My thoughts on the SYTYCD finale show. Halfway through, I was thinking, "Gee, I wonder if the fact that Katee is in MOST of the 'best of' numbers means that she's the judges favorite." It was a delight to see Thayne again. Go, Mary Murphy! Sheesh! It's great to know that she has the chops to back up all her bitching and screaming. Bye, Courtney. OH-KAY, Wade Robson has been dipping into the good 60's acid again. What the HELL was his Rabbit Funeral number about? I applaud SYTYCD for exposing the unwashed masses to modern dance, but Wade's piece was so far over the top it was like Cats on some funky drugs. It creeped me OUT, and NOT in the good way. It figures that Cris Angel (TotalFreak) is involved somehow. I was SHOCKED when Katee was eliminated. Shocked. And, kinda pissed. She was my favorite by FAR. She even KICKED ASS in the door number (AND the hip hop number) after she was eliminated. What a pro! The Debbie Allen Dance Academy of Dance for Dancers (upstairs from a Blimpie's Sub Shop) is apparently teaching America's future Jean Benet Ramseys to dance with creepy old British dudes for fun and profit. Now who's taking the good 60's acid?! Apparently Nigel Litgoe. I have to give it to this show. They know what "pulling out ALL the stops" means, and they sure did it tonight. Oh, I forgot to mention HOW MUCH I HATE The Jonas Brothers. They're just awful on SO many levels. And, now they're "rapping" (do the kids still say 'rapping'?) with George Forman. Yikes. Name the winner already! I love this show, but jeeeez FOX can you please not drag-out and pad every single show you air?! Even on TiVo, this show seemed loooong. I loved Cat Deeley's dress. Why are there never good pictures from the shows?! I also loved the look back at all of the "best of" former performers. And, then they were actually THERE. How fierce is that? Neil is super CUTE and --apparently-- made of rubber. Bouncy! Hawk is also one of my favorites ever. Crazy. Were there like 50 dancers on stage? Get on with it! Who won?! Helloooooo! Oh, Joshua. Good.
It's still 80 degrees at 10PM, which officially makes it too hot to blog. However, I will blog on despite the melting inside my brain. So you think you can dance? No, but I know a lot of people who can. I'm sad to see this train pulling into the station. SYTYCD was cruel this season because the dancers were so good, and the choreographers really jockeyed for that Emmy. Let me start by saying that Katee should win hands down. I haven't liked Twitch for weeks. I still like Joshua, but he's not a "star." That other Courtney girl is good, but she's no Katee. I still don't like the unfortunately named Mandy Moore, and I still think that Mia Michaels is a god. That "Russian" number was my least favorite of the season. Bleck. Hated it. What a waste of two sensational hip-hop dancers. Wikipedia has an INSANE amount of detail about this season. Be sure to check it out! There is one example of their "thoroughness" below.
Elimination chart
Contestants are in alphabetical order by last name, then in reverse chronological order of elimination.
*Jessica King suffered an injury that resulted in her being unable to continue in the competition. Comfort Fedoke replaced her as she was the most recent female competitor eliminated.[3]
Due to the heartfelt protestations of threes of people, THE SECTIONAL is back for a once-a-week wrap up.
SYTYCD - What's the point without Thayne? And then I get a "bad vibe" about Jessica leaving the show and Comfort returning. It feels TO ME like the producers realized that Jessica got a free pass being paired with Will, and decided to make a slight correction. Kinda like the Supreme Court appointing Bush instead of Gore in 2000. Gee I wonder how things would have turned out for the world if THAT B.S. hadn't gone down. We're so used to it now (after Diebold handed the 2004 election to Bush against the wishes of the people again), that we don't bat an eye when it happens on a FOX dance reality show. Anyway, as they say, on with the show...
I just have to say again that Cat Deeley looked FANTASTIC one night (blue dress) and HORRIFIC (gold dress) the other night. Can't the stylists on this show find some happy medium between whore/drag queen and Beyonce/drag queen? Click the pics for larger views.
