SYTYCD
I really need to stop having favorite dancers, I do.
I think Billy Bell did a smart thing last night, though: rather than push his knee through more rehearsing and performing on Wednesday, he is taking the guaranteed bottom 3 spot, which he could have gotten even with performing on Wednesday, and will dance his solo tonight fresh and rested, and thus be more likely to keep his spot on the show. Or, he won't dance tonight, but will have the doctors' okay to dance next week, and so stays in the show. That is my theory, anyway. I am also very much hoping if he does do a solo tonight, that is what he was talking about on Facebook when he mentioned Mount Wroclai by Beirut being the song of the day.
Of the solos, Adechike just blew everybody else out of the water. Of the other contemporary dancers, I think Lauren gave her solo the most passion and pushed it the furthest, but what Adechike did was art. José, yes he's good, but it was nothing new for him. I do like when he dances to r&b funk, though. Kent's solo was very paint by numbers contemporary. Robert's was a close second to Lauren's, but she just had that extra spark.
For me, Adechike was by far and away the best dancer last night. His duet with Comfort was just stunning (as was Comfort herself--she's really found herself!). I've been liking NappyTabs better in the last few shows; they seem to be returning to the relationship mining that they started out with a few seasons ago, and it really works. It's getting further and further removed from what one really thinks of as hip hop per se, but it makes for something that is enjoyable/entertaining to watch. Anyway Adechike obviously broke through his partnering inhibitions or blockages. Maybe it was the song, or maybe it was working with Comfort, or maybe it was working in a genre in which I would say he has some background. The paso doble was dragged down by José, imo. I thought Adechike was handling his cape in the right way, and he had that arched, elbows back posture that one ought to. Because of a technical glitch we sometimes get when watching shows while recording them, our DVD player skipped around a little and I saw the judges' comments before seeing the routine, and I think they were blanketly applying their critique of José to the both of them. Anyway, I shouldn't say this because now he'll break an ankle or something, but last night he looked like a clear winner.
I was really impressed by Robert's samba, and think he ought to think about going into ballroom dance. With his height and strength and arm reach he'd make a great partner, and his carriage was beautiful. i wouldn't have thought his hips had it in them, but they certainly did! I expected more out of Lauren. Her feet kept moving, but her hips weren't actually moving that much. Everybody kept saying that since she was so good at the Tahitian dance, she ought to get samba easily, but having done a little Pacific dance and a little samba, I think the hip movements are very different, and definitely the way the knees are used is very different. In Robert and all-star Lauren's Tyce Broadway number, how funny was it to hear My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult on Fox? Come to think of it, how funny is it to be typing about Broadway and MLWTTKK in the same sentence? I kept laughing, seeing the goth club moves in what they were doing. I suspect Tyce has some background there. Unfortunately the routine didn't really go much beyond that novelty value for me. Nigel's critique of Robert still having some unprofessional tells (like tucking his chin during high kicks) was accurate. The connection between partners wasn't there enough for me, and maybe I've just seen too many people coming as close as you can to having sex in public to trashy industrial music that the simulacrum of that experience is just silly. It was cute when Robert was embarrassed by his nipple flash at the end when Cat was talking to him, though. I do like him and think he has loads of potential, but I don't see him making it to the end this season. Unless, of course, he's the only one left standing.
Kent, eh. I did not think his stepping was all that, and furthermore it sounded like Twitch was having to call out cues for him. Maybe that's part of the style, but even if so, Kent had been learning the routine longer so it should have been him doing the calling out--which of course would have looked ridiculous, so I guess that's why the choreographer had Twitch do it. And if his face was exaggerated in his contemporary jazz with Kathryn, it was out of control in the stepping. Speaking of his duet with Kathryn, she danced him under the table, and the whole time I was reminded of a blog comment I read somewhere to the effect of whenever the writer sees Kent partnering with a woman, she sees a big "I am a virgin" bubble floating over him the whole time.
Lauren's cowboy hip hop with Twitch was cute. M thought Lauren looked like she was doing as much line dancing as hip hop, and maybe that's a previous experience of hers that the choreographer drew upon to make her more comfortable. She did alright, but she needed to cut loose more. Twitch's supreme confidence made her attempt to be a bad chick look more like a spunky kid than a wild cowgirl who intimidates her man.
José and Allison's Sonia Tayeh number was painful. Even before the judges brought out their pedestrian critique, I thought it looked amateur and studenty, both in the dancing and the choreography. All in all, if the voting really focused on the actual dancing, it would be José's time to leave tonight. And Sonia ought to get a slap on the wrist too. But I suppose the choreographers all learned that mollycoddling your dancer can backfire.
Cat Deely looked like she got tangled in a tutu as she ran by costuming on her way to the stage and didn't have time to detangle herself. Ah well, at least she takes chances. I read that she does all her own styling, good for her.
There's so few dancers left, I have no idea who the bottom two will be. If I were the voting legions of America, it would be José and Kent, but who knows... the injury rate is disturbing. I know all too well that to dance at anything more than a casual level is to push your muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments to places they weren't necessarily designed to go, but professional dancers aren't getting laid low at this rate, are they? I hope Nigel was doing more than paying lip service to the notion that they were going to take a look at procedures and see if there's anything that can be done differently. Of course, this could all just be bad luck and this is the cursed season. I hope that's all it is.
