Is anyone underwhelmed with the season so far? I've found it incredibly uneven, with the choreography tepid as a rule. The closest routine that's been memorable was We Are Heroes' Beyonce challenge, which was pretty classic aside from the winceful booty-shaking, while everything else tops out at "nice," certainly nothing that's made me lose my mind.
Où sont les Beat Freaks d'antan?
Indie rating: The Raveonettes – "Last Dance"
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Power Pop
Alyssa Rosenberg has an excellent defense of pop culture and of pop culture criticism:
What she says is inarguable, if a bit axiomatic, though her peripheral points on the double-sided nature of influence and marketing are key:
Where I think she underestimates the effect pop culture can have on mass consciousness/memory, I'd say that it more than just reflects our values and interests, it constructs the way we see the world. Most of us are born into these swirls of music or movies or tv, and we grow up in learning a cultrual language circumscribed by these media. So, for those of us who have have more than a glancing relationship with pop culture (and if I were bolder, I'd say everyone who participates in some cultural sphere, since the swapping between high and low culture has always(?) been more porous than extant modernist thinking allows*), pop culture is a foundation upon which we find ourselves reacting with or against.
Even if we reject something posited by a pop cultural artifact, we operate within a space that makes room around itself for our opposition, and all the while the thing we disagree with is the central kernel around our stance. For instance, the way 24 portrays torture has helped to shape the debate where one side says torture is a necessary and valuable, and the other side says WTF. In this case, the debate is centered around a notion where methods developed by China's Communist party have come to signify American patriotism, or not -- behold the discursive power of pop culture's binary space.
(However, I think that what I'm arguing is broader and therefore more diffuse and works at a more abstract level.)
* I've also been thinking about high vs. low culture and how such distinctions are irrelevant. Clearly, I don't think high and low mean much in terms of worth, but they still retain aesthetic meaning. Something for another time, though.
Indie rating: The Knife - "Marble House"
In the middle of those terrible and momentous events, amidst the opinion polls that seek to interpret how people feel about those events, pop culture can be a strong barometer of what people seek out, what they shy away from, what interests them.
What she says is inarguable, if a bit axiomatic, though her peripheral points on the double-sided nature of influence and marketing are key:
But our susceptibility to advertising also measures what we are influenced by. And ultimately, even more than polls, even more than votes, the pop culture we choose to experience shows what we care about, because we spend money on it.
Where I think she underestimates the effect pop culture can have on mass consciousness/memory, I'd say that it more than just reflects our values and interests, it constructs the way we see the world. Most of us are born into these swirls of music or movies or tv, and we grow up in learning a cultrual language circumscribed by these media. So, for those of us who have have more than a glancing relationship with pop culture (and if I were bolder, I'd say everyone who participates in some cultural sphere, since the swapping between high and low culture has always(?) been more porous than extant modernist thinking allows*), pop culture is a foundation upon which we find ourselves reacting with or against.
Even if we reject something posited by a pop cultural artifact, we operate within a space that makes room around itself for our opposition, and all the while the thing we disagree with is the central kernel around our stance. For instance, the way 24 portrays torture has helped to shape the debate where one side says torture is a necessary and valuable, and the other side says WTF. In this case, the debate is centered around a notion where methods developed by China's Communist party have come to signify American patriotism, or not -- behold the discursive power of pop culture's binary space.
(However, I think that what I'm arguing is broader and therefore more diffuse and works at a more abstract level.)
* I've also been thinking about high vs. low culture and how such distinctions are irrelevant. Clearly, I don't think high and low mean much in terms of worth, but they still retain aesthetic meaning. Something for another time, though.
Indie rating: The Knife - "Marble House"
Doing a bit of thinking, which is usually to be avoided
I have decided to puke throw some of my thoughts up into graphical form:
Note: kind of a logarithmic scale there, especially the neutral "middle" in between Leah and Tyra.
(No idea where Chenbot, Seacrest, or Bergeron would fit, as I don't watch any of their shows.)
Some additional Canadance thoughts.
Kim is a hip-hop dancer who wants to prove that hip-hop dancers can do other styles, too. So of course the first style she picks is hip hop.
Stacy Tookey says that her routine to
Of her routine, which according to its choreographer was about "two young dancers are partnered together," Mel M said, "I think it's real symbolic of what we're going through right now." See, only a would-have-been pre-med student can get away with calling such a literal concept "symbolism."
And, uhhhhh... yeah!
Indie rating: St. Vincent - "The Strangers"
Note: kind of a logarithmic scale there, especially the neutral "middle" in between Leah and Tyra.
- The Zombie Sanchez The less said the better.
- Leah Miller A producer surely said, "Let's combine the worst aspects of the worst host, with the most dispensable aspect of the best host." And strangely, I'm not that bothered by her, because she's just a cheap copy of the Zombie Sanchez.
- Mario Lopez I can't say that he's qualitatively better than Leah, but at least he's obviously hacky and affably stupid enough to be entertainingly bad.
- Tyra Banks I'm never absolutely certain if I'm annoyed with Tyra or if her egoism and pseudo-maternal instincts are indulgently hilarious, so thus she and her fat ass straddle the penumbra between good and bad.
- Phil Keoghan Unlike most other TAR watchers, Phil doesn't do much for me. Sure he's got the Eyebrow, but he doesn't have much else to offer in terms of personality, humor, etc. (As such, his exhibitionist streak (ahem) did nothing for me.)
- Heidi Klum She's cute ("Byeeee!") and sometimes playfully light and coquettish on her feet, plus bonus points for having an accent ("Auf wiedersehn!"). (Phil kind of has one, but he's largely filed it down into some ambiguous Anglophone drawl.) She doesn't hold down the appeal of Project Runway by any stretch of the imagination (Tim Gunn, who navigates designers through the sturm und drang of the comeptition,
ûberúberùberüber alles), but she always keeps her show moving without dragging into down into her own psychopathy or indifference. In a better world, she is the minimum standard for reality hosts. - Jeff Probst He's had the benefit of being the face of a reality institution for going on nine years now, during which time he's settled in and let some of his personality come out. He'll make fun of inept contestants and call out inanity and hypocrisy when it presents itself to him. The asterisk? In the Survivor reunion specials, he makes everyone forget that one of the Gumbels and Rosie O'Donnell ever hosted them, because he mixes actual interest and knowledge in the show (remember how after Marquesas, Rosie thought that Sean was merely whispering "balls" because it was like a solemn and unmentionable unmentionable, when he was actually being censored?) with the occasional withering barb directed at some deserving pain-in-the-posterior.
- Iman A grande dame of fashion with gravitas to spare who does not suffer fools, and makes sure everyone knows it.
- Cat Deeley The alpha and omega.
(No idea where Chenbot, Seacrest, or Bergeron would fit, as I don't watch any of their shows.)
Some additional Canadance thoughts.
Kim is a hip-hop dancer who wants to prove that hip-hop dancers can do other styles, too. So of course the first style she picks is hip hop.
Stacy Tookey says that her routine to
Of her routine, which according to its choreographer was about "two young dancers are partnered together," Mel M said, "I think it's real symbolic of what we're going through right now." See, only a would-have-been pre-med student can get away with calling such a literal concept "symbolism."
And, uhhhhh... yeah!
Indie rating: St. Vincent - "The Strangers"
Thursday, August 27, 2009
So You Think You Can Dance Canada - Top 20 (2x06, 2x07)
My previous post actually dealt with the Finals episodes, even though the post title and its timing seemed to suggest that I was talking about the first week of competition. Oops! Before I actually talk about the real part of the show, a few additional notes on Canada's version of Vegas Week, which they seem to call the Finals. (Motto: What happens in Finals, stays in Finals.) (Like, which province is Finals in? And does it have legalized gambling?)
As for the show?
More after the jump!
Judging from this one episode and the couple-few audition/callback episodes I saw, the proficiency of the dancers seems comparable to the American version, which makes sense if we with the math, at least at a crude level: because the US has 10 times the population of Canada, the sheer aggregate of dancers who try out ought to be pretty good, and the number of reality-show-worthy dancers probably shouldn't be any worse, either.
And outside of the adventurousness of the newly introduced styles, the performances themselves didn't set themselves apart from the American version, either. Natalie and Danny's hip hop was fierce with a capital Tyra (since Natalie worked with Miss Prissy, I wonder if she knows Lil C), I liked Taylor and Scary Spice's tango (I have a newfound fondness for the tango and have many many sympathies for any mistakes made in it) (and no wonder the show makes her go by Mel B -- "Buttarazzi" = HA HA HA HA, HA), and where my mind went briefly insane in the voodoo-styled Afro-Jazz when Jayme Rae started walking on walls.
I do have a question about the capoeira -- was Tatiana supposed to kick as slowly as she did and with as little extension as she showed by design? Because what capoeira I've seen has always been at the speed with which Austin executed his kicks. (OK, "what capoeira I've seen" is limited to that one episode of America's Next Top Model.)
