If I had to watch Benji cry before a commercial one more time last night, I might have destroyed the television. I adore that kid, I’m really happy he made it. Poor Hawk, defeated by a student visa. I don’t know how well he would have done, anyway, but I was sorry to see him go.
Benji annoys me. He just does. Too much mugging. He can move - but those facial expressions!
In the last two, I really was hoping for the one that didn’t get picked. I liked him.
I’m glad that the girl with the really funky outfit got picked - the one in the hat, and really long jacket? They haven’t shown her dancing much, but I just want to see what she does in an outfit like that.
Susan
He’s absolutely adorable. I hope he comes back next year. I would have like to have seen him move on.
Cute as a button – but really young. I think he’ll do better next year with a little more experience.
I have to second the comment about Mary and her cackle of a laugh. If I had to sit at the table with her for more than 5 minutes, one of us would get a bullet in the head.
And way to be a sore loser, chick who didn’t get picked to be the 10th female dancer. I hope it was just the stress of the day talking because she came across as a major bitch.
I watched this last night with a friend of mine who trained as a dancer when she was younger, and we both enjoyed it (though neither of us were particularly proud of that). I don’t know if I’ll watch next week, but I’ll definitely follow the thread. I can’t pick any real favorites since we didn’t see all of the top 20, but I enjoyed watching Musa and I love swing dancing, so watching Benji and anyone else who is proficient in that genre will be fun.
But seriously, to be told you’re one of the best dancers in the competition, but you make it look “too easy” - is a pretty lame reason to eliminate someone. They could have given her more constructive criticism than that. If I were her, I’d be pissed too.
I would feel sorrier for her except that she twisted it a little when she went in the back, and said that they’d said she was THE BEST dancer in the competition, but made it look too easy. They said she was one of the best, not THE best.
The competition starts tonight. There’s a two-hour show – how much of it will actually be people dancing, do you think?
I started watching because I kind of know someone who was on the show last year and wanted to see what it was about. I like dance and I WOULD like it (and I hate American Idol with a passion), except that the judges are annoying as hell (I actually think Nigel pales in comparison in terms of annoyance to donkey-laugh lady and ineloquent black dancer guy) and they hardly ever show any dancing. I don’t care about all the crying dramatic suspense profile bullshit. Just show 'em dancing and rate 'em, aren’t they interesting enough for their abilities? And I see no problem with telling shitty dancers the truth, but I kind of cringed with the teachers. That effectively ruined their teaching careers forever. I hope they all had something else they could do…
What happened to Hawk with a student Visa? (That was the Asian kid with the weird haircut, right?) I didn’t catch that episode, I’m curious. Poor thing.
Is it just my opinion or does the female judge have the UGLIEST smile ever?
Wow, am I late to this party, and I haven’t even seen tonight’s episode yet.
Some random thoughts on what I’ve read in the thread so far.
Nigel is the executive producer of both the Idol shows and this one. Last year they began with a lengthy rundown of him, focusing on the fact that he was a professional dancer with any number of awards under his belt before he started producing television. So he’s got serious cred.
The ballroom choreographer/judge, Mary Whatzerface, looks completely different than last year, I suspect serious cosmetic surgery.
People are not automatically rejected on body type, hence the argument over the little person. One of last year’s top ten was an extremely heavyset hip-hopper who was nonetheless a great dancer who held his own for several weeks, done in more by his lack of experience with certain styles rather than his weight (he can be seen in some of the bumpers during the audition episodes; all those dancers were last year’s finalists; I presume, if they haven’t already, that they’ll film a new title sequence with this year’s finalists)
That’s less annoying than that freakin’ laugh.
Ain’t that the truth?!
The laugh is annoying, but I get kind of a kick out if it, for some reason. Although all the shouting she did last night was incredibly irritating to me. I’m almost ashamed to say that, for the first time in my entire life, I actually made a phone call to vote on something I saw on television. I’m weak. 
I dunno, the hip-hop (or whatever it was) couple who she thought was hot, and the other two dismissed? The other two were right.
I don’t have a clue on anyone’s name yet – but the Broadway pair was amazing, and the African dance pair was also pretty good.
I definitely don’t disagree. Was it Nigel who said it was like they were just regurgitating moves? The girl could have been good, but she just wasn’t quite. And the guy was trying, but it just didn’t come off–not his style. I have no training and am not the best judge of dance, but even I could tell there was something wrong. I think maybe she’s just got a crush on that guy.
I loved the Broadway pair–his name is Travis, I remember him from the auditions, but I can’t remember her name.
I liked the Flashdance couple. Why did they get ragged on so hard??
Martha
I didn’t particularly like their performance, and as I was watching it I said “it seems so… juvenile”. Color me surprised when Nigel said the same thing about a minute later. But it wasn’t necessarily their fault, he was really commenting on the choreography. Not that they were great at it, but they did OK with what they had to work with.
The hip hop routine with the blond chick and the Russian guy was pretty cool, even though the guy had no clue. She was pretty hot and totally had the hip hop thing down.
The Broadway routine was very good too.