SYTYCD: Melanie, Marko & some other people dance

So You Think You Can Dance

By McWeanis | Thursday, July 28, 2011 | 12:00 pm | 35 Comments
Tagged: , , , , , , ,
Posted in: Recaps, So You Think You Can Dance

AHA! I am recapping So You Think You Can Dance! For one week I have all the power to unleash my opinions upon you, finally! Before we begin, three very important things.

1.     I am still mad about Nick and the Week 1 Non-Elimination. Yup, still mad bro.

2.     I have wondered this forever… who are the other dancers in the sytycd opening credits? I recognize Jeanine, Philip, and Ade.. who else is in there??

3. This is my favorite routine of all time. Please watch. Travis Wall’s debut with Jeanine & Jason!


Alright! On to the show! This week, each of our top 8 performs twice – once with an all-star, and once with each other. I don’t think anybody in the top 8 doesn’t deserve to be here, which is a nice change. In past years I’ve always been screaming at some judges’ pet or ‘good personality’ person or whatever to get off my screen. This year I enjoy seeing all of the top 8 dance, and if it sucks, it’s pretty much the choreographers fault! To avoid poisoning myself with the intros, judgings, and Gaga in general, I watched all of just the routines first to see if I could grasp the story etc. without bias. For instance, this week I DID like a tice and DIDN’T like a nappy tabs! Weirddd.

Lets see. For a start, our guest judges are Rob Marshall and Lady Gaga. I don’t realllly know who Rob Marshall is but I guess he’s super successful and has something to do with Pirates of the Caribbean. And of course, Lady Gaga, with a Sergeant Pepper/Octopus’s garden outfit.

Picture 74

A porn film firefighter who got puked on, with doublemint hair. It’s confusing.

First we have Sasha and Pasha doing a Jonathan Roberts quickstep. Apparently this routine in supposed to take place in a quirky, alternate universe. Umm.. let’s just forget about that because there was no evidence of it the routine. If this is an alternate reality, it’s shittier than ours: Pasha wears shirts and is goofy instead of brooding and hot. I love the song Puttin on the Ritz, and I think Sasha embraced the song and style, although I didn’t see the same the same cheesy joie de vivre that Pasha had. I’m not even sure if that’s good or bad. What I did see on Sasha were some big ass feet. Even though I could tell her steps were right sometimes they looked a little clunkalicious cause of those feet. She did look beautiful, as some sort of Tahitian princess. I’ve been wondering for awhile if sasha can ditch the tough ‘warrior princess’ thing for a traditional ballroom number, and this proves she can, even though she still looked a bit angular.

Picture 17Picture 23Picture 18

Robb Marshall loves Sasha and her legs, and likes Sasha better in other genres where she can show her abandon. Mary thinks she pulled it off and loves her upper body position but wants a little more skim in the knees.  Nigel also says Sasha is his favorite, but had a little too much stiffness in the upper body. (I agree.. I feel like her shoulders are always up by her ears.) Gaga thinks Sasha is a beautiful soul and spirit, and I think Gaga’s voice is far more nasal than I could have ever imagined!


Next up are Caitlynn and Ivan, with a Marty Kodulka hip hop routine. The story is that Caitlynn is pissed off with her cheatin man, so Ivan comes along to sweep her off her feet.

My first thought is that Caitlynn messed up at the beginning. She kind of waves her phone around and grabs her head like its supposed to be a dance move, but it really doesn’t look like one. But once Ivan comes out all Timberlake-like, it’s all good. This dance is alright, and Caitlynn did whip out a little bit of secret swag; there just wasn’t anything all that impressive. There was a lot of synchronized hip swinging, a sort of distance-grinding move. Maybe I’ve been spoiled by the bboy and acro work we’ve seen from all the other dancers in their hip hop routines. Caitlynn is hitting it and hitting it well, but obviously this doesn’t compare to Sasha, Melanie, or Miranda’s hip hop work. They do make a super cute tall/tiny couple though.