Answer: Leah Miller.
Question: How can we the producers combine the least essential aspect of the best reality show ever with the worst aspects of her predecessor?
That is, Leah is what Lauren Sanchez would be if she put on a blond wig, or Cat filled up with collagen. And she's 28! Younger than me! (Which means I'd better get onto the cosmetic surgery train like, last year.) (And hey, Mary Murphy should turn "Cosmetic Surgery Train" into a new meme.)
Leah also speaks with an uninflected voice, which makes her sound uninvested in everything going on around her.
Finally, she's short.
Yet, she doesn't bother me to the point that she becomes a blight upon the program; I suppose I've been inoculated against this sort of forgettable host by the Zombie Sanchez.
Natalie and Danny's hip hop had some atrocious camera work, over which I'm kind of relieved because it's like, Hey, Americans, it's not just you who has to suffer the endemic displeasure of terrible direction!
Why would you ever shoot dancers at anything closer than a medium shot when they're moving? Nevertheless, the camera work was otherwise sedate and unobtrusive, so half a kudos for that.
But wtf: 877 9 "SPIN"? Now that's the chintziness I expect from a Canadian reality program, just like the Leah Miller asking what last year's winner Nico is currently working on, and Nico refusing to say and the host is like, "Uh, okay...", the host later stumbling over her words, or the unrefined shambles of an elimination episode when they they cut Tatiana, who impressed me for the first time -- a lot! -- with her solo.
Taylor heard from the Internet that vampires are "in."
He certain does suck.
This is Anthony, who just finished up playing Felix Gaeta earlier this year.
Not content with starring in an upcoming film, Kherington -- she's self-entitled, remember! -- is desperate to become someone's Favorite Dancer, even if she has to spell it the wrong British way and pretend hockey is her favorite sport.
The top 20's resemblances are getting out of hand -- even this random audience person looks like Shortney Galliano.
Indie rating: The Pastels – "Nothing To Be Done"
- As others have already noted, spotlighting the top 20 during the auditions, particularly during the callback episodes, does wonders for the perceived quality of the group of dancers. No less importantly, Canadance focused almost exclusively on good auditioners even if they ultimately didn't make the top 20, which gives the impression of an embarrassment of Canuck riches. (It's a classic sales gambit, natch.)
The Yankee Imperialist version of the show of course dilutes the televised field of auditioners and holds back the performances of about half of its top 20, which cheapens the perceived quality. And when the judges constantly proclaim how good this bunch of dancers are, audiences, who have been fed images of deluded and terrible auditioners and/or unproven quantities, don't buy into what they think is hype, and this difference of opinion further degrades the perceived quality. It's the classic advice to writers: show, don't tell. - Another point in the favor of Canadance is the theme music, which has retained that fanfare of horns (horny fanfare?) at the very beginning. I always loved hearing it, as the show was unfurling itself like a flag.
As for the show?
More after the jump!
Judging from this one episode and the couple-few audition/callback episodes I saw, the proficiency of the dancers seems comparable to the American version, which makes sense if we with the math, at least at a crude level: because the US has 10 times the population of Canada, the sheer aggregate of dancers who try out ought to be pretty good, and the number of reality-show-worthy dancers probably shouldn't be any worse, either.
And outside of the adventurousness of the newly introduced styles, the performances themselves didn't set themselves apart from the American version, either. Natalie and Danny's hip hop was fierce with a capital Tyra (since Natalie worked with Miss Prissy, I wonder if she knows Lil C), I liked Taylor and Scary Spice's tango (I have a newfound fondness for the tango and have many many sympathies for any mistakes made in it) (and no wonder the show makes her go by Mel B -- "Buttarazzi" = HA HA HA HA, HA), and where my mind went briefly insane in the voodoo-styled Afro-Jazz when Jayme Rae started walking on walls.
I do have a question about the capoeira -- was Tatiana supposed to kick as slowly as she did and with as little extension as she showed by design? Because what capoeira I've seen has always been at the speed with which Austin executed his kicks. (OK, "what capoeira I've seen" is limited to that one episode of America's Next Top Model.)
Answer: Leah Miller.
Question: How can we the producers combine the least essential aspect of the best reality show ever with the worst aspects of her predecessor?
That is, Leah is what Lauren Sanchez would be if she put on a blond wig, or Cat filled up with collagen. And she's 28! Younger than me! (Which means I'd better get onto the cosmetic surgery train like, last year.) (And hey, Mary Murphy should turn "Cosmetic Surgery Train" into a new meme.)
Leah also speaks with an uninflected voice, which makes her sound uninvested in everything going on around her.
Finally, she's short.
Yet, she doesn't bother me to the point that she becomes a blight upon the program; I suppose I've been inoculated against this sort of forgettable host by the Zombie Sanchez.
Natalie and Danny's hip hop had some atrocious camera work, over which I'm kind of relieved because it's like, Hey, Americans, it's not just you who has to suffer the endemic displeasure of terrible direction!
Why would you ever shoot dancers at anything closer than a medium shot when they're moving? Nevertheless, the camera work was otherwise sedate and unobtrusive, so half a kudos for that.
But wtf: 877 9 "SPIN"? Now that's the chintziness I expect from a Canadian reality program, just like the Leah Miller asking what last year's winner Nico is currently working on, and Nico refusing to say and the host is like, "Uh, okay...", the host later stumbling over her words, or the unrefined shambles of an elimination episode when they they cut Tatiana, who impressed me for the first time -- a lot! -- with her solo.
Taylor heard from the Internet that vampires are "in."
He certain does suck.
This is Anthony, who just finished up playing Felix Gaeta earlier this year.
Not content with starring in an upcoming film, Kherington -- she's self-entitled, remember! -- is desperate to become someone's Favorite Dancer, even if she has to spell it the wrong British way and pretend hockey is her favorite sport.
The top 20's resemblances are getting out of hand -- even this random audience person looks like Shortney Galliano.
Indie rating: The Pastels – "Nothing To Be Done"
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
So You Think You Can Dance Canada - Season 2 Top 20
The Canadians do several things better than the US: health care, multiculturalism, apocalyptic post-rock, pro wrestling. Unfortunately, spectacle isn't their strong suit -- like anyone who has the appropriate instincts to magnify the vapid drama of reality tv is already mucking around in Hollywood. My biggest impression of Canadian reality programming comes from the first episode of Canada's Next Top Model, the production values of which and the sense of drama of which were so dire that even a competent and at times fierce Project Runway Canada couldn't erase the amateurish, public-access image I held for it. But... GOODTHINGTHEYCANDANCETOMAKEUPFORIT, whooooo!
See, that's the kind of fakeout that our wintry Northern cousins seem fond of. They were either laboriously tenuous (Tre) or senseless non sequiturs (Jean-Marc), though Luther was refreshing low-key and Blake -- BLAKE! -- mostly avoided being a douche (something he couldn't manage while he was on our show) and was the straightest shooter on the judges' panel.
Generally, the production and styling of the So You Think You Canadance is jarringly sedate, but it more than makes up for it in quality, even during the auditions. Which begs the questions: why does Canada get a good-to-bad audition ratio of 10 to 1? Are we Yankees so trained renowned for our taste in talentless excess that the people in charge of shows can force-feed us train-wrecking spectacle without fear of turning us off en masse?
I blame the American Dream, that Yankee silliness that says we can be anything we want to be through hard work, though in this century substitute "anything we want to be" with "famous for 15 minutes," and "hard work" with "a reality show." (Does Canada have a national myth?) Even though American consumer culture tries to express itself through narratives, spectacle is often the dominant commodity. Spectacle is nearly instantaneous, after all, formless and without the careful tracks laid down by narrative, and what's more, it doesn't require specific talents, just shamelessness.
Anyway, Canada's top 20. There's a female krumper, Natalie, who gives me chills. And it includes a certain Melanie B., so Canada wins for additional Spiciness.
Indie rating: Janelle Monáe – "Many Moons"
See, that's the kind of fakeout that our wintry Northern cousins seem fond of. They were either laboriously tenuous (Tre) or senseless non sequiturs (Jean-Marc), though Luther was refreshing low-key and Blake -- BLAKE! -- mostly avoided being a douche (something he couldn't manage while he was on our show) and was the straightest shooter on the judges' panel.
Generally, the production and styling of the So You Think You Canadance is jarringly sedate, but it more than makes up for it in quality, even during the auditions. Which begs the questions: why does Canada get a good-to-bad audition ratio of 10 to 1? Are we Yankees so trained renowned for our taste in talentless excess that the people in charge of shows can force-feed us train-wrecking spectacle without fear of turning us off en masse?
