SYTYCD, Elimination, Suspender Masks and Lady Ga-Ga
Group Dance
Synchronized Contortional Contemporary by Mandy Moore, danced to The Rose, Bette Midler
I found it interesting that Mandy Moore chose to have Chelsie start the piece, as the style seemed more Courtney or Katee. But, as always, the group dance was great.
Cat’s delight in the stage-fan was infectious; I just might place a box fan in each room of my house in order to provide me with constant recreational dramatic entrances. Oh… wait, I’m bald. Its really hard to tell if I’m being blown upon just by watching me.
Hey, does it seem wierd that Cat and Nigel, both very English, are pimping the US election? They have this whole Gordon Brown thing to deal with back home, don’t they?
Nigel says that the vote count was a little secret, and that he loves the finalists. I can only assume this means he hates everyone else and can’t keep a secret, both of which are a relief to me as I can relax and stop worrying about disappointing him.
Mary used the old roller-coaster metaphor, which nearly fills out my bingo card. All I need is “cinderella story” or “he/she shouldn’t be able to do this” for the win.
Upping the ante for the winner, Adam announces that ‘America’s favorite dancer’ will be a featured dancer in a Adam Shankman movie. What, no room in that unnamed production for the rest of the finalists? Aww…
Adam’s first sentence voiced what I’ve felt for weeks now: these are the nicest bunch of dancers ever to get to this stage of SYTYCD. It’s hard to dislike any of these hot people.
Hey, when did Joshua find the time to visit an orthodontist and get the braces off?
Solo Dances
Courtney
Almost Lover, A Fine Frenzy
A generic contempo-girl routine. *yawn!*
Mark
Wind It Up (original Neptunes Mix) by Gwen Stefani
Mark is so craaazy. Self-puppetry and suspender-masks round out this typically bizarre and complicated routine.
Katee
Beautiful Disaster, Jon McLaughlin
See Courtney.
Joshua
I Can Make You Dance, Zapp
Wow! A pop and block routine! This is the first time in weeks that Josh has had some new stuff in his solo, and I like it. And, whaddayaknow, he wasn’t “4-real”!
Chelsie
The Girl’s Gone Wild, Travis Tritt
Was that a jive? To country music? Sweet!
Twitch
Don’t Worry, Be Happy, Bobby McFerrin
A moon-walk and glide heavy routine to a very non-funky musical selection shows that Twitch really has the stuff of a solo entertainer. In this genre he is CLEARLY superior to the more athletic Joshua. I wonder how he would do as a choreographer in his own right? Oh, yeah, he did that in Korea for awhile. I predict he’ll be back next year cookin’ up the hip-hop for next years crop of up-and-comers.
Filler Time!
In the most bizarre filler choice of the season, a 6-year-old wee tyke break danced and tumbled his way through Planet Rock by Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force. His tricks were pretty good, but his timing was off. Excusing that as “pretty good for a six year old” would be pandering. Therefore I state he sucks.
Happy Dance! The winner? A geriatric, toothless rictus of a woman. Whoohoo for her. I assume she gets to sleep with the bear.
Anti-Elimination Round
Girl anti-elimination time!
I note that they are all wearing black-and-white and I can’t help but wonder how they’d look with sepia clothing instead.
OK, so Katee is safe. I’m not surprised, but I kinda think its a toss-up between these girls. None of them would constitute a shocker.
Now for the dudes.
I wonder why the guys don’t hold hands, it seemed to work out so well for the gals. It should be compulsory.
So who is the safirst? I can’t imagine Josh suffering elimination this week, but I honestly have no idea if its Twitch or Mark going home.
And the first finalist is…. Joshua. Well, that means no big shocker this week.
Filler Time Deux
It’s… is that Jem? Truly Outrageous? No, just “Lady Ga-Ga.” I have never heard of this woman, and she seems to have a lot of unnecessary staff-members on the stage.
I give whoever this is props for not lip-syncing, and even more for nearly blinding herself with a 200 watt walking cane. Commitment, you are Jem.
Elimination Round
Girl elimination time!
And Chelsie is eliminated. Hey! They mic’d them up for the hug-time. Chelsie took it in very good humor and got her Cat-hug in time to gaze upon her farewell video package.
While I’m not surprised at the elimination, I’m a little sad; I liked her better than Katee or Courtney.
Now for the unfortudude.
Twitch continues, Mark picks up Twitch, and the farewell video rolls. I’m not surprised, really, although this could’ve gone either way.
To Mark, this season of SYTYCD was “Summer Dance Camp.”
This one time? In dance camp?
You commented at the LAT that last night’s solos were better than Wednesday’s and I agree wholeheartedly. I was confused by that. In fact, I think Chelsie’s solo last night was far more interesting than Wed night’s— makes you wonder whether it would have made a difference. I think the solos have less of an impact, but still some– I firmly believe that Will went home last week because people didn’t appreciate his James Brown homage. He should have done something modern with his shirt off and a lot of tricks, something to get the teenagers dialing.
It’s always interesting getting other peoples’ takes on this season. For me, there has been no woman CLOSE to Katee all season. I think last week was the only week when that wasn’t the case — last week was Chelsie’s. It will be interesting to see next week– it has to be Katee v Joshua, and I wonder… Katee has done well with all genres, but Joshua has that whole “such lines and grace with no classical training” narrative put on him, and let’s face it… our culture denigrates street vs formal, so it’s more impressive to us that a kid from the street can do ballroom. Everyone buys into the idea that the street is raw and real, while contemporary isn’t. Anyway. Enough blab.
SafeT if you were here right now I’d give you a great big Frenchie!
Doc M: Please submit scan of your tongue to safetinspector@safetinspector.com for evaluation.
lex: I agree that people often value the little-engine-that-could over the big-engine-that-damn-well-aughta. But I think the solos do matter, especially in these last couple weeks.
And, unfortunately, to the average eye these contemporary girls’ solos always seem very similar to one another and not particularly exciting. The b-boys always seem to get the audience excited because of the tricks.
Ultimately I think Josh is every bit deserving of the praise he gets regardless of any supposed from-the-street back-story. His leg and hip movements are riveting, even to a straight man like myself. Besides which, his inexperience is very overrated. He’s a lifelong dancer with plenty of training including a youthful stint as a chosen child at a Debbie Allen dance camp
is this program still on, sugar? xoxo
Next week is the season finale of the USA version of So You Think You Can Dance.
I understand there are localized versions in most countries of varying popularity.
i’m in the stateside georgia, sugar..thanks
xoxo
Oh… well, you were hanging about with the UK bloggies, I just jumped to an inaccurate conclusion is all.
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