So You Think You Can Dance 6/28

Cafe Society
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Ben & Ashlee - I thought it was a fun dance but a lot of it seemed too smooth for hip hop.

Heidi & Ryan - Heidi’s face still scares me–especially during the interview. I thought the dance was kinda weird… a lot of the moves were very unflattering, like their chicken-walk at the beginning, but they did them as they were supposed to be done.
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Aleksandra & Dmitry** - the nasty color of her dress was distracting to me but boy there were some great lines in that dance. I don’t think the dance really made use of Dmitry’s skill, though. Aleksandra seemed to be a little uncomfortable with her feet.

Ivan & Alison - I think my opinion of Ivan just went up a lot. He wasn’t all twerpy and he really nailed that dance. Alison sometimes looked like she was concentrating too hard, but for the most part did very well. But good God, Mary, SHUT UP!!!

Donyelle and Benji - awesome as always. They’re just so good, and Benji is so likeable. His hair did look silly, though.

Natalie & Musa - They looked like they were having fun, for sure, whether they were or not. Is there any dance that Musa can’t adapt to? She looked hot. I don’t know the dance style so I don’t know why the judges were complaining because it looked good to me.

Jessica and Jaymz - finally a contemporary choreography that I didn’t hate! I think they looked great, and it was a beautiful dance.

Travis & Martha - holy shit she has some legs on her. I wasn’t really pulled in to the dance though. I think Martha has an amazing smile.

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Hey, what happened to the other thread??

Nobody was stand-out bad this week. Worst performers; Ben, Aleks. Also Musa, but I hope Ben & Aleks go. Ben’s nothing compared to Travis, and Aleks is just the worst. Now I wish Joy were still here instead of her. While I’ve been a fan of Jessica & Jaymz (and hope they don’t get bottom-3’d or judged-off), their dance didn’t do it for me.

Allison is one SMOKING-hot mama. Agree about Martha’s legs. Those two are may fav ladies, followed by: Natalie (great eyes & awesome Musa chemistry), Donyelle (great w/Benji), Heidi.

Fav guys, in mostly descending order: Benji > Travis > Jaymz ~ Dmitri. I don’t want Ivan to get kicked off next as much anymore, but that Tango was all about Allison; Ivan was just support. At least he didn’t screw up.

From my favorite single dancers, this may be obvious, but my fav couples are: Benji/Donyelle, Travis/Martha. If Ivan keeps getting better, throw Ivan/Allison in there, too. [homer simpson]mmmmm…Allison…[/homer]
I don’t know if this was discussed previously, but does anyone else think the solos should be 1 minute instead of 30 seconds?

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Man, just when I thought we were going all TWOP on this show, we suddenly got a weekly thread… :stuck_out_tongue: :smiley:

Ben/Ashlee (Hip-Hop) Ashlee did really well in her element here. Ben tried to smooth it out too much.

Heidi/Ryan (Cuban Rumba) You could tell the moves weren’t really coming naturally to either of them, and I wasn’t crazy in general about the choreography overall or how it went with the music… but it was so obviously technically challenging and they went for it so hard all the way through, ya gotta give 'em props.

Dmitry/Aleksanda (Waltz) I got no sense of the waltz rhythm from this at all. Maybe it was deconstructionist choreography, maybe not. Her feet were all over the place. She really did just beat Joy by a hair, didn’t she?

Ivan/Alison (Argentine Tango) I was mesmerized. They both really stepped up to the plate on this one, revealing a respect for the dance that speaks highly of both of them. That smoked.

Donyelle/Benji (Pop Jazz) I think Donyelle can do anything. I actually wasn’t quite as blown away by Benji in this one, but he still did really well.

Natalie/Musa (Quick Step) For any of you who weren’t tuning in last season, the Quick Step (think a fast number by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) was the bane of most of the dancers (in particular one hip-hop guy who pulled the style about 3 or 4 times), and these two didn’t do too much better. They were constantly struggling to keep their steps in time with the music. The “ballroom training bar” was a new wrinkle, I have to say. They looked great together, though, so I think they may just squeak by.

Jessica/Jamyz (Contemporary) Well done, they hit the transitions really sharply without losing the loose sense of flow in the dance. That was really cool.

Travis/Martha (Hip Hop) That was some cool choreography. A great performance, as usual, if not quite on a par with the last couple of weeks.

The bar got set HIGH this week. I can only guess who will be in the bottom three by elimination.

It won’t be the two favorite teams, as they have a lot of momentum with the audience, and their performances tonight, while not up to their best, still did very well. It won’t be Ivan and Alison. It won’t be Jessica and Jamyz.

