Monday, September 10, 2012

So You Think You Can Dance - 9x13 "Top 6 Perform"

Due to some account dumbness on my part I've been having trouble with Blogger, so long story short is that this week's recap is up on my Tumblr. Read it there, comment here, or what have you.

9 comments:

Daniel said...

My absolute favorite thing about this episode was Witney's AMAZING bitchface during her critique with Chehon and when she was eliminated. I have seen that look many times before on some of my former dance partners, and it roughly translates as: "I cannot BELIEVE you screwed this up for me! I am SO not dancing with you EVER AGAIN! But I must NOT show this anger in front of the audience/judges - I MUST be gracious, as my years of training have taught me. But just you WAIT until we get backstage, Mister!"

In short, on the inside, she was throwing a tantrum.

Between this week's Eliana/Twitch routine and his earlier Janelle/Dareian routine, I am forced to wonder if Christopher Scott is somehow trying to comment on the dismal state of hip-hop on this show. His duo choreography has been abysmal this season - ridiculously juvenile and barely even hip hop at all.

For all the criticism Chehon got during his chacha (which was the SECOND TIME this season a ballroom dance has used Where Have You Been; is the show having issues with music rights or something?) I was downright LIVID when the judges mentioned nothing about Cyrus's shoulders and his awful pirouettes (do you think Spencer Liff put those in on purpose to fuck with him?) in his Broadway routine. I honestly couldn't tell if they had given up or if they genuinely just didn't care. But if you're going to crititque one dancer very far out of his comfort zone, you have to do it for EVERY dancer very far out of his comfort zone. This speaks to the dialogue currently surrounding the show and these two dancers in particular - somehow one is deserving of critique and/or his place in the competition while the other isn't, and the whole seems pretty evenly split about which one it is. I would LOVE to know what the judges really think about this.

The screaming if such a fucking awful goddamned cliche, and you would think that Mia Michaels, at least, would know better. I'm not kidding; in a choreography class in college, our professor gave us a list of things never to do if we wanted to pass, and that was one of them.

When she was whacking in the group routine, Eliana looked SCARILY like the girl who did that last season (Princess Lockeroo? Was that her name?) who sadly did not make the finals. It was giving me LIFE (just like your Comfort caps are doing right now)!

Ray Leeper's Witney/Marko jazz routine: Intentional prequel to NappyTabs' Melanie/Marko "I Got You" routine from last season?

biki said...

sweat *dripping* off Twitch's face, not last week but the week before, maybe? distractingly much, I thought.

Unknown said...

fyi, I'll read you wherever I can

Leee said...

Haha Daniel, see, I actually took some caps of the girls as they waited to hear who among them was going home (Eliana and Tiffany eyes shut, Witney staring straight into the camera) so that I could note how preternaturally well-composed and icy-cool she was! But as ever, I bow to your experience and insights (including the note about the screaming, though interestingly Mary never mentions that in her list of Don'ts that she goes through during auditions, so maybe everyone thinks it is ok).

Yeah, with Cyrus and guys like him, I feel I need to push back against the usual brigade that dismisses and demeans their artistry, and I'm pained when I have to point out really glaring deficiencies (given my position, I've learned to overlook more minor problems). I'm sure that the conversation that's typified by Chehon and Cyrus isn't going away unless the show goes away as well, which might happen now. My guess about the judges -- well, Nigel mostly, since it's more his baby than anyone else's -- is that they give notes based first and foremost on the demands of the show as a reality competition, and only on dance second.

Yes, Princess Lockerooo! And clearly, those Comfort caps wouldn't exist without your comment that inspired them!

biki, if/when I get the time, I'll try to look back for Twitch's drippings (that sounds awful). I'm guessing it's from his hip hop with Witney, when he was wearing that heavy jacket.

biki said...

that was the one, yeah!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iRECqs--gs
around 5:25, when he tips his head to thank JTF for a compliment. (not as distressing as I implied, but noticeable.)

Leee said...

Thanks, Unknown!

And biki, thanks for narrowing it down, though of course all this talk about sweat kinda obliges me to really make a Thing of it now.

Daniel said...

Leee,

In all fairness, the various lists of don'ts are most likely just the things that piss off the particular people giving them. Other things on my choreo prof's list were pounding the floor repeatedly, humping anything, and standing still for more than ten seconds. She was apparently fine with hairography, booty shaking, and reaching.

I cannot WAIT to read your comments about this week's performance finale. I can't decide if Nigel's unbelievably ridiculous "Sorry Cyrus, I'm voting for Chehon, the TRAINED dancer" was genuinely honest, an attempt to hand Cyrus the win, or a cynical, knowing use of reverse psychology to try to rally Chehon's fanbase to action so as not to be stuck with Cyrus as the winner. Because Nigel is nothing if not a savvy businessman, and he's known the results and most likely the actual numbers for every season of this show and most for American Idol, so he knows what effect the judges' comments have on voters. But he also likely knows that people are aware of this.

Amanda said...

I miss Kathacy. Perhaps Legacy is too busy antiquing all by his lonesome to come back to the show now that the missus has to spend all her time promoting Step Up Dialectical Materialism Ha Ha Not Really It's Still Late Capitalism.

Leee said...

Amanda, I am glad I went to grad school so that I could get that.