more thoughts on SYTYCD
I guess I just feel like talking a lot about SYTYCD right now. I'm still reading and writing figure skating rpf, but the last week also found me reading a lot of Blackhawks fic and sports AUs in other fandoms. And watching SYTYCD and Burn Notice (so glad it's back!) and sleeping a lot.
The Top 11 intro episode felt really rushed to me. Why not take a whole hour and let us really get to know everyone? I realized that I'm probably an anomaly in having this be my first season watching (though if they'd just put the damn seasons out on DVD I'd fix that in a heartbeat), so everyone else knows the all-stars, but surely a little more about them or what they've been doing since they were on the show wouldn't be amiss. And 11 seconds per contestant seems... skimpy. And I always want to see more dancing and more configurations and more interactions. I'm just greedy, I guess.
Opening number, all contestants and all-stars: "Fame" by David Bowie, choreographed by Wade & Amanda Robson. Tea and croquet and attitude. I enjoyed this. Robert & Billy looked good dancing together-ish when the Top 11 first emerged, and something about the black vest & white pants on both Jose and Alex really worked. Oh, and Mark and Twitch both caught my eye in the first all-stars section.
Billy & Lauren (which I keep trying to spell Laurent because of all that research I did recently on Brian Joubert) with Kathryn & Mark: "Paris Is Burning" by St. Vincent, choreographed by Travis Wall, a previous contestant. Really cool aesthetic, a sort of raggedy goth-Victorian. I want one of those parasols! I'm a little confused about the concept, though. Paris, 1920s. Jazz Age, yes. Fall of an empire, not so much. The decline of the Ottoman empire or the defeat of Germany in WWI are the closest things I can think of for Europe in that time period. But the costumes seemed more... 19th century underclass, and the sentiment as well -- sort of Les Misérables era. Expecting historical accuracy from a reality television show is probably ridiculous, though. I liked the number a lot, overall, which isn't surprising given that Lauren and Kent are two of my favorites, in terms of both personality and dancing. They were adorable during the comments-and-Cat bit -- he lifted her up during one of the hugs! Kent is almost criminal levels of cute (seriously, what he looks for in a girl is that she's like his mom... or Beyonce! and he ran out of time during his 11-second intro because he messed up halfway and then spent the rest of the time laughing sheepishly), and Lauren's perky and likable and so, so expressive.
Alexie & Melinda with Allison and Lauren (just to be confusing; at least she has dark hair to differentiate her from the blonde contestant?): "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This" from the musical Sweet Charity, choreographed by Tyce. Fun routine, charming and full of spunky attitude. Mostly I was distracted by Melinda's gorgeous dress, though, and by how well Alexie's dress suited her. Alexie's also perky and likable, really upbeat, and she reminds me of one of my favorite cousins (who grew up in the suburbs of LA). I liked her 11-second spiel; she finally made it on the show because, she thinks, "after four tries, they decided they couldn't get rid of me." Hee! Melinda... I like her dancing and her energy and the fact that she's sort of atypical-seeming (and I adore tap dancing). But I wish she'd stop saying things like: "I'm an old soul but a student of life, and I'm my own invention." It's not like I disagree that those are fine things to be, it's just so... I don't know. Cliche. I didn't get much of a feel for Allison and Lauren, but Allison struck me as endearing during the comments-and-Cat bit, just really attentive and sweet and enthusiastic. There was a lot of hugging between Alexie and Melinda. I approve!
Jose with Comfort, Dominic, and Twitch: "Din Daa Daa (District 78 Remix)" by George Kranz, choreographed by Tabitha & Napoleon. I enjoyed this, it was snappy and full of a completely different kind of attitude. Jose kept up well and his tricking is always kickass, but there were a couple of places where they were all in unison and sometimes his moves looked a touch comparatively less lived-in than the others'. It makes sense for unison to be a breaker's weak point, though, especially one untrained in other styles of dance. I was pretty much already in love with Jose, and this episode did nothing to dissuade me from that. He just looks so happy to be there! When Cat told him he had "the most delicious smile on the planet," he hid his mouth behind his hand to smile. It was ridiculously cute. It is embarrassing how much I adore him. I don't have much of an opinion of Comfort yet, but Twitch struck me as pretty cool (he went out of his way to clasp hands with Jose after the performance, and his dancing was magnetic). Dominic... the jury's still out. He's clearly funny, but I don't know how I feel about how distracting his antics during the comment-and-Cat bit were. We will see.