Picture 14Picture 16

Picture 19

glowing vaginas are the best vaginas

Mary can’t stop talking about Ivan! I know, he’s pretty precious. Caitlinn in comparison was good, but not brilliant. Ouch, bad note to start on. She got rid of her crazy side bang and that’s all she gets? Nigel thinks that Caitlynn needs to open up her legs a little bit more and Gaga gives him an awkward look. Well, what he meant was that she should get a little lower and find more swag. Gaga thinks Caitlynn is great and sexy, but again, didn’t quite find the fluidity in the moves like Ivan did. Rob masturbates Lady Gaga by talking about her amazing presentation.. and how Caitlynn doesn’t have it, and can’t loseherself in the music. Robb thinks Caitlynn’s infectious when she dances. I wouldn’t recommend opening your legs when you’re infectious, but whateva. Anyway, it looks like Caitlynn’s cutesiness has finally caught up with her – too bad after her sexy, adult tango last week.


Next, Jordan and Ade are sneakin out to ‘do bad things’ in a Tyce Diorio jazz numer. Well, TGINB (Thank god it’s not Broadway.) The song is Nutbush City Limits, which I actually can’t believe is a real song. HAHAHAHAHH Nutbush. How did Nutbush not get involved in the Dick/Bush campaign somehow? After I get over the hilarity, I actually like the routine. Jordan does dirty little girl well, especially in that onesie. (As a rule, I am anti-onesies, but I will make this one exception.) Jordan gets back to her super sexy roots in this number – lots of leg spreading, pouty faces and so on. I mean, this piece was pretty more choreographed for her. It’s a dirty developpe rocker girl. I actually barely looked at Ade at all, which is weird cause he’s always been a fave of mine.

Picture 31Picture 32

Picture 33

hehe this ones just cuz jordan looks like a monkey.

As Nigel puts it, “Is there anything that little body can’t do?” Nigel loved the fun, badass choreography. PS, Tice got a weird new asymmetrical haircut I couldn’t catch a screenshot of. Gaga says Jordan gives her hope with her tiny short legs, and shows off her foot-long heels. Robb loves Tice and Jordan. Mary splooges herself over Jordan’s legs.


Next we have Melanie, Neil and Mandy Moore in a contemporary routine! Yayyy. Opening chords and I love it.. Total Eclipse of the Heart! I’ve loved this song ever since the glee cover.

For the first half im thinking, ok, boring, seen this before, white and flowy… and then when the music powers up, Melanie and Neil REALLY power up and I get the mothafucking TINGLES BITCH! Melanie makes a ridiculous terrifying huge flying leap into his arms. Melanie is a goddess. She does a brilliant job letting out those glorious extensions and then just crumpling, spurned woman that she is in this routine. I mean really, she just needs to win. I love me some Sasha, but when it comes to numbers like this, Melanie OWNS. The girls number of the night, in my opinion. Maybe the number of the night – we’ll see. Check out the mothafrickin jump! I want a flip book!

Picture 27Picture 26Picture 24Picture 28

Picture 29

Lady Gaga starts it out, almost brought to tears, and declares that Melanie is her favorite and she wants to hire her today, and Melanie’s mom freaks out cutely clapping J Robb says Melanie is poetic, flawness and magical, and beautiful on the inside. J again! Mary says a bunch of incomprehensible positive stuff and that this number should get an Emmy. Nigel told Sasha earlier that she was his favorite… but now he’s back to Melanie as his favorite. Good boy, Nigel! Like me, he loved the moments where Melanie collapses into Neil. He throws it back to Ellen Degeneres in the audience: “you must be a carpenter, cause you just nailed it.” As Melanie leaves  the stage, she takes another flying leap into Neil’s arms! YAAAAY! Love it. All I need to see from Melanie is some hard hip hop, and I shall declare her unstoppable.


