TAR back on November 4th!!!

Shall we all dance on the corpse of Viva Laughlin ?

MTV's SYTYCD marathon was awesome. I was flipping past and I thought they were doing season 3 again and then I saw Benji and Donyelle and was soooo excited. But watching it again just convinced me that this year's top 10 was much better than last year's (even with the Hunchback and Mischa Chan) but last year's top 10 was charm central. They were flat out entertainers, in the old Mickey and Judy, "Hey, kids! Let's put on a show!" mode. Oh and S2 choreographers kicked S3 in the ass. So many good routines that I had forgotten, especially the hip hop choreo . . . so much better than this year's crap.

I came across the marathon this weekend, and left it on for a bit while housecleaning because I've seen you guys raving about it. I'm not sure I see the total reason for the appeal. I mean, I've always been a sucker for dance routines, and always loved musicals. But I don't think anyone on that show danced for longer than 45 seconds. There was no time to build an atmosphere, or get enthralled with any of them. And apparently there are 3 "judges" who don't really vote on anything, they just provide commentary. One man actually sounded as though he knew about dance, they other man sounded equally reasonable, but the woman -- her role seemed to be to scream into the camera. Do the dancers actually choose their own music and costumes? They don't choose their own choreography.

SYTYCD is set up a lot like American Idol, but there are differences. They do have open auditions every where and the 3 judges who all have dance experience. There are 2 premanent judges - Nigel (who is a producer) and was a dancer/choreographer, Mary (the screaming lady), who was a ball room dancer/choreographer and then a "guest" judge pulled from the pool of choreographers.

Up until the Top 10 the judges make the final decision. The dancers dance, America votes, and then the bottom 3 men and bottom 3 women "dance for their lives" and then the judges decide which 2 go home. It goes like that until the Top 10, when America's votes finally count.

Mary, I think, started out sounding normal, but her screams became her thing and now she does it more and more. Grates my nerves and makes me think of her as more like Paula, because Mary has fewer and fewer constructive things to say.

All kinds of dancers audition -- breakers , ballet, modern, ballroom but they randomly draw types of dances each week. So you can have a modern dancer paired with a breaker doing a foxtrot, and that's what draws me in. Seeing dancers dance outside of their speciality and doing well.

Of course then you get them doing their thing and it's cool as well.

I think the dance routines are supposed to be 2 minutes long, and vary in style -- depending on which choreographers they use.

the dances are 1:30, i think. but yeah, what askye said.

I will also point and say, what askye said. And agree that the judging across the board used to be much better than it is now (even Mary). Everyone they have on the panel actually has tons of dancing experience, but this season for sure (and to an extent S2) the judges have been much more about the AI style empty critiques. They used to get real down and dirty.

The thing I love about SYCYTD, that for me puts it head and shoulders above AI (though I loooove AI) is that the contestants are ridiculously talented. And many of the choreographers are very good. So you wind up with talented people doing well-choreographed routines that push them and help them grow as dancers. Revolutionary! And every now and again, you still get good critiques. If you ever catch an episode with Mia Michaels on panel, she gives good, constructive feedback. Dan Karaty, for all that he's a crap choreographer, is a good judge as well. Nigel (the creepy old British dude) sometimes gives good critiques as well, but sometimes uses his post to push his own personal agenda or try to be the low rent Simon Cowell. I miss Brian Friedman on the panel, because he always gave good critiques (and he was a diva bitch to boot which was delicious). Most of the rest of the rotating judges are useless. I guess I really love this show because I think, of all the "talent" reality shows (and I include PR and Top Chef and the like in this bunch), SYTYCD has by far the most consistently high talent level. Learning a new, possibly completely unfamiliar, style of dance well enough to present a polished routine every week is incredibly difficult. And later in the competition, these kids are learning two to three dances per week plus a group routine. I am in awe of that.

they really need to bring Brian back.

they really need to bring Brian back.

Word.

OMG, Jesse, I watched the fourfour video recap and laughed my ass off. He needs to run some kind of contest where you get to hang out and watch the show with him.

James Lipton, the host of U.S. talk show, Inside the Actors' Studio, once worked as a pimp in Paris, France.

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TAR 12 cast