So You Think You Can Dance - Season 12:Stage vs Street (1 Viewer)

With Idol planning to knock off after next season, there's a good chance that SYTYCD will end either this season or next. If this is the last season, it's a shame they'll have to go off on such a sour note.

The judging has always been the worst parts of the show. Swapping out Mary for Paula is fine with me -- Mary has been nothing but a shrill, catchphrase spouting hack for the past 5 or 6 seasons anyway. But the addition of Jason Derulo is like having an ever present bad guest judge.

But it's the format change that's maddening. In the past, the show has moved along a handful of untrained dancers to the show only to have many of them crash and burn. The ones that made it and won were trained dancers who specialized in hip hop dance genres for the show -- Russell the Krumper actually went to a performing arts high school for dance, and Joshua was also trained for years as did Fik-Shun. Twitch trained for a couple of years before he finally made it past the Green Mile. So you can call them hip hop, but they certainly aren't "street". The partnering aspect of the show makes it almost impossible for untrained dancers to thrive -- you may have your Legacy/Hawk/Comfort moments, but they will lack the consistency. Cyrus was actually untrained and made it to the finals, but I thought he was terrible. So to make half the dancers "street" dancers and expect even half of them to deliver consistently good partner work is laughable. This season is going to suck big time.

The other problem is that judging by the first two episodes, the "street" dancing everyone is doing now is Animation, aka doing the robot. I find it dreadfully static and boring, but that's all we get for two episodes. The previews for next week are giving me hope for some b-boys getting in on the action. But the thought of 6 or 7 Cyrus' on the show is making me queasy.

Perhaps it's just observational bias, but it feels like they're spending way more time with the street dancers and giving the trained dancers short shrift. It may also be because the stage dancers haven't really been all that great so far. The sole exception for me has been Brooke Fong, a jazz dancer who I thought was just astoundingly good. I know they've already leaked the final cast, but I'm hoping Brooke is in the top 20 -- she is amazeballs great.



Basically no one else stood out for me over four hours (in TV time) of auditions. That does not bode well.

Reality TV is in a stage of flux, it seems. America's interest in the genre as a whole appears to be waning, and, in particular, performance-based shows seem to be in free fall. I'm not talking ratings per se, but rather how important these shows are to pop culture; at one point shows like Idol were so popular people watched them just to be part of the proverbial water cooler discussion.


So, when a show like SYTYCD tries something new, I have to at least give it a chance--this show specifically has earned that, as episode-for-episode (across every season save the first, which I did not watch), it has entertained me far more than any other reality program.


I don't think Jason is that bad; however, I think Paula's criticism is basically non-existent, rendering her presence equally meaningless. I would rather a rotating panel of guest judges.


I'm in 'til the end, as they say--hopefully we have a semi-active thread this season! Where's Patrick?!

I can't see myself ever not watching this show, but I'm very dubious about how much I will like this format. My main complaint is that I find Animation to be boring to watch, but that seems to be the style of 95% of the street dancers so far. It was thrilling to watch the b-boy stuff because of the impressive levels of athleticism involved. I could watch that all day. Animation? Like tap, it's gets old after a minute. But at least the tappers use the stage -- the Animators barely even move in space.


Also, as I understand it, there will be less partnering and more solos. So that's kind of a bummer as well. It will also be impossible for a ballroom dancer to compete in a format like that.

Finally got some b-boy breaking action, and it was AWESOME. And the animators in LA were WAAAAY better than the animators in the first two auditions. Like, they were great in LA because they actually - *gasp* - moved around the stage. That shit goes a loooong way.


A couple of the dancers were really just okay to boring for me but got huge props from the judges. Especially the blonde jazz dancer who made her father dance (she must have gotten in by reputation, because that choreography suuuuucked). The OG krumper was boring. I dunno, I don't really find krumping to be that interesting. And yes, I saw Rize, and it was way underwhelming. I kept expecting to be blown away, but I never really found the dancing to be all that.


But the break dancers and the two ballet dancers were the highlight of the show. Correct me if I'm wrong (and Josh, I'm sure you will) but isn't Alex Wong the only male ballet dancer to make it to the top 20?


All in all, that was more like I like it, audition-wise. I guess the talent pool in the first two shows just didn't bring it.

I'm keeping an open mind about the new format but part of the fun was seeing the dancers in routines out of their comfort zones which it doesn't SOUND like we're going to see much of. I'm happy to be proven wrong. It's not going to make a difference as I live for this show even when they make questionable changes to format.


I'm not happy about ditching "first wife" Mary but I guess I can live with it. Are we to get NO guest judges this year? No Adam?? No Jesse Tyler Ferguson or Debbie Reynolds?


I'm watching the auditions but I've taught myself not to emotionally invest in any of them until the top 20 is announced (learned that the hard way!) but none of them have, as yet, reached out and grabbed me like a Kent Boyd or Billy Bell anyway.

Hanson said:

But the break dancers and the two ballet dancers were the highlight of the show. Correct me if I'm wrong (and Josh, I'm sure you will) but isn't Alex Wong the only male ballet dancer to make it to the top 20?

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Chehon was ballet, I think (though he may have said "contemporary" when he auditioned); I think Danny was ballet, too, though I don't recall much else other than the judges all hated him.


My favourite dancer across all the seasons is still Eliana. Bang Bang is as perfect as you can get.

Chehon won season 8 and Danny came in second in season 3. Chehon's style was ballet while Danny got in as contemporary. Can't believe I missed Chehon on a season where both winners (having one male and one female winner that season) were ballet dancers. Eliana was one of my faves of the entire series. Has she ever come back as an all Star?