For some reason, they’re doing all the girls first then the boys. And next up is Ricky, doing a Jason Gilkinson jive with Anya to River Deep, Mountain High! Maybe he can finally make it on the hot tamale train without Ryan clawing at his coattails. I love Ricky and his long lean bod, and I hope he can finally shake off the curse of Ryan. If anyone can do it, it’s Anya! Ooh hot damn. Who was it asking for some good ballroom? Here it is for your baby. Look at those blazing feet. Ricky seemed to lose a little steam in the second half.. but he was steaming pretty hard the whole time, so that doesn’t even hurt much. Sexual tension? Admittedly, no. chemistry? YES! That looks realllly fun. WTF Anya flipped HIM! The way she did it, it looked like she just launched him over her head. God I love that woman. Time to visit my Anya/Pasha spank bank tonight. (sorry Ricky, you aren’t invited.)  I thought it was fantastic and fun.

Picture 39 Picture 40

Picture 34

this looks dirty but i promise its just a flip. unforch.

Rob loves Ricky’s joyful smile and his legs, and maybe suggests getting down into the floor a little more since he’s so freakin tall and long. Mary thought he did a great job with the difficult lifts, maybe had some trouble at the beginning with the jive’s doubletick. Nigel said the middle lift sucked, which is true – it was awkward and labored – and that Ricky’s needs to get lower. Gaga calls Anya ‘Dancing with the Stars’ (ouch) but has a sweet spot for Ricky. Wow – he did have trouble with the lift, but I thought it was better than the critiques made it out to be.


Next up is all-star Lauren and Jess doing a NappyTabs routine to Take a Bow by Rihanna. Wait… is this the same routine again? Sloww and lyrical and about cheating? Lame. Where’s my hard hitting stuff? They didn’t even try to do step or krump this year. Maybe I’m just being cruel because I want to see Jess’ stank face, which I’m sure is incredibly gross. Why does Jess keep getting stupid props in hip hop? First that god damn terrifying painting of Clarice and now a GIANT fake flower. Thanks, the only dancer allowed to use a big fake flower is JEANINE. I’m totally lukewarm about this. I’m not fond of Jess or Lauren or this song.  Lauren shows some good emotion, but there’s just not that much to the routine. Jess does alright but it’s just not a wower. Compared to last year’s Adechike and Comfort piece on the same theme, this really sucks. Let’s see what the judges think.

Picture 20Picture 25

Picture 41

poppin a squat

Mary says Jess was good and honest tonight (aka no stupid faces). That’s funny, cause I didn’t really feel any emotion from him tonight. OH NO! He’s going back to the stupid faces during the critique. StopitttyoutinyMickeyMouseboy. Mary and Nigel agree that Jess has matured significantly. Hmm, this sounds like an exit interview to me… Eww Jess’ sweat is shining everywhere gross. Gaga says the choreography wasn’t for her – it didn’t need the props etc – but Jess shone through it. Robb has known Jess since he was a little boy doing the Grinch on Broadway. Semi-awww. The routine was ‘simple and pure and beautiful.’ Okay, but as I’m sure Cat will say tomorrow… will that be enough???


Next up is a crime-themed jazz routine by Mandy Moore, starring Tadd and season 8 winner Lauren Froderman. I didn’t really get the crime theme here, other than that they’re both wearing hats and suit jackets. I thought this was more of Michael Jackson set to Queen. Oops… right off the bat, Tadd loses his hat when he is definitely not supposed to, leading me to fear one of them will trip over it, and also leading Tadd to stupidly grab his head and shake his hand a lot where there’s supposed to be a hat. God, this hat thing is really distracting to me. Aside from that though, Tadd does a great job. This isn’t my favorite jazz routine but it ain’t bad, and the air guitar/thrust portion is pretty funny. Also.. DAMN does Tadd look good in that suit. The sequence where they go diagonally across the floor under the row of spotlighs is particularly good.