Cristina with Anya and Pasha: "Work (Freemasons Radio Edit)" by Kelly Rowland, choreographed by Jason Gilkison. HOT. Though, um, I think I was mesmerized by Pasha's bare chest, and had to force myself deliberately look away to pay attention the women. I like Cristina, but I do agree with Nigel that there were a couple of points where her feet looked slow and not as sharp compared to Anya and Pasha's. And thinking back to the auditions and Vegas (it's cute that her partner, Pepe was in the audience), she wasn't actually my favorite of the ballroom dancers we saw -- I preferred Henry & Giselle, who were in Burn the Floor and auditioned in NYC, and Serge, who stepped in to help out Nicole (the girl that Nigel kept calling Marge Simpson; I kinda think he might've been hitting on her more than just being a nice guy, though) in Vegas. But I guess Cristina got through the other styles of dance better than Giselle, and I'd think that a guy would've had to be really ridiculously good to make it in, considering they went to a Top 6 and cut at least two that I really, really wanted to make it even so. Still, she seems nice, and has potential, but is maybe a little out of her depth. Anya didn't make much of an impression on me (other than a vague "hot!" because the routine was so fiery), but I have a huge thing for Pasha now.
Alex & Billy with Ade: "This Bitter Earth/On the Nature of Daylight" by Dinah Washington/Max Richter, choreographed by Mia Michaels. Hands-down my favorite performance of the night, mostly because Mia Michaels is apparently a genius. This was so, so gorgeous and poignant. Billy was freaking brilliant as a little boy, Alex was graceful and assured and beautiful as the grown man, and Ade inhabited the old man perfectly. I do think Alex and Billy outshone Ade a little, but given that they're the contestants, that's definitely better than the other way around. Fantastic costumes, too -- Ade's little glasses! Alex's simple, perfect black pants and white shirt! Billy's black and white long tank, which I didn't love for pure aesthetics, but make so much sense for the character and performance. I loved that Mia Michaels called Billy "a freak of nature" and Alex "a stallion, a beast" -- and that those were clearly compliments of the highest order. I loved that Billy and Alex spent most of their non-dancing time on stage standing quite close together, with their arms around each others' waists and shoulders. I loved the music. I loved the whole thing. A lot. Billy is amazing and super, super, super cute. Ade, well, I don't really have an opinion on Ade yet, but the mere fact that he was involved in this piece is a point in his favor. As for Alex... see, I left him for last in this section because I have complicated feelings about him. His dancing is incredible for its precision and grace and strength, magnificent. And he's quite beautiful in a not-really-my-type-and-yet sort of way. But when not dancing, he just seems rather... personality-less? I hesitate to say boring, but. Bland? Something along those lines. Just. He's like the antithesis of flashy and engaging. But I still find myself drawn to him for some reason. I've been trying to analyze why ever since he showed up in Vegas, and I think I've figured it out. He feels a lot like a certain set of people I grew up with.
Specifically, he reminds me of some of the Chinese-American kids who I was sort of friends with because their parents were friends with my parents. We went to Chinese school together, we played board games after potluck dinners while our parents played mahjongg and bridge and gossiped, that sort of thing. Some of my cousins are in this category. They were pretty much raised to be self-contained, ambitious, nice, and, most of all, normal. To fit in as much as possible, to embody American (well, Canadian, in Alex's case), (upper-)middle-class success, to always show the world the best possible face. You're not supposed to have too much personality, in other words, and nice and normal is all you're to show to the world. And it's not that the nice and normal is fake, exactly -- it's not, they're often genuinely nice, good people -- it's that there's usually other stuff mixed in under the surface. They are more interesting than they appear. So even though they were emphatically not the kids I actually chose to hang out with (because usually the parts we had in common were the parts that they hid from most of the world, and because nice and normal was so not my thing), the fact that Alex reminds me of them makes his lack of personality strangely endearing. He feels familiar. And in a very likable way.
