SYTYCD – Top 8
You can tell things are getting serious on this show because they brought out the big guns as guest judges, which this week included Lady Gaga, of all people. She’s clearly a fan of the show and at one point even offered a job to Melanie. I was actually fairly shocked by her as a judge. She had substantive comments that were pretty interesting and not at all insane, unlike her outfit. She did make one comment to Nigel that was a little over the top, but apart from that, she was great.
I loved the all-star lineup: Neil Haskell, the two Laurens (Gottlieb & Froderman), Ivan, Allison, it was really a great bunch. I so much wanted to see them dance together. Would have loved to see this again:
Or pretty much anything Lauren Froderman has ever done.
But the night pretty much belonged to Melanie and Sasha, with an attempt by Marko to steal the show. For my money the best routine was the one with Melanie and Neil, if only because they took the cheesiest 80s song of all time and reveled in the cheese:
Dig Neil’s aerial pirouette at the beginning and Melanie’s fearless head-first flying leap into his arms near the end. Awesome.
But the routine that brought the house down was this Sonya Tayeh Jazz number with Melanie and Sasha:
Sonya really owned the show, because the emotional heart of the show was her contemporary routine with Marko and Allison:
I also really liked this Mandy Moore Jazz number with Tadd and Lauren, featuring yet another 80s signature tune:
I’m glad we got to see the contestants dancing together in different pairs along with the all-star pairings. I still like Tadd and Caitlynn, but it’s really looking like Melanie and Marko are still the ones to beat, even when they aren’t dancing together. Sasha is clearly also in the running for the title. If I have to predict who’s going home tonight, I’d say it’s most likely Jordan and Jess. Gaga made it clear that she loves Ricky and if her followers call in to vote for him, there’s no way he’s going anywhere, even though he probably had the weakest night.
Posted on July 28, 2011, in Dance, Television and tagged SYTYCD, Top 8. Bookmark the permalink. 7 Comments.
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Can we just give Allison her own show? Cuz she puts everyone else in the shade.
The Allison/Marko dance was the best. I don’t know why everyone freaked out over Sasha/Melanie, I thought it was boring. Even the Melanie/Neil piece didn’t really do anything for me until I watched it a second time. I much preferred the Thad/Lauren piece. And Jess’s piece too with the other Lauren.
I’m just so sick of all the contemporary dancers. I’m rooting for the non-contemps at this point.
The Sasha/Melanie dance wasn’t really my thang, but I can understand the appeal. It had a lot of creativity and originality. It was just a little off the wall for me.
I know what you mean about the contemporary dancers, but how long has it been since a non-contemporary dancer won? Has it ever happened?
I really like the way Tadd dances. I think he is the best of the non-contemporary dancers, but he’s practically the only one left. Jess is a broadway dancer, Jordan and Marko are Jazz but that seems very similar to contemporary to me. Everyone else is contemporary.
Russel won. Krumper.
Benji won. Swing.
Joshua? Not sure what his style was–hip hop?
Tadd has a lot of style. I really like him.
Here are the winners, by season, with their specialties:
Nick Lazzarini
(Contemporary Jazz)
Benji Schwimmer
(Latin Ballroom)
Sabra Johnson
(Contemporary)
Joshua Allen
(Hip-Hop)
Jeanine Mason
(Contemporary)
Russell Ferguson
(Krump)
Lauren Froderman
(Contemporary Jazz)
If you look at the runners-up and those in second and third place, the number of contemporary dancers becomes even more overwhelming. It’s the rare hip-hop dancer that breaks into the top four. Joshua and especially Russell were unusually gifted dancers. It’s been a while since we’ve even seen a ballroom dancer in the top four. The last one was Lacey Schwimmer in season 3.
Last season, all the top three (there were only three in the finale) were contemporary dancers.
You left out Russell. I don’t think he was technically all that good–but he had personality and that spark that everyone’s missing this season. It’s funny thst most of the all-stars they’ve had back on the show weren’t winners.
But yeah, I think that’s why I’m getting so tired of contemporary. There’s too many of them. I still can’t believe they only had one ballroom dancer on this year, a world 10 dancer, and she went home home the first week.
Fixed it.
Yeah Russell was a very unique sort of guy. I think the dancers that win end up being very busy, so it’s hard to get them back for the all-star role. The only winner they’ve had has been Lauren and she just won last season.
BTW, Nigel was right that she has changed dramatically. She always had this “little girl” sort of thing happening last season and now she looks very grown up.
I think the show isn’t really geared for ballroom dancers. They do ballroom routines more as a way of weeding out the dancers whio can’t follow the choreography than as a way of showcasing the talent of those who are really specialists in that area.
The problem is that the ballroom dancers don’t have the ability to cross over and do the dramatic leaps and other tricks that the contemporary dancers can do, but a good contemporary dancer can usually do the ballroom numbers decently. As a result, the contemporary dancers come off looking a lot more versatile and they also have the dramatic moves that get the attention of the voters.
The best example of this lately was Ashley and Ryan, the married ballroom couple that were on a couple seasons ago. Massively talented ballroom dancers who were very appealing personally but just didn’t have the dramatic moves to get them into the finale.
Actually, I guess they were in the finale, but only because there were six dancers in the finale that season. They placed fifth and sixth.