In order, here are my favorite pair numbers: 3)Joshua & Courtney's first number which featured great choreography and HOT dancing. 2)Gev & Kortnee's second number was SUPER! 1)Kattee & Will's first number was BY FAR the best of the night. I LOVED it. Tyce rocketed to the top of my husbands list based mostly on this number (see right column). Solos: 10) Chelsie - Zzzzzz 9) Kherrington - ZZZZZZ 8) Gev - Started slow, but ended pretty good. 7) Comfort - Zzzzzz. No energy. Lame. 6) Joshua - great tricks, BUT laaaame transitions. like he walked from trick to trick. 5) Katee - not nearly as good as I was expecting 4) Courtney - BAAAAD song. Gooooood dance! 3) Will - BAD music, but good leaps. He has power, but also attitude. 2) Mark - Thayne who? Loooove Mark! 1) Twitch - BEST SOLO of the night, and I would have sent him home last week.
One of my favorite numbers from this season was the Bollywood number on the results show this week.
The Mia Michaels number with the top 5 girls was soooo beautiful, but the direction was downright shitty! It almost ruined the number for me. Ugh and MORE Celine Dion. Christ! Can we have a legal LIMIT on the amount of Celine per episode. I'd prefer the limit be ZERO, but that's just me. So, as evidenced by the fact that they were both in my personal "Bottom 3" (see above) I'm perfectly happy to see Gev and Khrerrington go home.
Kathy Griffin is actually too funny. It is possible, and it is happening weekly on her show.
BIG BROTHER 10 - Renny must die. Jesse must strip and be ridden by Gay Rodeo Racist (with or without a saddle, I don't care)! Good lord the puppet show was hilarious. There are HOURS of puppet shows on YouTube. Yay! More Jesse! I hope his HOH room has many half-nude photos of him. That dude who went home bit off a little more than he could chew. He needs to learn lesson #1 in Patty's Reality Show 101 Guide: Lay low, loud mouth!
If you live in West Seattle, be sure to stop by my soon to be growing Zombie Garden.
Coming soon: Tori & Dean & Rob & Big
Coming sooner: Project Runway (I'm busy, people! No time for TiVo -- heresy I know!)
To get you in the mood for tomorrow's new SYTYCD episode, I thought I'd repost/update my post from last week about douche bag supreme, Nigel Lithgoe. AND, now that I've remembered my Red Lasso password, here's the clip! (P.S. - Red Lasso ROCKS!!!) ORIGINAL POST: What was up Nigel Lythgoe's "C U Next Tuesday" last night on SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE? He's one of like 3 Executive Producers of the show, which means that he gets to do pretty much whatever he wants. So then why (presumably) invite/book Robert The Popper for a SICK dance break and then act like a dick to him after his incredible performance. Robert KILLED a reTARded popping routine between elimination segments on SYTYCD (to C + C Music Factory no less!!), and then Nigel "I've A Stick Up My Royal Bum" Lithgoe proceeded to dis him and basically challenge Robert to a dance off with someone else the judges had cut before L.A. It was in very poor taste regardless of the motivations. Also, Cat Deeley's hair,make up, and wardrobe were all FLAWLESS.
Did Mary Murphy inherit Liberace's closet in some bizarre chain of events and custody? Or does she just roll around in glue and then glitter just before air? Either way, I'm blinded AND deafened by her. If she could get her hands on my sense of smell --I assure you-- she would. I will NEVER speak about what Cat Deely was wearing. Except to say that if Shirley Temple, Elizabeth Taylor, and --for some reason-- Ann Magnuson fell into a blender, Cat Deely is what would pop out. Oh wait, there's dancing too!? And THIS time, the dancing started less than 5 minutes into the show and there is lots of dancing. Was someone at SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE reading my blog? (If they were they were the only ones!) Tonight's show just took OFF... for a change. With each duo doing 2 numbers, it'll be a non-stop dance-a-thon. MUCH better than listening to Adam Shankman (pictured under John Travolta) ramble on and on and on.
1st number-Jive-Zzzzz, and just OFF. I think she was off for the whole first section. They got it together, but the number never made me feel anything. The camera work was weird too.
