Wednesday, June 11

SYTYCD 4 - Top 20

First performance show! I'm so excited. Guest judge is Dan Karaty, yay! We get the normal intro solos and then a montage of short clips from auditions, and we're off!

Rayven & Jamie: Hip-Hop, Napoleon & Tabitha. ("American Boy") Both auditioned in LA (which we didn't know before since they haven't had any screen time yet), Jamie auditioning w/his current partner who's also his girlfriend (so, no Schwimmer). The routine was ok; I'm not impressed w/T & N based on this (they had R pull Jamie's pants down and he did a few moves in his undies - um, why? That's *not* the way to make up for little screen time, really!). Rayven has awesome potential though. Judges were meh.

Susie & Marquis: Waltz, Hunter Johnson. ("Dark Waltz"- pretty!) We learn that Susie's parents were both born in Cuba, and Marquis (who auditioned in DC) wasn't allowed to dance much growing as his mom pulled him out of it because of "personal family issues." The lift was not good, but the rest was ok, nothing great. The judges like it though & Nigel said the choreo was very difficult.

Kourtni & Matt
: Jazz, Mandy Moore. ("Tainted Love", eee!) At 5'9" and 6'3", K & M say they're 12 feet of dancer! Which is a lot. I thought some of their movements were hidden by the black leather outfits, but I guess it was sort-of a spy theme, with him holding a diamond on & off & then having it 'magically' disappear at the end into glitter. I don't think the routine showed them off very well either, but they did pretty well with what they had IMO. Nigel said he wanted more personality from "uptight" Matt (?! Besides being gorgeous, I thought he showed plenty of personality!), Mary liked it except for the "heavy" lift, and Dan thought they played it too safe & should've attacked it harder. Threw them a few votes just in case.

Chelsea T & Thayne
: Cha Cha, Tony Meredith & Melanie. While he still annoys me when he's not dancing, Thayne sure cleans up nice and is an extremely attractive dancer. Chelsea, another from the Dallas tryouts, has Jamaican parents and a very strong personality (as do most of the girls!). Definitely the best routine of the 4 so far, and the judges loved it. Mary said he partnered well and Dan said they owned the stage.

Chelsie H & Mark: Contemporary, Mia Michaels. ("Beautiful") The first stand-out routine of the season! Mia choreographed "what Tim Burton's wedding would be like," i.e. 2 quirky people finding each other. Mark definitely fits the role, calling himself "left of center" (and we finally see a bit of his LA audition). Despite being in his strength he struggled w/the routine and Mia said "I thought he'd be better than he is." She approved of the performance, though. Chelsie's flouncy dress hid her body too much but contributed to the effect of the routine. The judges loved it and Mary complimented Mark on the lifts (of which there were a lot!).

Kherington & Twitch: Broadway, Tyce Diorio. ("Too Darn Hot") What's not to like? Twitch even called them "Twitchington" in the intro. Fun routine, nothing spectacular, but very enjoyable. Judges loved as well & said that Kher. lights up the stage.

Comfort & Chris: Jive, Tony & Melanie. ("Boom Boom") Comfort is going to be comic relief for us this season, she has the most fun personality! (And attitude!) Chris also auditioned in Dallas and said he was distracted in practice by her miniskirt and "tush." Heh. In his defense, later everyone commented on how (surprisingly, they implied) sexy she was, including Cat! The traditional Latin outfit (open, lowcut shirt) was not flattering to Chris at. all. Besides that the routine was pretty good; I agree w/Nigel that Chris had the 'feel' of it better (more grounded). Apparently Comfort dislocated her shoulder in practice the day before but they "click clicked" it back into place and here she is! (They did modify at least one move though.) Dan said that they each performed well but need to develop more chemistry w/each other.

Katee & Joshua: Hip Hop, Napoleon & Tabitha. ("No Air") We see Joshua admit that he has had some ballet training, clearing the air as to whether he was 'hiding' anything from the judges as Debbie implied in the auditions. Ok, anything N&T lacked on the first routine they made up for in this one! 2nd standout routine of the season and the first causing sniffles across the audience. The story is of a young couple the day before the man leaves for war: at the beginning they're happy & cuddly until he hands her a letter, then she's upset and angsty and such. Obviously since this is Joshua's specialty he's a lot better than she is, but she "keeps up", as the judges say, and their side-by-side moves are very much in unison. The very last move - he grabs her arm, she pulls away pulling his jacket off of him and, as she turns, on to herself, and then holds the end of it - amazing, and just the right emotional ending to the story of the routine. This is just one of those numbers that perfectly merges choreography with lyrics and music, and even though the execution wasn't perfect, it made an impact. The judges (at least Nigel & Mary) were somewhat emotional and they all loved it.

