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Thursday, August 7, 2008

SYTYCD Grand Finale: Smile! It’s candid camera!

Cat is fabulously dressed in a Greco-Roman Gladiator frilly outfit. Does that mean that there will be blood? (or pain at least)… As she introduces all the 20 dancers (wait there are only 19! – I guess Jessica is still on “medic” leave), we see 15 losers with low energy strut their stuff. Am I being too cynical? It really does seem that, especially for the ones who did not make it to the top 10, they are just going through their contract motions.
But, before we go into dancing details, I have to mention that Cat seems to be partially wearing her outfits between Wednesdays and Thursdays. I guess she doesn’t like to be that matchy-matchy. And I don’t blame her! If you recall, last week she wore the Hermes dress on W. and the Hermes sandals on R. This week, she had the Gladiator sandals on W. and the Gladiator dress on R. Too bad that there is not going to be a next week to watch and criticize. Cat! What are we going to do without you and your glossy legs?
STEP UP 3D!!! OK, so I had said I would get out of the Cassandra business, and I should have! The Kill Bull movie with the male cheerleaders or Fame seemed likely candidates, but Step Up 3D? Ok, that was a wild pitch for me… Let’s hope the project really gets off the ground and that it has real depth of dancing. However, I have to ask: has there ever been a Part 3 movie that has been successful? No, not even the Godfather. Then, why attempt the impossible? Why? Because you are the Shank-man? And Step Up 3D reminds me of Jaws 3D, which was a real sinker, and Shrek 3D which was a real stinker. Good luck anyway!
What can I say about the favorite dances? I suppose they are the ones for the tour: some flashy, some slow, all nice, all showcasing the top four (except of course Bleeding Love!). Bleeding love was the only one selected that did not include at least one of the top 4. Why? Because no list of favorite dances could have ever been complete without it! We’ll see… I have my own favorites, some you may see in my links from the sidebar, unless they have been pulled already. I’ll keep trying to give them to you though (as of today, they are all still live hot-links).
In the “surprise” portions of the show, Mary finally gets to rip a guy’s shirt off! With Dmitry (from the best all-around season: Season 2), all of Mary’s ripped abs comments finally are physically manifested. These dancing shows! I guess they really want to make you want to get up and shake your booty! Regarding Nigel’s tap surprise—it was fun. I like Jason Samuels Smith. Debbie Allen is cool too.
The great preview of Criss Angel’s Believe Vegas show with a Wade Robson’s choreography for Cirque de Soleil reminds me of the many people who have not seen Vegas shows, have not seen Broadway shows, and have not even seen a professional company’s Nutcracker. This number is very good, don’t get me wrong. The dancers are coordinated and move gracefully, without wobbly moves, with synchroncity, keeping their balance, pointing their feet. The choreography is original, good moves, individually and in groups, poignant and funny, with great costuming and makeup. But it IS what is to be EXPECTED from GOOD dancing. So please, please remember this number next time when you are spoon fed the “fabulous” SYTYCD group numbers and those “never seen before” couple routines presented to you as the next best thing since sliced bread. Please, please go to a professional show and do not be fooled by Nigel!
Oh… the results: Courtney, as expected and telegraphed the night before, is the first out, I guess she was not part of the “California Triad.” Katee, against all hope but with an outside chance is the next one out. I guess she had too much training! When the chips come down, it’s the big glasses vs. the big butt —and the cheeks have it! I guess all those scholarships with Debbie Allen over the last ten years paid off! (but, wait… he actually is an untrained hip-hop street dancer!). Congratulations Joshua. Goodbye.

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SYTYCD Top Four Season Finale: A Training Day for the "Untrained" Dancers

In our Monday night spoiler (Spoiled SYTYCD Spoilers) we commented on Twitch, Joshua and Mary going to the hospital this weekend for dehydration (the first two) and an ankle sprain (the later). News of these injuries was the big deal all over the internet during the weekend. Well, it was a surprise that there was no mention at all of this in tonight's episode. Why? Didn’t the fans deserve to know what happened? Which left us wondering: Was it all a big publicity stunt? Why didn't they want to mention it in the show? Anyhow, with Nigel-the-producer’s brain working extra hours you never know (the use of the word “medics” in all the press releases kind of gave him away as the “anonymous” source, don’t you think?).

