Katee. or maybe Katie-- a much superior spelling, in my opinion, but not what I thought I saw on my tv.
Agree with the telling the tap dancer to shut up.
And I was so annoyed with Paige(I think) blond pageant girl in yellow dress who hated ballroom dancing. Mostly I was annoyed with her because I don’t think she’s as talented as she thinks she is, but partly I was annoyed with her because of her comments about stupid ballroom dancing hair after she was cut. Look, sweetie, from some of these rounds they don’t cut the worst dancers so much as they cut the people who aren’t providing any zest. If you hate “ballroom hair” so much, why did you wear it? Style your hair to show your personality. (Although, frankly, I’m not convinced that Pageant Girl’s personality would have gotten her much further in the competition, certainly not to the top 20).
I was also annoyed by Popper guy, who quit before things really even got started. I’d think that if I were him and were hoping for a slot on YTYCD, I’d hire an instructor and take a couple of lessons just to learn some general dance moves and get a sense of what a choreographer might expect of me before going to Vegas. At any rate, I’d cheerfully do the best I could, or maybe not so cheerfully, but I’d stick with it as long as the judges would let me stay. I just don’t understand some people.
I also think that the producers should rent a big screen and broadcast the choreographer teaching his routine so that the folks in the back can actually see it. I thought it was patently unfair to short people and people in the back not to be able to see their teacher.
Pageant girl was annoying but I have to feel sorry for her because she’s pageant girl. What a crappy, misogynistic industry that is.
My husband is convinced that the BFF’s at the end were lesbians. I wasn’t sure. They were certainly much more demonstrative with their affection than I’ve been with any of my girlfriends. Or boyfriends, now that I think about it. As far as their talent, the red head certainly had a more engaging personality, FWIW.
I mentioned that to my wife the night before when we saw their home life and cute little work-out routines and how they spent much of the time rubbing their bodies against each other. Wouldn’t have raised and eyebrow if they were 11 maybe, but I reckon there’s more going on there than just a platonic friendship.
I can’t believe they cut the redhead whose mom was affiliated with High School Musical. She was incredibly talented. I bet they cast her next year a la Twitch.
Did I totally miss something? Where the hell was Phillip Chbeeb? I didn’t see him even once - he did get to Vegas round, didn’t he?
I sort of doubt he’d have made it all the way through, but still! His noodle arms would have been a big reason for me to tune in if he had.
I finally got the chance to watch episodes of SYTYCD Season 1 last week, and their boot camp seemed so very superior to what they do now…maybe it could have been editing, but it seemed more like real, close instruction, more training they can take away with them than just “learn one routine in half an hour” or whatever, individual attention, etc, etc, and really sizing them up on how well they continued to do, rather than this weird sleep-deprivation muscle torture “only get one chance so if you slip on a banana peel you’re gone” thing. It looked like they hadn’t even met some of the dancers they kicked off, and it’s pretty unfair to hamper their movement and vision when they’re trying to learn. And on the one hand I was happy to see Ms. blabbermouth get canned because she was annoying, but on the other hand, getting cut because you said something, dumb as it may be, and short of cussing out the judges, seems kinda wrong…same with Katie and her roommate, who also both annoy me, but not coming back to audition for the one show is not the same thing as giving up dancing, and I don’t see how it equates with throwing in the towel the first week of the top 20. That was all painful to watch.
For those of you commenting on Mary Murphy’s weird way of speaking (when she’s not screeching, that is), I don’t know how much of that is related to the fact that she clearly had plastic surgery between the 1st and 2nd seasons of the show. Unfortunately, there’s no surgery to reduce her annoyance level.
I briefly wondered about whether the BFFs are lesbians, but I decided quickly that it’s difficult to say – dance people seem to be much more physical and touchy-feely than a lot of other folks. Which makes sense, since everything they do revolves around their body. The one who made it through nearly shot herself in the foot, though, didn’t she? I understand what she was trying to explain, but I don’t think the judges did – they just jumped on the “OMG!!1! you don’t want to keep trying out for our show forever and ever and ever?” bandwagon. Far too quickly, if you ask me; yes, you have to take rejection as a dancer, but rejection in the late stages of this show is not exactly not making the cut at a cattle call audition. There’s a lot more emotional investment.
Last but definitely not least, may I say how much I adore Cat Deeley? She is such a wonderful host – sweet to everybody, not afraid to hug sweaty dancers, and totally doesn’t seem stuck up even one iota. I’ve seen her on a talk show, and she came across as completely genuine there, too. Whoever hired her really was brilliant!
Oh yeah, Cat - I did like her even before, but when I finally saw Talks-Like-a-Newscaster Plastic Surgery Lady from season one in action - Cat’s like a shining angel in comparison!
I hated her from day one. Gah she was grating. And that was a hideous yellow dress. I described it in my recap comments on my website as “a maternity dress made out of American cheese.” I was gleefully happy when she was cut.