I think Musa still has a lot of clout with the audience, and the routine had beauty if not precision.

So the bottom three will be Ben/Ashlee, Heidi/Ryan, and Dmitry/Aleksandra.

If that’s the case, Aleks can’t hold a candle to the other two. Dmitry will wow them in his solo, and I think Ben could pull something interesting out, so maybe Ryan goes home, and Heidi and Dmitry will do a really stunning ballroom number in the future.

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Forgot it was on, so missed the first 20 or 30 minutes.

We saw some amazing dancing last night. Ivan and Allison seriously wowed me with their tango – that was way better than I expected from those two. Travis and Martha were disappointing, mostly because, as the judges said, they’d set their own bar so high the first two weeks. I agree with the judges that their styles didn’t really look right together, in tems of smoothness.

Bottom three will be hard – I agree with Scott’s (as-always) expert analysis. Only two with a guaranteed spot at the bottom are Aleks and Dmitri – and of the two, I’d expect Aleks to be the one to go home.

And Jake, I agreee – a minute seems better than 30 seconds – don’t know if it has quite the same flavor of ruthlessness (which seems to be the preferred flavor of the show overall), though.

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I have to say, I was so proud of Ivan that I even voted for him. I think it was the hat. :slight_smile:

Aleks is leaving me cold. If the color of that dress weren’t bad enough, she just doesn’t look like she’s having fun anymore. I wouldn’t be sorry to see her go.

I said to my roommate last night, this is all going to come down to Benji/Donyelle and Travis/Martha. And then Travis and Martha didn’t quite pull it out the way they could have. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t together, and that took me out of it.

Mary is effing insane. It’s funny for the first ten minutes of every show, but then she loses me.

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Damn, you’re about nine and a half minutes more tolerant than I am. Not only is she way loud, she doesn’t have anything interesting to say beyond “whoa. You guys are hot.” Um, “hot” isn’t really a dance critique, yanno?

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Dmitry is beginning to rub me the wrong way. I know the problem is his partners, but…they keep not wowing ‘because of his partners’ and it makes me wonder how well he actually works with them…

Plus, he’s been basically given his strongest style each and every time - we haven’t seen if he CAN do anything else. All of the other couples have been forced to adapt and try new things.

Does anyone else watch closely when the couples enter the room to meet their trainers to see if any of the male trainers give the male part of the couple a ‘look’? I do! Dmitry and Musa both have gotten it. But, I’m told I have an overactive imagination anyway… :wink:

Benji and Donyelle are my favorite. They are such great dancers and it’s so cute that Benji has an obvious crush on her. I also like that neither of them LOOK like the average dancer and yet they work. He’s a scrawny geek, she’s volumptuous and yet they manage to pull off these wonderful moves.

I was impressed by Ivan and Allison this week.

Travis and Martha were great, but they didn’t work this week. I’m sure they’ll put in the effort next week. I would miss Travis’ small lisp (I think that’s what that is?) and his high energy topic jumping if he were gone. :wink:

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Can someone buy Aleksandra a hairbrush? Please?

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Agreed on all counts. I especially love how he picks her up and throws her around like she’s 4’8" and 85 pounds. Somebody said last week that Donyelle doesn’t have the typical dancer’s body, and that counts against her. I disagree (although I’m willing to admit that’s probably because I sure as hell don’t have a dancer’s body, either :slight_smile: ). I think she’s absolutely incredible, and she and Benji work so well together that I always wish their dances were longer. Such an unlikely couple so be so, so good.

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I’m gonna go out on a limb here and predict that Jamyz (or however you spell his name) and Aleks will be going home tonight.

Aleks just can’t cut it. If she can’t dance well with Dmitry, then she can’t dance well. Period. She was pretty awful.

And I just can’t stand this thing they call “contemporary.” It’s just all over the place. And I think Jamyz is weak and should be eliminated.

But I’m probably wrong. (I just hope it’s not Musa.)

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Can’t really add a whole lot to what’s already been said, since we pretty much agree on the couples and dancers.

My one thought is the order of the routines. I think it’s an interesting obstacle for some of the couples. Take the waltz or the contemporary for example. The preceding routines had my mind all dirty, sweaty, and horny. How can a waltz hope to compete with that? Idunno about anyone else, but the blood that normally flows to the graceful elegant beauty section of my brain had been rerouted to the part that was bangin heidi’s bongos or playing the 2 seconds of sweet, sweet booty at the beginning of the first routine.

