So You Think You Can Dance - Season 7 (1 Viewer)

[Hanson]

Ahh, I screwed up that sentence all to hell. It should have read, "When Ashley said she might be in love, I was hoping she didn't fall for Billy Bell. Because that's not going to end well". It was just an attempt at a joke.


But I really, truly hope she wasn't talking about Neil (and I don't think she was). If she falls in love with partners that easily, it's not going to end well.

 

[Josh Dial]

Originally Posted by Cameron Yee

Well, it raises the question of what the competition really does for a person. I would guess that anyone who makes it to the top ten is employable in some fashion.

Sheer talent and determination can also take you places in the industry, too. Heather Morris, the actress who playes Britney on Glee, was on the second season of SYTYCD, but got cut in the final round of Vegas week (the one where they decide if you are in the top 20). She then went on to dance with Beyonce, and then onto Glee.


I think the judges were really commenting on the fact that she a) has talent (not every great dancer has to be great in every style), and b) has the drive and determination to succeed. People will hire that.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I was shocked when they said that Alexie was 26 years old.

 

[Josh Dial]

Originally Posted by Patrick Sun

I was shocked when they said that Alexie was 26 years old.

So was I.


I mean, in the back of my mind, I knew she had to be in her twenties, as she has auditioned for four seasons (it's four, yes?), and you have to be 18 to be on the show (17-turning-18 when you audition), but she honestly danced more juvenille than even Mollee from last season (who I felt was actually mature, but kept back by her very immature partner, Nathan).

 

[Hanson]

Originally Posted by Cameron Yee

I believe that unless Alex screws up royally that he is going to win this season. He is by far the best dancer on the show by a mile.

Note that the best dancer in almost every season comes in second. The actual winner is "America's Favorite Dancer". Which is why the money is on Kent.

 

[Parker Clack]

I think that Alex has the personality to go along with being a fantastic dancer and with that combo I believe in the end he was be the last dancer standing. As much as I like Kent I still have my money on Alex to win it all.


You heard it here first.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Don't forget that Lacey Schwimmer is also a SYTYCD alum and is doing well on DwtS too.


It would suck if Kent wins just based on his "excited" kid likabilty factor, but if what'shisface can win last season, so can Kent.

 

[Citizen87645]

I'm not quite sick of Kent's aw shucks mannerisms but I can see myself getting there if it goes the duration.

 

[Hanson]

Oh yeah, Lacey. And Jason Gilkison is another industry person to know. Lots of alums appeared on Burn the Floor.


The characters that the dancers have are, maybe not fabricated per se, but definitely stretched from the truth. If you listen to the show, Kent is some backwater rube who's never been on an aeroplane or the big city. Meanwhile, he let slip in interviews that he's such a huge SYTYCD fan that hes been the numerous tapings. Assuming he didn't fly to LA just to see a taping, he was likely in LA for other reasons. He's not the bumpkin they make him appear to be. And Bryan, do you know for a fact that Kent lives in Wapakoneta? I wouldn't put it past Nigel to pretend Kent is from a neighboring town because of the way it sounds. Botkins doesn't sound as in the sticks as Wapakoneta.

Keep in mind that last year's winner was an "untrained street dancer" who attended the Boston Arts Academy, a performing arts high school, where he majored in... dance. Ditto for Sara Von Gillern, who was a trained jazz and contemp dancer who took up b-boying for a couple of years before appearing on the show as a bboy/hip-hop dancer. Anytime she did well, they went on about how an untrained hip hop dancer could do so well in other genres. Nigel like to say, "that's what this show is all about". Yeah, about balls out lying. And before the inevitable compliments heaped on Alex for performing outside his genre, he won two Junior World titles in tap(!) and showdance. But Nigel will claim that "it's because of the show".

But the most disgraceful thing that they manipulate is the way they try to keep the contestants' sexuality in the dark. Like I said, Billy and Robert showed off their butch sides while Kent had to say he would marry his mom or Beyonce to keep in under wraps. And before inevitable the fusillade of, "you don't know that for sure" reactions, let's be 21st century adults and say, listen to him. Look at him.




Let's not kid ourselves like Nigel wants us to.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

21st Century Adulthood tells me at least four things:


1) Sexuality is a private thing.


2) Assumptions are assumptions no matter how much we believe them. Until you know, you don't know. And even then, you might not know. You suspect, you strongly suspect, you're almost certain, but you don't know. And since there's nothing to be gained by unfairly maligning someone, it should be avoided. It's a dance show. It might make for an interesting aside, but we can usually critique technical skill and personality without getting into sexuality. I'm comfortable saying someone isn't masculine enough or a good enough actor to pull off a performance without saying, "The gay guy couldn't fake interest/attraction/passion." For all we know, Ade might have been gay. All that matters is that he can carry off the male role in partners dancing. Interestingly enough, there's almost never (I'd say never, but I don't trust my memory to that degree) discussion that any of the girls are gay, though I'm sure that's true as well.


