sara was a trained dancer who did all sorts of different disciplines until she got into B-Boying later and decided to take that up full time. In contrast, Comfort has had little to no training.

She's still dead weight.

Re: So You Think You Can Dance: Season 4

I would have rather seem Twitch go. I thought he had the weakest solo with the least amount of dancing. Most of it was just pulling face.

Jessica vs Comfort was a toss up. They both would have dragged down their partners next week. Jessica's solo was really weak again. Like, she should have been preparing one every single week already -- it should be second nature by now. The other conclusion is -- she's just not that good in comparison.

Re: So You Think You Can Dance: Season 4

Nigel likes to foster the perception that someone off the street can be given the opportunity via SYTYCD to become a great dancer. In order to do this, he compartmentalizes a lot of the dancers as beholden to one style when in fact almost all of the dancers have cross trained. He would talk about how great it was that a B-Boy like Sara could pull off a non-hip hop when in fact she more training in fields other than hip hop.

Joshua, Gev, and Mark have more training than these labels lead you to believe (Mark is really more of a hip hop dancer than contemp). Courtney dances jazz and hip hop for a living. Twitch has had training which they acknowledge because he's the story they wanted, a guy who was raw, trained specifically to be on the show, and then, beacuse of Nigel, became the best all around dancer and winner of the season. Unfortunately, Twitch is not that good, and the script will have to be rewritten because it's going to get a lot of the audience pissed off if the true talent loses to someone like that due to undue pimping and overpraising. I know it's America's favorite dancer, but jebus -- there has to be some standards.

Rather than start a new post, I'll just add this here:

Based on group of factors that include technical skill, performance ability, partnering skills, and charisma/star quality, I would rank the top ten like this:

Joshua – Very high to maxxed out scores across the board

Mark -- Very high to maxxed out scores across the board

Chelsie -- High to maxxed out scores across the board, but her hip hop is not nearly as strong.

Katee -- Maxxed out scores across the board except for charisma/star quality. When she’s not performing, she’s kind of nerdy and non-descript.

Kherington – I struggle to put her this high because I don’t think she’s that great. But it appears that for many people (that are full blown Twitchingtards) her performance and charisma are ticks higher than Courtney. Also, she may have to get props for her partnering skills – as much as Will has carried Jessica, Kherington has carried Twitch. When she’s not fully on, Twitch is exposed.

Will – Not sold on his partnering skills, and some of his charisma just doesn’t come across to some viewers. His performances aren’t consistently goose-bump inducing or even rewatchable.

Twitch – Pitiful technical skills, awful partnering, will die on the floor in any ballroom that requires fleet footwork or hip action. But he has some very palpable charisma that a lot of viewers respond to, and for bonus points, he has some sort of jedi mind trick power that makes people think his dancing was great when he doesn’t even do much.

Courtney – Mid to High scores across the board, a bit lower for performance. She’s slightly more charismatic than Gev.

Gev – Mid to High scores across the board.

Jessica – Low marks across the board. Falters constantly, can’t hold poses or make smooth movements. Terrible partner. Other than boobs, is pretty low wattage in the charisma dept. Should have been cannon fodder. Would have much rather had Chelsea Trail in the top ten.

Re: So You Think You Can Dance: Season 4

If they kept leaning towards the best dancers, yes I would agree with you. But they don't -- they push dancers based on agenda rather than talent, and that's really what's at issue for me and many other viewers who think the judges suck total ass. Mary's propensity for screaming and stupid catchphrases instead of substantive critiques are also a turn-off (I hope the course correction she took this week remains permanent).

I can see why they feel the need to shape the top ten on this show -- for one, being able to appreciate good dance from bad isn't well developed on the audience side (which is another reason the judges have to be so much better than they are), so it's important to correct for audience voting patterns that are screwing over really good dancers. The partnering aspect is another issue -- you may have a sucky partner and need to be saved or mabye you are a sucky partner and need to be booted. The voting system gives the judges that flexibility.

But Idol is different -- people are much more aware of what is and isn't good singing (EDIT: and there's a real variation of what can be considered good singing), and there is no partnering aspect. And frankly, I like the Sanjaya's and Jason Castro's in the system. The show is pretty boring without them. As many complaints as I've had about SYTYCD, I've never complained after the show that it was boring (Josh/Katee & Mark/Chelsie won't let that happen). "BORING!" was my verdict after every single Idol last year.

