So You Think You Can Dance: Season 4 (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

Ranking from most fave to least fave for me:

Twitchington - Paso was half good, but solid contemporary

Chelsie and Mark - First dance was solid, and Foxtrot was above average.

Katee and Joshua - Contemporary was goose-bump worthy, while the west coast swing was fun but uninvolving.

Jessica and Will - okay first dance, but smoking second dance.

Courtney and Gev - so-so hip-hop (Courtney brought it, Gev did not), while broadway wore a little thin half-way through.

Comfort and Thayne - competent in both dances, but no real chemistry between them yet, understandable given the circumstances.

Kourtni and Matt - Kourtni just isn't lighting up the dance floor at all for me, and Matt is still too timid and fey, put them out of their misery, judges!

 

[James Lee]

Weird episode. The dances were all over the map. For me, Katee and Joshua's Mia Michaels routine was the best of the night by a long shot. Their west coast swing was bad only because the choreography was awful. I think Katee and Josh did the best the possibly could with what they were saddled with though.

Twitchington's turn with Mia didn't wow me nearly as much. I felt the bed and flower petals were a bit too gimmicky. Their paso was very good. Kherington's outfit was quite striking.

Courtney and Gev were probably the most disappointing. Their hip hop routine was half good. Courtney definitely outshined Gev, who surprisingly looked kind of limp. I was not impressed by their broadway routine. It felt like a lot of running back and forth from one end of the stage to the other.

Sadly I have a feeling Jessica and Will are bound to be broken up very soon. Will just seems to outperform her consistently and she seems to have a confidence issue.

I like Kourtni way more than Matt. She definitely looked better doing the Mambo. In fact, I thought she was smoking hot. Matt was way too effeminate. In the mambo, the guy has to come off with a ton of machismo and attitude and he failed miserably.

Comfort and Thayne, I agree the jury is still out since they didn't show much chemistry yet. Sadly, I think that will hurt them and they'll be in the bottom two or three and once again will have to dance for their lives.

Chelsie and Mark were firmly in the middle of the pack, although I think their Foxtrot was very good, considering he's never done it before.

 

[Hanson]

Having two dances per couple almost ensured that no one couple really stood out because you still have two days but now need to master two routines from different styles, and you will probably end up drawing a bad style/bad choreographer. That said, Mark/Chelsie & Joshua/Katee were still way better than the rest.

Other than that one amazing lift, Will & Jessica’s Jive was a chore to watch. It seemed a bit clunky and lacked the sharpness and speed that would make it really work. BTW, Tabitha’s remark about them being bottom dwellers and dancing for their lives belies the fact that they have only been in the bottom three once, in week one.

Thayne was okay (but not really pulling off convincing hetero), but Comfort just sucked. It’s like, “why is she on this show again?”

Matt is better than Kourtni, but seems to take all the flack from the judges. I thought he did really well with the Cicely and Olisa routine (keeping in mind that I have never enjoyed a C&O routine), while Kourtni just never got into the groove, didn’t complete her movements, was not in synch, and just didn’t give full extension and effort.

I’m not a big fan of Mandy Moore’s jazz routines, which I find are more posing than dancing. That said, this had more dancing that usual, but the moves seemed like a random mish mash of other styles and it lacked any razzle dazzle. It didn’t help that Chelsie wasn’t sharp throughout most of the routine, not finishing moves and looking a bit slow in comparison to Mark.

The Kherington perma-smile was still there, just dialed down a bit in wattage. She swapped it out for a cartoonish sneer for the last part of the routine, but that’s really six of one, half a dozen of the other – it’s still fake. After waiting for their first clunky drop to actually finish (I thought a body part got caught on one of the capes or something, but they just stopped part way through because Twitch sucks at lifts and drops), I was treated to the worst Paso Doble to ever hit the SYTYCD stage, although Twitch was the problem for most of it, lumbering around like Frankenstein’s Monster and hip hopping through part of it. Kherington didn’t inspire anything other than bleh. There was one bit of actual emotion from Kherington, and it happened after the judges actually criticized Twitch. She looked pissed. So it appears her faces are: pageant smile, cartoon sneer, and bitch face. Collect them all!