3) You're entitled to your opinion.


4) Any post containing "fusillade" deserves to be read.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Cristina - I was sort of bored by the lack of stacatto movements in her number. I don't get the love she got from the judges, except that they just wanted to keep the girls in, and kick out one of the guys this week.


Adechikie - Alison outdanced him in this number. He doesn't really bring much to the table, no personality or style.


Ashley - not jazz, but a good number, but not a great number. Mark and her look good together.


Alex - the judges are going to be really hard on him unless he just flat-out wows them. Good sync with Lauren.


Melinda - eh, it was good, but not mind-blowing, plus I get the idea she'd lumber on stuff like the jive because I know she can tap, but to actually move across the floor quickly with snap, not so sure she can do that well.


Billy - oy, that was a bad draw for Billy, it looked like he was running out of gas too.


Robert - he had a slight stumble, and danced a little too roboticly, but still a good effort considering Anya was out-dancing him throughout the number.


Jose - was he even in this number? I was focused totally on Kathryn, who brought a great sense of bounce and joy to this bollywood dance.


Lauren - totally committed to the emotional undercurrent of the piece, good performance.


Kent - Courtney ate him up on this number, which was fun to watch, but he still ain't a man on the dance floor yet.

 

[Hanson]

I wasn't really wowed by Cristina, and I have come to realize that her moon face and braces will never allow her to appear ferocious or sexy to me, because the round face and braces make her look awkward and child-like (she reminds me of the dentist's niece in Finding Nemo). Technically, I thought both in the Paso and last weeks Jazz that the holds and lifts were a bit klutzy looking and lacked the smooth effortlessness that is the difference between "okay" and "amazing". Between Mark, Pasha, and Cristina, I'm gonna probably point the finger at Cristina. I kind of have to wonder, "this was the best salsa dancer from the auditions?" Adechike is so stiff and impassive that he has to really jack up the technical side to even compete. But nothing about that dance impressed me in any way. In his defense, that was a rather boring Mandy Moore routine, and I didn't understand where the smiling came in, so when he did it, it seemed very forced. Maybe they were dancing it wrong, but even Allison came off medicore here, and she's a fer real Goddess. BTW, it was hysterically inappropriate to surround the few pictures that weren't engulfed in the fire of his childhood home WITH FIRE GRAPHICS. How bizarrely tasteless. I'd hate to see how the producers would have handled it if Ade's childhood tragedy was that a loved one died of auto-erotic asphyxiation. Ashley is so goddamned boring. And what a waste -- who cares if the Travis Wall routine was more modern than jazz -- the choreography was really great. But Ashley did nothing with it -- it laid there like a wet fish. This one should have KILLED. And that's on Ashley, not Travis. Not that it has anything to do with dance, but I find her speaking voice to be incredibly annoying. It's a half step away from Mighty Aphrodite. So not even Alex Wong can rescue an awful Tyce pastiche. Still, there were moments where the dancing itself transcended the shitty material, mostly the intricate synchro parts. Still, Alex is the most compelling dancer for me to watch. The judge's faulted him for his performance skills, but on a technical level, he can't be touched. Wow, I was quite disappointed with both the theme and the choreography from Stacey Tookey for Melinda's earth mother dance. And I didn't see anything resembling what the judges saw, ie I found it forgettably boring and the costume was really, really silly looking. Also, the All-Stars Ade has zero charisma. Total snoozer. Two Ade's with zero charisma? What are the chances? I don't know if I should be hard on Billy for obviously giving up on the krump routine. On one hand, krump is the hip-hop version of the quickstep -- no one is going to pull it off, and it's not even entertaining to watch (I actually watched the krump documentary Rize a few years ago, and I was bored of the krumping half-way through). OTOH, you really have to commit yourself to the performance or your going to end up looking stupid. Which he did. The Argentine Tango was my favorite performance of the night, but that was more Anya than Robert. Waaaay more Anya than Robert. Look back at Mark or Josh or Brandon in their tangos, and Robert comes off lacking. But this is probably my favorite ballroom style -- aside from a disaster from Phillip Chbeeb, I've liked or floved every Argentine Tango on the show. Due to lowered expectations, I was rather quite impressed at Jose's Bollywood performance. I didn't think he could keep up with the dance or that they would severly dumb it down, but he pulled off most of the choreo and only looked spazzy and awkward a handful of times. It didn't hurt to have Kathryn as the eye-candy (Seriously, how did she not win last season?), and the choreography was fun to watch. Umm... I like Lauren, but the whole piece just came off as weird. If I didn't see the behind the scenes footage, I would never have guessed what the dance was about, and even then, I was hard pressed to pick out anything that had anything to do with domestic violence. At one point, I was wondering if it was about women who batter men then vice versa. I know that Lauren and Dom were emotionally invested in their characters, but the whole thing came off as silly looking to me. It would have come off much better if it were a contemporary piece. I'm not saying that it would be impossible to pull off this theme with hip hop, but this was not the piece to do it. I have to give Kent credit -- in his style, he can dance really well. Actually, I was shocked at the quality of movement -- from what I've seen, Kent is not all that far behind Billy and probably better than Robert. He is way better than Adechike. But he took me out of the choreography whenever he flashed that, "ain't I cute?" smile to the camera, and his country bumpkin schtick is annoying. When he was referring to his wardrobe, he started drawlin' like he was from Alabammy -- but isn't he from Ohio? I know Ohio is a very diverse state, but Wapakoneta is closer to Indiana than Kentucky. Too much Opie from this kid to take seriously. And zero heat with Courtney in a routine that was supposed to be sexy. Instead, it came off as merely cute.