2nd number-Broadway-Thaaaayne! I loooove you! His technique is beautiful to watch!! Comfort is getting better and better. Great choreography too!
3rd number-(Lyrical) Hip Hop-I liked the performance, but I couldn't tell you why. I didn't love it. Can someone explain to me how "Lyrical Hip Hop" is any different than "Contemporary"? Nigel was close with, "...hip hop on sleeping pills."
4th number-Jazz-Their costumes do NOT say "jazz" to me, but daaaaamn they can dance! They could have danced that number in Hammer pants and still rocked it. Mark is soooo goooood and soooo cuuute.
5th number-Paso Doble-Oops, almost dropped her. Then the capes were a mess. But after that, they certainly gave it their all. Kherington looked spookily like Sharon Stone on a diva tirade, which was kinda perfect considering how over the freakin' top it was.
6th number-Contemporary-HOLY CRAP! How does Mia Michaels DO it?! She's the best! I'm in tears. This was one of her best numbers. I have GOT to see a feature-length Mia Michaels dance show. Also, Katee is the best female dancer on the show, and Joshua isn't bad either.
7th number-Hip Hop-This piece was poorly directed and just not hot. You could see both dancers counting in their heads. Is "hip hop" a catch-all term for any dance that isn't ballroom?
8th number-Contemporary-Ugh Mandy Moore! Hate her. Very cheesy but good shirt-work. Nigel made an interesting comment about backstage "meltdowns." Is Will a big drama queen?
9th number-Smooth Waltz-The music was too "Irishy" for my liking, but I really loved the choreography and the dancers were so graceful and smooth.
10th number-Ma'am bo-It was OK, but I didn't really believe it.
11th number-Foxtrot-I love me some foxtrot. I'm glad they are doing more this year. This one wasn't as good a last week's foxtrot, but it was FUN! Fun to watch. Mark looked so damn suave and debonair.
12th number-Contemporary-Sharonstone and Twitch danced a Mia Michaels piece which wasn't as good as the first one, BUT it was still excellent. If Mandy Moore had used rose petals and a bed in a dance piece I would surely have thrown up. This piece was engaging. 13th number-West Coast Swing-Fierce number. More Benjy! I'd love to see Benjy choreography something other than swing, though. The number was good, but I missed half of it due to a thunder storm alert that lasted for like 3 minutes for a part of the area with about 5,000 people living there.
14th number -Broadway-Yikes! I thought this piece was a disaster. It seemed so "Disney Themepark."
Overall, the costuming department should be shot in the face for this weeks crazy array of costumery.
One of my early favorites on SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE is Thayne: the cutest guy with the worst name. His OCD almost makes me love him. There are still WAY too many contestants on this show to mention them all, but a few do stand out. I already mentioned "inThayne." Then there's choreographer Mandy Moore. I have never hated a dance number as much as her first number (pictured), and I would rank her second contemporary piece among the best on the show... ever.
Was Mary Murphy wearing separates from the Joan Collins Collection?
My LEAST favorite pieces were the krumping which just did NOT "hit." Watch David LaChapelle's mediocre documentary RIZE for some real hardcore krumping. And, I hated the Viennese Waltz for two reasons 1) as Nigel pointed out, it wasn't a Viennese Waltz, and 2) How could anyone possibly judge the performance (or even the choreography) when they set up SUCH a sob-story about the choreographer's sick daughter. And, then Mia Michaels who saw through the BS feel-good story to say that the piece itself was sh*t, but of course the overly-emotional audience boo-ed her down and ate the boo-hoo up with a stick. Lame.
If the show is going to have dance categories (like "hip-hop," "krumping," "Viennese Waltz," and "Argentine Tango") then they should be given that type of choreography to dance.
My favorite pieces were #3) the Broadway number that brought the house down; #2) the sexy "Argentine" tango; #1) and as much as I haaated her first number, Mandy Moore's 2nd contemporary piece was my favorite piece of the night. The foxtrot was also lovely.