The Josh & Katee contemporary routine was one of the best Mia Michaels routines on the show. There were so many intricate poses and great looking lifts. I think Katee out danced Josh this time around – he came around in the end, but he looked a bit stiff in the beginning. They both sold the emotion, which is amazing because there were so many complex things they had to digest in two days, and they were still able to perform on top of executing. The best routine of the year, besting their hip hop routine from week one.

Gev & Courtney had another C&O hip hop routine, and I checked out half way through. Boring. Just to note, Courtney is a Knicks City Dancer, so she does Jazz/Hip Hop dancing professionally. Gev is a breaker and doesn’t really do hip hop choreography, so no one should be surprised that Courtney out-danced Gev here. That said, I really find this couple to be uninteresting. They don’t suck, but they haven’t done anything memorable.

I like Mandy Moore’s contemporary routines waaay more than her jazz shit (the Gev/Courtney one from week two was really good as well but not well executed). The thing is, Jessica dances just as heavy as Kourtni, and she just doesn’t have the lightness to match Will. I know he’s supposed to be dragging her, but it looked like he really exerted himself doing so (the same thing happened during their Tango). If Katee did this with Will, it would have absolutely rocked the house.

Whoever this Edward Simons guy is, they should keep him. For a smooth waltz (a notoriously boring dance) it was entertaining (one of the issues with this dance is that the music alone will put you to sleep). I was surprised at how graceful Comfort looked, getting full extension, pointing her toes, and extending her fingers. It wasn’t AWESOME (more like a really good DWTS routine), but my eyes didn’t glaze over like usual. The one spinning lift that reversed had a rocky transition, but that move alone was more interesting than all the other smooth waltzes combined.

Poor Matt. Kourtni bogs him down again (she didn’t spin so much as turn slowly) and their first big lift appeared to be screwed up (it looked like it was supposed to be showier and more intricate, but Kourtni lost her pose and dropped her legs while Matt had to keep spinning to stay with the music). She either doesn’t care or is struggling so much with the choreography that she doesn’t finish her moves. Admittedly, Matt wasn’t that great, but she doesn’t give him anything to work with.

Again, keep Edward Simons. Probably the best Foxtrot the show has seen, abetted by the full on grace that Chelsie brought to the routine. If you re-watch, Mark is a bit stiff in places, but who was watching him the first time? Her spins are phenomenal, and all of the transitions between the lifts were buttery smooth (except the last big lift which ended oddly). This was the third time they looked like they were setting up to do some other move but something went wrong and they just kept on going with the rest of the routine.

Perhaps the most flabbergasting moment I’ve ever had with this show occurred during the critiques for Khitch’s contemporary routine. First off, if you re-watch it, you will notice that Twitch leaves the bed exactly once to actually, you know, dance. He otherwise rolls around the bed, occasionally slipping on the bed just to let you know he’s in over his head. Kherington comes out with a big flourish, and then spends the rest of the routine behind the bed in a billowy shirt that only allows you to see her arms flailing about. Just in case you are wondering when the dancing will start, they throw flower petals everywhere as misdirection. In my mind, Mia couldn’t get anything out of these two, so she had Twitch lie down and Kherington dance mostly obscured, and let the flower petals do their magic. This is actually worse than the time in season 3 when Mia had Cedric sit in the back of the stage throughout half of her routine to keep him from screwing it up. There was a thimbleful of dancing to be found (99% of it from Kherington), and for the judges to praise it like they did seriously brings to question not the impartiality of the judging (we know they have favorites), but whether or not they have already picked out Twitch as the winner. I don’t know how you praise someone’s dancing when they didn’t even dance. It’s absolutely bonkers insane. The only reason I could fathom someone enjoying it was to drool over Twitch’s shirtless torso. The Emperor truly has no clothes. Worst. Mia. Michaels. Routine. Ever. It was like a parody of comteporary dancing.

This was the first Katee and Josh stumble, a slow, halting west coast swing choreographed by Benji Schwimmer. The tricks were either uninteresting or poorly executed, and Josh looked lost throughout. Too much stopping to pull face for my tastes.