 

[Josh Dial]

Originally Posted by Hanson Yoo


So not even Alex Wong can rescue an awful Tyce pastiche. Still, there were moments where the dancing itself transcended the shitty material, mostly the intricate synchro parts. Still, Alex is the most compelling dancer for me to watch. The judge's faulted him for his performance skills, but on a technical level, he can't be touched.

The judges, specfically Nigel, were also *completely* wrong about Bob Fosse and his style. Fosse is about three things: isolations, odd/bad posture usually seen as "hunched over," and a slight pigeon-toed style (since he was himself pigeon-toed). For Nigel to call Alex out on his shoulders was just stupid. If I were watching the show for the first time, and didn't know better, I would say Nigel didn't know a single thing about Bob Fosse--Nigel's the one who needs to do his homework: Alex got it perfectly.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I think overall looks got Melinda through to next week, but Cristina isn't that good of a dancer either, so either or both her and Melinda could have been sent home and I wouldn't have mourned their departures.


Robert's solo was horrible, as was Melinda's solo, while Cristina's was average.

When will the judges have no say in the elminations this season?

 

[Hanson]

Originally Posted by Patrick Sun

I think overall looks got Melinda through to next week, but Cristina isn't that good of a dancer either, so either or both her and Melinda could have been sent home and I wouldn't have mourned their departures.


Robert's solo was horrible, as was Melinda's solo, while Cristina's was average.

When will the judges have no say in the elminations this season?

According to one of Nigel's tweets before the season began, the voting won't be out of the judges' hands until the finale. This may be subject to change since they seem to be playing a lot of things by ear this season.


After watching that solo, I'd have to give the edge to Kent as the better dancer. Robert was just flopping around. Melinda is the most boring tapper ever. And seriously, WTF was she wearing? Bright metallic red spandex in a mom jeans cut looked very Studio 54 era cokewhore.


Either Melinda or Adechike will go next, depending on whether or not Adechike actually makes it to the bottom three. I scratch my head trying to figure out how and why he's getting votes. And if Billy can skate by after being saddled with a krump that would have killed lesser mortals, it looks as though Kent, Alex, and Billy are bulletproof for a while.

 

[Citizen87645]

When Robert is left to his own devices, he adds these really off-putting touches. In his intro last night, that shoulder thing he did at the end gave me the creeps. Then his super lame joke about being sick (sick...six...I guess?). I haven't watched his solo yet, but from what I've seen so far I'm in no rush.

 

[Hanson]

I can't figure out if I am accidentally hitting quote instead of edit or if there's some glitch in the software. But this isn't the first time.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Adechikie - finally had an enjoyable dance to watch, but I attribute All-star Lauren in helping out, she's just fun to watch.


Ashley - Solid partnering with Ade in a very good number. Jose - Still gliding along by his charisma.


Billy - He is a train-wreck in the partnering aspect, so I was mainly focused on Kathryn yet again.


Melinda - At least she tries, but she's the next to go, in comparison to the rest of the contestant, she looks like she's the one dancing with 2 left feet.


Kent - Still very much a pageanty dancer, and he got called on it this time around, so how will people like a more subdued Kent next week?


Robert - Far too much emphasis on his stretch-ability and flexibilty with not much chemistry in the partnering. Courtney was an after-thought in this number.


Lauren - Made a good recovery after the wardrobe malfunction, and ended up in the middle of the pack of performances.


Alex - totally owned his number, and deserved all the applause and love from the audience and the judges. I actually watched his number twice.

 

[Spero D]

Alex's number was pretty awesome & fun

 

[Citizen87645]

Alex's routine was definitely the highlight of the evening.


Even though things never quite gelled for Melinda, I have pretty consistently enjoyed her tapping solos.


I'm a little disappointed the female contestants have thinned out so quickly, but I guess there's always All Stars Lauren and Kathryn.