I agree with the female contestant the judges sent home (barely). It was a close call. Each of the final 2 ladies danced in their own style on Wednesday's show and came up WAY short. I totally agree with the judge's choice for the male contestant sent packing. The other two guys in the "bottom" three were excellent.
Jamie "Look At M'balls!" Bayard was the first guy sent home from SYTYCD 4 last night. His hip-hop was weak, but two things that Nigel "Look At M'teeth!" Lythgoe --the show's judge and executive producer (the guy who is in charge of everything)-- said really surprised me. He said that he thought that "America" may have been offended by Jamie's pantsing, and he also said that going first during a loooong 2 hour show is like the kiss of death. He said something like, no one will remember the first routine by the end of the show. Well, BOTH of those reasons sound like an unfair advantage created BY the producers who could have cut the pantsing if they thought "America" would be offended. I also love that SYTYCD has SUCH an anti-American (government) bias. It's great! It's like the British's chance to get us back for getting them into Iraq. It's like he's saying, "America, you can't handle this show!" Anyway, the producers (and FOX's show-padding-machine) could have made the show 60 minutes or 90 minutes without so much stuff between all the performances. The contestant who sang first on AMERICAN IDOL this season was almost always in the bottom 3. I'll call it FOX-padding-syndrome. It's another example or symptom of the ever-growing storm of new millennium Quiz Show Scandal where reality game shows (shows with prizes and teams and such) have crossed the line of fair play and the only thing keeping the whole mess in check is that the desperate-for-attention contestants wouldn't dare cry foul for fear of not being invited to participate in upcoming shows and projects produced by the show's producers, dancers, choreographers, and crew.
Here's I'm still looking for an image of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE contestant Jamie Bayard getting pantsed by his dance partner in their broadway-esque hip-hop lite routine. The self-admittedly straight yet clearly gay Jamie was exposed on tonight's first live performance show. Sadly, there was no wardrobe malfunction, but we were treated to his sexy shiny briefs and massive thighs. Were the briefs spray-mounted on? One wonders. I wonder. It's worth mentioning that in typical FOX fashion, the first 15 minutes (1/8) of the show went by before the first pair took the stage for their live dance. No one can "pad" a show like FOX! And then in the "not-padding" department, there's Mia Michaels. GODDAMN I love her! She is exactly the kind of nut-job super-brilliant choreographer I LOVE. Her pieces are always just breathtaking. They just stop me in my tracks. All I can do is watch and absorb. I'll probably watch her piece from tonight's show a few more times before TiVo plows the show under. She is speaking a language of dance that is so personal, and her gift is being able to pass that intensely emotional feeling onto the dancers and ultimately onto the audience. Though, her brilliance comes at a price. She seems like she'd be a mega-beeeotch to work with, but the results do speak for themselves. I would love to see an entire Mia Michaels show. Did I mention she's BRILLIANT?! I won't bore you with a play-by-play wrap-up of the whole show. There are still way too many contestants to keep them all straight (pun intended) in my head. Here are a few highlights. My favorite dance piece of the show was Mia Michaels' piece with Chelsie Hightower and Mark Kanemura (fox!). Another standout was Katee Shean and Joshua Allen. I love that SYTYCD isn't afraid to "go there" with some controversial and usually anti-war and/or pro-peace messages in their choreography. Susie Garcia and Marquis Cunningham did a beautiful waltz. Marquis mentioned in his intro clip package that his family wasn't supportive of his dancing for reasons that sounded as if they were to blindly support a pro-masculine stereotype that dance is gay. Well, if you name your son Marquis, what do you expect?! Speaking of queer stuff, gayest outfit of the night easily goes to Chris Jarosz. I also love me some crazy Mary Murphy! Even she doesn't know what the hell she's talking about half the time, but it doesn't matter. And finally, to clear up any confusion, Kourtni is nothing like Courtney who is nothing like Chelsie nor Chelsea.