I blame the American Dream, that Yankee silliness that says we can be anything we want to be through hard work, though in this century substitute "anything we want to be" with "famous for 15 minutes," and "hard work" with "a reality show." (Does Canada have a national myth?) Even though American consumer culture tries to express itself through narratives, spectacle is often the dominant commodity. Spectacle is nearly instantaneous, after all, formless and without the careful tracks laid down by narrative, and what's more, it doesn't require specific talents, just shamelessness.
Anyway, Canada's top 20. There's a female krumper, Natalie, who gives me chills. And it includes a certain Melanie B., so Canada wins for additional Spiciness.
Indie rating: Janelle Monáe – "Many Moons"
Saturday, August 22, 2009
A Sabbatical
In the month before SYTYCD starts AGAIN, I'm going to be taking a break, which is just putting into writing what has become apparent these past couple weeks. But I'll take this opportunity to link to Alyssa Rosenberg's blog, which covers the types of things I like but with much broader, more catholic tastes. She doesn't get mired in theoretical concerns like some other blogs but grounds her posts in really cogent hands-on cultural criticism.
Indie rating: PJ Harvey - "The Dancer"
Indie rating: PJ Harvey - "The Dancer"
Saturday, August 15, 2009
So You Think You Can Dance - Top 4 (5x22, 5x23)
Hope you weren't expecting a big blowout of a recap, because neither part of the finale had a showstopper of a routine or, in fact, any gnarly faces out of which to make funny captions.
See? I can't in good conscience caption a mime artist.
So my big deal for the finale was that I was there on a press pass thanks to SYTYCD.ca and even managed to see the performance show in person. However, seeing something live isn't always what it's cracked up to be, at least not for me and my gaggle of neuroses. You can best experience something live when you get absorbed in it, like your concept of your self becomes less well-defined and static because it starts to permeate with your surroundings: place, time, and other people. But your live experience can be defeated by a couple of things as the event happens. (Of course, a longer term issue with live events is that your memory of it can fade.) First, expectations can distort your experience, which also contributes to the second problem: self-consciousness will by definition prevent you from losing yourself in the moment.
Besides my usual crippling social neuroses ("Is my hair all right? Am I, gasp, smiling?"), self-consciousness gets bolstered by expectation ("This is supposed to be a big deal, but I'm not feeling so what's wrong with me?"), which consequently feeds back into self-consciousness until it all snowballs into feeling out of place, like, "What am I doing here?" And your seats are sufficiently far away from the stage that a lot of the finer details in the performances completely elude you, just to kick you in the groin some more.
Then you head up to the press area and get to ask people stupid questions and make a fool of yourself, and you realize that this is completely awesome and worth the world.
Seriously, speaking withall most of the show's principals when they're away from the big broadcast cameras was great because they generally seemed much more relaxed and, in the case of Mary, Adam, et al, mostly left their on-air schticks at the judges' table (well, Mary let loose with a scream three times -- I assume for different interviewers -- after the results show). With the judges, I got the sense that they were more sincere, first because a lot of what they said was forthright, and also because they didn't embellish what they said to make it good tv; my overall sense was that they were less maintaining their personas from the show, and more interested in something that approached an actual dialogue.
Similarly, I think the dancers appreciated the two-way dialogue -- they don't have much freedom to speak on the show, and the chances they do get to speak are tightly regulated. Talking with interviewers represents a comparatively freer forum to express themselves in the traditional linguistic way. Certainly, they need to maintain a minimum level of expected decorum and be sure not to bite the hand that feeds them, but otherwise they don't feel the immediate and immense repercussions of saying something that isn't thoroughly, inoffensively bland. These are mostly rinkydink videos -- where the cameras on the show reached millions of people on a single night, most of the ones I was shooting are going to stay in the hundreds of views for the immediate future, shot and released after the fact, to boot -- that won't affect their standing on the show, so the dancers can relax a little more, let their hair down some.
More, after the jump.
Unless you get great seats, watching dance in a large venue can be pretty dull, if only because the dancers aren't more than a couple inches tall from your vantage point. And if the choreographers design their numbers so that there is actually a single best point of view from which to watch them, you're probably missing all the best angles of the dance. For example, seeing Wade's routine live was forgettable, little more than a dopey, rah-rah face-pulling exercise. (Perhaps not face-pulling, because I sat too far to see that much detail.) Jocks and cheerleaders, Wade? Couldn't you have given us something more timeless for a finale, like the fox dance?
But watching the broadcast, seeing their faces, having the camera point me where I'm supposed to look, hey presto, it's suddenly a fun little romp. Still it doesn't rank with his best stuff.
Unfortunately, the opening routine was just about as good as the finale got. I couldn't seem to keep my attention on the paso (the music is just too silly and distracting, not to mention dated: orchestral techno is irredeemably fin de siècle), and my tastes are apparently too unrefined to appreciate Jeanine's control in her solo, while the best thing about Mia's number for the girls was using Steve Reich. (Seriously, I still can't get over the fact that the music of the eminence grise of minimalism was used on a reality program.)
In terms of how people perceive a contestant's desert, Evan has proven that he was this season's Comfort, except his circumstances exactly reverse hers. The majority of voters tended to think that the show's best female hip-hop dancer was overmatched in her time in the competition; with Evan, though, the people who thought him out of his depth were clearly in the minority.
Details aside, they both elicited some harsh reactions from detractors, because among the worst things contestants can do is to outlast their perceived reservoir of talent. We don't like to see an imbalance in talent, I guess because an imbalance means that the show operates on things besides talent and, to a certain extent, beyond personality. If we have to admit that the show is not a pure meritocracy or even an innocent popularity contest (ok, "innocent"), then we let in chaos and other unseemly things we'd rather not think on. (An obvious bit of chaos: race.)
However, all this moral abstraction treats the dancers in question as demographic information collected in bodies that dances, rather than as real people who are sometimes visibly shaken by comments from the judges or seem to have internalized the idea that they're in over their heads. It's an obvious concept, but as always, the structure of reality competitions makes us see red instead of flesh and blood, and I needed to actually speak with Evan and then watch his heart break at one backhanded critique after another to remember he's still just another person. From now on, I love everyone.
The magic of television editing!
DRY TABLES.
And let's not forget the special reprise of "One." ("Special.") After the end of the performance night, we saw the top 8 return to perform Mia's Broadway routine. (While we waited for the props, lighting, costumes, etc. to get set up for the routine, we were entertained with impromptu solos from Chbeeb and Tony B.) The producers halted the number halfway through (when the dancers pop out from behind the mirrors), saying that the audience applause wasn't big enough, and take it from the top and this time could we cheer more lustily? On the next run-through, the producers stopped it again, and turned off the lights to boot, i.e. giving the judges enough time to position themselves behind the mirrors under the cover of darkness. So there's the "how did they do that" for you. But to drive home how constructed and artificial the show can be (not to mention reality programming in general), the production repeated the reveal of the judges something like three times, probably to get all the camera angles they needed, so the applause in which the judges basked was far from spontaneous.
Having Asuka onstage at the Kodak Theatre absolutely begged for an Oscars joke, though ultimately we had to settle for Jeanine's thanks to the Academy right at the end of the program.
At an early point in the results finale, Cat takes the temperature of the audience concerning the top 4. Jeanine got a huge pop, but surprisingly, Evan got a much more restrained reaction, certainly less effusive than the crowd that started chanting his name the night before. Could the judges have dampened voter enthusiasm for him?
Which begs the general question of how much the judges can influence voters. The judges can pan or praise a dancer and the voters react one way, while another dancer gets the same tenor of critique but the voters react differently. Obviously, how the audience relates to given dancers isn't solely determined by the judges, since the dancers themselves are all different (or in the case of this season, different kinds of contemporary/jazz dancers) in terms of personality, style, appearance, and other similarly elusive and occasionally trivial qualities, combinations of which are arbitrarily infinite and thus nearly impossible to reliably gauge how they'll fare with a voting public. My point is that I'm skeptical of the thought that the judges/Nigel lay down nefarious tracks to stealthily bring a dancer into the final four.
Mia reminded everyone that Max was "one of the hardest working dancers this season," which is a tremendous accomplishment given that he only had two weeks in which to do his hard work. Kudos, man!
I didn't find much to take away from Talia Fowler's solo. The techno parts of the music have some egregiously lazy beats, which dragged down the rest of the choreography and didn't seem much to showcase her. Speaking of the choreography, courtesy of Sonya, was Talia's hair also courtesy of the Madame Mohawk?
Cat about to get revenge on Jeanine for being mentioned fourth.
Indie rating: Leila - "Different Time"
See? I can't in good conscience caption a mime artist.
So my big deal for the finale was that I was there on a press pass thanks to SYTYCD.ca and even managed to see the performance show in person. However, seeing something live isn't always what it's cracked up to be, at least not for me and my gaggle of neuroses. You can best experience something live when you get absorbed in it, like your concept of your self becomes less well-defined and static because it starts to permeate with your surroundings: place, time, and other people. But your live experience can be defeated by a couple of things as the event happens. (Of course, a longer term issue with live events is that your memory of it can fade.) First, expectations can distort your experience, which also contributes to the second problem: self-consciousness will by definition prevent you from losing yourself in the moment.
