Yet another dance competition show! Yay! [urll=http://www.nbc.com/superstars-of-dance/]Superstars of Dance premieres Sunday on NBC, though it will be on Mondays afterward. It’s produced by Nigel Lythgoe of SYTYCD, which I think is a good sign, and hosted by Michael Flatley, who I loathe.
I’m there.
I don’t know if I can bear Flatley.
[grammar nazi]That should properly read: I don’t know if I can flatly bear him.[/grammar nazi]
I didn’t know it was going to be a competition. It’ll be interesting to see how it’s judged – all those different styles.
And (not a rhetorical question) when did dance become so acrobatic?
Ordinarily I’d blame MTV – but as a Seven Brides for Seven Brothers fan, I guess I can’t get away with that. 
Stomp was founded in 1991. They’ve been popular and influential, meaning a lot of people stole from them.
They weren’t first to be acrobatic, of course. Think of Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor or the Nicholas Brothers. Lots of folk dance is highly acrobatic. Dance Africa incorporated acrobat dance starting in the 1970s. But ISTM that the movement really took off after Stomp.
Yeah. If he’s an active participant at all, it might be a problem. OTOH, when he was a guest judge on DWTS (where was Len that week?), he wasn’t intolerable.
Thanks for the reminder. I had this set to tape, but had forgotten when it premiered. I suppose I’ll be watching tomorrow.
Well, that was (predictably?) disappointing. I had a bad feeling when the first number got all those tens, and, yeah, the judges – esp. the US and Irish – are way too generous with their points. Like the Aussie and South African judges, though. It would be nice if there were occasional comments from the judges – other than asking that one time, Michael “yeah, my accent is fake, ya wanna make something of it?” didn’t let the pace slow by anything so extraneous as asking for critiques. 'Cause we’re on fire here!
The scores for the American duo (that was very acrobatic and filled with Cirque du Soleil power moves) got a suspiciously low score. I don’t know if it’s my own bias, but it does seem awfully easy for some of the judges to form a voting alliance.
From the promo trailer footages, it seems like
The USA and China teams are certain to advance at least one more round so maybe they did that on purpose to build the suspense.
I also think the scores were way too generous for the solo dancer from India.
The Indian duo and the Chinese solo got totally robbed, though - they deserved higher scores than they received, IMO.
So far, I think the Chinese judge is the fairest, and most consistent. And I hate hate hate the smarmy-ness of the South African judge. “See, I know Indian dancing because we have lots of it in South Africa, and that was no Indian dancing.” Eat a bag of dicks, you. Pompous ass.
Watching it here in Arizona we had something odd happen - the show cut to commercial and when it returned, the two Indian women were being judged, but we had completely missed their performance as well as (judging from the scoreboard) the first Russian performance. It then went on to show the Australian tap-dancer, cut to commercial, and then showed the Australian tap-dancer once again. Then it got back on track. Did that happen to anyone else?
Random thoughts…
I wonder if the US duo was docked points because their performance consisted more of acrobatics than what would be considered typical dance? I was soooo impressed with their performance, but more from a “what the hell??” perspective (that move where she’s standing on his chest??? yikes!!) than a “that was an amazing dance performance” one.
Wanted to like the solo African performer, but felt it wasn’t quite up to the rest of the performances. Maybe I just have a bias that Zulu warrior dances should be performed in groups.
Not very impressed with the solo Russian (did her dance seem really short to anyone else?), but I’ve never really understood contemporary.
The solo Irish dancer must’ve felt a little weird performing a dance made famous by the show’s host; I loved his response when the hostess said all the women were jealous of her sitting next to him.
I kept expecting the Russian judge to suddenly disappear during the commercials. KGB and exile to Siberia jokes? Really?
I’d forgotten how annoying Michael Flatley’s “real” voice is.
Was the solo US guy the same guy that auditioned for So You Think You Can Dance this year? His performance looked really familiar.
When the hostess asked the little Chinese boy what he thought about the score and the whole group started randomly yelling, I couldn’t help yelling “We don’t speak English!!” Is it possible they don’t? I have the suspicion that the judge doesn’t- he’s the only one who hasn’t really been allowed to comment.