(Speaking of Asian bboys and Lauren Froderman, didja know she’s dating former contestant Dom? That’s right folks. That domestic abuse dance must have really brought them together.)

 

Picture 45Picture 42Picture 43Picture 44

Nigel points out as he does every week that Tadd is a b-boy! WOW! He also promises that Tadd won’t get eliminated this week. Big promises. Gaga thought it was amazing and loves the mystery. Rob loves that Tadd made it through losing his hat and getting punched in the face by Lauren (I didn’t see that?) without missing a beat. Mary also says that Tadd is going to land himself in the finale. Bad news for Ricky and Jess…


Our final routine features a shirtless Marko with Allison doing some Sonyah Tayeh contemporary. The piece is about the guilt of hurting someone and wanting to change to be kinder. Allison is one of my favorite sytycd dancers of all time.  As an all star, she has rocked. She even managed to salvage the Sonya eternal sunshine theme routine, making it one of my favorite in spite of Jose.

Allison and Marko have such moving tragic faces in pieces like this! Unfortunately, this is way way way too reminiscent of Sonya’s Hallelujah piece. I mean, really, Sonya, its you, Allison, an asian man, and Jeff Buckley. Again. This one’s great, but not as great as Hallelujah, and I think it was a mistake to do something so similar. Apparently nobody else thinks so, as there is a standing ovation, and Allison, Marko, and Lady Gaga are all crying. I guess lighting does strike twice!

Picture 48Picture 46

Picture 50Picture 49

Gaga and Marko have a major moment as she says how proud she is of him. Marko and his mom are crying and really losing it, and Gaga’s talking about her regrets from her youth. Marko’s really happy because his mom flew in from Guam to see SYTYCD live for the first time, and he says “I’m sorry and I love you” to his mom. (You can barely hear it between his gravelly voice and the tears.) AWWWW! I’m okay with all this emotional stuff, cause honestly there’s not much to critique about Marko ever, and especially not in this piece. Mary says Marko is by far her favorite dancer, and he adds something incredible to even normal dance moves. Nigel blahs about family and forgiveness. Um, yea, soooo.. Melanie and Marko? Final two? Duh?

Gahh! My fingers are tired and there are still four more routines to go. But I’m excited, cause I have been waiting for the couples to be mixed up FOREVER!


When the choreographer Jonathan Robert says he’s giving Tadd and Caitlyn the most classic foxtrot, I am instantly worried. Too often, classic means super borrring!  The piece is quite lovely, but yes, boring. I mean, it’s a foxtrot. There’s only so much it can do for me outside the context of a gorgeous old romantic film.  Caitlyn looks and moves like a cloud, and her beautiful smile serves her well. Tadd is smooth and suave.

Picture 71Picture 73

Picture 72

boyz r yucky EW COOTIEZ!

Rob thinks the routine is sparkling and elegant. Mary admits the routine is the not the most memorable, and then says some complicated ballroom stuff – basically their foxtrot technique was mixed. Gaga goes off on a long tangent about keeping the trophies in the cloest and hands and something. I don’t know. Basically, twas pretty and good but nothing to write home about.

 

The next routine is NappyTabs hip hop  feauturing Marko and Ricky as janitors! Awesomeee! This has a vibe very similar to the Alex/Twitch hip hop, ad it uses Diddy’s Bad Boys for life.  Just like the Alex/Twitch routine, the music turned super fast halfway through and the boys went into an awesome breakdown. Marko and Ricky are fucking awesome and hilarious. Their synchro was off at times, but they had that swagger and I loved it. Why can’t we do awesome funny thematic hip hop with girls??? Why does it always have to be love? (on the other hand, why can’t we have same sex love? Anyway..) Sexiest janitors ever. I actually think Marko did a little better; he seemed a little lower and in the moment. Cat hilariously points out that the two are like the Mario brothers and starts singing the video game theme.