Gev and Courtney were uninteresting again. A Broadway routine with such seriously sucky acting that it made me think I was watching a high school musical. That’s “a high school musical”, not High School: The Musical. Again, these two are bland as hell. If she wasn’t pretty and he couldn’t land on his head, they wouldn’t be here at all.

 

[Parker Clack]

Hanson:

Great take on the night.

BTW, are you a dancer yourself?

 

[Josh Dial]

To be fair, that's sadly what Jazz as a style mostly is (at least performance Jazz) - mostly poses and extentions that say "hey, look at me!" That being said, I too am very underwhelmed by Moore's routines this year, whereas last year I thought she was pretty great. This year, not only do they seemed pretty basic and amateurish, they are, for the most part, uninteresting.

Also agree but also disagree with you about Will and Jessica's jive - their chasses were VERY slow in my opinion, almost embarassingly so, however their leg flicks were actually pretty great - so their were both clunky AND sharp at the same time. Very uneven performance, but I thought it was better than a few of the routines tonight.

The Paso Doble was pretty uninspired as well, to be honest. Traditionally one of the partners takes the role of the matidor, while the other is the "cape." Of course there can be variation from time to time, and indeed there was here, but it just wasn't where I would have expected for this couple.

On the Gev and Courtney hi-hop piece, I actually had differing opinions with the judges, at least as far as Gev's performance went. While it was clear Courtney "stepped it up," and performed at decent level, I thought that Gev "looked the part" better. Now I'm not saying I'm not a hip-hop dancer in the least, but for me, Gev at least looked like he could actually found on "the other side of the tracks," while Courtney simply looked like a cute girl pretending to be a hip-hop dancer as some sort of joke.

Edward Simons is another good addition to the show (along with Tabitha and Napoleon, who are fast becoming one of my favs), and his waltz was overall quite good. However, there seems to be a recent trend with waltzes this year to have them about 50% waltz, the other 50% contemporary. I'm not saying it's a bad thing - just that for a large portion of the routine, they were certainly not really waltzing.

The west coast swing routine was pretty sloppy - both in the choreo and the dancing. It didn't have the elastic-quality you expect from west coast, and the tricks were pretty poor, especially given how strong Joshua seems (physically) and how light Katee must be - he should be able to whip her around like the Lindy Hop.

All in all, a pretty mediocre episode from another otherwise stellar year. From now on, I think Tabitha and Napoleon should be barred from judging. Not because they were bad at it, which they weren't, but because they are needed more as choreographers. Also, where's Wade?!

 

[Hanson]

I think that's a concession to the SYTYCD format -- a straight competition waltz for 2 minutes just doesn't have enough razzle dazzle to get people dialing. All the various Waltz styles have traditionally been the kiss of death. In this format, things have been moving in a waltz/contemp hybrid starting with Jean-Marc here and there, but I think when they saw what Gilkison was doing in the Australian version, I think they decided that it was the way to go with all ballroom dances in SYTYCD.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Thank you, judges! They seem genuinely nice folks, but just weren't able to up their game to the level of their competition.

Gev and Courtney G had very entertaining solos.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Ranking from most fave to least fave for tonight:

Joshua and Katee - thought the judges were a little harsh on their waltz, as I think they have a nice way of moving in relation to one another in the waltz that always accentuates their connection to one another. Enjoyed their bollywood number very much, just a lot of fun with great energy and a light touch throughout their dance.

Gev and Courtney - always the crowd pleaser of the remaining pairs, but they rarely elevate their numbers into goose-bump-inducing performances. They had 2 good dances tonight.

Mark and Chelsie - Chelsie was solid in both dances, though Mark was both entertaining and out of his element for parts of both dances.

Twitch and Kherington - 4/5 of a good krump (oxymoron, I know), but a half decent smooth tango that elicited very little heat or passion.

Will and Jessica - a solid solid contemporary piece for their first dance, but the quick step just did them in.

...

...

...

Thayne and Comfort - going home after 2 lackluster performances. Thayne deserved better partners, but sometimes dem's the breaks. Comfort was just sort of lost and uncommitted to fostering any form of chemistry with Thayne.

