I’m still on the fence as to whether I’ll bother doing SYTYCD Australia episode reviews for the blog, partially because I can’t guarantee they’ll all be timely and partially because the vast majority of my reading audience doesn’t have easy access to the program. (I might be able to mollify that somewhat if Youtube is convenient enough, though.)
Regardless, the Aussies put on their “performance show prior to actual competition” episode this past week, copying what the American show did in season six – a non-voting episode where everybody dances in their genre, so as to “even the playing field” and make it harder for the audience to play favourites with the dancers who got more airtime during auditions. I thought it was a good idea when the Americans did it and I think it’s a good idea now.
As to the quality of the third season’s top 20? Obviously it’s still too early to say, but my hunch is that it’s not going to quite equal the second season. The performance show’s routines were, for the most part, quite solid (the big exceptions for me were the Ivy/Doug Broadway, which I thought was something of a mess, and the Renee/Carlie/Mikhaela pop/jazz, which was just boring choreography combined with horrible costumes), but I’m not sure about a lot of the dancers, especially the boys. Kieran, Robbie and Nick all look like they’re twelve, and Kieran in particular just looks nervous all the time and the others dance very “young.” Issi reminds me of US S6’s Mollee much more than I’d like. Heath seems very inwardly focused, almost too much so, and I’m not sure how sharp Felipe is.
(Also, Australia needs to be put on notice for having three dancers named Jessica in the top 20. The workaround of calling them “Jessica,” “Jessie” and “Jess” is not really un-confusing.)
But the potential exists to prove me wrong on every one of those counts, and the performance show delivered at least one shit-hot routine: the top 10 boys’ performance, choreographed by none other than head judge Jason Coleman. (The girls’ routine, choreo’d by Matt Lee, was also very good, but not quite on par with this.)
That instantly jumps onto my “best group routines of all time” list – it’s clever, unique and works with each dancer’s strengths very fluidly, and they all deliver (even poor terrified-looking Kieran). It’s immediately obvious that some of the dancers are more inherently performers than others, but then again that’s the reasoning behind a no-vote episode: get them used to working on this scale.
So, on the whole, I’m optimistic.
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MGK, I was hoping you’d be chiming in on SYTYCD Australia. For my part, I’d love to see some episodic reviews — even if you can’t do every episode. Though it’s true that a lot of your audience won’t have easy access to the show, there’s no better way to fix that than to show them what they’re missing.
There is at least one brave soul putting up this season on Youtube. I would like it if you reviewed the season because your commentary almost always improves my understanding and appreciation for the routines.
I will be doing my best to view the season from the U.S, even if I have to trawl the idolforums for links, and I’d love to see your reviews.
I’ve been following your SYTYCD posts for a while with great appreciation for the insight and the wow/wtf? commentary. I’ll understand if you don’t feel like you can do all the Australia eps, but I will be watching them, and I would love to get your perspective, especially since there aren’t that many talking about it due to lack of access.
I appreciate the blogging on AUSYTYCD as well. Channel Ten (the local broadcaster) is hosting full episodes on their website this year – I don’t know whether they’re region-limited though, perhaps a North American fan can check the website?
http://dance.ten.com.au/episodes.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYIbihI9ss0
thats Don’s solo before the top 20 was announced.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xc7rhh_don-and-gaz-perform-b-boy-pop-locki_creation
That was performed on the same night as that group top 10 guys routine. Both the biggest highlights of the night imo.
The contemporary with Robbie and Issi was a standout for me, as well as the hip hop – that crazy ass double lift actually made me say “WHAT” at my computer screen. And the ballroom routine was pretty great too. Jason Gilkinson <3
Just for the sake of knowing, Nigel said at some point that the performance episode was the idea of one of the producers from Australia, so it’s an Australian concept even if it was executed by the Americans first.
In the second Aussie season there was a no-vote performance episode, but it happened on Easter in between the top 6 and top 4 performance episodes. He might have been referring to that.
MGK, I’m curious, as Canada’s preeminent blogger on SYTYCD and law, if you felt that the .ca version lacked personality/star quality/what have you, over which I think that the .co.uk version has a leg up, since they’ve got a more built-up reality tv audience who have learned how to play to the cameras and project themselves? Or am I totally off in this characterization?
He couldn’t have been as he said something along the lines of 1) showing everyone in their own style and 2) doing it at the start. In the easter special, they didn’t perform exclusively in their own styles and it was a placeholder for a national holiday not a preamble to the season.
I am a huge fan of your SYTCDA commentary (whether timely or not); reading your commentary is 80% of my enjoyment of the show. I’m interested in what you have to say about the strong hip-hop/bboy representation in this top 20 in particular.