Re: So You Think You Can Dance: Season 4

Hmm... I'll have to work that word into my posts more.

I (and I think, many others) find the commentary to be content free for the most part. Up until last week, Mary's comments were 90% useless hollering and mugging for the cameras. It was like Paula mated to an air raid siren. Nigel is like a senile man who occasionally has moments of clarity, but mostly riffs on some minor thing like the audience wants to listen to his schtick (we want to hear valid commentary). And like James pointed out, Mia spent most of her critque for Josh & Katee talking about world dance in general and didn't offer much about the performance itself.

I much preferred the commentary from last year, and the Australiain version (which you can YouTube or bittorrent) had really, really good commentary in contrast.

Boobs!

Re: So You Think You Can Dance: Season 4

It's in the news, but a bit of a spoiler:
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Re: So You Think You Can Dance: Season 4

I started the evening by thinking, "why the hell is Twitch on the judging panel?" Then I realized it's his krumping doppelganger, L'il C. And I must say -- he gave more substantive critiques than Mary and Nigel combined, without the schtick and catch phrases that make it seems more like scripted perfomance than spontaneous judging. I even found his malapropisms charming, and his description about "bleeding on the floor" was much more coherent and evocative than anything Mia tries to get across. Like Dan Karaty, L'il C is a better judge than he is a choreographer.

Josh and Courtney's Bride of Frankenstein hip hop number could have been better if Courtney wasn't in it. Courtney just doesn't do enough, and I think it's because she's so self-satisfied that she stops trying hard before it's really good enough. In her initial audition, she was so sure she'd get a Mary scream but she didn't, and it seems like every week, she's surprised when she gets any criticisms. Josh was good, but without the connection he had with Katee, it was a little limp, lacking in any chemistry. Courtney looked clunky dancing next to Josh.

I think that pairing Mark and Kherington for a very fast and little known partner dance like the Two Step was a disaster waiting to happen. Mark is used to having a great partner having danced for five weeks with Chelsie, and Kherington is used to leading in her ballroom dances to cover up Twitch's atrocious partnering skills. The result was a total mess - Mark trying to lead while Kherington didn't even bother trying to dance with her partner. It didn't help that it was so sloppily executed. Mark tried really hard, affecting the carriage and posture of a C&W dancer. But Kherington appeared to have not learned the routine fully, and her slow and labored spins towards the end really makes you wonder about her conditioning. Almost the worst routine of the night.

The worst routine of the night was Twitch and Comfort's Smooth Waltz, which was not smooth in the least. So lumbering, so stiff, so lacking in footwork - Twitch dances like Frankenstein's Monster. I kept thinking about the Puttin' on the Ritz number from Young Frankenstein. Comfort couldn't take over the routine like Kherington did, and while I'm not going to kill the last big lift for being a bit tippy-toed, Twitch didn't even bother dancing or keeping with the music as he walked downstage, so, that is basically fail. This one was not Uba Duba.

I don't know what was the big deal about the Broadway routine - for one thing, I though the boat was too obvious and literal, and it also cut down so much of the space that part of the dance was just arm waving. The rest was filler as well. I think that Will and Katee are the two best technical dancers in the show, so I will blame this one on the choreographer. It was just boring.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well Chelsie danced this contemporary routine without Mark. Actually, I was friggin' impressed - she's as good as Lacey Schwimmer was in her contemporary routines (well, maybe just a hair less). She was much better here than her jazz or broadway routines, and given a lot more to do than her Mia Michaels routine. If she had done this with Mark, it would have been one of the highlights of the season. But Gev? Not so much. He has to devour the dance like Mark does, but Gev just nibbles away at it like a mouse. And he showed no real passion or heat. I think the Gev/Courtney chemistry was manufactured hype and didn't really exist. I didn't know who was to blame for it at the time, but since neither had any chemistry with their new partners, I'd say, spread the blame.