 

[Parker Clack]

I agree that Comfort will probably be the next girl to go. I not sure about Thayne going in the end though.

Overall last night was a pretty just ok night for all the dancers except for the Bollywood dance at the end. That one was great fun to watch and I am sure a bitch to execute.

Josh:

Is your girlfriend a dancer? What does she think of the show?

 

[Josh Dial]

Parker:

She is indeed a dancer, and absolutely loves the show. The past few years she has switched more from acting and dancing on stage, to choreography, so she watches the show equally for the dancing and the choreography itself. She just finished up choreographing "Cabaret" here in Calgary, so it was kind of interesting to a number from "Cabaret" as the group piece last week.

I also agree that Comfort will be gone for the girls - she's pretty must used up all her lives on the show. I don't think she's anywhere near as strong as last year's B-girl, Sara.

After seeing a few really strong couples, week after week (Joshua and Katee, Courtney and Gev, for example), I'm looking forward to seeing the couples mixed up next week.

Seriously though, can they please dump the quickstep? The lindy hop is tragically absent from the show (as is the jive) - I think we've see it a total of once, on last year's final dance show - and I think it would be better received overall.

 

[Hanson]

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.

 

[James Lee]

Very nice analysis, Hanson. I'm in total agreement with your impressions.

Kherington's krumping was about as "hard" as a pretty, smiley, white girl from the 'burbs could get. I had to laugh when her gas tank was flashing 'empty' towards the end.

The Mr. and Mrs. Smith tango was a horrible, stilted mess.

I really think Joshua or Katee are the ones to beat. As a couple they are on a level way above the rest. I liked their waltz a lot more than the judges did. Guess I don't have much of a trained eye for dancing. Joshua just shocks me every week with how he makes every dance so effortless.

The Bollywood routine was one of the best dances of the season.

The judging has been so inconsistent this season. Almost like Randy, Paula and Simon have somehow started to rub off on Nigel, Mary, and the guest judge of the week. That's been very disappointing because I always felt the judging was infinitely more superior to the over the top incoherence of the AI judges.

 

[Josh Dial]

With regards to the inconsistencies of the judges' comments, I tend to interpret them through the varying lenses of the styles of dance. At least my reading of it (and I somewhat agree), is that simply put, certain styles of dance, and indeed certain pieces of choreography lend themselves more towards criticism of style and technique, or towards criticism of substance and emotion.

Sadly, there aren't any hard and fast rules governing when one applies and the other does not, or when both apply - though it seems one could make a few loose rules such as in a ballroom piece, if the technique is lacking, no amount of emotion will save you; likewise, in a hip hop routine, the moves might not be perfect (lacking pop, being too fluid or not fluid enough, etc), but if the audience (and here's a massive dose of subjectivity!) feels something in the piece, then mission accomplished. To touch on the ballroom example again, if you are successfuly able to "move" your audience, but your footwork was poor, carriage wasn't proper, your hands (as Mary was wont to discuss last season) were improper, well then, quite frankly, you weren't waltzing (or whatever).

Further complicating things here is that individual pieces of choreography, regardless of style, can sometimes have so much emotional impact and resonance, that it would be simply silly to debate over technique. However, this means that indeed you CAN waltz a waltz with so much emotion (or whatever), a routine choreographed with so much power (or whatever), that technical mistakes can, and indeed should be ignored. This is why to be quite blunt, there are a few things in a routine that are literally out of the dancers' hands. Everything from poor costuming, to terrible music (for an example, see basically anything Tyce Diorio uses), to utter crap choreo.

I'm playing devil's advocate for the judges here (well, sort of) at the end of the day. Art is art, and it's subjective. Yet at the same time, there has to be some elements of technicality involved on a show such as this, otherwise it's simply a bunch of people moving about. The fact that technique and artistry are so intertwined in dance allows the judges a lot (in my opinion) of latitude to make the types of comments they do on the show.

Is it curious that one pair can make mistakes on a ballroom piece, and compensate for it through raw likeability, while another couple also dancing a ballroom piece is lambasted for lacking proper technique? It sure is. Is it inconsistent? I would argue perhaps no.

