OK, SYTYCD impressions, before I read the new posts in the thread!
Opening: Damn, Virgil is charismatic when in closeup. Moises is adorable. Where are the less-good boys? Oh, suddenly now they show up, so Burim can...kneel near the side of the stage? Ugh. WTF is on Megz' head, enormo headwrap thing? Very weird, costume crackwhores. I still don't remember half these peoples' names. But hey, new choreographers is cool.
Derek/Jaja/Alexa - contemp - (All Waters - Perfume Genius): Sorry Stacy Tookey, but this is dreadful crap. Nobody's going to get votes from this, it's boring. Blah. OMG, Nigel, Jaja is masculine? SHUT UP.
Moises/Jim/Megz - hiphop - (Whatever - Remy Ma) Aww, I like all three of them. But oh, this is so sad. Jim is just not a hip hop dancer. Moises is trying, but meh. Megz is awesome (if she had given more this would’ve been even more uncomfortable, Paula).
Yorelis/Edson/JJ - jazz - (Restart - Sam Smith) Edson why are you wearing hammer pants in rehearsals? OK, I thought he looked ridiculous in rehearsals, but he is giving it in the number. Maybe he just needs to be shirtless? Or maybe closeups just aren’t his friend. The girls aren’t great though. Hmm. Apparently Jason disagrees with me.
Marisa/Asaf - cha cha - Oh dear. (+1 - Martin Solveig) Did we even end up with any ballroom folks on Team Stage?? He’s awful. I can’t even tell if she’s any good because he is so bad. She’s clearly trying really hard though. Low expectations for him are not helpful, judges.
Gabby/Burim/Ariana - African jazz - (Gorilla - Lord KraVen) Burim wasn’t doing too bad at the beginning but then he fell apart. Also, how/why make him look like Edward Scissorhands?
Even if the “tell me your favorite color” stuff was dumb in the past, the fact that they’re not doing it this year kind of makes me feel like I really don’t know half the dancers.
Kate/Neptune: contemp?? (Promise- Ben Howard) I don’t love this choreo. But the costume/makeup crackwhores seem to like Kate, she looks gorgeous.
Hailee/Virgil - hiphop (Runnin - Noahplaus) Virgil is so TINY! Wow, he held her up on his arm?? Damn. I thought they were both great.
Team Stage: I do enjoy all the new choreographers this season! That’s exciting! I like the twirling dominos thing and the assisted-run-over-people. The slow lifts slightly less.
Team Street: OK, Jaja might have over-mugged that one at the beginning. I think Yorelis was good before they were focusing on her? It was a’ight.
SO glad to see Asaf AND Burim in the bottom. Moses looks like a BABY next to the other three! I feel like he should come back in 5 years. WHAT? They’re keeping ASAF??? WTF judges. WTF. Not shocked at Edson over Moises, much as Moises is adorable.
And now to read the commentary from y’all and from Casper! :)