Cat started off the show with a stat-dump before sending us through the opening credits to catch up with the reunited top twenty, assembled into their original couples, do the dance-in.
As I watch them prance about I find myself sadly wondering: Am I the only one who can’t remember some of these peoples?
Cat’s flapper-hippie dress looked like it had been attacked by a bedazzler. If I could only forget the last time that happened to me.
Lo and behold, a big pile of judges are crammed behind the table including my new fav, Li’l C. Mia’s hair, an Annie Lennox affair, seemed quite cool.
So lets talk about the dancing and the amazing assortment of mixed fillers, including a pop-off and Nauseating CG Bear Happy Dance Time…
Continue reading ‘SYTYCD, Season Finale, the Boneless Poppers and Mixed Fillers’
Cat’s dress, shiney with goldiness, made me think of a snake’s tummy. Or like some kind of Incan armor. The wife says it looks like one of those collapsible camp cups. YOU decide!
Favorite line I’m going to try to fit into a conversation tomorrow: “Brought to you by our friends at Snuggle!” -Cat
I must also take this moment to tell you all something I’ve noticed: Mia Michaele is huge and gigantic. She is so huge that she might be a massive world-consuming galactic visitor*. She could easily fit me into her mouth along with a forkload of pasta.
Judges
Mandy Moore fills the guest seat this evening. Mandy had some pretty good dances this year, and I kinda fink I like her better than Mia sometimes. Her judging? Not nearly as entertainingly bitchy.
Mary was very easy on the lot of them this evening, showing no obvious favoritism.
And Nigel continually harped on Joshua’s supposed lack of training, which I’m pretty sure EVERYONE knows isn’t true. What agenda does this crazy bastard have?!?
Now lets talk about the dances…
Continue reading ‘SYTYCD, Top Four Perform and Mia Micheals is HUGE’
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.
Continue reading ‘SYTYCD, Elimination, Suspender Masks and Lady Ga-Ga’
Only six dancers left this week, the show is down to one hour again, Mark’s wearing a backwards hat, Joshua is making me dislike him with his insistence on demonstrating that he is “4-real”, and Cat Deeley is apparently a filth fetishist. Good to know, hard to prove.
Judges
Hooray! The guest judge is Adam Shankman! Even with the unfortunate Paula Abdul pimping, I like this guy alot.
Speaking of pimping, there were far altogether too many audience call-outs from the judges tonight.
- Nigel:”And we have my second grade music teacher in the audience tonight–take a bow. Aggie!”
- Adam:”We have a special person in the house. Give it up for my personal assistant, Benardo!”
- Mary:”I’d like you all to meet my special friend, Blue Jar of Barbisol! There he is! Stand up, Blue Jar of Barbisol!”
Continue reading ‘SYTYCD, Top Six Perform and Cat Deeley borrows a Grill’
The opening group dance, which featured our dancers playing the part of a colony of lycra wearing morlocks, was quite entertaining. Even Toni Basil going on and on about how frickin’ great she was didn’t bring me down. I ran upstairs, found my lycra shirt, and fondled it for the rest of the night. So… so very stretchy.
Cat was apparently dressed as a Greek goddess while Nigel wore an actual leather jacket, both of which pleased me. I wrung my lycra shirt and waited patiently for the bloody eliminations to begin…
Continue reading ‘SYTYCD, Elimination and LYCRA, LYCRA, LYCRA!’
Deeley’s little black dress was the most conservative I’ve seen her yet. I was expecting something more of a pop-can and fishing line arrangement as a logical progression from the recent fashion wierdness she’s been suffering from.
Judges
The guest judge tonight was Toni Basil, of “Mickey” fame, who’s been making a living choreographing the elderly lately. Of note was her cute old-lady racism, at one point making the implication that the “funk” music favored the colored folk, but whatever. She’s a cute old lady.
Things that should just stop
- Touching your right shoulder with your right hand. I don’t care what it means, please stop doing it.
- The judges pretending to be surprised at the dancer’s capabilities outside of their pigeonholed-genre. Especially as it comes to light that all these dancers cross-trained…even Comfort, who gets the asterisk* more than anyone else.
- Girls’ costumes which somehow conspire to leave an entire stripe of flesh from shoulder to foot exposed. I like the bodies as much as the next dude, but there’s got to be some variety–oh, wait, did they make Katee dance in a trash bag?