On American Idol, I used to think there was a massively inconsistent comment being thrown about, until I finally got (at least I think) what the judges there were saying. For seasons Paula, Randy, and Simon would say things like "you took that song and made it your own," or "you put your own spin on that song." Also, they would comment that a singer failed because they "failed to make it modern," or they "didn't make it their own." This was quite at odds with the same judges saying of other singers "you tried to do something new with that song, and you shouldn't have," or "that song is a classic and shouldn't be messed with."

I thought to myself, well, what is it?! Then it dawned on my that what they really meant is that a real artist knows when a song has such emotion and power that it doesn't need to be messed with, and when it's necessary to change it up a little.

One last thing you have to consider on So You Think You Can Dance, is the background and personal biases (dance-wise) the judges have. Mia Michaels, for example, seems to be forever locked in the world of emotion, and if you want a good response from her you should play up the emotion - if you can't act, then there's a good chance she'll comment something like "well, you danced it well, but it wasn't believable for me." On a ballroom routine, Mary will almost certainly comment on carriage, footwork, etc. In fact, Cat will probably ask her about it, "Mary, was the footwork perfect?" However, she doesn't mind also giving in sometimes to the emotion of a piece, and can ignore glaring problems in a ballroom routine if it suits her. Adam Shankman REALLY likes getting personal - he often ignores the dance entirely and goes off on some rant about the dancer. Debbie Allen does the exact same thing.

Anyway, I don't personally feel the judges' comments are inconsitent. Simply that they are judging a highly subjective art form, where some types of errors aren't as jarring to the end result as hitting a sour note or screetching an entire chorus of a song.

cheers!

 

[Hanson]

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.

 

[Hanson]

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.

 

[James Lee]

Maybe it's just me but I don't recall the judging to be so wildly inconsistent last season. In fact, last season was the one that really got me into the show and one of the reasons why it was so great to me was the quality of the judging. Maybe another season of Mary's screaming and ranting is just starting to grate on me now.

The comments they made about Joshua and Katee's Bollywood routine were kind of typical of the frustration I've had with the judges this season. All three went on and on about how it's so great that they've been able to get something new on the show, and how great world dancing is, but when it came down to judging Josh and Katee's actual dance performance all they could muster was essentially 'oh yeah, you guys were great'. To me, that was totally useless.

 

[James Lee]

Well, all I can say is that the right pair was eliminated.

Jessica better have the night of her dancing life next week or else she'll be next.

 

[Hanson]

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.

 

[Brett_M]

The top four (in no particluar order):

Josh
Katee
Will
Chelsie

The real competition starts next week.

 

[Josh Dial]

Ahh yes, I had totally forgotten she was trained in other styles as well.

With regards to Twitch's solo last night - I actually had the opposite reaction, as I thought it was the strongest of the three male solos. It had a really unique story to it, and was one of the rare hip-hop solos that didn't seem like it was simply tricks and popping lamely strung together into a nonesensical sequence.

Back on the topic of judging, I don't mind that the show's judges are clearly biased towards certain dancers. In fact, I think the other reality shows, like Idol, would benefit from Dance's vote-off system and the way judges can clearly direct the competition. Outside of the humour factor, I think many people would agree that allowing the Idol judges to boot off Antonella or Sanjaya the first week they were in the bottom 3, would have been a boon to the show. I rather like the fact that, until the top 10, Nigel and crew can effectively trim the competition down to who they see as the best 10 (within limits of course, since the bottom couples are vote-determined). Further, they can use verbal praise/criticism to impact the voting of the viewers (at least in theory, viewers take that into account), and to me at least, their bias is at least useful on this show, in that it can directly affect the competition for good. Consider the obvious biases on AI, where really all it amounts to is a bunch of judges blathering on, and even if they gush all over someone, they could still be eliminated that week if the popularity contest works against them. Take for instance this week, where Kherington was told by Nigel that she's "probably safe this week" even before the solo round had begun. I think that kind of bias would be a welcome addition to Idol.

That all being said, I fully understand why some viewers strongly dislike the judges' biases, and want a panel who doles out impartial criticism based on the dancing itself. I guess I just don't mind