I would have been much more able to appreciate the cooler routines if I’d seen them first. As it was, I wasn’t nearly as entertained by them as I was by the more “earthy” performances. I can’t help but wonder if my attitude is common and if it has an effect on the overall vote.

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Hmm, I’m used to being able to edit my posts after I make them and read over them. My apologies, as a newcomer.
I may have come across as one who only enjoys the TnA parts of the show. While I would happily drink Alison or Ashlee’s bath water, I enjoy the technical aspects of the show just as much.

I guess the point I’m failing to show is how difficult I found it to switch mental gears to appreciate cool elegant beauty only a minute after watching something so carnal.

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It’s Jaymz (just remember, it’s phonetic: it’s pronounced like “James”–JAY-MZ–not like “Jamies”–JAM-YZ).
I am not sure which guy I would send home, but I agree that Aleks needs to go. She seems sullen and lacking in confidence, which puts a huge damper on her performance. Also, her hair always looks like she just rolled out of bed. But yeah, if she can’t do ballroom with Dmitry, of all partners…

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OK, so I blew it with my Jaymz (there! I got it!) prediction. I really don’t care that Ben was sent packing. He was a good dancer but very strange looking. Now we’ll see how Ashleigh can do with Dimitry.

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WTF Tivo cut off the end again! It cut it off just as they said “let that be a lesson to all of you who think you are safe” during his lecture about preparing your solo… can someone tell me what else he said? Obviously from annie’s post, I know that Ben went home, but what was said?

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My take from the West Coast feed:

I guess everyone who wanted to do Old School Hip-Hop got their wish with the opening number, and I finally figured out why those group numbers strike me as weird: The stars of the show are their own Solid Gold Dancers!

Heidi and Ryan are safe, so I picked that one wrong. I guess people liked the dance.
Ashlee and Ben are in the bottom three, which I’d guessed.
Jessica and Jaymz are in the bottom three, which I didn’t think would happen. I really liked their dance last night.
Dmitry and Aleksandra are in the bottom, which isn’t surprising.

So before I watch the solos, it’s Heidi, Ashlee and Aleksandra. Puh-leese, could it be more clear who is most likely to go home here? And Dmitry, Jaymz, and Ben. That one’s pretty clear to me too, Dmitry’s an excellent soloist, and Jaymz really knows how to sell a performance.

The solos:

Ashlee I don’t think she’d been in the bottom before, and I don’t recall a lot of coverage of her during the tryouts. She’d a really lithe dancer, great moves.

Ben Improv with a few too many gratuitous pirouettes. Eh. I know the judges, in this case particularly Nigel and Mary, like their male dancers to come off masculine, and that could easily have been mistaken for a woman’s solo at 15 yards.

Jessica I little all over the place, but there seemed to be intention behind the moves, and it came off as a lot more controlled and put together than Ben’s dance. Not as good as Ashlee’s, but not far behind, IMO.

Jaymz Pretty random, but the moves had more strength, overall, than Ben’s. That will play well with the judges.

Aleksandra She seems to have no more control over her body’s position than an 8-year-old girl. Doesn’t even hold a candle to the other two women’s solos tonight.

Dmitry His poise is unmatchable here. Very strong, as usual. The hierarchy of displayed talent is plain with these three. Ben comes up short.

So Aleksandra and Ben go home, and Ashlee and Dmitry team up. With their near-jet-black hair and sharp features, they certainly LOOK like they belong together. They’ll at least make a very pretty, congruous picture on stage.

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Who the hell TELLS judges that they didn’t prepare for something!? That was incredibly stupid on Ben’s part. I still would have rather seen him stay, but as a partner for Ashlee, I think Dmitry will be the better choice (looks and lines) and will help both of them. I liked Ben, but come on… You have to learn when to keep your dang mouth shut, and he just learned that one the hard way. I’m thinking he didn’t expect to be in the bottom three, so he didn’t prepare. Too late now.

And I also got cut off with my DVR. I’m going to be writing a nasty note to Fox today about it. I had thought I’d added an extra 5 minutes, after having been burned with it the other day, but apparently hadn’t. But I also didn’t expect it to happen twice. There were no delays from sports to excuse it anyway.

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How could anyone not have a solo prepared, I mean just in case you never know…?

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Exactly. And if you don’t need it this week, it’ll be ready for next week. Or the week after.
BTW, now that they’ve gone from 10 to 7 couples, will they shorten the show to 1 1/2, or give the dancers more time, or just add more fluff? She asks, dismally certain what the answer will be.

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I asked my roommate the same question at the start of the show on Wednesday, and found the answer when they had all that “Here’s what they do the rest of the week” behind-the-scenes crap. Let them dance longer.