- Judge “fake-outs”. Especially Mary. Its not funny, its not shocking, it just makes me groan and pinch the bridge of my nose painfully. Pretending you don’t like it and then revealing that–surprise!–you really loved it is not high drama.
Continue reading ‘SYTYCD, Top Eight Perform and Toni Basil is OLD’
In somewhat of a surprise at the top of the show it was revealed that not only had Jessica been suffering from an undiagnosed case of broken ribs but that consequently the show is bringing Comfort back regardless of last week’s elimination. Last Thursday it had already been announced that Comfort was going on the tour despite her elimination, and I wonder if that announcement was related to this Jessica situation at all?
Also, it was noteworthy that the guest judge’s chair was filled by “crump” expert Li’l C. I hate crump. I wish there were no crumping anywhere on Earth at any time; its absence would make the world a happier place. That said, Li’l C’s gift for metaphor and instinctive grasp of dance without necessarily any technical expertise outside his field led to some of very entertaining critiques.
Dances
Joshua and Courtney
Hip-Hop
Danced to “Skippin,” by Mario.
Choreographed by Dave Scott, this number had Courtney taking on the role of sexy-undead-thing to Joshua’s lusty necrophiliac Dr. Frankenstein.
Through judicious use of frills, wardrove made Courtney look very well endowed indeed. I had to re-watch it once just to make sure there weren’t prosthetic boobies in there someplace.
The closing electric kiss was a nice effect, helping cement the routine as a memorable piece of theatrics while simultaneously being a forgettable dance.
Afterwards, the judges gave Courtney the asterisk*. You know, the one that leads to the footnote “-for a girl dancing outside her genre.” And while the judges were probably right in calling Courtney out on an aborted move, my wife observed that Courtney’s shoe looked like it stuck in that turn…providing a bit of mitigation, right?
Continue reading ‘SYTYCD, Top Ten Perform and Buck is Defined Definitively’
I’ve decided to write about the only “reality” competition show I’ve ever really liked and here we go.*
Mark and Chelsie
Salsa
Danced to “Fuego,” by Joe Bataan: very old fashioned sounding number, appropriate to the dance but nothing to write home about.
This couple, whom I’ve taken to thinking of “Dude with Crooked Pinkies” and “Blonde I’m Sick of Hearing Described as Tom-Boy” started with a salsa number that was completely forgettable, especially since I can’t get Joshua and Katie’s samba from last week out of my head. I found their lead-up video package the best of the night, however, as Mark and Chelsie behaved more realistically than what I’m used to in the typically hammy rehearsal footage. Mark’s exasperated “uhh! you guys make it look so easy” after watching Alex and his partner demonstrate a particular move seemed very genuine and human.
Broadway
Danced to “I’m a Woman,” from Smokey Joe’s Cafe original cast recording: Appropo of nothing, this song always reminds me of this Enjoli ad from my youth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X4MwbVf5OA …the eight HOUR PERFUME?
This second number was a Tyce routine the judges liked alot but which I found a bit boring, even though Mark has been the best at passing for straight while dancing amongst the obviously homosexual men this year.
Continue reading ‘SYTYCD, the Buck episode’
I think the last two weeks have eliminated exactly the right people, and next week I’m sure Comfort will be gone as well.
Comfort is supposedly a “b-girl,” and sometimes is described as a hip-hop dancer.
I don’t know, but it seems that there’s always a big asterisk next to any assessments of her solo work. If you follow it to the bottom of the page it usually ends up reading as the condescending “-for a girl.” But on its own merits she just isn’t that great. Hardly any b-boy tricks and pitiful use of the stage mark the average Comfort performance.
But on the boys end there’s no one left that I think just ‘needs to go’. Each year there is much made of which side is stronger, the girls or the boys. This year its pretty obvious that the boys are towering over the girls with a huge lineup of dudes with show-stopping skill, right? None of the girls (except for the young Chelsea, who seems to be as good an actress as she is a dancer if her command of emotive expressions is any judge) have done anything noteworthy beyond making their partners look good. Compare this to earlier years and its a bit sad, and I wonder what went wrong?
I guess, in short, you were to ask me if I think Kourtni should’ve been kept a week longer than Comfort I think its a moot point since they are likely only a week apart in their departure anyway.