Picture 70Picture 69

Picture 67

Picture 65

Picture 68

Mary loved it; Nigel thinks Marko is naaasty. Mm mm mm. Ricky’s still a little bit too tall for him, and Nigel thinks he might be in the bottom. Gawd! Poor boy! Gaga rips on NappyTabs again, and they don’t cut to their faces, thank god. She thinks the routine was contrived and used too many props, but loved how it was danced. Rob comes to NappyTabs rescue and says how great they are – and when they cut to their faces, they’re just laughing, so I guess they say fuck you Gaga anyway.


Next up are Jess and Jordan. doing a Jason Gilkinson rumba. Jess is the bad boy again – he’s a controlling boyfriend. I don’t really know what a rumba is, but this is super slow, so any mistake or awkwardness is glaring. Frankly, I think Jordan bangs it out in her bare feet. Jess makes some dumb mugging faces and I don’t really get the controlling vibe from him, although his stare on her throughout the dance is pretty intense. I think Jordan looked good, but I didn’t really get it overall.

Picture 64
Picture 63

Feel that sexual tension? No?

Nigel isn’t lovin it.. He says Jordan’s back is so swayed it looked deformed, and there was no chemistry between the two (true). Gaga rags on the choreographer again and says that she would have interpreted things differently, and that they did a beautiful job with the crappiness. Ouch! I like Jason! Rob sees big theater careers for both of them. Mary thinks the best part was the back split lift (I didn’t see it?), and there wasn’t enough time to get the full stretch and sensuality out of it; she also doesn’t think it was great choreography. Gaga seems to be really opening the judges up to criticize the chorepgraphers! This is what I’ve been asking for, but these are choreographers I like. I only want it to apply to Tice!


Finally in our warrior princess mohawk trio: Sonya, Melanie, and Sasha, doing jazz. OMG! I was totally listening to this song today and thinking it should be used on the show. This routine is pretty sick. The girls look like ridiculous warriors, strong and muscular and androgynous. Which is everything I like in a female dancer. There are some sweet alien/robot/insect moves in there. I actually think Sonya could have made it a little harder and faster and more complicated, but it was still great and really showcased what I’m sure will be the top 2 ladies. Standing ovation!

Picture 62Picture 61

Picture 60Picture 59

by far the best green lantern of the year.

Gaga gets up and throws her shoe at the stage, which apparently means they did a really great job, and Sasha immediately grabs it and starts using it as a penis/machine gun.

Picture 58

Okay! I like it!

Gaga calls it the performance of the evening and the dance of the future, and she loves the gender race culture etc ambiguity in the dance. Rob agrees that the dance was unbelievable, and Cat, Melanie and Sasha start giggling and screaming uncontrollably. Whoa! Mary finds it the best number of the night too, and bows to them. Nigel says Sasha must be the inspiration for Sasha Fierce, and can’t decide which of them is the best. Things are going crazy here! Everyone starts ignoring Nigel and Gaga throws her other shoe at Sonya as she goes out in the aisle. Nigel declares one of them the future champion.

WHEW! That was a FREAKIN LOT to recap, but I wanted to get it done now since I’m sure my opinions are vital in your voting decision :) Please leave comments, cause it boosts my self esteem! Who do YOU think is better – Melanie or Sasha? Melanie or Marko? Does anybody else have a chance in hell? Did you find Lady Gaga to be not as annoying as expected? Will Sasha’s phallic interpretation of Lady Gaga’s shoe on a family program affect her votes:

My prediction: Jess and Ricky in the bottom two, with Ricky going home – although I think Jess deserves to go home, the judges really ragged on Ricky tonight. Jordan and Caitlynn the other bottom two, with Caitlynn going home – she really didn’t get much to work with choreography wise this week, she she’s just not that interesting.

Oh yea and

McWeanis
About

first thing's first: the origin of "mcweanis."

