– Wow, that is one shitload of contemporary and jazz dancers. By my count there’s one hip-hop dancer (Tony), one pop-and-locker (Philip), two ballroom girls (Asuka and Janette), and one ballroom boy (Maksim – oh, I’m sorry, “Max”). I suppose the ballerina could maybe count as not-a-contemporary dancer if you really want to push it. Be prepared for a season of weak hip-hop, everybody! (Yes. Again.)
– This kind of irks me because it’s an especial flaw of So You Think You Can Dance that hip-hop and other urban styles get a tragic lack of respect. I have lost count of the number of times a contemporary dancer has come out, danced some whiteboy hip-hop and been told they “hit it” when in fact they did no such thing. Hip-hop dancers are routinely judged (or at least handicapped) on their lack of contemporary technique; contemporary dancers are almost never judged on their inability to hit beats as hard as good hip-hop requires.
The bias towards contemporary, especially on the American version of the show, is pretty damn blatant. It’s why Vegas week featured three routines suited primarily to contemporary dancers (Sonya’s jazz routine, Mia’s contemporary and Tasty Oreo’s Broadway). It’s why Napoleon and Tabitha’s lyrical hip-hop gets such a push on this show: it’s hip-hop that contemporary dancers can actually perform without looking lame. (And I like lyrical hip-hop just fine, but compare the hip-hop on this show to anything on, say, America’s Best Dance Crew and you start to see the difference, you know?)
– Mia Michaels spent Vegas week in total bitch mode, apparently. My god, but her comments to Brandon were unwarranted. Lil’ C was a lot more polite about expressing his issues with Brandon’s style – it was basically a repeat of how Mia treated Danny Tidwell in season three except that time Shane Sparks was the one expressing polite unenthusiasm. My mild dislike for Mia Michaels remains entirely justified, I think.
– Should have been Ryan, rather than Evan. Ryan’s just better at pretty much everything.
– Nathalie’s cut was incredibly obvious bullshit. She does the routine with everybody watching twice in a row, nails it the first time and the second time doesn’t do so well so she gets cut? I’m calling that a “casting for the fall season” cut. (Much like Brandon last year was a “casting for season 5” cut.)
– Complaints aside? Even with the flood of contemporary dancers, the season looks strong. But then again, the season almost always ends up being strong.
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I agree with the should have been Ryan, he was better. Hope he comes back next year.
“America’s Best Dance Crew”
I had a friend who was really into that show. I forget the name of his favorite group though (they all wore these ghostly kubuki style masks). Had he not gone into the Air Force I wonder if he’d have bought tickets to New Kids On the Block when they came to the local arena because they (the dance crew) were the opener.
I hadn’t considered Nathalie’s cut as possibly being them wanting to separate her from Brandon for next season, but…man, if I was her, I’m not even sure I’d WANT to come back. That was some cold-ass bait-and-switch, right there.
Jabbawockies (or however you spell it), that was his favorite group.
I felt bad for that guy whose dance company wouldn’t let him out of his contract for the show. I mean, hey, who wants national television exposure for one of your dancers and your entire company anyway?
I call it a “Nigel’s a Creepy Old Perv and Would Rather Have Another Perky Blonde Than Nathalie” cut.
And yeah, Mia was just plain nasty for no apparent reason. I’m often not wild about her choreography, and she always leaves me cold as a judge. I’m glad that Debbie Allen has no “protege” on the show this year so she can be back in the judging pool.
MIa was horrible, just horrible. And I don’t understand how Nathalie ended up leaving. I … I’d have a hard time coming back after that crap. And I can’t remember his name but I really liked that Asian guy with the hat. He was really good and he was adorable.
I mean, hey, who wants national television exposure for one of your dancers and your entire company anyway?
Alex Wong is a principal soloist for the Miami Ballet. That’s not just working for a dance company (and most SYTYCD dancers end up teaching once the show is over because they can’t get hired by a company, even at their talent level). That’s a plum job. That’s top of the world in dance terms.
No artistic director worth his salt is going to let his dancers appear in a competition, not without a lot of prompting; if they didn’t do well it might make the company look bad.
Which is why I think Alex is a lock for season 6 or 7.
I think the ballroom dancers that got picked are the most lackluster group ever. Chelsie had perky, youthful mormon quality to her. Lacey was a ham and Benji’s sister. Pasha was dreamy. These three are basically Faina–sure, she can dance, but who wants to vote for her? I kind of think that tapper Bianca got cut for season 6–it just didn’t work out in the producers’ favor. She was good; even in that ridiculous broadway routine she has a lot of flavor. In any case, I’m just happy to see the performance shows rather than auditions.
P.S.: What’s up with the matching outfits in the group night? Like last year, there was a group with green bustiers and this year, some of the groups were matching. I want to know how they organized that–are they told what to bring or do they get a trip to K-mart during the night? Are people just sharing?
I think it’s Mia’s voice; my roommate watches the show, and I can hear that fingernails-on-a-blackboard harmonic from three rooms away. And I cringe every time she speaks.
Never really had any strong feelings for Mia either way until this season – she really came off poorly in the edit didn’t she?
Seeing Ryan get the boot hurt but, like “Idol” I suspect SYTYCD’s key demo skews very young and very female – so Evan would be the logical choice. Man I’d love to see Ryan make the show though… I suspect that he’s the type of guy who could find another gear to, in the vernacular, “tear shit up” as someone who isn’t necessarily going to ever have the opportunities that the other top-20’s could.
It’s hilarious to look at the Fox website with the profile photos for the top 20. It never ceases to amaze me how the major networks can throw relatively interesting, unique, individuals into “the machine” and generate pictures that pretty much look like it could be the casr for “generic OC rip-off 2009”. It’s ironic that the only person who managed to maintain any shred of individual identity was Evan, who had clearly manufactured his own image to begin with.
So here’s the question–if these weird cuts are a case of “banking” people for later on, will the show actually call people like Natalie and Bianca up and gently suggest to them that it might be a good idea to come back, when audition time rolls around again? Because it’s quite the gamble on their part, if not…