[ETA: Plus, there's always the edit. No one is ever only the thing you see on screen. And, you know, he's kinda goofy! He faked out his dance company friends like an expert. He has a ridiculously sweet smile. He says to the camera during his 11 minutes: "I'm a crazy goofball and I like to sing and dance a lot, and freak out, and I'm--" *buzzer* *adorable slightly embarrassed look* *hushed tone* "Is that okay?" And seriously, he had the drive and determination to become a professional ballet dancer. A Chinese-Canadian male ballet dancer. So yes. Alex Wong. Normal-seeming and maybe a little reserved, but cute and probably awesome in addition to be a gorgeous dancer. Really!]
Adechike, Ashley, and Robert with Courtney and Neil: "Freak" by Estelle ft. Kardinal Offshall, choreographed by Sonya Tayeh. I liked that the combinations of dancers switched up during the piece, and I thought the piece itself was pretty cool, if in a slightly cliche way, like it was trying a bit too hard to be edgy. And they weren't quuuuuuuuuite as together as I might've liked in a few places, but that's a difficult proposition considering that there are five of them and it's their first time dancing together. Really athletic and energetic, though. I still don't have a real feel for Adechike or Ashley, though Adechike has a nice smile and I liked that he hugged Ashley and Robert after they danced, and Ashley referring to herself as "a huge nerd" was cute. Robert managed to shine, though -- I noticed him while dancing (and not just for being really very good-looking, though he is), and he came off as totally adorable during the 11-second clip and while talking to Cat. Enthusiastic and animated and goofy. It was actually impressive that I noticed him at all during the routine, because Neil was so shiny! I have no idea about Courtney, still, but that might just be because I kept having to watch Neil, he was so good. And pretty. Very, very pretty. When he pulled Courtney close and she leaned in and he tipped his cheek onto her hair and closed his eyes -- a) adorable, and b) so, so pretty. Actually he looked a bit like Ryan Bradley in that moment. Except, you know, blond.
The bit right before the credits where they're just all onstage and dancing around, improv -- I'm always interested to see who ends up interacting with each other. I think that was Pasha and dark-haired Lauren were doing a little Latin, and Alex and Melinda were definitely swing dancing. Adorable!
I am so, so looking forward to the rest of this season. This show is addictive!
The Top 11 intro episode felt really rushed to me. Why not take a whole hour and let us really get to know everyone? I realized that I'm probably an anomaly in having this be my first season watching (though if they'd just put the damn seasons out on DVD I'd fix that in a heartbeat), so everyone else knows the all-stars, but surely a little more about them or what they've been doing since they were on the show wouldn't be amiss. And 11 seconds per contestant seems... skimpy. And I always want to see more dancing and more configurations and more interactions. I'm just greedy, I guess.
Opening number, all contestants and all-stars: "Fame" by David Bowie, choreographed by Wade & Amanda Robson. Tea and croquet and attitude. I enjoyed this. Robert & Billy looked good dancing together-ish when the Top 11 first emerged, and something about the black vest & white pants on both Jose and Alex really worked. Oh, and Mark and Twitch both caught my eye in the first all-stars section.
Billy & Lauren (which I keep trying to spell Laurent because of all that research I did recently on Brian Joubert) with Kathryn & Mark: "Paris Is Burning" by St. Vincent, choreographed by Travis Wall, a previous contestant. Really cool aesthetic, a sort of raggedy goth-Victorian. I want one of those parasols! I'm a little confused about the concept, though. Paris, 1920s. Jazz Age, yes. Fall of an empire, not so much. The decline of the Ottoman empire or the defeat of Germany in WWI are the closest things I can think of for Europe in that time period. But the costumes seemed more... 19th century underclass, and the sentiment as well -- sort of Les Misérables era. Expecting historical accuracy from a reality television show is probably ridiculous, though. I liked the number a lot, overall, which isn't surprising given that Lauren and Kent are two of my favorites, in terms of both personality and dancing. They were adorable during the comments-and-Cat bit -- he lifted her up during one of the hugs! Kent is almost criminal levels of cute (seriously, what he looks for in a girl is that she's like his mom... or Beyonce! and he ran out of time during his 11-second intro because he messed up halfway and then spent the rest of the time laughing sheepishly), and Lauren's perky and likable and so, so expressive.