Here is the list of top 20 and the spelling of their names:
Gev Manoukian
Kourtni Lind
Joshua Allen
Rayven Armijo
Matt Dorame
Courtney Galiano
William Wingfield
Katee Shean
Stephen “Twitch” Boss
Kherington Payne
Jamie Bayard
Chelsea Traille
Chris Jarosz
Jessica King
Mark Kanemura
Susie Garcia
Marquis Cunningham
Chelsie Hightower
Thayne Jasperson
Comfort Fiddochi
Actually, Travis was runner-up to Benjy in Season 2.
Winners:
Season 1 - Nick
Season 2 - Benjy
Season 3 - Sabra
And as for this season, I am seriously disappointed that my two favorites - Evan (Gene Kelly-guy) and Natalie (non-chosen roomate) didn’t make it. And Susie did??? Something seriously wrong there.
Yes, I watched last night. And was fascinated more than anything else by how much what the judges look for and what I enjoy are not the same thing.
Example: guy doing the Mia Michaels contemporary routine representing somebody’s wedding. I thought the guy looked stupid (girl was ok), especially when he did the bird thing. Judges LIKED the bird thing, because it showed how well Mia had integrated the guy’s style into her choreography.
Other Example: Guy dancing to “Faded Love” who didn’t look like a tree (or dance like a tree) but aparently still looked stiff to Nigel. (Er, I hope that’s all the same guy).
Anyone have any idea how tall Cat Feeley is? I was irritated by her comments about one couple-- I think the Faded Love duo-- making her feel normal-sized, especially when I looked at her feet and saw heels. My sympathy for too tall people wearing high heels is limited. (I’m 5’4". Probably not relevant, but so what).
I thought last night was a very good opener. The first couple of episodes are always the hardest for me in regards to remembering the couples names.
I do have my favorites already. The couple with Twitch is my #1 favorite to win. Do I think they will win? Probably not but I want them to (The girl is absolutely gorgeous. I said that at the very beginning of the thread and I will say that again probably before the season is over) and Twitch is just fun to watch.
My second favorites are Joshua and Katee. I really liked that hip hop routine they did. And I really liked their personalities.
Speaking of personalities: I really enjoyed watching Comfort. I can’t say much about her dancing, it’s really good, but I hope she sticks around just for footage of the rehearsals.
One thing that has been bothering me since last night. Their names. It’s probably just me but I think a lot of their names are just plain stupid. Either made of or not spelled correctly. I mean, what the hell is wrong with “Katie?” Why does it have to be spelled “Katee?”
It seems to me that the talent this year is far above former seasons. Before I had no problem choosing dancers that just weren’t cutting it for many, many weeks. But this year it’s tough. They’re all really good, their couples work and personality factors were exceptional. Didn’t like all the choreography, but the dancers were great.
This early there are just too many to keep track of to remember specific names/performances. Did like the waltz and cha-cha, did not like the disco or broadway too much. Why do they call Chelsea. Chelsea Hightower? They never referred to her by just her first name. Strange. Agree that the names are just wierd for some of them, but that’s showbiz.
Maybe I’m just getting used to Mia’s work and it’s not so strange to me anymore, but I really kind of liked the wedding. The dress was just too ruffley and got in the way of the dancers’ lines and buried the guys face half the time, but I think if we could have seen more leg and face it would have appealed more. How did you like the guy going off to war? Don’t know about the choreography, but they played the parts beautifully.
I personally really liked it. I usually hate when people use the military for inspiration for some reason, but I think this dance did it justice. I’m a nerd and my favorite part was at the very end where she turned him and put on his jacket.
There are two Chelseas and two Courtneys. They used full names for all of these, as far as I could tell. It’s just that the other last names weren’t as attention catching. I’m using the conventional spellings, creative spellings be damned.
I also really got a kick out of Comfort. She made a real transition and just looked like she was having so much fun, without looking like she was giving up her own personality.
I think they did Susie a huge favor by putting her in an elegant ballroom routine for the first night. If only she’d had the good sense to choose something similar for herself in previous auditions…
I agree on the name problem. 7! out of just 10 girls with K sounding names: Kourtni, Courtney, Chelsea, Chelsea, Kherington, Comfort, Katee – that’s insane. And that’s why they’re adding lastnames or initials with the Courtney/Kourtni and Chelsea/Chelsea duos – you couldn’t be sure who they were referring to otherwise. I imagine they’ll stop doing it as soon as one of a pair leaves.
Overall, I thought it was an excellent first episode. Out of curiosity, I kept track of the overall ‘tone’ of the judges comments – translating them into simply positive/mixed/neutral.
Mary gave every single team a positive feedback. She’s the Paula of the show!
Nigel gave 7 positive, two mixed (Raven/Jaime and Kourtni/Matt) and one negative (Courtney/Gev.)
Dan also gave 7 positive, one mixed (Courtny/Gev), and two negative (same couples that Nigel gave mixed.
I guess that makes Dan “Simon” and Nigel the “Randy”.
With only three couples drawing less than universal praise, and only three to be ‘bottoms’…it’ll be interesting to see if the voting matches.
Cat Deeley is 5’ 9". And the song is “Tainted Love”.
My general impression was that I liked almost all the women (with the possible exception of the female half of the Tall Couple, who looked dorky); and none of the men made much of an impression.