I dunno why, but I thought Josh was just ridiculously good in his rumba. There was something so passionate and caveman about it that contrasted with the lighter tone of his samba with Katee. That one was all smiles - this one was more like, "bitch, keep up with me!" Speaking of which, Courtney just can't keep up with Josh's hip action, and whenever he would hold her and lean out, she just didn't lay out enough, like she either didn't trust Josh or she thought it was "good enough". I know Katee would have been at a 45 degree angle with the floor during those movements. Courtney can dance like she did with Gev and get away with it, but with Joshua, she just looked like an amateur. It seemed like he would get waaay more extension that she did every time they stopped and posed. As Josh stretches out his arm, his chest and waist are rolling. Courtney only extends her arm. It's like two different skill levels. That last lift was a bit cocked up - I wasn't sure if Courtney was supposed to turn into it but didn't, but there was a distinct lack of momentum, and instead of whirling around onto his shoulders, she stopped as she straddled Josh's face with her crotch. He looked a bit pissed. And hey - there was a Josh personality sighting during the judging! He's a sweet guy, but he only seems to really come alive when he's dancing. Tonight, he was funny and engaging, talking about taking his shirt off to keep up with Will and Twitch.

I usually shy away from blaming choreography, but really, what the hell was that? It was just a random jumble of moves with no ideas, no purpose, and no sense. The dancing itself was good and the synchronicity was spot on most of the time, but it was like a routine made by a computer. I don't know if the judges are hell bent on getting rid of Mark and Kherington - between the Two Step and this random mess, it's like the SYTYCD Kobayashi-Maru test -- the only way they could have passed would have been to change the choreography altogether.

You might think that Comfort and Twitch doing hip hop together would be all that and a bag of chips, but you'd be wrong. There weren't really any tricks, and the dancing was repetitive. But the biggest drawback was that they didn't really interact much, and maybe it's because he's so much bigger or something, but when they danced in unison, it didn't look like they were completely in synch. Maybe I was expecting too much. That wasn't even the best hip hop routine of the season (Josh & Katee and Mark & Chelsie had way more memorable/enjoyable routines). And just when I think Twitch is going down, the judges slobber over this one excessively. So let me get this straight -- they're both great hip hop dancers? Duh!

All I can say is, that as the best routine from this season. Bar none. Bar NONE. I'd have to rummage through my memories to think of a better one from any season. This was a pas de deux from Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, although a pas de deux in name only - this essentially a contemporary dance number. And they couldn't have gotten two better dancers to execute it (in fact, they probably paired up Will and Katee this week just for this piece). The choreography was just amazing, and the helicopter lift and the last lift where she jumped and spun into his arms were the most spectacularly executed lifts I've ever seen on the program. The entire routine gave me chills. There was a bobbled split spin (in which it looked like Katee just couldn't fold up enough while maintaining the split to get under Will's arm), but in the face of the totality of the dance, it was a blip. I could watch this one over and over again - the execution was (almost) perfect and contained so much movement it demands multiple viewings. I'm still not on board the Will train like I was on the Danny train, but this was one impressive performance. And Katee was just as incredible. My only complaint was there was an awkward pause in the middle of the actual song. Which backstage clod remixed this? I found that more of a blemish than the failed spin.

I thought that the criticisms they laid on Gev for his Jive were a bit harsh considering he did as good a job in a ballroom routine as any other guy has this season other than Josh. I mean, how can they basically criticize Gev for not keeping up with a Latin Ballroom specialist like Chelsie (who, by the way, is an absolutely smoking dancer)? I can appreciate L'il C's critique about Gev concentrating too much and not having fun, but Mary and Nigel magnifying out itty bitty technical errors and making it sound like Gev failed to dance this well ended the evening on a down note. It just sounded like they wanted Gev to look bad.

I don't have much to say about the solos -- they're too short for anything to really develop unless you're breakdancing. My one note was the desperation Kherington showed, wearing boy shorts two sizes too small with her ass cheeks hanging out, which she stuck into the camera repeatedly. Her routine ended with a full on mooning. I'm no prude, but it just seemed vulgar for a high schooler to sexualize herself on national TV like that.

In the end, I'd say that while the best routine of the night was Will and Katee's pas de deux, the biggest surprise of the night was Chelsie, who rocked it in her two numbers and still flourished without Mark, who gets the prize for "missing his partner the most". Josh got by without Katee, but it's just not the same -- Courtney is at a very clearly defined level (or two) below Katee. It's like Van Halen with Sammy Hagar.

Re: So You Think You Can Dance: Season 4

Nigel? Is that you?

Well, I believe she graduated and will be going to college next year (if she's not touring), so in my book, she's still a high schooler.

Re: So You Think You Can Dance: Season 4

Yes, specifically Wade's "Foxes" routine with Sabra and Lacey. And guess what? He declined to do any pairs choreo this year.

They did take subtle swipes at Cicley and Olisa this year. Perhaps they don't want them back next year.