Lots of stand outs in the NYC auditions, but not as many as in LA. After this and LA, I'm a lot more sanguine about the season. Memphis and Detroit had me very worried about the talent level of the street dancers, but you could toss out all of the Vegas ticket holders from the first two audition episodes (except for Brooke Fong) and still have a great crop of dancers for Vegas.


Eliazer Chapman displayed some insane breaking skills, and looking at that opening freeze made my shoulders ache. I don't think Allyson Wilcox has the chops just yet, but her uninspired choreography didn't do her any favors. Still, I thought she was as good as some of the other contemporary dancers sent to Vegas with more effusive praise. Also, she's gorgeous, so I ain't complainin'. A long shot to make the finals considering there are only 10 spots for 140 stage dancers. Street dancers have a better shot -- 10 spots for 105 dancers, even less if you toss out the 40 or so tickets given to Detroit and Memphis auditioners.

I thought the blonde contemporary dancer from the first hour was one of the best of the entire audition rounds--sorry, I forget her name; the one to whom Paula wasn't enthusiastic.


Someone needs to drag Patrick into the thread...

I'm still watching, just been super-busy at work, and just got back from a con last weekend, so heavy into photo-processing, but almost done with the photos,

Enjoying the commentary here, as always


I don't understand the Stage versus Street dynamics, but that will be clear soon enough once they're past top 20 selections. I was anxious when I learned Paula Abdul was a regular judge. She was my least favorite guest judge, as she couldn't string more than three words together and may never have expressed a coherent thought in the past season. So far, she's not the train wreck I feared, but she's not particularly engaging nor insightful. Still, she gives a lot of heart and support for the performers, which I appreciate. Still, I continue to wish for Cristina Applegate, the best guest judge they have.


I love the Animators; that style is highly engaging to me. And I was excited to see Jaja back!

http://www.mjsbigblog.com/sytycd-season-12-jaja-vankova-audition-video/


There look to be some fantastic "Stage" performers. Brooke Fong from the first episode was incredible.

http://www.fox.com/watch/458334787878/7685557248?playlist=114196


A few more young women have also performed, but I've lost them amidst the wash of names.


I'm also excited by the male ballet dancers they've shown.


And last week, i think, was a young contemporary male dancer. A shorter fellow. His choreography was the best, but after his dance ended, I wanted to see him choreographed by Travis Wahl. A lot of potential.


An interesting season so far. Here's hoping it continues strong.

Darius Drooh. That's the fellow I was thinking off. His dance was too manic, without any pause. But I was intrigued and want to see more.

http://www.mjsbigblog.com/sytycd-season-12-darius-drooh-audition-video/

Vegas cuts. Wholly separate 'teams'. I'm not opposed, but I'm not convinced it's the best approach. Mostly a rush of people I've forgotten about, or perhaps never seen -- with a few I do remember -- performing and making or failing the cut.


I was happily surprised that Standing O, the Queen of Detroit?, made it through choreography.

I'm guessing we'll see some amazing dancers with little in terms of personality this season.

I was quite disappointed that Brooke Fong didn't make the cut. I'm especially disappointed now because this is the worst and least charismatic group of female contemporary/jazz dancers they've ever had on the show -- a fact that's made even worse because female contemp/jazz dancers are totally my jam. The lowest point was getting three dancers gyrating in hooker heels and lingerie and generating exactly zero heat. Zero charisma, presence or sex appeal. Zero.


In fact, there weren't a whole lot of standouts in the top 20 overall. JaJa? Awesome. JJ? Wasn't really that impressed with her solo work, but she totally kills the choreography (I always kind of lose sight during the auditions that it's 'So You Think You Can Dance', not 'So You Think You Can Choreograph Yourself'). Jim is a total beast like Danny was in season 3. He's got to be an early front runner, although voting can get chaotic.


The rest? I think I just need a few weeks to get familiar with their names and faces, but for the moment, I am underwhelmed with the cast.

Didn't much like the 3-person dances.

I loved the opening number and the Nappy Tabs Street group number. The ballet piece would have murdered if they danced more in sync. It felt kind of sloppy because of the lack of synchronicity, but the sheer muscularity of it was impressive to watch.


The Stage group number felt like hack work (hey, let's do a rip off homage of Bob Fosse AGAIN!). The Friedman piece with the three girls was, as previously stated, the worst.


BTW, this format kind of sucks. The only person who purportedly danced outside of their genre was the tapper, but it's clear that she's all around trained and not exclusively a tapper -- Nigel just likes playing up that angle. I'd even guess that, like Moises, she's a contemporary dancer who knows how to tap more than a dedicated tapper. Oh, wait, here's the proof:





So basically, other than watching the breakers attempt choreography, no one was really pushed past their limits, which is a huge reason the show is so fun. Adapt Or Die no more.

As a side note, none of the boring ass animators from the auditions (I'm looking at you, DragonHouse) made the cut. GOOD.

Nigel is terrible at trying to box in these contestants with their "style".

Hanson said:

I was quite disappointed that Brooke Fong didn't make the cut.

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I'm shocked Brooke isn't in the top 20. After teasing us with a potential runaway winner at the start of auditions, I want closure on what happened.

So... is there any reason Jim won't win this whole thing? He's head and shoulders and a bunch of other body parts better than the rest of the field. By a lot. Partly because this is the least talented group of dancers I can remember and mostly because Jim is ridiculous.


Outside of Jim, my other favorite dancer is JaJa, and so of course they danced together. Perhaps not the showiest thing I've ever seen, but it was the best danced piece last night, and by a mile. By a parsec. I don't even think there was anything else I even enjoyed other than the Bollywood number, and that was super sloppy. I just like Bollywood regardless.


The street dancer who went home? I swear I've never seen her before. So I'm not crying about it for sure.


Anyway, congratulations Jim, for being the last winner of SYTYCD. We'll see if that holds.