Alexie & Melinda with Allison and Lauren (just to be confusing; at least she has dark hair to differentiate her from the blonde contestant?): "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This" from the musical Sweet Charity, choreographed by Tyce. Fun routine, charming and full of spunky attitude. Mostly I was distracted by Melinda's gorgeous dress, though, and by how well Alexie's dress suited her. Alexie's also perky and likable, really upbeat, and she reminds me of one of my favorite cousins (who grew up in the suburbs of LA). I liked her 11-second spiel; she finally made it on the show because, she thinks, "after four tries, they decided they couldn't get rid of me." Hee! Melinda... I like her dancing and her energy and the fact that she's sort of atypical-seeming (and I adore tap dancing). But I wish she'd stop saying things like: "I'm an old soul but a student of life, and I'm my own invention." It's not like I disagree that those are fine things to be, it's just so... I don't know. Cliche. I didn't get much of a feel for Allison and Lauren, but Allison struck me as endearing during the comments-and-Cat bit, just really attentive and sweet and enthusiastic. There was a lot of hugging between Alexie and Melinda. I approve!
Jose with Comfort, Dominic, and Twitch: "Din Daa Daa (District 78 Remix)" by George Kranz, choreographed by Tabitha & Napoleon. I enjoyed this, it was snappy and full of a completely different kind of attitude. Jose kept up well and his tricking is always kickass, but there were a couple of places where they were all in unison and sometimes his moves looked a touch comparatively less lived-in than the others'. It makes sense for unison to be a breaker's weak point, though, especially one untrained in other styles of dance. I was pretty much already in love with Jose, and this episode did nothing to dissuade me from that. He just looks so happy to be there! When Cat told him he had "the most delicious smile on the planet," he hid his mouth behind his hand to smile. It was ridiculously cute. It is embarrassing how much I adore him. I don't have much of an opinion of Comfort yet, but Twitch struck me as pretty cool (he went out of his way to clasp hands with Jose after the performance, and his dancing was magnetic). Dominic... the jury's still out. He's clearly funny, but I don't know how I feel about how distracting his antics during the comment-and-Cat bit were. We will see.
Cristina with Anya and Pasha: "Work (Freemasons Radio Edit)" by Kelly Rowland, choreographed by Jason Gilkison. HOT. Though, um, I think I was mesmerized by Pasha's bare chest, and had to force myself deliberately look away to pay attention the women. I like Cristina, but I do agree with Nigel that there were a couple of points where her feet looked slow and not as sharp compared to Anya and Pasha's. And thinking back to the auditions and Vegas (it's cute that her partner, Pepe was in the audience), she wasn't actually my favorite of the ballroom dancers we saw -- I preferred Henry & Giselle, who were in Burn the Floor and auditioned in NYC, and Serge, who stepped in to help out Nicole (the girl that Nigel kept calling Marge Simpson; I kinda think he might've been hitting on her more than just being a nice guy, though) in Vegas. But I guess Cristina got through the other styles of dance better than Giselle, and I'd think that a guy would've had to be really ridiculously good to make it in, considering they went to a Top 6 and cut at least two that I really, really wanted to make it even so. Still, she seems nice, and has potential, but is maybe a little out of her depth. Anya didn't make much of an impression on me (other than a vague "hot!" because the routine was so fiery), but I have a huge thing for Pasha now.