It is not because I have a giant weanis (look it up) although it is usually unusually bulbous and crusty.

it is in fact because as a child i was dubbed Weanie (it rhymes with my first name, because i'm awesomely named)  by my older sister Drunk, which my friends co-opted and which eventually evolved into weanis and finally mcweanis or MC weanis depending on how gangster i am at the time.

i am a huge nerd of all kinds, especially tv, books, and school. i'll be going to harvard law school in the fall cause i'm so SCHMANCY! i plan to put my excellent time management skills to work in balancing my courseload and my must-watch-tv-load.

35 Comments

  1. 1
    mel
    Posted July 28, 2011 at 12:38 pm

    The two others in the opening sequence are Kayla and Evan

  2. 2
    rachelle850@gmail.com
    Posted July 28, 2011 at 1:07 pm

    I want to thank you for getting this recap up as soon as you did. I enjoyed reading your opinions. Especially since it seems like your favorite dancers are the same as my. I adore both Marko and Melanie. I will be ok if either one wins. My favorite three dancers are Melanie, Marko, and Tadd. Honorable mention to Tasha.

  3. 3
    Shi
    Posted July 28, 2011 at 1:23 pm

    Actually, it’s Kayla and Brandon…there was a big to-do when it came out since it had Philip and not Evan who actually made top 4 that season if I’m not mistaken.

  4. 4
    mel
    Posted July 28, 2011 at 1:51 pm

    @Shi – Oh right, messed up. My bad :D

  5. 5
    vallegirl vallegirl
    Posted July 28, 2011 at 2:02 pm

    Rob Marshall directed the film version of “Chicago” and the gruesome “Nine” so judge him as you will. But he clearly has a Broadway background, so he knows something about dance.

    FYI – Nutbush City Limits is a somewhat autobiographical Tina Turner song. Nutbush, Tennessee is her hometown.

    And while on the one hand I’d really love to see what Melanie can do outside of Contemporary, Jazz Contemporary, Lyrical “only pretend” Hip Hop Contemporary, Viennese Waltz Contemporary, she is so far ahead of everyone else in Contemporary that I always love her dances. Except that crap with Sasha. Sorry, that was just not as good as everyone wants me to think it is. Sasha wielding the shoe like a dildo might be coloring my opinion, though.

    Finally, I know I’m in the lonely minority of one but I will hunt down Sonya and delete all the Jeff Buckley songs from her iTunes if she choreographs one more overwrought, angsty BS, can’t even find the rhythms dance to one of his songs. If you need his sublime vocals to give your dance some depth, then choreograph another dance, dammit. At the very least choreograph to the music. But between this and Hallelujah last season, it’s all just a bunch of frenzied melodramatic movement that craps all over Buckley. Marko and Allison did their best and there’s an honesty to the way he moves that sells any dance, even that anemic tango, but I’ve hated how she’s butchered Buckley’s music both times that I can’t see the dance for its own merits.

  6. 6
    Flippy Floppy
    Posted July 28, 2011 at 2:06 pm

    So…Sonya had a good night! I’m always a little nervous that her choreography will go over people’s heads, mine included, and not bode well for the dancers, but I loved what she did tonight.
    Also, I think what Gaga was getting at with Caitlynn was, we know you are a good dancer and grew up dancing and have a lot of trophies, but this is the big time, so throw out the cutesy, put the trophies away and bring it. I thought that I would be annoyed with Gaga, but I wasn’t and I actually cracked up a lot at the comments she made at Nigel and when he got booed and she moved her chair away from him. She was somehow more down to earth than I imagined and I she gave fair and honest critiques. Even when she ripped on some of the choreo, she made sure to mention that the dancers don’t pick the choreo, etc., so as to hopefully not influence the voting for the dancers based on the choreo.
    Anyway…I will be shocked if Melanie doesn’t win the whole thing. Although, I was sure Kent had last season in the bag, so whatdoiknow?

  7. 7
    Hm21
    Posted July 28, 2011 at 2:10 pm

    Wow, thanks for the super speedy recap. Loved it!

