So You Think You Can Dance 5

[handful_ofdust]

So...forgot to talk about this thus far, or maybe just talked about it too much IRL for it to slop over. Like most people, I found the presentation of the male-on-male ballroom team last week pretty disgusting, though not for the reasons Nigel and/or the show wanted me to. In all seriousness, neither of them was strong enough to go further, and I think that Sonja had a point when she raised the issue of ballroom being inherently geared towards one person playing "the girl", which meant that their constant trading of that role came off as awkward and confusing. But MAN, am I sick of the whole "you're not being MASCULINE enough!" vibe coming out of Nigel...particularly weird in his case, since he's been a damn dancer for forty years or so, so I think he's probably met a few extraordinarily professional gay guys in his time (even beyond, say, Blake, Danny, Brandon, Tyce D'Orio and Adam Shankman). And playing "It's Raining Men" as an intro cue, with "It's a Man's (Man's Man's Man's) World" as an outro? Lame, guys. Lame.

That being said--some very strong people this time 'round, especially in terms of the girls, which gets me thinking (as ever) about how badly they're inevitably going to handle the girl-on-girl portion of the finale show. I agree with my ex-student Chris Bird (over at mightygodking.com--he's been posting "Best Of" clips, BTW, so check it out) that this has, hands down, traditionally been the most inequitably choreographed dance routine throughout SYTYCD U.S. (and Canada)'s entire run(s); see giving Katee and Courtney the point-and-leap-with-bustles-on BS vs. Joshua and Twitch getting to trepak their brains out, last year, or Nico and Myles getting caporeira vs. Allie and Natalli doing the "go-go". So--how to fix?

This year, I'd love to see somebody give the final two chicks something firey and martial to work with: Flamenco, for example (see the flamenco "duel" in the all-flamenco version of Carmen), or a Tai Chi/Wing Chun/rhythm gymnastics variant (call it "Peking Opera"). Man, that'd rock. Or better yet, reserve Sonja or Mia Michaels for this slot, RFN. No Tyce! Not ever again!

Comments

[marythefan.livejournal.com]

The only decent female finalists choreography that show has ever ever ever seen was Wade's foxes piece for Lacey and Sabra, which complete fucking brilliance went entirely over the heads of the idiot judges. I know you remember that. I still twitch when I think about the response it got.

To see that followed by ... whatever that vapid bouncing around was they made Katee and Courtney do last year, it almost made me cry.

Yes. Give it to Sonja this year. Please, God, give it to Sonja.

Re: the two male ballroom dancers, I wanted to put my fist through the TV screen, watching the way that was played out, but then, I reached my shrieking point on Nigel's "Stop dancing like a pansy" schtick about a third of the way into last season, so I suppose that was no surprise. What particularly struck me was how very stuck-in-the-box the judges seemed to be on the issue. Granted, you'd have to have a couple of guys with much better training and technique, and some hella better choreography skills, and you'd probably want to give them some contemporary training, as well as ballroom ... but I kind of want to see what you could come up with, if someone who knew what they were doing tried deconstructing ballroom and choreographing it for two men.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

I know you're no huge fan of the Schwimmers, but maybe Benji could try doing it West Coast stylee for the final two dudes, this year.;) (Dmitri would also be good!)

[autobotsrollout.livejournal.com]

The same-sex ballroomers on SYTYCD had reasonable technique; the problem, from a ballroom perspective, is that they switched up leader/follower roles a lot, and most of the ballroom community - even the same-sex ballroom community - is very firm that you Don't Do That because it ruins a lot of the underlying chemistry and flavour of the dance.

That's what Mary and Sonya were trying to say, albeit ineloquently. Dan Karaty called out on auditioning same-sex ballroom couple (two women) on the Dutch version of the show for pretty much exactly the same thing.

A pretty good example of "traditional" same-sex ballroom is here (with the black-clad dancer taking the "male" role and the white-clad the "female"):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smc5rDecvOs

Of course, this continues to be a major schism in ballroom, and there is a small but notable contingent of same-sex ballroomers saying that it's time to revolutionize ballroom by exchanging leader/follower roles in a routine.

But of course none of this is really the point, because the point is that Nigel was a douchebag and his comments weren't about the leader/follower issue so much as they were that he really wants men, be they gay or straight, to dance "manly."

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

That clip is fascinating; Saura is, of course, the guy who choreographed that amazing flamenco I was talking about (and I had to review Tango once, so I remember this). And yes, I was fairly sure it was just Nigel being a douche, which is too bad--when he's on, I quite like Nigel. And I'm getting very tired of this particular hobby-horse.

[autobotsrollout.livejournal.com]

FYI: Travis is straight.

Yes, I know. I didn't believe it either at first.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

What, seriously? Man. My gaydar must be getting extremely faulty.

Okay: Travis out (ha ha), Blake in, as above. Thanks for the heads-up.

So...obviously, always dicey to say before Hollywood week--but do you have any favorites, going in? And man, was Seattle some sort of massive talent sink, or what?

[autobotsrollout.livejournal.com]

I'm also pretty sure Danny is straight. Neil is gay, though, as is Nick from season 1. But anyway.

I haven't seen tonight's episode yet, so I don't even know if Philip Chbeeb showed up again (although in the dramatic opening for the first episode there was a popper who looked and danced like the Chbeeb, so I'm hoping), much less how bad Seattle was. But Gabi Rojas, Brandon and Natalie from "nearly made it in last season" fame, and older-brother-who-tap-danced-with-the-whoopee-cushion will all make top 20, almost certainly.

It's harder to call hip-hop dancers because A) the show historically does a bad job of representing them properly and B) it's always tougher to tell how well they adapt to choreo. But I'll go out on a limb and say that Silky is probably in, and if the Chbeeb showed up he's in too.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Well, thank God I was right about Nick, anyhow!

Yup, Phillip is back, and this year his has a girlfriend--a contemporary dancer who also got through to Vegas. They're extraordinarily cute together, which will make for good drama if/when she gets cut.

As for the rest: Yeah, I'm with you re Gabi, Brandon and Natalie (and possibly Silky). Not sure about Kasparczak brother the elder, but one of 'em's almost definitely making it.

[autobotsrollout.livejournal.com]

Older Kasparczak has his own successful dance studio, and is actually one of those dancers who actually doesn't need the boost the show can provide. He's almost a ringer, which is why I think he's a lock for top 20.

Chbeeb is a lock too. Oh, and although he only got a few seconds on air, Alex Wong is really really good. Search him on the Youtube.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

He's almost a ringer

Orrr...they might be bait-and-switching us to ratchet up excitement for his little bro, so that we'll be rooting for at least one of them to get in. The drama thing, right?

But yeah, after the whole last-minute pneumonia episode, I can't see Phillip not getting in. And he's obviously been exposed to other styles in the interim, so--gravy.;)