I’m most interested in seeing the Chinese duo and Russian/Indian groups. They should be on tonight, right?
Appeared – and I think competed for a while, didn’t he? or was accepted to, but decided against it? They did the one-on-one popping competition late in the season and he was in that.
Not sure he’s the best choice of a soloist for the entire country – I assume they stay with the same team members throughout?
I find Irish step dancing creepy in general (I’m a tap-dancer myself, and the deadpan nature of it freaks me out), and the Flatleyization of it doesn’t help. I was wondering – that “kneeling archer” move that the Irish soloist (and the non-chorus leader of the group number) did – is that traditional step dancing, or is that a Flatley move that they included to suck up to him, or that has become expected by the Feet o’ Fire audiences, or what?
I definitely thought the very high scores for the opening number (Irish group) were not a good sign.
(StarsApart – sounds like your local station got the tapes [or electronic equivalent thereof) mixed up – no continuity problems here in Philly.)
I thought most of the judges were scoring way too highly. IIRC, there was only one six the entire evening. If you start out with 9s and 10s where do you go from there?
My wife has dragged me to dance for 30 years so I’ve seen a lot of it. We thought that most of the problems were in the choreography, which was pedestrian and didn’t take advantage of the skills and strengths of the performers. It was showy at times, but that’s not the same as good.
And too many of the forms are inherently limited in full use of the body, which is my notion of what dance is. Not just the Irish dance but the U.S. popper and several others.
I hope it gets more interesting tonight or else it’s the Ed Sullivan show, not a dance competition.
Thanks, twickster, that’s what I figured.
My friends and I liked the Chinese judge the best because I think he gave entirely eights the whole evening, with maybe one or two nines? We all thought he was great.
More random thoughts:
The South African judge is an utter prick. I thought his comments last night were way out of line, especially his comments to the American tap dancer. The Argentinian judge seems to be following in his footsteps, unfortunately.
China will perpetually suffer from lack of actual dance content in their performances. But that duet? Holy s***. DH said that clearly the Chinese don’t believe in gravity, sorta like the Road Runner.
Have to confess that I didn’t really “get” the female African soloist’s performance, or why everyone was calling it a huge statement (granted, I missed her intro, so perhaps they explained something there?). For some reason she looked more like she was in the throes of a seizure. Maybe I’ve been watching too much Umoja?
Very much liked, but didn’t love (as much as the judges, obviously) the group USA performance. Thought it was extremely well put together, and the one guy who’d been shot and wasn’t supposed to be able to perform again clearly still “has it.”
Really liked to Irish duet, but I’m hugely biased. Was disappointed with the Russian group (comment to DH: “How can you claim to be doing a “very masculine” performance with toilet paper rolls on your head??”), and unsurprised by their low marks. Was quite impressed with the Indian group (though for some reason I always feel like I should be smoking something when they come on-stage).
Anyone else have any thoughts?
I kinda (leave me alone grammar people) like the South African judge - I think he’s hilarious. He has erasable eyebrows - just like me!
I’m starting to like Michael Flatley. I think he’s doing a pretty good job of showing enthusiasm for all types of dance. He has an odd accent, but it doesn’t grate on my sensitve ear. The co-host Miss World/America/USA/Universe is personable, articulate and attractive. I like her off the cuff remarks.
I was shocked that the judge from Argentina gave the US group a nine. I expected her to give a seven at the most, based on previous comments.
I like the Chinese judge the best too. He’s cute.
The Australian judge is enthusiastic and pretty cool IMO.
The judge from the USA is boring to me.
The Irish judge is waiting to use (seems like it to me) one of his well rehearsed punchlines.
The Russian judge is pretty cool too.
The Indian judge doesn’t seem to want to rock the boat.
The Indian judge looks like Ben from Lost to me.
I think the Russian judge is a buffoon – did anyone tell him the Soviet Union is out of business?
Don’t care for the American or Irish judges at all.