(S06E14) I'm very surprised that So You Think You Can dance had no musicians this week. I thought any desperate pop/dance musician would jump for the opportunity to hawk their song to America. Instead we get only one amazing dance group, but that wasn't enough to fill an hour's worth of television.I hope that the show was really live because there were some awkward camera angles, a microphone that wasn't adjusted in the beginning, and graphics that appeared out of nowhere. Luckily, it was adjusted in the first five minutes, but it shows that SYTYCD was depending on their pre-taped nature for the past few weeks.
Group Performance - Warrior Pt. 2 Lloyd Banks - Group performance starts with all the men and sadly, I saw that both Victor and Nathan didn't fit the character; the rest looked like extras. The women's arm section didn't feel right. One positive? They should continue to have Ryan in as little amounts of clothes as possible.
Know your dance moves - Dominic from season three (and America's Best Dance Crew) tests the audience on certain dance moves. The three moves were Développé, Ponche, and Bachacada.
Musical Guests - Alvin Ailey American Dance Center (Linda Celeste Sims, Clifton Brown, and Constance Stamatiou) "Episodes" Robert Ruggeri - Watching them dance was so graceful, just the backwards motion that the woman was doing was powerful. They channeled the emotions in the music and were just great. Somehow they didn't get swallowed by the stage.
The bottom three couples are Ryan & Ellenore, Pauline & Peter, and Karen & Kevin. Nigel warns the dancers that they have to learn lessons. He calls Nathan immature and one person in the audience claps, while everyone boos. Sadly, it's true: the young girls will vote for both Mollee & Nathan well before they consider an old divorcee.
Solos
Ellenore - "Eleanor" Alexa Woodward - I like how she did a song involving her name. She has the quirky/cool nature that Mark from Season Four had, but not as strongly.
Ryan - "Jump With my Baby" Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - Latin/Ballroom dancers are at a disadvantage doing solos; Ryan did a decent job without resorting to taking off his shirt. The military outfit felt like a lazy cop-out of Peter's last night. The flip routine's landing wasn't the best.
Pauline - "Took the Night" Chelley - Although she fell out of her turn, I thought that it was an interesting mix of contemporary with a sassy hip-hop. Again, there wasn't much content here.
Peter - Peter decides to go sans music (very smart), and I think he did a really good job. I liked the bottom half a lot better than his top, but the flailing arms weren't enough.
Karen - "Celia Y Tito" Celia Cruz & Tito Puente - I really think that Karen didn't do enough in her solo. It was sexy, but it was a lot of slick poses and "look at me, I'm sexy" motions.
Kevin - "I Question Mark" Wade Robson - I thought Kevin did some strong tutting work, his tricks were really fun to watch, even though he did the fall backwards move twice.
The judges make their decision and the decisions were both unanimous. Nigel tells all the dancers that they didn't do strong enough solos, as Season Five did. These dancers need a wake-up call. Nigel thinks that Karen's sensuality may hinder younger audiences, Ellenore's quirkiness needs a competitive edge, Pauline's charisma is stronger than her dance work. Pauline is cut.
Nigel critiques the men: Ryan needs to do his gymnastics better and he needs to work on his solo, Peter hasn't had star quality yet, Kevin has improved. Peter is the last tapper standing, but I guess he didn't go too far because he was cut.
I thought Adam hit the nail on the head when he called Pauline "advanced classroom." Other than the tennis ball ankle, I only remember her smile. As for Peter, I hoped that at least one tapper would make it to the Top 10. Here's hoping for next season. Were the right people eliminated? Leave comments below.
(If anyone was looking for The Simpsons reference, it was right after Dominic's K-Mart piece.)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-12-2009 @ 4:59AM
Beinta said...
It's 'troupe' not 'troop' but maybe you had Veteran's Day on the brain.
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11-12-2009 @ 7:01AM
Cindy Gibson said...