I've seen hours and hours and hours and hours of dance in the past few days. I watched 4Th "TiVo hours" of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE. I watched 2Th of STEP IT UP AND DANCE. I watched 2 1/2Th of RANDY JACKSON PRESENTS AMERICA'S BEST DANCE CREW BROUGHT TO YOU BY RANDY JACKSON AND RANDY JACKSON, DOG. And I watched 6 live and in-person hours of the Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB) at beautiful McCaw Hall at Seattle Center on Sunday. There's nothing better than a good ballet live. The men in tights! The ladies who are lighter than air! And, after 8 1/2Th (which is about 5 hours and 20 minutes; 1Th = 40 mins - except PBS and Disney Channel) of dance (much of it hip-hop) I was so pleased to be immersed in spectacular live ballet and modern dance. The matinee ballet was a trio of Jerome Robbins pieces which were powerful and beautiful and funny. I love dance that really makes me laugh and cry. "Fancy Free" was funny and breezy and very masculine. "In the Night" was so beautiful and classic. It had the most astounding lift work I've ever seen. And "The Concert" capped off the show with a hilarious and touching story featuring my favorite costumes of the day. The evening ballet was, EIGHT ENCORES, the final show of the PNB season which featured 8 of the season's best numbers and a few extra special encores thrown in. It was a delightful mix of classic ballet, modern ballet, and modern cutting edge dance. The sold out show was a who's who of Seattle dance. As PNB Artistic Director Peter Boal said, "I'm told there are 1500 people here tonight... and almost half of you paid for your ticket." The last piece on the program was "Caught" which uses strobe lights to make the dancer appear as if he or she is frozen in mid air almost floating as a still images across the stage. It must be seen to be believed, and even then... So, it would appear that dance is making a comeback. Get out there and support your local dancers, dance crews, and ballets.
The ever aDORable, Travis Wall of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE did a "surprise" number to end the show's multi-city, multi-hour audition tour shows. It was a surprise because --apparently-- no one knew it was him since he was dressed like a hoochie. His performance started off a little weird because he was SO gay that it hurt my eyes to watch it. I mean, "It's Rainin'Men"?! Come on! That's not even FUNNY any more. But, as it dawned on (the straight) people that she was really a he, Travis did some appropriately amazing dance moves (once he put the umbrella down --I'm not kidding). Awwww, li'l Travis.
My thoughts on the SYTYCD finale show. Halfway through, I was thinking, "Gee, I wonder if the fact that Katee is in MOST of the 'best of' numbers means that she's the judges favorite." It was a delight to see Thayne again. Go, Mary Murphy! Sheesh! It's great to know that she has the chops to back up all her bitching and screaming. Bye, Courtney. OH-KAY, Wade Robson has been dipping into the good 60's acid again. What the HELL was his Rabbit Funeral number about? I applaud SYTYCD for exposing the unwashed masses to modern dance, but Wade's piece was so far over the top it was like Cats on some funky drugs. It creeped me OUT, and NOT in the good way. It figures that Cris Angel (TotalFreak) is involved somehow. 
I was SHOCKED when Katee was eliminated. Shocked. And, kinda pissed. She was my favorite by FAR. She even KICKED ASS in the door number (AND the hip hop number) after she was eliminated. What a pro! The Debbie Allen Dance Academy of Dance for Dancers (upstairs from a Blimpie's Sub Shop) is apparently teaching America's future Jean Benet Ramseys to dance with creepy old British dudes for fun and profit. Now who's taking the good 60's acid?! Apparently Nigel Litgoe. I have to give it to this show. They know what "pulling out ALL the stops" means, and they sure did it tonight. Oh, I forgot to mention HOW MUCH I HATE The Jonas Brothers. They're just awful on SO many levels. And, now they're "rapping" (do the kids still say 'rapping'?) with George Forman. Yikes. Name the winner already! I love this show, but jeeeez FOX can you please not drag-out and pad every single show you air?! Even on TiVo, this show seemed loooong. I loved Cat Deeley's dress. Why are there never good pictures from the shows?! I also loved the look back at all of the "best of" former performers. And, then they were actually THERE. How fierce is that? Neil is super CUTE and --apparently-- made of rubber. Bouncy! Hawk is also one of my favorites ever. Crazy. Were there like 50 dancers on stage? Get on with it! Who won?! Helloooooo! Oh, Joshua. Good.
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