Ok. Let’s move on. This is the last week.
My rant is long, because the night is packed. I’ll give you the bottom line (except for the winner) right now:
- Mandy tells Courtney she needs more training, especially in ballet—said in a “take two ballet classes and call me in the morning” tone. Nigel says she also needs to correct herself more in various ways. Courtney cries as she realizes that the judges do not want her to win.
- Joshua is great because he has no training. So says Nigel over and over and over and over again.
- Katee: Mary has nothing to say after her beautiful Fox Trot, after gushing over with praises for Twitch. I guess it was not in the script (read my take, below).
- Twitch: I have nothing to add to the judges praises. My grandmother taught me well.

The night starts with Cat wearing a gold (Herve Leger?) dress and black gladiator heels. It becomes her, especially because the horizontal lines of the dress contrast with the strong vertical drop of her long hair. Although she looked pretty, the dress brought to mind 3CPO (Star Wars) but my daughter said that she looked like she was ready for the Dick Clark’s Rocking New Year’s Eve (Friends’ Episode). I’m actually happy to have another entry into the Hall of Fame of Cat’s Inspired Outfits (see our sidebar). Mary is in a dress that can only be described as a fish-scales-spider-web (doesn’t reminded me of anything; it’s just remarkably weird).

The dances started with Twitch and Courtney’s Hip Hop by Napoleon and Tabitha. It was not a lyrical Hip Hop but a hard-hitting one. Courtney and Twitch were both good. Twitch looked certainly in its element as both a hip hop dancer and as a guy who’s violently fighting with his crazy girlfriend (remember Mia’s “Pas de Door” routine?). But we have to give it up to Courtney who, as the jealous girlfriend who’s "beating down” Twitch, was convincing and strong, kicking and hitting and punching and dancing. By the way, you cannot help but wonder what’s up in these choreographers’ lives that these is what comes to mind in their dances? First Mia’s door routine (Katee and Twitch) now NappyTab’s. All this kicking and punching is a good vehicle for showcasing the freedom of body language, but is not a good message for the young crowd watching this show, I must say. With that caveat, however, I liked the number. I think the choreography worked, and especially thanks to Courtney’s acting and dancing skills (although somehow the word dancing doesn’t seem to really reflect what happened here…). Twitch’s “acting” never felt convincing to me, and his “dancing” was not up to par; even the lift was not right and looked forced (I missed Mark here… he would have made that lift work…). Between Courtney and Twitch, I would say that Courtney won this one (for me, not necessarily for the audience though).

Good for Wade, who seems to be a well adjusted family man and gave us a more positive message with his choreography for Josh and Katee. A lyrical to John Mayer’s “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room.” It was an emotive piece about how love is “hard work.” To me, this one was the best choreography of the night and almost the only one at the level of what you’ll expect for SYTYCD’s final competition night (although I liked NappyTabs’ too). The problem, however, was that the dancing was not to the level of the choreography. The dancers were not together when they obviously had to be, and their lines were not as beautiful as they could have been. There were a lot of wobbly turns and weak landings. Maybe with more rehearsals this number will look awesome for the tour… I liked the effect of using one camera and one single light, although there were a couple of moments in which the continuous one camera shot looked awkward. During the floor work (Katee on top), when the couple was filmed from the front, and not from the side, it made the movements look mundane, losing the magic and losing a potentially beautiful formation of the two bodies. But that could have been fixed with choreography, if Wade would have taken into account that the camera wasn’t moving to the side. It was a good experiment, however. Between Joshua and Katee, this one is a tie for me. Katee looked technically stronger than Joshua, but I expected more from her. Joshua was struggling –by the way, I do not believe the cr(beep)p about Joshua’s complete “untraining” (and I’m sick and tired of hearing Nigel saying it!)—but he certainly needs more training.

Next was Courtney and Katee’s Broadway by Tyce. WTH was this? Is it just me, or did they had it against the girls tonight (especially, against Courtney!). I couldn’t believe my eyes with this number. What a waste of two good contemporary dancers to use Courtney and Katee for this routine. It was definitely a waste of their skills and immediately brought to my mind that other Tyce routine, “Rock the Boat,” with Will and Katee that seemed totally unfit for those two gifted dancers. This was not exactly a stretch either! Messy dresses, messy props, poor routine. Not exactly a vote grabber! I cannot help but think that the show producers did not want a girl to win this season. I tell you, Courtney and Katee did not get in the Hot Tamale Train with this number. No way! They got in the Ice Cold Tacky Trolley! This was the total sabotage: the stupid costumes, the silly choreography, and then the props (the white lace parasols). As Mary pointed out, props are very difficult to use in numbers with more than one dancer because they are hard to coordinate. When people watch a number with multiple dancers using props and they look together it may seem easy but that kind of coordination is quite difficult to attain. By the way, Mary was the only judge making sense tonight. She was the most fair and constructive. Mandy made vacuous comments such as: “This number reminds me of old Hollywood.” Duh!! It should, since it is based on the 1940s old Hollywood movie “Meet me in St. Lois,” Mandy! What planet are you from? Nigel also had it against Courtney so openly that it was upsetting! I have not being particularly a fan of Courtney, but tonight I got upset at witnessing how ruthless and unfair Nigel and Mandy were with her. First Mandy, told Courtney that she needed more training. Next, Nigel gives her corrections (at this stage of the game?!?!?) and tells her that if you watch it again you’ll see how Katee was so much better than her? When he said that, I though WHATT? I didn’t see that. Actually, of the two dancers, Courtney was more believable to me than Katee. Courtney was there, she looked alive, and my eyes were drawn to her through the whole routine. For what the number was, Courtney made it work more than Katee (to me).