What the heck did they do to Cat last night. She looked Horrible. She looked like she came straight from doing housework and stopped by long enough to have her Junior high daughter do her makeup and throw a house dress on. I felt bad for her. As far as the dancing, I feel they got it right. We should start to see the good pull ahead now. Can't wait till next week.
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11-12-2009 @ 9:08AM
Kristi said...
I guessed almost completely right. . .
I guessed the bottom three correctly (Ellenore&Ryan, Kevin&Karen and Pauline&Peter)
I guessed that Pauline would be sent home. . .
The only thing I didn't guess was Peter would be sent home. I really thought they'd give him another shot considering he's was the only tapper left. Sad :(
The only thing I thought was really dumb last night was Nigel lecturing Nathan&Mollee. He's got to know that Nathan is this season's Evan and he'll be there til Top 4 no matter what he does because he's got the tween vote on lockdown.
http://www.orble.com/teevee-sytycd-top-16-becomes-14/
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11-12-2009 @ 10:29AM
Ryan said...
I really wanted tappers Bianca and Peter to make it into the Top 10. Their early cuts make me sad about this season that started out so well.
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11-12-2009 @ 11:01AM
SupKev said...
Anyone else thoroughly annoyed by Nigel berating the contestants? He was high on himself last night after the solos, and drilled into them, and they just had to take it quietly. I don't watch to see old British people yell at dancers. I admire how SYTYCD's judges actually critique and are constructive (as opposed to Idol) but this is ridiculous. Oh, and don't tell your audience to shut up, that's just rude.
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11-12-2009 @ 2:06PM
KR said...
I for one was happy that Nigel finally got crabby with the contestants and the overly annoying audience. I hate that the audience always boos any critique and I have been waiting for a judge to finally call them out on it. You know we want true honest and helpful feedback from the judges, but boo and hiss and complain when its too harsh? Sometimes being honest is harsh and these dancers are getting invaluable feedback from some of the best in the business. If they can't take it then boo hoo and go home.
As for audience ... perhaps these judges know a wee bit more than you about dancing so why not just shut it and let them give the honest critiques. I swear it is the stupid lemmings in the audience that egg on lame retorts like the one from Nathan, which I was soooo thankful that Nigel mentioned. Enough! I'm up to here about it and I'm not even a judge... no wonder Nigel finally had it.
As for the dancing. Its a shame but not surprising that Mollee and Nathan were not in the bottom three. Would have loved to see them go. I am sad to see Peter go, but agree with the choice of Pauline. Still don't have a major favorite, but I'm really really digging Ashleigh more and more.
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11-12-2009 @ 3:53PM
Karen said...
I thought Nigels comments were shameful.
You can't have it both ways. They go on and on about how this is America's FAVORITE dancer and then get upset when they vote for their favorite instead of the best dancer.
And to tell the audience to SHUT UP is out of line. I don't like the booing either, but they have a live audience of young people and then don't want them to scream and yell? They want them to scream and yell when THEY are excited but not when they aren't. Again - can't have it both ways.
Nigel was way out of line. It was uncomfortable to watch and not the appropriate place to lecture the dancers.
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11-12-2009 @ 6:03PM
am_hollitz said...
The way I see it, there's still plenty of time for judges to boot the people they don't like. But none of the dancers this season strike me as being as good as Season 5's Top 4 dancers.
That said, Mollee may make it to the Top 10 because her dancing is good (her personality is grating, but she dances well.) Nathan, I dunno'. He's pretty much a Taylor Lautner clone (the werewolf from Twilight: New Moon).
Nine of my Top 10 contestants are still in the game though--that's pretty good guessing, even though I still think Bianca should have made it to Top 10.
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11-12-2009 @ 6:17PM
Christy said...
I was so annoyed that Nathan and Mollee were not in the bottom three because based on their routines Tuesday night, they should have been down there. I think that we should be voting for our favorite dances and favorite performances and theirs was the worst.
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11-12-2009 @ 7:53PM
gerry said...
Lackluster. Right people sent home. Wrong people in the bottom. Boring so far this season.
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