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

[Josh Dial]

I agree Jim is poised to win. I also like Alexia, who is the dancer I was trying to remember up in post #9. I, too, liked the Jim/JaJa routine, but I also really like the Alexia/Virgil/Megz routine by Dee Caspary. In particular, I thought that routine was the best trio of the season.


Regarding the show's future, there are rumblings that it will be renewed, but that part of the deal is that Nigel (and his judge salary) retire to executive producer only, and the show continues with a "younger," new set of judges.

 

[Hanson]

After watching each contestant dance mini-solos during last night's 10 year tribute show, I am even more convinced that Jim will win unless he pulls an Alex Wong and tears his Achilles. Every time I see Alex and Twitch perform Outta Your Mind, I shake my head and think about how Alex would have won that season walking away if not for the injury. Jim is on the same trajectory as Alex -- the best routine in the first two weeks, ridiculous core from ballet training, the ability to do the gymnastics and movement required for contemporary, and then the ability to legitimately nail a hip hop number. That's simply unstoppable. It's easy/lazy to connect them because they're both Asian, but that's a coincidence rather than a commonality. What they really share is the ability to transition so easily between so many styles. Danny's hip hop attempts were merely passable while Chehon was flat out awful at hip hop (and yet he still won). If Jim can do an Argentine tango, it's just fucking over. I bet Jim could do windmills and other breakdance power moves. Because he's ridiculous like that.


I was surprised to see Sex featured so prominently in one of the montages considering how vociferously Nigel complained about his auditions. But then I realized he had to be there because Sex is a gag character played by Adam Shankman. Don't believe me?

Believe it.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I think I'm suffering from SYTYCD fatigue after all these seasons finally, or I just don't have a lot of contestants to root for this season, just seems like a bland group.

 

[Hanson]

Maybe the weakest top 20 ever. Poor job casting the female Stage dancers (bland city) and too many unremarkable Street dancers (by design).

 

[Hanson]

There was a LOT of sucky choreography on Monday night. It's sort of fun or nice to watch dancers emote and act out characters, but without the substance underneath, it's just not that interesting. Too many of the pieces consisted of a small number of uninteresting steps that required the dancers to bring it to life. And as much as the judges didn't want to ding the choreographers for not giving enough, that's basically what happened, up to and including the opening group number, which was the weakest one of the season by far. Caught up in this wash were a lot of favorites including Jim, who was given an acting assignment instead of a dance assignment and failed miserably. He should bounce back from this disaster.


Of course, the Pharcide and Phoenix number that closed the competitive dances brought down the house and deservedly so -- that was great choreography paired with great dancing. The only other decently choreographed competition number of the night was the Afro Jazz, and even that would have been a middle of the pack performance on a good night.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I still dislike the 3-person dances, hard to focus on the dancers.

 

[Josh Dial]

I thought the African jazz piece was terrible. Cheesman pieces are always (always!) bad, though.


I really liked the Stacey Tookey routine (Derrick, Alexia [my choice to win],and Jaja). I also really liked the Justin Giles piece from Neptune and Kate (who has suffered from crap routines and partners, and who I find quite engaging for some reason). The Pharside and Phoenix piece was indeed great, and definitely the best of the night.


Similar to Patrick, I'm not a big fan of the 3-person dances--though I don't dislike them completely. When a good 3-person routine comes around, it really looks like a polished piece from a professional company. Sadly, we've only had a few of those this season: Dee Caspary's routine from last week (Alexia, Megz, and Virgil) was *really* good


I actually thought the Team Street group number (Marty Kudelka) was boring. Busta was the best part, and even he was rushing to get through it I much preferred the careful and controlled stage routine (Jaci Royal). Kate, Alexia, and Gaby were standouts.


Lastly, I want to point out that Paula is actually really good now. She still talks for a bit too long, but quite often she gives legitimate--and specific--notes about how dancers can improve (raise your chins, for example). Jason clearly knows what he's talking about, too. Paula was wasted on American Idol--she should have been on SYTYCD years ago. If the show continues next year, I would be happy to see both Paula and Jason back.

 

[Hanson]

I agree about Stage group routine being superior to the Street group routine. The latter suffered from a lack of interesting/intricate movements, which was endemic to the evening.

