Diversity appreciation thread (Diversity being the British dance troupe)

Cafe Society
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I watched the Susan Boyle video a couple of days after it happened when it was still in its first few million hits or so, but usually I’m on the late end of anything viral, so forgive me if these clips are viral and I’m just getting to the party. I knew that some dance troupe beat out Susan Boyle, which wasn’t that surprising considering her Memory lapse and the overexposure. I only this weekend got around to watching that dance troupe.

DAMN. Just… Damn.

Just… blown away.

For Simon Cowell to say “sheer and utter perfection” not once but (in synonyms) three times tells you about them if you haven’t watched.

I must admit I’m not crazy about the name Diversity (perhaps because it was such a “run into the ground” buzzword in academia for so long, which may have passed England by). I’m not sure what would be a better name for them though. Myself I’d go with Pushmi Pullyu because in addition to working together, to quote Sir Richard Attenborough’s character from Dr. Dolittle,

There aren’t enough synonyms for ‘brilliant’ and ‘unbelievable’ for these guys. The choreography is indescribable (in a good way): fast, hip, funny, fresh, intelligent, winking- derivative in the best way and yet completely original. The moves- I can’t even imagine how many hundreds of hours went into the discipline to get in that kind of shape and then the rehearsals. I’m hoping the choreographer (Ashley- the tall university student) earns 3 gazillion dollars- he needs a genius grant today. The kids- well okay, I’ll admit, they kind of freak me out, but they’re amazing (and the kid with the glasses and the red afro needs to be cast as some sort of telekinetic supervillain demon). But in the whole “writing about music is like dancing about architecture” thing, you have to watch them so I’ll shut up.

After I say— BRITAIN’S GOT TALENT has the absolute worst bottom-of-the-barrel shittiest editing and or camera crew of any show film since Howdy Doody was a tree stump. I can only assume got their jobs through some sort of methadone work release plan, or else they’re there to make Ant & Dec look talented and useful. Their completely random "let’s go wide… egg timer dinged, let’s close up again… wide now… ooh dramatic moment coming so leave the act and zoom in on Ant & Dec… gonna take a smoke break now so I’ll put the camera on auto… ". Just dreadful work, but even so, the dance routines are, again, simply amazing.

If you haven’t seen them before, enjoy, and if you have, enjoy again. In order of their performances:

The Audition (long version- actual dance routine begins at 2:10.)

The Semi Final

The Final

Lots more to add, but I’ll do that later after those who haven’t seen them have seen it and others have weighed in.

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Why oh why does this board hate DIVERSITY… I mourn for your souls…

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I loved them - just didn’t have anything to add to your post!

I liked the other dance finalist Flawless too - but Diversity were more original.

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Diversity were excellent (using different sizes and ages of dancers and doing their own choreography).

However the true winner should clearly have been this incredible talent!

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Aww… such a pity he won’t get to perform for the Queen (unless of course it’s a command performance). I’ve read that she was quite the amateur musical flatulist herself in her younger days, particularly loving to fart out Bach’s Brandenberg Concertos and Glenn Miller medleys.

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We only watched the finale because a visiting friend wanted to, and so did my daughter - it’s not usually our sort of show. I’m glad I did, though, because several of the acts were entertaining (Stavros Flatley were great wholesome fun), and Diversity truly were amazing. It’s hard to believe that they’re just ordinary kids and young men from the most ordinary backgrounds - no stage schools or anything. I’d watch them again, and I’m not into dance.

The name is terribly trite, though - ironically, it did actualy prejudice me against them. :smiley:

On another board I go on, someone is incensed that Susan Boyle was robbed of the win because she’s old and not beautiful. No, she came second because the dancers were much better than her. She was good, but they were outstanding.

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During the “the winner is” moment, Susan Boyle doesn’t seem gracious in defeat but absolutely and sincerely relieved when Diversity wins. Her whole countenance changes for the happier. (About :48 in this clip.)

It’s understandable if she was more than ready for her 15 minutes to be over, at least for a while. Had she won she’d have been surrounded by an army of press and paparazzi. She probably has the second worst kind of fame, which is
1- instantaneous
2- enormous
3- without commensurate financial accompaniment

(The worst kind would be the same as above to which add the 4th element of “due to something nobody would possibly want to be famous for” [crime, freak accident, stupid move, etc.] and without even possibility of future financial accompaniment [think “Casey Anthony’s parents” or “NOT SAFE FOR WORK—ATL Hoodrat GirlNOT SAFE FOR WORK”.)