Jessica & William
: Tango, Hunter. Jessica auditioned in Charleston and it turns out she was the one who misspelled "Vegas"! Will auditioned in LA and says he moved from TN at age 16 in order to work w/Debbie Allen. The tango is good; they both show potential, but I think he could be absolutely amazing. Everything was sharp ("professional", Nigel said), and even the end lift was smooth. She did slide & wobble a bit throughout the routine, but overall the judges loved them. Mary even called them the "couple to beat" (wow, in ballroom? you can tell we're missing the hot Russians this year, lol!).

Courtney G & Gev: Disco, Doriana Sanchez. ("Boogie Wonderland," of course!) We get a few short clips of Gev in Vegas doing Broadway (hee!) and ballroom. They both say in the practice session that disco is harder than expected but they enjoy working together - I think they're one of the better matched couples. Aside from their unfortunate yellow outfits and the freakily-overdone disco lighting during the routine, it's pretty good! The lifts were fairly smooth (considering he's not a partner dancer & not that much bigger than she is), though they were both very out of breath at the end. She was a bit better & smoother than he was (expectedly), but overall it was decent. Nigel rained on the parade because he didn't like the "feel" of it, but Mary loved it and commented that it was a difficult routine. Dan enjoyed it as well and called it "pretty good." I think they're safe but I still voted!!

I'm so glad this show is back! Ok, favorite routines: Chelsie & Mark's Mia contemp. and Katee & Josh's hip-hop/pop. Favorite dancers: still Gev and Matt, plus Will!

Predictions for Bottom 3 couples: Rayven & Jamie, Susie & Marquis, and Comfort & Chris, with Susie and Marquis going home. (I think Marquis is better than Chris, but if Chris leaves that would put Comfort w/Marquis & I'm not sure they'd want to do that.) There's not that much 'cannon fodder' this year, especially among the guys, and Jamie's the only male ballroom(ish) guy so he's almost a lock for Top 10.

And just an observation, those who got dances in their own styles tonight: Mark, Joshua (I think the only one who really, really benefited from it), and in a close style, Susie. Also someone said Pasha & Anya were assisting Mia in the studio but I missed it so I'll have to go back & rewatch!

Who did you love? Who did you hate? Who's going home? Leave a comment & let me know...

And we get a Wade group routine tomorrow!!!!!!!

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RESULTS SHOW:

Figured I might as well combine the posts since this will be short.

Opening group number: "Cobrastyle" by Wade (and his wife Amanda). Nigel gets kidnapped by the dancers. And we learn that Mark ROCKS Wade's choreo!!

Bottom 3 couples:
Kourtni & Matt
Rayven & Jamie
Jessica & Will

Guest performances: Poppin' Pete and Shonnie; Pussycat Dolls.

None of the girls impressed on solos. Kourtni is 1st safe; Rayven is out (judges were unanimous). Will's solo was amazing and he was 1st safe. Matt's was beautiful because it's Matt, but nothing extraordinary (he's not Danny). Jamie's paled next to former ballroom guys. Thus Jamie is out, despite Nigel's preference for his "personality" over Matt's. Nigel says "this week - and this week only" the judges (unanimous again) are choosing technique (i.e. Matt) over personality. Doesn't bode well for the rest of the season (technique-wise), though perhaps it shows they realize repeatedly keeping Cedric last year over better dancers was a mistake. One can only hope. I am surprised that they got rid of the only ballet dancer and the only male ballroom guy, but they're definitely going for well-rounded this year so we'll see what happens!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does anyone happen to know the name of the song playing during Twitch's intro?

PezKat said...

I went back & listened, but I don't, sorry!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your detailed recaps. You might enjoy a funny take on SYTYCD at www.boredmorons.com

PezKat said...

Hi, welcome, and thanks! I did visit a couple times during Idol, I'll try to remember to check out your SYTYCD comments!

Anonymous said...

Thanks, pezkat. Sorry that the forum feature at boredmorons doesn't work. I don't understand the technicalities. Anyway, hoped you enjoyed our irreverant look at SYTYCD.