Besides my usual crippling social neuroses ("Is my hair all right? Am I, gasp, smiling?"), self-consciousness gets bolstered by expectation ("This is supposed to be a big deal, but I'm not feeling so what's wrong with me?"), which consequently feeds back into self-consciousness until it all snowballs into feeling out of place, like, "What am I doing here?" And your seats are sufficiently far away from the stage that a lot of the finer details in the performances completely elude you, just to kick you in the groin some more.
Then you head up to the press area and get to ask people stupid questions and make a fool of yourself, and you realize that this is completely awesome and worth the world.
Seriously, speaking with
Similarly, I think the dancers appreciated the two-way dialogue -- they don't have much freedom to speak on the show, and the chances they do get to speak are tightly regulated. Talking with interviewers represents a comparatively freer forum to express themselves in the traditional linguistic way. Certainly, they need to maintain a minimum level of expected decorum and be sure not to bite the hand that feeds them, but otherwise they don't feel the immediate and immense repercussions of saying something that isn't thoroughly, inoffensively bland. These are mostly rinkydink videos -- where the cameras on the show reached millions of people on a single night, most of the ones I was shooting are going to stay in the hundreds of views for the immediate future, shot and released after the fact, to boot -- that won't affect their standing on the show, so the dancers can relax a little more, let their hair down some.
More, after the jump.
Unless you get great seats, watching dance in a large venue can be pretty dull, if only because the dancers aren't more than a couple inches tall from your vantage point. And if the choreographers design their numbers so that there is actually a single best point of view from which to watch them, you're probably missing all the best angles of the dance. For example, seeing Wade's routine live was forgettable, little more than a dopey, rah-rah face-pulling exercise. (Perhaps not face-pulling, because I sat too far to see that much detail.) Jocks and cheerleaders, Wade? Couldn't you have given us something more timeless for a finale, like the fox dance?
But watching the broadcast, seeing their faces, having the camera point me where I'm supposed to look, hey presto, it's suddenly a fun little romp. Still it doesn't rank with his best stuff.
Unfortunately, the opening routine was just about as good as the finale got. I couldn't seem to keep my attention on the paso (the music is just too silly and distracting, not to mention dated: orchestral techno is irredeemably fin de siècle), and my tastes are apparently too unrefined to appreciate Jeanine's control in her solo, while the best thing about Mia's number for the girls was using Steve Reich. (Seriously, I still can't get over the fact that the music of the eminence grise of minimalism was used on a reality program.)
In terms of how people perceive a contestant's desert, Evan has proven that he was this season's Comfort, except his circumstances exactly reverse hers. The majority of voters tended to think that the show's best female hip-hop dancer was overmatched in her time in the competition; with Evan, though, the people who thought him out of his depth were clearly in the minority.
Details aside, they both elicited some harsh reactions from detractors, because among the worst things contestants can do is to outlast their perceived reservoir of talent. We don't like to see an imbalance in talent, I guess because an imbalance means that the show operates on things besides talent and, to a certain extent, beyond personality. If we have to admit that the show is not a pure meritocracy or even an innocent popularity contest (ok, "innocent"), then we let in chaos and other unseemly things we'd rather not think on. (An obvious bit of chaos: race.)
However, all this moral abstraction treats the dancers in question as demographic information collected in bodies that dances, rather than as real people who are sometimes visibly shaken by comments from the judges or seem to have internalized the idea that they're in over their heads. It's an obvious concept, but as always, the structure of reality competitions makes us see red instead of flesh and blood, and I needed to actually speak with Evan and then watch his heart break at one backhanded critique after another to remember he's still just another person. From now on, I love everyone.
The magic of television editing!
DRY TABLES.
And let's not forget the special reprise of "One." ("Special.") After the end of the performance night, we saw the top 8 return to perform Mia's Broadway routine. (While we waited for the props, lighting, costumes, etc. to get set up for the routine, we were entertained with impromptu solos from Chbeeb and Tony B.) The producers halted the number halfway through (when the dancers pop out from behind the mirrors), saying that the audience applause wasn't big enough, and take it from the top and this time could we cheer more lustily? On the next run-through, the producers stopped it again, and turned off the lights to boot, i.e. giving the judges enough time to position themselves behind the mirrors under the cover of darkness. So there's the "how did they do that" for you. But to drive home how constructed and artificial the show can be (not to mention reality programming in general), the production repeated the reveal of the judges something like three times, probably to get all the camera angles they needed, so the applause in which the judges basked was far from spontaneous.
Having Asuka onstage at the Kodak Theatre absolutely begged for an Oscars joke, though ultimately we had to settle for Jeanine's thanks to the Academy right at the end of the program.
At an early point in the results finale, Cat takes the temperature of the audience concerning the top 4. Jeanine got a huge pop, but surprisingly, Evan got a much more restrained reaction, certainly less effusive than the crowd that started chanting his name the night before. Could the judges have dampened voter enthusiasm for him?
Which begs the general question of how much the judges can influence voters. The judges can pan or praise a dancer and the voters react one way, while another dancer gets the same tenor of critique but the voters react differently. Obviously, how the audience relates to given dancers isn't solely determined by the judges, since the dancers themselves are all different (or in the case of this season, different kinds of contemporary/jazz dancers) in terms of personality, style, appearance, and other similarly elusive and occasionally trivial qualities, combinations of which are arbitrarily infinite and thus nearly impossible to reliably gauge how they'll fare with a voting public. My point is that I'm skeptical of the thought that the judges/Nigel lay down nefarious tracks to stealthily bring a dancer into the final four.
Mia reminded everyone that Max was "one of the hardest working dancers this season," which is a tremendous accomplishment given that he only had two weeks in which to do his hard work. Kudos, man!
I didn't find much to take away from Talia Fowler's solo. The techno parts of the music have some egregiously lazy beats, which dragged down the rest of the choreography and didn't seem much to showcase her. Speaking of the choreography, courtesy of Sonya, was Talia's hair also courtesy of the Madame Mohawk?
Cat about to get revenge on Jeanine for being mentioned fourth.
Indie rating: Leila - "Different Time"
SYTYCD Interview with Brandon
For now (and possibly for posterity), I've uploaded Brandon's interview, as sadly incomplete as it is, and embedded it in the backstage video post (his video is right after Jeanine's).
Indie rating: Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra And Tra-La-La Band - "13 Blues For Thirteen Moons"
Indie rating: Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra And Tra-La-La Band - "13 Blues For Thirteen Moons"
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
So You Think You Can Dance Finale Backstage Videos -- UPDATED
Cross-posted with Social, videos below the jump.
Jeanine Mason
Brandon Bryant
Technical difficulties prevented me from shooting the whole thing -- I'm working on getting something up in its place.
Update 2009-8-15: Here's the footage that I managed to take; I was reluctant to release it at first because I missed out on some of the best parts, but yeah, here it is.
Evan Kasprzak
Kayla Radomski
Cat Deeley
Lil C
Shane Sparks
(I should've known that the one dancer he would've wanted to work with was Chbeeb, who made Shane cry in a season 3 audition.)
Adam Shankman
Indie rating: Gong – "Love Is How y Make It"
Jeanine Mason
Brandon Bryant
Technical difficulties prevented me from shooting the whole thing -- I'm working on getting something up in its place.
Update 2009-8-15: Here's the footage that I managed to take; I was reluctant to release it at first because I missed out on some of the best parts, but yeah, here it is.
Evan Kasprzak
Kayla Radomski
Cat Deeley
Lil C
Shane Sparks
(I should've known that the one dancer he would've wanted to work with was Chbeeb, who made Shane cry in a season 3 audition.)
Adam Shankman
Indie rating: Gong – "Love Is How y Make It"
Monday, August 10, 2009
You Asked For It
Smiling Me and Jeanine:
So let me repeat: I'm never smiling again.
Indie rating: Cat Power – "Silver Stallion"
So let me repeat: I'm never smiling again.
Indie rating: Cat Power – "Silver Stallion"
Sunday, August 09, 2009
So You Think You Can Dance Finale Fun
After the last interview of the night -- Jeanine! who by then was more than ready to hit the after-party -- I was headed out of Hollywood and Highland (i.e. the shopping center where the Kodak Theatre is located), and riding down the elevator to the underground parking lot, I struck up a conversation with a reporter from, I believe, FOX All-Access. We made small-talk about whom we both managed to interview, especially if she got to talk with Nigel (sadly, I missed my chance, again). Among the other passengers, a young girl overheard us, and as she was getting off at her floor, she said in parting, "You know, Janette is waiting in line at Johnny Rockets. You should take a picture with her, she's really nice." I turned to the FOX reporter. "It's like I got 'Janette Fan' written all over me." So, on I went to look for Johnny Rockets.