Well, I can tell you now that I watched it again and, Nigel, you’re wrong! Courtney danced it all the way, finished all her movements, and danced larger than Katee if you consider the height difference. They were asking a lot from these girls with this number and offering them very little to shine. Besides the judges’ comments that favored Katee, I actually think that Courtney won this one. Ohhh, and one final thing: Yes to parasols but no to shoes? What was that? Are these kids only going to be able to dance in a Broadway remake of the Flintstones?

And then to top the night off, it came: Josh and Twitch’s Russian Character Dance (or, “Russian Street Dance” according to Nigel… which made me wonder: has Nigel ever watched a Nutcracker Ballet?). OMG! I was very disappointed by this number after all the build up that it had through the grapevine. Excellence was not a standard that they were seeking with this routine. Oh, no! The music and basic choreography used is from the most performed ballet in the world, The Nutcracker, and I personally felt affronted by the travesty of this dance. Nigel talked about it as if it was out of this world; as if for the very first time in the history of the US this dance had been performed on an American stage or on television! Brought to you all the way from Russia by nobody else but: Mr. Nigel Lithgoe! Are you kidding me? What planet are YOU from, Nigel? In my lifetime, I must have seen about 50 Nutcrackers if not more from very classical to campy, to hip-hop/urban; from professional companies to school recitals, the Russian version, the Balanchine version, the Cuban version, and Twitch/Joshua’s Russian Dance was not among the best, oh no! Really, this was painful to watch, with poor execution, poor coordination and poor, yes, poor choreography! At best a small-school-recital number.

The worst part of all these is that I know from reading Fox’s internet boards that most people are raving about it! How sad! It is sad that one of these two guys is going to win the SYTYCD competition based on this Russian “Street” Dance, just because 90% of the voters have never seen a Nutcracker ballet. Sad, sad, sad!!!!!! Furthermore, and this just hit me: I already bought tickets for the live Tour and I’m going to have to suffer through this Russian dance again!
It was pathetic that this number got a standing O. Joshua had great elevations, but, come on! I kind of like Joshua. I like his personality and determination. But tonight it was quite obvious that, as the winner of season 4, he (or Twitch) will have to be called America’s FAVORITE Dancer, oh yes, because BEST dancer he is NOT. Not even among these four! Oh, by the way, Mandy made not sense again when she said that Joshua must have paid Twitch to get him to do the floor work (unless she did it on purpose trying to build Twitch up). Good for Joshua to coming back with: I can jump higher! Yes you can, Joshua. And the truth is that Twitch did not do the proper Russian floor (and, no, it wasn’t the choreography). And if the choreographer did not want it to be compared to the real thing, he shouldn’t have used the traditional costumes and the traditional music from The Nutcracker Suite. Ok?

Oh, one more thing Nigel: Danny and Neil’s Two Princes routine was so much better than this one!!!! Oh, Yes!!!!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUjdOJdnJps





Twitch & Katee’s Foxtrot by Tony & Melanie to “Feeling Good” by Michael Bublé was alright. Nothing spectacular, but alright. Twitch was in a tuxedo and Katee was in a light blue dress with lots of fringes. The judges loved it for the most part. Mary told Katee that she could walk into the US Ballroom Championships in September because she is so good. I think that comment was an exaggeration, but I agree with Mary that Katee was the best of the couple. And if we are fair, she’s possibly the best of the four remaining dancers. I’m pro-Courtney tonight, however, because of what they’ve been doing to her. The final duel between Twitch and Katee was not won by Bond, James Bond, oh no. Regardless of how much Mandy, Mary and Nigel push Twitch to us the naïve viewers, I must say that Katee looked the best of the two. It was like watching that other show, DWTS, with Katee as the professional and Twitch as the amateur. Yes, I agree, that lift was good, but the overall effect of the dance was given by her, not him. Her grace, beauty and lines made the dance when they were together and when they were not, she dominated. Twitch, about that audition as 007—you will not get my call back.