.
I think Billy Bell did a smart thing last night, though: rather than push his knee through more rehearsing and performing on Wednesday, he is taking the guaranteed bottom 3 spot, which he could have gotten even with performing on Wednesday, and will dance his solo tonight fresh and rested, and thus be more likely to keep his spot on the show. Or, he won't dance tonight, but will have the doctors' okay to dance next week, and so stays in the show. That is my theory, anyway. I am also very much hoping if he does do a solo tonight, that is what he was talking about on Facebook when he mentioned Mount Wroclai by Beirut being the song of the day.
Of the solos, Adechike just blew everybody else out of the water. Of the other contemporary dancers, I think Lauren gave her solo the most passion and pushed it the furthest, but what Adechike did was art. José, yes he's good, but it was nothing new for him. I do like when he dances to r&b funk, though. Kent's solo was very paint by numbers contemporary. Robert's was a close second to Lauren's, but she just had that extra spark.
For me, Adechike was by far and away the best dancer last night. His duet with Comfort was just stunning (as was Comfort herself--she's really found herself!). I've been liking NappyTabs better in the last few shows; they seem to be returning to the relationship mining that they started out with a few seasons ago, and it really works. It's getting further and further removed from what one really thinks of as hip hop per se, but it makes for something that is enjoyable/entertaining to watch. Anyway Adechike obviously broke through his partnering inhibitions or blockages. Maybe it was the song, or maybe it was working with Comfort, or maybe it was working in a genre in which I would say he has some background. The paso doble was dragged down by José, imo. I thought Adechike was handling his cape in the right way, and he had that arched, elbows back posture that one ought to. Because of a technical glitch we sometimes get when watching shows while recording them, our DVD player skipped around a little and I saw the judges' comments before seeing the routine, and I think they were blanketly applying their critique of José to the both of them. Anyway, I shouldn't say this because now he'll break an ankle or something, but last night he looked like a clear winner.
I was really impressed by Robert's samba, and think he ought to think about going into ballroom dance. With his height and strength and arm reach he'd make a great partner, and his carriage was beautiful. i wouldn't have thought his hips had it in them, but they certainly did! I expected more out of Lauren. Her feet kept moving, but her hips weren't actually moving that much. Everybody kept saying that since she was so good at the Tahitian dance, she ought to get samba easily, but having done a little Pacific dance and a little samba, I think the hip movements are very different, and definitely the way the knees are used is very different. In Robert and all-star Lauren's Tyce Broadway number, how funny was it to hear My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult on Fox? Come to think of it, how funny is it to be typing about Broadway and MLWTTKK in the same sentence? I kept laughing, seeing the goth club moves in what they were doing. I suspect Tyce has some background there. Unfortunately the routine didn't really go much beyond that novelty value for me. Nigel's critique of Robert still having some unprofessional tells (like tucking his chin during high kicks) was accurate. The connection between partners wasn't there enough for me, and maybe I've just seen too many people coming as close as you can to having sex in public to trashy industrial music that the simulacrum of that experience is just silly. It was cute when Robert was embarrassed by his nipple flash at the end when Cat was talking to him, though. I do like him and think he has loads of potential, but I don't see him making it to the end this season. Unless, of course, he's the only one left standing.
Kent, eh. I did not think his stepping was all that, and furthermore it sounded like Twitch was having to call out cues for him. Maybe that's part of the style, but even if so, Kent had been learning the routine longer so it should have been him doing the calling out--which of course would have looked ridiculous, so I guess that's why the choreographer had Twitch do it. And if his face was exaggerated in his contemporary jazz with Kathryn, it was out of control in the stepping. Speaking of his duet with Kathryn, she danced him under the table, and the whole time I was reminded of a blog comment I read somewhere to the effect of whenever the writer sees Kent partnering with a woman, she sees a big "I am a virgin" bubble floating over him the whole time.
Lauren's cowboy hip hop with Twitch was cute. M thought Lauren looked like she was doing as much line dancing as hip hop, and maybe that's a previous experience of hers that the choreographer drew upon to make her more comfortable. She did alright, but she needed to cut loose more. Twitch's supreme confidence made her attempt to be a bad chick look more like a spunky kid than a wild cowgirl who intimidates her man.
José and Allison's Sonia Tayeh number was painful. Even before the judges brought out their pedestrian critique, I thought it looked amateur and studenty, both in the dancing and the choreography. All in all, if the voting really focused on the actual dancing, it would be José's time to leave tonight. And Sonia ought to get a slap on the wrist too. But I suppose the choreographers all learned that mollycoddling your dancer can backfire.
Cat Deely looked like she got tangled in a tutu as she ran by costuming on her way to the stage and didn't have time to detangle herself. Ah well, at least she takes chances. I read that she does all her own styling, good for her.
There's so few dancers left, I have no idea who the bottom two will be. If I were the voting legions of America, it would be José and Kent, but who knows... the injury rate is disturbing. I know all too well that to dance at anything more than a casual level is to push your muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments to places they weren't necessarily designed to go, but professional dancers aren't getting laid low at this rate, are they? I hope Nigel was doing more than paying lip service to the notion that they were going to take a look at procedures and see if there's anything that can be done differently. Of course, this could all just be bad luck and this is the cursed season. I hope that's all it is.
.