Alex & Billy with Ade: "This Bitter Earth/On the Nature of Daylight" by Dinah Washington/Max Richter, choreographed by Mia Michaels. Hands-down my favorite performance of the night, mostly because Mia Michaels is apparently a genius. This was so, so gorgeous and poignant. Billy was freaking brilliant as a little boy, Alex was graceful and assured and beautiful as the grown man, and Ade inhabited the old man perfectly. I do think Alex and Billy outshone Ade a little, but given that they're the contestants, that's definitely better than the other way around. Fantastic costumes, too -- Ade's little glasses! Alex's simple, perfect black pants and white shirt! Billy's black and white long tank, which I didn't love for pure aesthetics, but make so much sense for the character and performance. I loved that Mia Michaels called Billy "a freak of nature" and Alex "a stallion, a beast" -- and that those were clearly compliments of the highest order. I loved that Billy and Alex spent most of their non-dancing time on stage standing quite close together, with their arms around each others' waists and shoulders. I loved the music. I loved the whole thing. A lot. Billy is amazing and super, super, super cute. Ade, well, I don't really have an opinion on Ade yet, but the mere fact that he was involved in this piece is a point in his favor. As for Alex... see, I left him for last in this section because I have complicated feelings about him. His dancing is incredible for its precision and grace and strength, magnificent. And he's quite beautiful in a not-really-my-type-and-yet sort of way. But when not dancing, he just seems rather... personality-less? I hesitate to say boring, but. Bland? Something along those lines. Just. He's like the antithesis of flashy and engaging. But I still find myself drawn to him for some reason. I've been trying to analyze why ever since he showed up in Vegas, and I think I've figured it out. He feels a lot like a certain set of people I grew up with.
Specifically, he reminds me of some of the Chinese-American kids who I was sort of friends with because their parents were friends with my parents. We went to Chinese school together, we played board games after potluck dinners while our parents played mahjongg and bridge and gossiped, that sort of thing. Some of my cousins are in this category. They were pretty much raised to be self-contained, ambitious, nice, and, most of all, normal. To fit in as much as possible, to embody American (well, Canadian, in Alex's case), (upper-)middle-class success, to always show the world the best possible face. You're not supposed to have too much personality, in other words, and nice and normal is all you're to show to the world. And it's not that the nice and normal is fake, exactly -- it's not, they're often genuinely nice, good people -- it's that there's usually other stuff mixed in under the surface. They are more interesting than they appear. So even though they were emphatically not the kids I actually chose to hang out with (because usually the parts we had in common were the parts that they hid from most of the world, and because nice and normal was so not my thing), the fact that Alex reminds me of them makes his lack of personality strangely endearing. He feels familiar. And in a very likable way.
[ETA: Plus, there's always the edit. No one is ever only the thing you see on screen. And, you know, he's kinda goofy! He faked out his dance company friends like an expert. He has a ridiculously sweet smile. He says to the camera during his 11 minutes: "I'm a crazy goofball and I like to sing and dance a lot, and freak out, and I'm--" *buzzer* *adorable slightly embarrassed look* *hushed tone* "Is that okay?" And seriously, he had the drive and determination to become a professional ballet dancer. A Chinese-Canadian male ballet dancer. So yes. Alex Wong. Normal-seeming and maybe a little reserved, but cute and probably awesome in addition to be a gorgeous dancer. Really!]
Adechike, Ashley, and Robert with Courtney and Neil: "Freak" by Estelle ft. Kardinal Offshall, choreographed by Sonya Tayeh. I liked that the combinations of dancers switched up during the piece, and I thought the piece itself was pretty cool, if in a slightly cliche way, like it was trying a bit too hard to be edgy. And they weren't quuuuuuuuuite as together as I might've liked in a few places, but that's a difficult proposition considering that there are five of them and it's their first time dancing together. Really athletic and energetic, though. I still don't have a real feel for Adechike or Ashley, though Adechike has a nice smile and I liked that he hugged Ashley and Robert after they danced, and Ashley referring to herself as "a huge nerd" was cute. Robert managed to shine, though -- I noticed him while dancing (and not just for being really very good-looking, though he is), and he came off as totally adorable during the 11-second clip and while talking to Cat. Enthusiastic and animated and goofy. It was actually impressive that I noticed him at all during the routine, because Neil was so shiny! I have no idea about Courtney, still, but that might just be because I kept having to watch Neil, he was so good. And pretty. Very, very pretty. When he pulled Courtney close and she leaned in and he tipped his cheek onto her hair and closed his eyes -- a) adorable, and b) so, so pretty. Actually he looked a bit like Ryan Bradley in that moment. Except, you know, blond.
The bit right before the credits where they're just all onstage and dancing around, improv -- I'm always interested to see who ends up interacting with each other. I think that was Pasha and dark-haired Lauren were doing a little Latin, and Alex and Melinda were definitely swing dancing. Adorable!
I am so, so looking forward to the rest of this season. This show is addictive!