Yes, need to hear from Kat! (Ahh, I just glanced while I was typing/am watching and she posted! Will have to do another post in a minute once I've seen it all)
I liked the opening number, but NSM the costumes. WTF. Plus always curious how much of the choreography is "I only want 10 people on stage right now" vs "only 10 of these people can do the choreography in this part", etc...
Brooklyn and Serge--chacha--He's great, she is not impressing me at all. I can't articulate why, but at times she looks uncertain/wobbly/not grounded. There are some parts where she looks OK, but others...no. That said, she had to go FIRST. So it might some be nerves and she'll get better? (Yes, Mary agrees with me!)
Emily and Casey--contemp(Travis)--I feel like they're dancing the steps really well, but somehow...the emotion is not there? And maybe they're not really dancing WITH the music but just...at the same time as music is on, if that makes sense?
Valerie and Zack--tapping-- I can't understand a word she said but she's adorable. Also, they've really abandoned the "random choice of genre" idea, haven't they? It's not like they'd make random other folks tap dance. I would believe the confidence more if she weren't looking down at the stairs/her feet half the time (not that I want her to fall off! She just seems a lot more comfortable when...not on the stairs)
Bridget and Stanley--contemp--He has the same birthday as Michael Jackson? That means he has the same birthday as ME TOO! :) Their jumps are lovely. I dig him more than her.
Jacque and Jordan--pas de deux--wait, what? Two girls?? Will they switch partners next week? Will all of them? So puzzled. LOVE the fouettes!! But I don't remember which girl is which, so can't say which I like better--the flat-chested one? (Seems to be Jacque, I guess?) But it'll also depend on how they are in other styles.
I have to say, i'm kinda entertained by Jason Derulo as a judge, though the "big fat butt" song I do not especially enjoy.
Malene and Marcquet--if you're named after the university WHY IS IT SPELLED SO WRONG. --samba--(Lighting designer--why so much strobe????) She's fabulous, but can she do anything else? I don't have a feeling about him yet. (Oh Mary. So much crack you are on)
Carly and Rudy--contemp--I think some of what I'm not loving about this is choreography--I don't like the wide-spread-fingers/open hands look, and it keeps happening, but I think that's like the flexed feet/pointed feet thing, and it's supposed to be like that....
Emilio and Teddy--hiphop--Loving this. I think I like Emilio better. That was great.
...and the other two and reading what Kat had to say will have to wait, time for some drinks on the patio with coworker!
I am watching this ep now. I thought Brooklyn (first dance) was terrible. Just terrible. For that to be her dancing style, I was astonished at how bad she was. Her whole center was off, and I'm not a professional dancer.
I thought Ricky and Jessica were fantastic. What I really dig about Sonya is her reactions when dancers do a great job with her work. She was so pleased at their execution of her vision. She said "wow" at the end. I just love that shit.
Knock me over with a feather, there is a White woman named Tanisha!
Ha! le nubian, my irl SYTYCD friend said the same thing. We have taken to calling her White Tanisha because we still can't believe it.
I just watched the routines on HULU. I was out last night.
Hulu doesn't have the full ep up yet, just the individual routines so I had no idea who the choreographers were and didn't get any of the intros and such. Also, I watched them in reverse order, by accident.
I could guess who the choreos were on some routines. Some people do have signature styles...Travis, Sonja...I'm looking at you!
I think this week wasn't about pairing it was about letting them show off in their own styles. Why else would you have 2 ballerinas dance together?
I mostly enjoyed all of the dancing sans the judges, Kat Deely and the intros.
I'm not going to lie, I did a google image search on Tanisha just to see, and most of the pictures are Tanisha Singh and Tanisha Mukherjee, which I thought was interesting.
Also, they've really abandoned the "random choice of genre" idea, haven't they?
This week was "in your own style" -- they'll mix it up next time.
White Tanisha is one of the Utah Mormon ballroom girls, right? There is a strong tradition of unusual names among Utah Mormons. [link]
I watched clips on herky-jerky online, and so far my favorites are Stanley and Marquet. I had trouble telling most of the women apart.
Yes, since they went to the All Stars format, they've been doing the opening Top 20 night with the kids dancing in their own styles. They've usually done group routines, though. This is the first time (I think) that they've done opening paired routines in your own style. Maybe because of the double ballerinas? Or maybe because there's really only one true hip hop boy. And can we just stop and marvel at the fact that there is only one hip hop kid in the top 20 this year? That is just insane.
OK, reading Kat's comments now...
Sonya seems to have expanded her movement vocabulary in interesting ways. It’s still her, but more varied
Yes, I thought so too--I was like "I think this is Sonya, but maybe it's not, it's a little less cray than her usual..."
And what is on her butt? Is it paper? Is it a bandage? It’s super distracting.
I didn't say it but I wondered the same thing. Tape that wasn't working?? WHY?
Crazy. And he seemed to be dealing with the stairs much better than Valerie. She kept looking down like she was afraid she was about to fall which I would have totally been doing, too, but it kinda defeated the purpose of making it look effortless!
Glad I wasn't the only one who noticed!
It’s fun to hear Nigel talk about tap since he so clearly knows his shit. And Jason DeRulo was a tapper. Huh. Who knew?
Yes, and he really kinda cracked me up with the later "well, you know I come from a pointe background..." HAH.
I secretly think that Jourdan’s technique is a little bit stronger than Jacque’s but Jourdan seriously lacked the stamina to get through this routine
Ooh, really? What made you think that? I think I need to rewatch that one because mostly I was like "FOUETTE! Oh, dang, don't fall over, girl"
m confused about where the “R” sound is coming from in this girl’s name.
Is it just Cat's accent, or is there actually an R sound in it?
man who hears The Commodores come on and yells out “Aww, sookie sookie now!”
Dude. Where is the sookie sookie from? We used to do that as a warmup before drag shows!
Didn't make notes, but LOVED the Sonya "Vow" number. HATED Tanisha's ugly outfit on the last chacha. Also, why two chachas??? And I was surprised they didn't call him out on his mugging.