I didn't take long to find the burger restaurant and quickly saw Janette sitting in a booth with about four other people. I had some minor qualms about interrupting her while she was eating, but I was in a giddy, selfish mood, and started waving at her like we were old acquaintances, trying to catch her attention. As that young girl in the elevator said, Janette was extremely nice and accommodating while I introduced myself and gushed about how she was easily my favorite dancer of the season, how her tango with Brandon was hot stuff and how the Wade piece makes me grin like an idiot, all leading up to a request for a picture. Of course! she said. She'll just get her sister to take the camera... A little part of me wanted to die: she was eating with her family. But just like her, they were all exceptionally nice and apparently not put out, because after I got my pic, Janette's mom asked to take a picture of me and her daughter too. (I recognized her brother, too, who has posted to her thread on Idolforums.) We chatted some more. I said I was looking forward to seeing her on tour. She'd look for me in the audience (cheeky!).
I left her and her family to their dinner... except that as I was headed out, I saw another group of people approach her booth, not to mention another young girl standing outside in line who saw me gushing inside who asked me if Janette was someone famous. "In my heart, she is," I answered, which was both corny and wholly unsatisfying to the girl. OK, fine: "She was a contestant on So You Think You Can Dance." And the girl yelled out to a friend, "There's someone famous in there!" I don't know if that girl and her friends decided to accost Janette, too, but my giddiness at having met my favorite dancer has since been chastened by worries that I might've inconvenienced her and her family's night.
Also, I've decided never to smile again in pictures.
Indie rating: Cat Power – "Lord, Help the Poor and Needy"
I didn't take long to find the burger restaurant and quickly saw Janette sitting in a booth with about four other people. I had some minor qualms about interrupting her while she was eating, but I was in a giddy, selfish mood, and started waving at her like we were old acquaintances, trying to catch her attention. As that young girl in the elevator said, Janette was extremely nice and accommodating while I introduced myself and gushed about how she was easily my favorite dancer of the season, how her tango with Brandon was hot stuff and how the Wade piece makes me grin like an idiot, all leading up to a request for a picture. Of course! she said. She'll just get her sister to take the camera... A little part of me wanted to die: she was eating with her family. But just like her, they were all exceptionally nice and apparently not put out, because after I got my pic, Janette's mom asked to take a picture of me and her daughter too. (I recognized her brother, too, who has posted to her thread on Idolforums.) We chatted some more. I said I was looking forward to seeing her on tour. She'd look for me in the audience (cheeky!).
I left her and her family to their dinner... except that as I was headed out, I saw another group of people approach her booth, not to mention another young girl standing outside in line who saw me gushing inside who asked me if Janette was someone famous. "In my heart, she is," I answered, which was both corny and wholly unsatisfying to the girl. OK, fine: "She was a contestant on So You Think You Can Dance." And the girl yelled out to a friend, "There's someone famous in there!" I don't know if that girl and her friends decided to accost Janette, too, but my giddiness at having met my favorite dancer has since been chastened by worries that I might've inconvenienced her and her family's night.
Also, I've decided never to smile again in pictures.
Indie rating: Cat Power – "Lord, Help the Poor and Needy"
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
So You Think You Can Dance - Top 4 Performance
So I went to the show and did some brief interviews with a few of the judges and dancers, which you can read about here
Indie rating: The Raveonettes - "Vintage Future"
Indie rating: The Raveonettes - "Vintage Future"
Sunday, August 02, 2009
So You Think You Can Dance - Top 6 (5x20, 5x21)
Given another lull in memorable routines this week, it's time for me to get my pompous on.
I've recently described how reality tv is structured to encourage viewers to police the morals of its contestants, but I meant also to think about why some people decide that a given contestant is fake or arrogant based on such sparse evidence (make that "evidence") that SYTYCD provides us. Reality's zero-sum structure directly prompts viewers to perceive some contestants negatively (and tenuously so), but we also develop an animus for contestants who've been unworthily praised.
First, structure. Competitions compel viewers to take sides, and for every contestant we side with, we investigate several others more for any reasons ethical or talent-related why they're less worthy than our own. Because SYTYCD isn't a candid reality program that shows its contestants at all hours of the day, at their highest or lowest, we're left with crumbs (rehearsal footage, the dancers standing in front of judges who critique them) from which to "deduce" worth.
(New insight alert!) We are persuaded that what we conclude is correct because we saw it on tv, it must be true; I suspect that people see television's illusion of depth -- perspective line! a-a-and foreshortening! -- technology that produces revelations. Television somehow opens a window into the souls or essences of the people on camera for viewers to witness their inner truth. Actually, the only truth we see is how people react to being on a reality tv program -- an artificial, cloistered, high-stress environment.
(Tangent: tv has too many tricks up its sleeve (e.g. editing) to think that we can accurately divine what's "beneath" the surface, when the only we can honestly be sure about is the surface itself. Everything else is speculation. Truth and essence, then, are beside the point when we watch or talk about tv -- there's simply too much we don't know on which to make grand statements. To my mind, the best we can do is take it at face value and keep in mind that it doesn't have "real" value underneath.)
Second, how praise for a contestant can alienate us. The zero-sum principle extends here, though I don't know if it explains entirely the intensity of loathing inspired by high praise. I like dancer X, but the judges talk up dancer Y, whom I think was mediocre; dancer Y might then squeeze dancer X out because of that praise, and so I begin to resent dancer Y. Maybe because we have an internal judge that tracks who deserves praise and who doesn't, and when the external world turns up differently, it disrupts everything we believe in, man. Or perhaps similar thought suggests communal inclusion, but when we are at odds with what judges say, we feel excluded and marginalized from the program's dominant narrative -- like a very mundane example of abjection.
Read more after the jump.
I acknowledge that taste isn't prescriptive, but descriptive, and that we can't rationalize it, but sometimes people can be wrong about the historical record. Sundry folks have been complaining since at least the third season about the quality of the show, that for one reason or another, the current season is a faint shadow of the more glorious past. If you follow the discourses long enough, you'd see that some segment of viewers or another is constantly in crisis mode, which can spin out and ensnare you if you're not careful.
Allow me a moment's indulgence to compare the numbers of routines are reach indelible all-time status across all seasons, beginning with the third when the program blossomed from a fun little diversion to something capable of mature art. (NB I'm going to leave out certain widely loved routines for the simple reason that I do not love them, i.e. I make no claims of universal canonicity, only to what I could watch over and over again.)
Season 3
"Cabaret Hoover," Hummingbird & Flower, "Make It Work," Lacey/Pasha Hip Hop, Lacey/Sabra fox dance, Two Princes.
Total: 6
Season 4
"No Air," "Hometown Glory," Katee/Joshua Bollywood, Top Four Mia.
Total: 4
Season 5
"Felt Mountain" (aka Crash Test Dummies), Randi/Evan Butt Dance, Janette/Brandon Hip Hop, Kayla/Kupono Addiction, Janette/Brandon Argentine Tango, "Ruby Blue"
Total: 6
So this season, in my rough and personal estimation, has already reached the three-season high with still one more week left, hardly grounds to dismiss the talents or routines of V REAL.
Before a couple of weeks ago, I might've conceded that the worst crime this season has committed was that it might lack for personality, but I contend that the vaunted "star quality" didn't run rampant in the past either: each season had a couple-few contestants with genuine magnetism, and the rest are nice kids but aren't the types you'd put in front of a camera and expect magic.
As for the new complaint du jour, that this season has been sexless, maybe critics qualify the charge by saying it's been without passion for the last so-many weeks to conveniently exclude Janette and Brandon's Argentine tango and Ade and Melissa's rumba.
Why the instant and perennial nostalgia? Perhaps, without the benefit of time to soak our memories in sepia-toned fondness, we tend to sink into a miasma of discontent because we are more vulnerable to the inevitable ups and downs of the given season. We're still in the midst, sorting out the chaff, whereas when we look back on a prior season, we only remember the wheat, or to mix metaphors, the crème de la crème. Do any of us remember clearly Hok and Jaimie's first week hip hop?
Anyway, I'm done cherry-picking. Come the sixth season, I fully expect variations of the same complaints to have their days in the sun. Hopefully I'll stop complaining about the complaints.
In her last solo, I watched Kayla's amazingly long limbs and suddenly realized that I wished she'd put them to abstract, avant use, because she hit some keen-looking shapes in a solo that was otherwise dripping with earnestness (and a forgettable, forgettable song). (Or else she reminds me of Spider-Man, who knows.)
So here's Kayla, recontextualized:
As a matter of fact, I'm kind of over any dance whose main aesthetic aims towards prettiness or beauty, which I realized when I tried to figure out how I feel about Brandon and Kayla's Other Woman dance. It starts with Kayla looking wide-eyed and pregnantly at the camera, while a piano is playing because this is a serious piece. Brandon is at first cold and cruel, and I wish he stayed that way for more of the dance.