The last partner dance was Josh & Courtney's jive by Jason. This was another “Sabotage Courtney Mission” team work by choreography and costuming. I understand that gladiator sandals are in, but gladiator outfits? NOT. What did they had her wearing? Who could have looked good on that? Not even Cat! And her boots! Wow, how can anybody point on those? You cannot even stretch your legs! This was a train wreck. I can even see all the cold tamales spread through the tracks! No winner here, really.

The final number was Mia’s Scottish. It started great with the long silk sheet and then WTH? I had heard a lot about this number as being weird and interesting and emotional and Ok... Mia Michaels is usually brilliant… but that was a weird choreography for the final four. And I don’t think it suited them as a foursome at all… It certainly didn’t favor Courtney and Joshua, because of their stature and body types in contrast to Katee and Twitch. The choreography had a couple of beautiful frames as well as some energy driven moments, but for most of it they looked like if they were running around like tired basketball players... missing the shots... and the costumes were awful! They were mocking ballet movements and it was a weird combination of ballet with contemporary that, to me, ended up not being this or that. And then, there was the issue of the uneven lift and Courtney. I watched it again and again and the vertical versus horizontal lift didn't look like a dancers’ mistake. It seemed obviously choreographed. Actually, wasn't it supposed to symbolize a Cross? Of course, Mia and the dancers are the only ones who know the truth, but it didn’t look like Courtney and Joshua were even trying to match Katee and Twitch’s position. It looks to me like that they were meant to be forming a Celtic Cross. Courtney was perfectly horizontal while Katee was perfectly vertical. And it looked like Courtney’s body was supposed to be horizontal in contrast to Katee’s verticality… But, what do I know?

About the solos, I have to start by saying that I loved Cat’s little moments with the contestants. I loved the relaxed interviews on the couch, showing the person behind the dances.
Courtney was beautiful. I liked it a lot. It was one of her best solos; however, it is unavoidable to compare her solo with Katee’s solo and Katee was better. Between the girls, Katee wins.
Twitch’s solo demonstrated that he’s very good at popping and that he has great musicality and sense of humor. Now, it was Joshua who stole the show with his solo! He was really AWESOME!! Started off on the stage, then ran off the stage and jumped onto the judge's platform, all the time popping and hopping and booty shaking and doing lots of trick, ending up on a floor split. He really deserved that standing ovation! And he demonstrated capacity for improvisation when, loosing a shoe at the end of the split (looked obviously unplanned), he used it (a smelly dancer’s shoe to boot!) as a phone to ask the audience for their calls—Smart move!

Overall, although Katee is the “best” dancer of the four, Joshua has to be the “favorite” dancer for most.
My Top 4 Predictions are:
1) The word untrained will come out of Nigel’s mouth on Thursday, probably more than once!
2) Mary is going to scream…
3) Cat will be wearing something wonderfully weird,,,
4) Joshua is going to win!

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Bull Killer Movie

When Adam Shankman promised a role in an upcoming film to the winner of So You Think You Can Dance, at first we thought he may be talking about the FAME remake, but Shankman is not yet attached to that movie as a director or producer. We do not rule it out completely, however, since Fame is still in casting mode... We sure could see some of the SYTYCD dancers (and teacher/choreographers) cast in that film (see our Fame side bar in this same page). Mr. Shankman is currently attached to four other upcoming films: Hairspray 2 (not looking forward too much to THAT one), Bedtime Stories (this one is an Adam Sandler comedy, not a dance movie or musical as far as we know), a live action/modernized version of Aladdin (this one has been a Disney's on again, off again project for several years already), and the movie “Matadors”.
Based on the true story of the Chicago Bulls’ group of male cheerleaders, the film Matadors is described as “a comedic take on what happens when a pair of ultimate basketball fans form a cheerleading squad.” The movie will be distributed by Disney. The director will be Anne Fletcher, who directed “27 Dresses” and “Step-up” (another Shankman produced film). Is Matadors the prize for the SYTYCD winner? Maybe... but they'll have to beautify the cast a lot! The true ones are not that pretty!
To give you casting ideas, the real life Matadors for the Chicago Bulls (current season) are these (there seems to be even a spot for Will’s James Brown wig -check Corie out!):
Adam - Albert - Corie - DeLawrence - John - Kevin - Kirby - Mike O. - Mike S. - Steven
PHOTO GALLERY
Who knows. The movie could be the live action Aladdin project instead. We can see some Bollywood and other SYTYCD "ethnic" dances in that one!