 

[Hanson]

Forgot to mention that there are a lot of people who hate the twitter save with a burning passion.


For one thing, there's only a 5 minute window to send the tweets. Which means no one outside of the time zone can vote (unless they're perfectly fine with spoilers). It also means that people time-shifting with DVRs are also cut out of the loop. This really affects a small subset of SYTYCD viewers, which makes it quite irksome for plenty of people who are otherwise disenfranchised.


The other issue is that the twitter votes are for saving 2 out of the 6 bottom vote getters. However, if it turns out the twitter votes jibed with the judges' opinions (which happens a lot), it's falls on to the judges (ie Nigel) to determine who goes home anyway. Those twitter votes were a waste of time. If the judges saved a couple first and then let the tweets save another, then it would make twitter a bigger influence. Right now, it's not really doing much except making some viewers very angry.

 

[DaveF]

I love Jim, but don't know if he can bring the emotional performance this contest requires. Say what you will, but since I started watching in season 7, the emotive performance is key to winning.

Kate got my attention two episodes ago with a superb performance and I'm now watching her expectantly. Jana is always a fav. I'm ready for Burim to go, though in his specialty, he's second to none.

Loved loved loved the robot dance.

Loved seeing Jasmine and Comfort's encore for "Girls".

I didn't understand how Outta Your Mind is fan favorite. It's a good routine. But not one that I'd ever have picked as best of the show. Don't know if I'm that out of sync with the fan base or what.

 

[Josh Dial]

I didn't understand how Outta Your Mind is fan favorite. It's a good routine. But not one that I'd ever have picked as best of the show. Don't know if I'm that out of sync with the fan base or what.

I agree it isn't the best routine of the show--it isn't even the best hop hop routine. For my money, the best routine ever is still Bang Bang; I also really like Bleeding Love (briefcase routine, Chelsie/Mark, Tabitha & Napolean) and No Air (Joshua/Katie, also Tabitha and Napoleon). Well, there are a LOT of routines I would place above Outta Your Mind--I think we all did lists of favs a few seasons back...

 

[Citizen87645]

We are several episodes behind, but thanks to Facebook, I know who won!

 

[DaveF]

Ok. I've been a week behind for most of the season, so haven't been posting. But I watched the finale on Friday, without any spoilers. The Judges / Dancers picks included my favorites from the season; it was great to relive the best of (and not be grumbling over inscrutable selections )


And then there was the new Travis Wahl choreography for Jim and Alex (?). That was amazing. Jim was an early favorite for me. I think it was appropriate that he didn't make the top four, it was beautiful he was given that dance and that he was brilliant in it.



The skill and talent this season was incredible. In the past couple years, I've had a specific favorite to root for most of the latter half, with strong feelings on their winning. This season, I was all over the place. I think it's because they were all so good, it was hard for a single one to stand out as the obvious winner. I think any of the top 4 could have reasonably won this season, and the final choice of the top two was a nail biter, both were amazing.



SPOILERS:



I'm happy the winner was Gabby. But JaJa would have been an excellent choice as well.


I expect Virgil will be in the All Stars, if there's another season. Hailey, I really enjoyed too.

 

[Citizen87645]

I like Hailee too, mainly for her personal energy and charisma. She and Virgil together are infectious (as with the robot number). The highlight of the season was them dorking out and staying in character as robots through the judge's comments.


Gabby is very likable too. Her auditioning again after being rejected still stands out as mightily impressive.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I think technically Hailee fell short, but everything else was star-power-city. Gabby leaves me a little cold, so I wasn't really rooting for her.

 

[Hanson]

Never connected to Gabby and was rooting for Ya Ya although I knew Gabby was going to win a couple of weeks after I prematurely declared Jim the winner.

I understand the criticism over Jim's lack of connection, but the bottom line is Jim was saddled with some really poor choreography. None of his partners could do anything with what they were given, not even his partner Gabby. His highlight in the top ten was his salsa with Anya, which I thought was great.

 

[Josh Dial]

Semi-related to SYTYCD (sorry for the necro-post). I just saw Travis Wall's Shaping Sound, and it was one of the best live performances I've ever seen. If you get a chance, go see it!

 

[DaveF]

Is that on tour, or specific to some locale?

 

[Josh Dial]

Is that on tour, or specific to some locale?

It's on tour!