I guess because Stacey Tookey looks like a drunk, self-destructive Viper pilot, I expected it to be more anguished and hopeless? What is she doing smiling?
The only other routine worth commenting on is the disco, which started out as an energetic and funky number -- I thought I was watching my favorite disco routine to date -- before all of its rhythm was drained away so that we could watch a coed weightlifting exhibition.
Some opinionists have a pathologically low regard for Doriana, and I didn't see why until now: she's perverse. She pushes her couples to dance fast for fast's sake and lifting for lifting's sake, like some God-playing mad scientist conducting experiments on hapless subjects just to be able to boast about her latest perversity. Making Brandon do those pushups? Power-tripping.
It's like she heard once upon a time that the moon can be a cruel mistress and decided that she wanted that title.
I'm confused by Sonya's routine for the girls because it seems to be an earnest call for girl power but at the same time embodying cliche superhero poses. My confusion must stem from the fact that I love the patriarchy and phallo-centric binarisms?
I should know that having a Powerpuff Girl is part of a spandex trinity that includes Storm (Kayla, because White Lightning, see?) and Wonder Woman should signal that Sonya isn't being po-faced serious, but the fists-on-hips, squared-shoulders poses makes me want to outright dismiss it all as failed irony. (Also, seriously biting Karen O's makeup and styling from a couple years ago.)
The guys' routine was more interesting -- Ade seemed to be the winner -- and it illustrates the issue with Evan. He's a capable dancer -- keeping up with Ade and Brandon is no joke, and he deserves respect for that much -- but keeping up isn't enough for me to want to see him in the finale. Like, why watch him when I can watch either of the other two guys? They have more dynamism (apologies for using a cop-out vagary) than he does.
On the whole, we should get more three-person routines so that I can more easily tell who's at fault when they get out of sync.
Brandon.
BATMAN.
In a live chat a couple weeks ago, I was going on about how Melissa often solos to music I like, and someone who didn't like her said that we're looking for America's favorite dancer, not America's favorite music geek (I paraphrase). But where my interlocutor emphasized the "dancer" aspect, I think they ignore the "favorite," a status at which we arrive through a dirty mishmash of criteria. In other words, a lot of us don't isolate a contestant's pure dancing ability and derive "favorite" from it, but we take a whole passel of traits to decide on a favorite, so why not admire her for soloing to Nina Simone? Not that I think she should've outlasted a certain someone else on the show, or that her being on a reality dance program doesn't signal something about her professional qualifications back in the real world.
Maybe it's the sleep deprivation, but I'm finding this hilarious. The aftermath, too.
Lil C was obviously at his most relaxed he's been as a judge and having fun, in which I take comfort given how people seem to be tiring of his schtick. Even if he wasn't sitting next to Mary, I'd be amused by his locutions because they scream to be gently mocked. Not to mention that he kept his most flagrant words in check, though he definitely rambled in two comments, memorably to Brandon and Kayla after their disco (which Mary followed up with, "Holy smokies!" Uhh, dear world, infinitely worse). And actually, "A lot of dancers forget there's a pocket in music, and you have to get within those instruments..." is quite an insight -- he's being very literal here with the instruments, no esoteric reading required, the negative space in the music which a dancer fills to create art.
Five years in, and I've concluded that Mary is an oyster. She irritates me every week so that occasionally she drops pearls, which have been relatively -- and let me stress relatively -- numerous this year. Her advice to Brandon, upon hearing his lack of self-confidence, was refreshing and admirable, though her delivery was the opposite.
But memo to the braying one...
She missed a spot, probably two spots.
No mere mortal can be so cute as Cat. There must be an explanation...
SHE'S A ROBOT.
Indie rating: The Raveonettes – "The Thief"
I've recently described how reality tv is structured to encourage viewers to police the morals of its contestants, but I meant also to think about why some people decide that a given contestant is fake or arrogant based on such sparse evidence (make that "evidence") that SYTYCD provides us. Reality's zero-sum structure directly prompts viewers to perceive some contestants negatively (and tenuously so), but we also develop an animus for contestants who've been unworthily praised.
First, structure. Competitions compel viewers to take sides, and for every contestant we side with, we investigate several others more for any reasons ethical or talent-related why they're less worthy than our own. Because SYTYCD isn't a candid reality program that shows its contestants at all hours of the day, at their highest or lowest, we're left with crumbs (rehearsal footage, the dancers standing in front of judges who critique them) from which to "deduce" worth.
(New insight alert!) We are persuaded that what we conclude is correct because we saw it on tv, it must be true; I suspect that people see television's illusion of depth -- perspective line! a-a-and foreshortening! -- technology that produces revelations. Television somehow opens a window into the souls or essences of the people on camera for viewers to witness their inner truth. Actually, the only truth we see is how people react to being on a reality tv program -- an artificial, cloistered, high-stress environment.
(Tangent: tv has too many tricks up its sleeve (e.g. editing) to think that we can accurately divine what's "beneath" the surface, when the only we can honestly be sure about is the surface itself. Everything else is speculation. Truth and essence, then, are beside the point when we watch or talk about tv -- there's simply too much we don't know on which to make grand statements. To my mind, the best we can do is take it at face value and keep in mind that it doesn't have "real" value underneath.)
Second, how praise for a contestant can alienate us. The zero-sum principle extends here, though I don't know if it explains entirely the intensity of loathing inspired by high praise. I like dancer X, but the judges talk up dancer Y, whom I think was mediocre; dancer Y might then squeeze dancer X out because of that praise, and so I begin to resent dancer Y. Maybe because we have an internal judge that tracks who deserves praise and who doesn't, and when the external world turns up differently, it disrupts everything we believe in, man. Or perhaps similar thought suggests communal inclusion, but when we are at odds with what judges say, we feel excluded and marginalized from the program's dominant narrative -- like a very mundane example of abjection.
Read more after the jump.
I acknowledge that taste isn't prescriptive, but descriptive, and that we can't rationalize it, but sometimes people can be wrong about the historical record. Sundry folks have been complaining since at least the third season about the quality of the show, that for one reason or another, the current season is a faint shadow of the more glorious past. If you follow the discourses long enough, you'd see that some segment of viewers or another is constantly in crisis mode, which can spin out and ensnare you if you're not careful.
Allow me a moment's indulgence to compare the numbers of routines are reach indelible all-time status across all seasons, beginning with the third when the program blossomed from a fun little diversion to something capable of mature art. (NB I'm going to leave out certain widely loved routines for the simple reason that I do not love them, i.e. I make no claims of universal canonicity, only to what I could watch over and over again.)
Season 3
"Cabaret Hoover," Hummingbird & Flower, "Make It Work," Lacey/Pasha Hip Hop, Lacey/Sabra fox dance, Two Princes.
Total: 6
Season 4
"No Air," "Hometown Glory," Katee/Joshua Bollywood, Top Four Mia.
Total: 4
Season 5
"Felt Mountain" (aka Crash Test Dummies), Randi/Evan Butt Dance, Janette/Brandon Hip Hop, Kayla/Kupono Addiction, Janette/Brandon Argentine Tango, "Ruby Blue"
Total: 6
So this season, in my rough and personal estimation, has already reached the three-season high with still one more week left, hardly grounds to dismiss the talents or routines of V REAL.
Before a couple of weeks ago, I might've conceded that the worst crime this season has committed was that it might lack for personality, but I contend that the vaunted "star quality" didn't run rampant in the past either: each season had a couple-few contestants with genuine magnetism, and the rest are nice kids but aren't the types you'd put in front of a camera and expect magic.
As for the new complaint du jour, that this season has been sexless, maybe critics qualify the charge by saying it's been without passion for the last so-many weeks to conveniently exclude Janette and Brandon's Argentine tango and Ade and Melissa's rumba.
Why the instant and perennial nostalgia? Perhaps, without the benefit of time to soak our memories in sepia-toned fondness, we tend to sink into a miasma of discontent because we are more vulnerable to the inevitable ups and downs of the given season. We're still in the midst, sorting out the chaff, whereas when we look back on a prior season, we only remember the wheat, or to mix metaphors, the crème de la crème. Do any of us remember clearly Hok and Jaimie's first week hip hop?
Anyway, I'm done cherry-picking. Come the sixth season, I fully expect variations of the same complaints to have their days in the sun. Hopefully I'll stop complaining about the complaints.
In her last solo, I watched Kayla's amazingly long limbs and suddenly realized that I wished she'd put them to abstract, avant use, because she hit some keen-looking shapes in a solo that was otherwise dripping with earnestness (and a forgettable, forgettable song). (Or else she reminds me of Spider-Man, who knows.)
