Yay, there was no one I hated, for once. Except Tyce. Sigh. I'm loving Nick, Melanie, and Sasha the most, so far. Nick and Iveta doing their footwork through lunch were too cute, if she can kick ass outside of ballroom she might join my favorites.

Are they staying with the same partners now or switching it up every week? I forget how it works.

SYTYCD

So I watched via mjsbigblog mostly, so my coverage was spotty , including not having audio for a few performances. And I didn't listen to the commentary at all, although I read the summaries.

Top couples: Melanie/Marko - they laid it down. Hi Travis! Really nicely done.

Travis has a deep understanding of what kind of choreo works for this show in a way that Chris Scott does not yet. I really like LXD, but it is more of a dance than a narrative, and SYTYCD needs to be more pedestrian explainable. Not to be a total snob about it or anything. But it's a show with a different audience than most dance audiences. The choreo needs to be entry level narrative, show-biz level flash bang.

Sasha/Alexander. I liked Alexander! I don't know what the judges' ish is. Sasha was fierce, but I hope she gets some nice gentle choreo to show her grace. Is Alexander kat's flappy pants boy?

Favorite individual: Have to say Missy. There was nobody whose body or movement made me gasp (hi, Alex Wong!) but she came the closest, and she was fully committed to her dance, which I love in a dancer.

Hated: Ryan. Didn't like her last time she auditioned, don't like her now. She's a perfectly good dancer, but there's a big giant ice tower wall between her and the audience and I don't know why she's doing that. If you haven't come to bleed your dance on the stage, go home.

Forgettable: Clarice, Jess (needs to work on his retractions and arms), Miranda (is jive latin?).

Badly want to like: Tadd! He's a cutie, and I thought I was Caucasian when I was a kid too! I didn't know, there weren't any Asians for miles around! Okay, apparently there was Kat, but I didn't know her then! I thought he did a great job considering, and he was shaky but not terrible at the partnering. And the opening lift? Badass. I want more from him; I hope he sticks around long enough to grow.

Ashley: Hope she brings more. I think she has potential.

Iveta is too old for this show. I like her and she's a hell of a dancer, but dance is a young person's game, and she's like, twice the age of some of these fools. That said, it was a gorgeous quickstep. Quickstep is closer to tap, so it wasn't as huge a leap for Nick as they were making it, but he did stand up with her.

Everybody (except Iveta/Nick and maybe Ashley/Chris): Clean up your timing on side by side work! Your rehearsal space surely has mirrors in it. Wrench your eyes off your dancer body for a minute and sync up. When you're that far off each other, SOMEBODY IS WRONG! But it doesn't matter. You're off the beat, but it would be better to be off the beat together. It's like singing harmony. You need to learn to watch the other person's lips, even if all you can see is the corner of his mouth. Learn to feel each other, breathe each other, and rehearse the shit out of the routine until the timing is pristine. Watch some Jabbawockees.

Liese,

Clean up your timing on side by side work!

I agree with you, but I am not sure they have enough time to do what you suggest. Less than a week to get this all down in complicated routines, can be tough for people outside their genres. I think it is a show structure problem.

I actively cannot stand Ryan. I want her to go SO badly. She is about the only person right now who rubs me the wrong way such that I'm not willing to give her a second chance. I don't want to see her again ever.

True. But at this point in the show, it's only one routine. Timing really matters in partnering, and I just don't think it's stressed.

Also, some of the guys definitely had some stomp around the girl awkward partnering moments. But they did really well for a week one.

They also have the group dance on Thursdays in addition to their Wednesday dance to work on. But, you're right--that's something they're going to have to learn how to do eventually, might as well learn it here and now!

It took me until this morning to realize that I am thinking of Sasha/Alexander as one person because Sasha is a nickname for Alexander. It's just an accident of names, I quite liked Alexander.

Some interesting pieces in reality blurred this morning that I thought some of you would be interested in. First, "The Voice":

Speaking of costs, citing “knowledgable sources,” The Hollywood Reporter says that Christina Aguilera makes $225,000 per hour (not episode, though “per hour” may just be a synonym for episode) while Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine, and Blake Shelton each make just $75,000. That’s a $150,000 per hour difference.

And now for the bad news: Despite Paul Teledgy’s “resisting great pressure” to rush a second season on air for the fall, we learn this from The Hollywood Reporter’s story:

“…de Mol says he envisions five to six audition episodes (up from only two this year). Telegdy is eager to build the backstories of the contestants and depict more of the coaching process in longer “battle round” episodes. And if all continues to go well, NBC hopes to have two installments of Voice — one in the fall and one in the spring — for the 2012-13 season.” More audition episodes are fine; longer battle rounds, which really sucked the life out of the show for a bit, are not. And after being smart about not airing two seasons in a row, I can’t believe they’re considering two seasons a year. American Idol succeeded in part because it airs just one season a year. I really hope NBC doesn’t kill the success it’s found, but this is NBC, after all.

and good gems with a Rick Bayliss interview about Top Chef Masters:

First, Rick said that after “never less than two hours” or three hours of being judged, when the chefs would return to the kitchen table, “they [producers] had it loaded with booze. Because they wanted us to just sit there and drink ourselves silly, because that was always an hour, an hour and a half while the judges deliberated. And then we would have to go back and stand in front of them, and then they really wanted us to be sort of loose, can you say,” he said.

“So we would sit down at that table and no one would drink. And then the producers would come over and go, ‘How about a beer? How about some wine? We’ll open it for you. Here, we’ll pour it.’” Also during the interview, Rick said, “There’s an always an open bar; there’s always booze every way you turn.”

During season one, producers “had a hard time getting any chefs of note,” he said. (And apparently had the same problem this year, I say!) Because the show was new, producers promised the chefs they cast, “you have to trust us on this” and said “we’re going to be gentle with you guys.” He notes that it worked out and because “nobody’s doing any backbiting,” that “really turned out to be its charm in the end.”

I like Floyd, but am annoyed that one of the women didn't win. What a crap ass season of Top Chef Masters.

links:

baylis: [link]

voice: [link]