Top Twenty Competition AND Results

OK, I’ve always felt like I should jump on this blogging bandwagon, so I’m gonna try blogging about SYTYCD this season. These are just my musings and sarcastic comments that in the past would have been said out loud to my mom and sister, but with the new fall season format and the two hour time difference to Texas, that’s not as possible, so this is my new outlet. I’ll try to get these posted on Wednesdays before the results shows.

And no, in case you’re wondering, I don’t really have time for this, and I do have better things to do with my time. Oh well. Here we go…

We open with everyone’s (no? just me?) favorite host, Cat Deely, whose outfit is actually somewhat decent. Although I guess it’s usually during the results show she gets outrageous, huh?

Also, can we please NOT have Paula Abdul on the show? There’s a reason she’s not on Idol anymore, and she may outshine Mary as Most Obnoxious Judge. At least I respect Mary as a dancer.

Couple One: contemporary dancer Channing and tap dancer Phillip

Jive with Jason Gilkison

First of all, I love the costumes. Hers may be a tad predictable but it’s not as over the top as I might have expected from this show. It seemed to me that they weren’t always dancing full-out, probably thinking about it too hard. At parts you could definitely see how nervous Channing was in her fake smile. Phillip most definitely outshone her-not a surprise considering his background in tap. As Adam said, the stunt was incredibly awkward (“Feet on butt, feet on butt!”), but I thought it ended well. Overall, not a bad start for either one.

Couple Two: Latin ballroom dancer Ashleigh and contemporary dancer Jakob

Something or other with Tyce Diorio

Uhh…I’ll admit to not paying attention to the intro and not knowing exactly what style this was. I’ll try to update tomorrow once FOX posts their recap. Moving on, I’ll be upfront about my strong dislike for Ashleigh. She’s only in the top twenty because it makes for good television, what with her (much more talented) husband being in. I know Paula withdrew on her own, but she would have been so much better. Anyways. Tonight, I thought Ashleigh’s dancing was extremely stiff and awkward, but her tricks were fairly impressive. Her hair, on the other hand, sucks. It’s called a hairbrush. Use one. Her facials are annoying and she needs to point her feet. Yes, even though she’s in heels. I wish the judges would shut up about her overcoming obstacles story…there’s always one, and it’s never impressive enough to make up for the fact that they’re just not up to speed with the other dancers. SO, with all that said about Ashleigh, I’m willing to concede that she may have looked less impressive simply because Jakob was SO FREAKING AWESOME.

Couple Three: contemporary dancer Ariana with tap dancer Peter

Hip Hop with Tabitha and Napoleon

OK, really? We didn’t get enough of Tabitha and Napoleon last season? Yeah, they’re talented, but give someone else a chance to give us something we haven’t seen a billion times already. Seriously, I feel like we’d seen this dance before, and better, too. It was a really, really difficult piece with a lot of little things to synchronize, and they did all right, but Ariana was behind for most of it. I couldn’t figure out quite what was bugging me until Adam said it: they were dancing differently. She was a lot more free with her movement, and they needed to clarify with the choreographers what they wanted. Not a great start, but I’m not writing these two off yet. Especially not Peter.

Couple Four: Krumper Russel with contemporary dancer Noelle

Foxtrot with Melanie and Tony

Kinda hard to judge since Noelle’s out with an injury (I feel for her-knee injuries SUCK), but I’ll try. I thought Russell embraced the character perfectly and his emotion was spot on. A lot of his movement was stiff and awkward, which is to be expected since he’s so far out of his element. His technique was a lot better at the faster parts. I’m willing to admit that a lot of the awkwardness could have come from dancing with an unfamiliar partner. Unfortunately, I know knee injuries, and I will be really surprised if Noelle is able to rehearse in time to perform next week. But Russell most definitely defied my expectations.

Couple Five: tap dancer Bianca and contemporary dancer Victor

Contemporary with Travis Wall

First of all, I had a major preteen-girl-freakout when I saw Travis is back choreographing this season. Wow, he’s awesome. And his choreography tonight was, once again, brilliant. In fact, this whole dance was brilliant. The chemistry was spot-on, which is really hard to get the first week. And when he held her up in the air and she just leaned all the way backward until she was lying on the floor? That made my spine hurt. So cool. They’re easily one of my favorite couples.

Couple Six: ballroom dancer Karen and hip hop dancer Kevin

Cha Cha with Melanie and Tony

Jeez, more Melanie and Tony? Can’t anyone else in this country choreograph ballroom? Apparently not. Also, can I please point out that this is the first couple we’ve seen without a contemporary dancer? Wow, overkill. And (one more mini-rant and I swear I’ll talk about the dancing), do we have to use music from Glee? Was this just FOX plugging their own show? Probably. Anyway, despite all of that, I thought the dance was GREAT. I thought they were both super-sharp, despite Mary’s claims that Kevin was not. I’m not sure about the blatantly sexual choreography, but I guess that’s just cha cha. The only not-so-great moment was that awkward stunt where she spun while lifting her leg over his head. That wasn’t so great. But everything else was. Also, it’s worth mentioning that Karen is the first dancer of the season to get on the hot tamale train, which apparently is a huge honor or something. Whatever, Mary.

Couple Seven: ballroom dancer Ryan and jazz dancer Ellenore

Contemporary jazz with Sonya

WOW! This was definitely the surprise of the evening. They were extremely sharp and together and their chemistry was awesome. And Ellenore’s tricks were amazing! Definitely very flexible and technical. I don’t have much else to say but they are definitely starting off the season as favorites.

Couple Eight: jazz dancer Pauline and hip hop dancer Brandon

Smooth waltz with Jason

Another repeat choreographer with another ballroom piece. I sure hope this season gets more interesting. Pauline had really awesome emotion and was extremely smooth and graceful. Brandon struck me as only being a prop (aside from his one leap), but then I found out he only had a day and a half to learn the routine, so I can cut him some slack. Their footwork seemed off at a couple parts, but I am by no means a ballroom dancer, so whatever. Not a bad dance overall, especially from Pauline.

Couple Nine: contemporary/lyrical dancer Kathryn and b-boy Legacy

Hip Hop with Dave Scott

The first thing I noticed was his bright red shoelaces. Yeah, that didn’t really fit in with the whole caveman/jungle thing they were going for, but whatever. The dancing totally made up for it! They were really spot-on the entire time, although a couple times I thought she was being a bit more stiff in her movement. But overall, she kept up extremely well and I was very impressed! Legacy’s tricks were incredible, as expected, but let’s see how well he holds up a little further outside his genre. We’ll see.

Couple Ten: contemporary dancer Nathan and jazz dancer Mollee

Disco with Doriana Sanchez

WOW, disco really is perfect for Mollee, isn’t it? She’s so high-energy and bubbly, and this high-energy style really suits her. I LOVED the purple costumes, too. The stunts in this routine were spotless (so much that even anti-disco Adam enjoyed it). Doriana has done it again-this was the perfect way to wrap up the first week of true competition.

My Bottom Four:

Girls:

Ashleigh, Channing

Boys:

Brandon, Russell

Because of the World Series (GO PHILLIES!!!), this week there is no results show-two dancers are going home the night of the competition. Apparently I’m better at guessing bottom boys than girls. The judges chose Ariana and Pauline to dance solos with Brandon and Russell, and we ended up saying goodbye to Ariana and Brandon, making our new couple for next week Peter and Pauline. Kinda harsh to kick Brandon off after a day and a half, but it’s kind of Nigel to try to stretch the rules for future seasons. Should be interesting.

Until next week, my friends.

Keep dancing!