So here's Kayla, recontextualized:
As a matter of fact, I'm kind of over any dance whose main aesthetic aims towards prettiness or beauty, which I realized when I tried to figure out how I feel about Brandon and Kayla's Other Woman dance. It starts with Kayla looking wide-eyed and pregnantly at the camera, while a piano is playing because this is a serious piece. Brandon is at first cold and cruel, and I wish he stayed that way for more of the dance.
I guess because Stacey Tookey looks like a drunk, self-destructive Viper pilot, I expected it to be more anguished and hopeless? What is she doing smiling?
The only other routine worth commenting on is the disco, which started out as an energetic and funky number -- I thought I was watching my favorite disco routine to date -- before all of its rhythm was drained away so that we could watch a coed weightlifting exhibition.
Some opinionists have a pathologically low regard for Doriana, and I didn't see why until now: she's perverse. She pushes her couples to dance fast for fast's sake and lifting for lifting's sake, like some God-playing mad scientist conducting experiments on hapless subjects just to be able to boast about her latest perversity. Making Brandon do those pushups? Power-tripping.
It's like she heard once upon a time that the moon can be a cruel mistress and decided that she wanted that title.
I'm confused by Sonya's routine for the girls because it seems to be an earnest call for girl power but at the same time embodying cliche superhero poses. My confusion must stem from the fact that I love the patriarchy and phallo-centric binarisms?
I should know that having a Powerpuff Girl is part of a spandex trinity that includes Storm (Kayla, because White Lightning, see?) and Wonder Woman should signal that Sonya isn't being po-faced serious, but the fists-on-hips, squared-shoulders poses makes me want to outright dismiss it all as failed irony. (Also, seriously biting Karen O's makeup and styling from a couple years ago.)
The guys' routine was more interesting -- Ade seemed to be the winner -- and it illustrates the issue with Evan. He's a capable dancer -- keeping up with Ade and Brandon is no joke, and he deserves respect for that much -- but keeping up isn't enough for me to want to see him in the finale. Like, why watch him when I can watch either of the other two guys? They have more dynamism (apologies for using a cop-out vagary) than he does.
On the whole, we should get more three-person routines so that I can more easily tell who's at fault when they get out of sync.
With the white man, I best be the bad guy. That way he ain't confused.
-Bubbles
Brandon.
BATMAN.
In a live chat a couple weeks ago, I was going on about how Melissa often solos to music I like, and someone who didn't like her said that we're looking for America's favorite dancer, not America's favorite music geek (I paraphrase). But where my interlocutor emphasized the "dancer" aspect, I think they ignore the "favorite," a status at which we arrive through a dirty mishmash of criteria. In other words, a lot of us don't isolate a contestant's pure dancing ability and derive "favorite" from it, but we take a whole passel of traits to decide on a favorite, so why not admire her for soloing to Nina Simone? Not that I think she should've outlasted a certain someone else on the show, or that her being on a reality dance program doesn't signal something about her professional qualifications back in the real world.
Maybe it's the sleep deprivation, but I'm finding this hilarious. The aftermath, too.
Lil C was obviously at his most relaxed he's been as a judge and having fun, in which I take comfort given how people seem to be tiring of his schtick. Even if he wasn't sitting next to Mary, I'd be amused by his locutions because they scream to be gently mocked. Not to mention that he kept his most flagrant words in check, though he definitely rambled in two comments, memorably to Brandon and Kayla after their disco (which Mary followed up with, "Holy smokies!" Uhh, dear world, infinitely worse). And actually, "A lot of dancers forget there's a pocket in music, and you have to get within those instruments..." is quite an insight -- he's being very literal here with the instruments, no esoteric reading required, the negative space in the music which a dancer fills to create art.
Five years in, and I've concluded that Mary is an oyster. She irritates me every week so that occasionally she drops pearls, which have been relatively -- and let me stress relatively -- numerous this year. Her advice to Brandon, upon hearing his lack of self-confidence, was refreshing and admirable, though her delivery was the opposite.
But memo to the braying one...
She missed a spot, probably two spots.
No mere mortal can be so cute as Cat. There must be an explanation...
SHE'S A ROBOT.
Indie rating: The Raveonettes – "The Thief"
Natalie's Top 6 Performance and Results Shows Music Recap
The music this week was okay. None of the music made me cringe which is always a positive! At this point in the season, the music starts to take more of a backseat to the dancers. I realize that this show is about dancing, but I like to think that the songs can affect how the routines and dancers end up being judged. Once we get towards the end of the season, the dancers are starting to dance with the songs, instead of letting the music overpower their movement.
I'm not sure when I'll be getting my music recap up next week. I'm going to miss the Thursday finale show and I'll be away til Sunday, so I'll try to get it up early the week after!
Onto the music recaps for the Top 6 Performance and Results shows…
Your hair is so very tame, my darling Cat. The dress is rather boring though. It’s a good thing you’re adorable, or I might like you less.
Top 3 Guys Group Routine Choreographed by Sonya Tayeh
Brandon looks like Carlton on ‘roids. What else can I really say about Sonya? She always picks songs with strong beats, and the musicality of her choreography entrances everyone. From the sudden stops to the strange chugging to Brandon suspending in the air for way longer than humanly possible, I loved this routine.
Song: True Romance
Artist/Band: She Wants Revenge
Where you’ve heard the song before: It was a single off of their album This Is Forever.
Buy the song on iTunes:
Jeanine & Ade’s Samba choreographed by Louis Van Amstel
I have to say that I love Louis’s song choices and choreography. I just did not love Jeanine and Ade in that. Imagine Janette and Artem (S1) doing this routine. Now that would have been HOT. I felt like Jeanine and Ade got overpowered by the song and choreo.
Song: LoveGame
Artist/Band: Lady Gaga
Where you’ve heard the song before: Lady Gaga performed this song in a medley on DWTS.
Buy the song on iTunes:
Kayla’s Solo
As some have pointed out, Kayla looked absolutely manic during her solo. I feel like for a song like this, which has a rich background on television, she needed to put a different emotion behind it. I like the song and I like Kayla, but for some reason, her movement did not match the song.
Song: You Found Me
Artist/Band: The Fray
Where you’ve heard the song before: ABC’s show Lost used this song for a promo for its fifth season. A few snippets of the song were used during the past season of American Idol. The Real World: Brooklyn used the song for a commercial. My favorite time this song was used was at the end of an episode of One Tree Hill. I can’t get enough of that show. I know…you can judge me.
Buy the song on iTunes:
Melissa & Evan’s Broadway routine choreographed by Tyce DiOrio
Tasty has certainly stepped up his Broadway game since the advent of Joey Dowling on the show. It really is amazing to see Evan dance his own style. The song was adorable and he is the adorabl-est contestant on the show. I want more Broadway music like this.
Song: Get Me To the Church on Time (from My Fair Lady)
Artist/Band: Matt Dusk
Where you’ve heard the song before: It’s officially from the musical My Fair Lady. Frank Sinatra recorded the song in 1966.
Buy the song on iTunes:
Ade’s Solo
This is another solo where I thought the energy and emotion didn’t match the music. Maybe this is why I dread the solos so much. Don’t get me wrong, Ade’s dancing is fantastic and his musicality is amazing, but something just isn’t jiving for me. I think what I want more of is to see a dancer so moved by a song or choreography that they end up emotional about it. Something like Travis Wall would have done in Season 2. I don’t necessarily mean that the dancers have to end up on the floor crying, but if you’re going to pick a sad song, I want to see that beyond the 30 seconds of movement. Maybe I’m just being picky.
Song: 18th Floor Balcony
Artist/Band: Blue October
Where you’ve heard the song before: The song was originally released on Blue October’s album Foiled and then on their premium album called Foiled for the Last Time.
Buy the song on iTunes:
Kayla & Brandon’s Contemporary routine choreographed by Stacey Tookey
This.song.was.perfect. For this choreography anyway. There was such despair in it that I really think that it helped Kayla and Brandon get into their character and make it shine through the choreography. It was as powerful as Mia’s addiction piece without being quite as angry.
Song: All I Want
Artist/Band: Ahn Trio
Where you’ve heard the song before: It is on their album Lullaby For My Favorite Insomniac.
Buy the song on iTunes:
Melissa’s Solo
Her best solo of the season. A simple cabriole into a tour jeté was enough for me to remember that she is an excellent ballerina. I think this was the best song she’s ever danced to.
Song: I Put A Spell On You
Artist/Band: Nina Simone
Where you’ve heard the song before: The song was originally sung by Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ray Charles, Joe Cocker, Estelle, Queen Latifah, and Marilyn Manson all did covers of the song. The song has been featured in Hocus Pocus, The Sixth Sense, various commercials, and David Alan Grier and Kym Johnson did a Viennese Waltz to this song on DWTS.
Buy the song on iTunes:
Jeanine & Ade’s Hip-Hop routine choreographed by NappyTabs
Jeanine’s stank face is funny. You know what’s not funny or fun? Dancing with boxes on your feet and then ending up with one of them on your head. With a sad face. Don’t hate me, but I don’t hate this song. When I found out that NappyTabs was doing a routine about eviction to this song, I was kinda expecting a trainwreck. They sure delivered.
Song: Move (If You Wanna)
Artist/Band: Mims
Where you’ve heard the song before: Twitch choreographed to it. So did Luam. If you haven’t heard it there, maybe you caught it on an episode From G’s to Gents. No? Me either.
Buy the song on iTunes:
Brandon’s Solo
So, if contestants can repeat their solos from performance show to results show, then why can’t Brandon repeat his audition solo? Especially since it was indescribable with any kind of words or sounds or hand gestures. The control he has over his body is unparalleled. It was a wonderful reminder going into the finale just how spectacular he is. This is also what I was talking about when I wanted the dancers’ energy to match the music. Look at his face after his solo. In-tense.
Song: O Fortuna (from Carmina Burana)
Artist/Band: Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg & Kurt Prestel
Where you’ve heard the song before: Brandon auditioned to this song (like you could forget that) and Caitlin and Jason did a Paso to this song earlier this season. More info at Wikipedia.
Buy the song on iTunes:
Melissa & Evan’s Quickstep choreographed by Louis Van Amstel
As far as I could tell, I didn’t mind this choreography as much as I minded Melissa and Evan actually doing it. Plus, the Brian Setzer song didn’t grate me like they usually do.
Song: As Long As I’m Singing
Artist/Band: The Brian Setzer Orchestra
Where you’ve heard the song before: This version comes from their album The Dirty Boogie, where “Jump Jive An' Wail” also appeared.
Buy the song on iTunes:
Jeanine’s Solo
Jeanine is a fantastic dancer. Wonderful technician and overall great personality. But for some reason, her solos never do anything for me. It seems as though she will not be a future choreographer like our Travis Wall. She executes others’ choreography well, but doesn’t know how to create movement that uses all of her facilities. Oh, and I don’t like this Janet Jackson song.
Song: Feedback
Artist/Band: Janet Jackson
Where you’ve heard the song before: It’s from her most recent album Discipline. It was the first single off that album.
Buy the song on iTunes:
Evan’s Solo
I often feel that I’m watching the same solo over and over again with Evan. Although, I do love it, it is getting a bit old for my taste.
Song: Lady Is a Tramp
Artist/Band: Sammy Davis, Jr.
Where you’ve heard the song before: It’s from the musical Babes In Arms. Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Shirley Bassey all recorded their own versions and Sinatra sang the song in the film Pal Joey. Sinatra also recorded a special version of the song (called Maureen is a Champ) with altered lyrics for Ringo Starr’s wife, but only one copy of the recording exists.
Buy the song on iTunes:
Kayla & Brandon’s Disco routine choreographed by Doriana Sanchez
I’m not quite sure how Kayla and Brandon finished that routine. I like the changes in disco this season but damn Doriana. You almost killed them. That double death drop was horrible. Poor Kayla looked like a little kid trying not to fall over. This song didn’t even get on my nerves! We’re on a roll tonight!
Song: Dance (Disco Heat)
Artist/Band: Sylvester
Where you’ve heard the song before: It was released in 1978 (surprise surprise) on his album Step II and a 12” single.
Buy the song on iTunes:
Top 3 Girls Routine Choreographed by Sonya Tayeh
Sonya was on point tonight. I love that she gave the girls strong characters. I like that Sonya’s views on gender roles are that girls kick ass and so do guys. I prefer this to girls skipping around with parasols, like Katee and Courtney were forced to do last year.
Song: Kick It (Stereoheroes Remix)
Artist/Band: Nina Martine
Where you’ve heard the song before: I can’t find out much info about Nina Martine, so naturally the song is pretty foreign to me.
Buy the song on iTunes:
Top 6 Group Routine choreographed by Tyce DiOrio
It didn’t have the intensity of some of the other opening group numbers, but damn if this routine didn’t make me stop typing and just watch because it was so moving. I thought for sure it wasn’t a Tyce creation, but I was wrong. It definitely pulled at the heartstrings just because of the nature of the song itself. Add in some of Tyce’s movement that wasn’t too heinous and you end up with a decent opening piece.
Song: Send in the Clowns
Artist/Band: Judy Collins
Where you’ve heard the song before: The song is by Stephen Sondheim and from the musical A Little Night Music. Judy Collins recorded the song in 1975 and Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, Bing Crosby, Angela Lansbury, Barbara Streisand, Glenn Close, and Olivia Newtown John all recorded covers of this song.
Buy the song on iTunes:
Jessica & Will’s Contemporary routine choreographed by Tyce DiOrio (Emmy Nominated
I still don’t find this piece as epic as some other people. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s danced well, but the quiet energy of the routine, doesn’t work for me.
Song: Silence
Artist/Band: Unfaithful (soundtrack)
Where you’ve heard the song before: If you’ve seen the movie, you’ve heard the song before. Rather disturbing movie, as I recall.
Buy the song on iTunes:
Katee & Twitch’s Contemporary routine choreographed by Mia Michaels (Emmy Nominated)
I love me some Katee and Twitch, but I would have rather seen Katee and Josh’s No Air or their Bollywood. Or even their Hometown Glory or Slow Dancing in a Burning Room. Why are there no Katees this season? The routine this time looked a bit overworked, like they’d rehearsed it too many times. I still loved it though. And I liked that they stayed in character til the very end.
Song: Mercy
Artist/Band: Duffy
Where you’ve heard the song before: John Mayer covers this song sometimes.
Buy the song on iTunes:
Chelsie & Joshua’s Argentine Tango choreographed by Dmitry Chaplin (Emmy Nominated)
I’m not so sure that it was smart of the producers to bring back the Season 4 dancers. It just made the audience realize how much we’re missing from this season. THIS is an Argentine Tango. Take notes Kayla and Jeanine, that’s what sexy looks like, in the form of pint-sized Chelsie Hightower.
Song: A Los Amigos
Artist/Band: Forever Tango (Original Broadway Cast Album)
Where you’ve heard the song before: This song is absolutely no where. :(
Melissa’s Solo
Song: I Put A Spell On You
Artist/Band: Nina Simone
Buy the song on iTunes:
Ade’s Solo
Song: 18th Floor Balcony
Artist/Band: Blue October
Buy the song on iTunes:
JabbaWockeeZ Guest Performance
I didn’t realize how much I’d missed those white masks til I saw the Jabba on stage. Their synchronicity is beyond anything I’ve seen before and probably will ever see, but their routine could have been better for me.
Song: Freak-A-Zoid
Artist/Band: Midnight Star
Where you’ve heard the song before: Twitch (S4) did a solo to Midnight Star’s song Midas Touch. “Freak-A-Zoid” is from their album No Parking on the Dance Floor, released in 1983.
Buy the song on iTunes:
Chelsie & Mark’s Bleeding Love Performance choreographed by NappyTabs
I’ll admit, the first time I saw this dance, I was only slightly impressed. I think I became a Chelsie fan during DWTS (I know…ssshhhhhh). Watching this routine this time made me long for a better time on the show. When dancers actually gave me more emotions. Chelsie’s face at the end of the routine, that anguish that just radiated from her whole body, actually got me upset. As much as I don’t think Napoleon and Tabitha are pulling through for this season, I think that they got it right last season.
Song: Bleeding Love
Artist/Band: Leona Lewis
Where you’ve heard the song before: Ryan Tedder and Jesse McCartney wrote it. McCartney recorded it on one of his albums.
Buy the song on iTunes:
Kayla’s Solo
Song: You Found Me
Artist/Band: The Fray
Buy the song on iTunes:
Evan’s Solo
Song: Lady Is A Tramp
Artist/Band: Sammy Davis, Jr.
Buy the song on iTunes:
Sean Paul’s Performance
I’m glad the back-up dancers finally had some choreography besides a back roll or some simple gyrations. Were they on the level of any of our dancers? No. But they could have easily won a dance battle against Sex. Or Leo for that matter. As far as I’m concerned, this is one of the better performances this season as far as singers go. Though that isn’t saying much. Song: So Fine
Where you’ve heard the song before: It’s his first single from his newest album Imperial Blaze. Plus I think I can hear every single one of you jamming to this song in your cars with the windows down.
Buy the song on iTunes:
Melissa’s Goodbye Montage
There’s always some kind of drama, and this week it comes in the forms of Kelly Clarkson and Ryan Tedder. “People” are saying that “Already Gone” and “Halo” sound alike (same backing track). Clarkson is a bit upset and says she fought her record label on releasing “Already Gone” as her third single. Listen to the two songs here and decide for yourself. Tedder responded and feels hurt by all of this. I say, we pick new goodbye songs for next week.
Song: Already Gone
Artist/Band: Kelly Clarkson
Buy the song on iTunes:
Ade’s Goodbye Montage
Song: On Your Own
Artist/Band: Green River Ordinance
Buy the song on iTunes:
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