    I agree that the bottom four will probably be Ricky, Jess, Caitlynn, and Jordan with Ricky and Caitlynn going home. I think now it’s not really who was really bad but just who was not as good. After last night, the Top 4 is probably going to be Melanie, Marko, Sasha, and Tadd. But that was obvious since the Top 20 show so no surprise there. And it’s probably going to come down to Melanie vs. Marko unless something big happens in the next two weeks.

    I LOVED Melanie’s contemporary. Neil is amazing as always, and even better shirtless! However, I am a little suspicious that Melanie has always got dances near contemporary in genre. Sure she’s got ballroom, but always something smooth and not super fast. Also, where IS the hard-hitting hip-hop this year??

    And speaking of hip-hop, Tadd continues to be good in other genres. He really does seem to pick up every style. And yes, I did know Lauren Frodie was dating D-Trix. Which is kind of funny since a lot of people, including me, think Tadd could be D-Trix’s twin or something. They’re both Asian, breakdance, act the same, have cool haircuts, and everything. Though D-Trix is more about power moves and Tadd less.

    And the other Asian, Marko, was amazing too. His number with Allison definitely did remind me of Alex’s last season. And that one was better. But that doesn’t mean this one wasn’t amazing either! Just a little too close for me but that’s all good. And him and Ricky’s hip-hop was quite good. I did think Marko was a little bit better and got more down but Ricky was pretty good too.

    And speaking of “Other Asian”, I couldn’t help but notice that three songs used were covered by Glee: Total Eclipse of the Heart, River High Mountain Deep, and Take a Bow. AND the LXD is going to be performing again tonight, which Harry Shum Jr. AKA Other Asian is a part of. Just something I noticed haha.

  8. 8
    Hm21
    Posted July 28, 2011 at 2:12 pm

    Oh one last thing, I too am still bitter about the whole Nick leaving WAYY too early and the Week 1 non-elimination happenings. I still believe that Nick should be in the Top 10, if not the Top 4. That definitely has spoiled this season a bit for me.

  9. 9
    Flippy Floppy
    Posted July 28, 2011 at 2:46 pm

    I thought Dom (D-Trix) was not Asian. Hok is the Asian.

  10. 10
    CattyFan cattyfan
    Posted July 28, 2011 at 3:45 pm

    A high quality pinch-hitter this week. Welcome :)

    Napoleon and Tabitha are in a serious rut. This was just like the number earlier this season that was just like Bleeding Heart from a couple of seasons back. I know summer is for reruns, but come on.

  11. 11
    CattyFan cattyfan
    Posted July 28, 2011 at 3:51 pm

    Oh…and many thanks for my weekly dose of Hugh.

  12. 12
    Hm21
    Posted July 28, 2011 at 4:07 pm

    @Flippy Floppy Quest Crew is actually all Asians. D-Trix is mostly Filipino (about 70%) and then a mix of others including German, Portuguese, Irish, Indonesian, Spanish, Chinese, and Indian. So he’s definitely a mix but he’s mostly Filipino. Hok, I’m pretty sure, is just 100% Japanese.

  13. 13
    Tommy Girl
    Posted July 28, 2011 at 6:37 pm

    I love love love Marko and Melanie with Tadd a close third. I also love Gaga but thought she was a bit too critical of Nappytabs (both dances). The judging was overall good.

    Hated the way Sasha went ape crazy with the shoe! Overkill much. It seemed like she was putting on an audition for Gaga – I am wild too – can’t I be asked to be one of your dancers too?!

    Caitlyn and Ricky will go home. Love them both but it can’t be my top 3!

  14. 14
    baffled
    Posted July 28, 2011 at 7:32 pm

    Great job recapping, and I love all the links to some of my favorite past dances! I agree with your prediction of who will be going home, too. I hate it when it gets to this point because they aren’t bad dancers, just others are better. And it really isn’t that, is it. Sometimes it’s just that the others GOT better dances, songs, routines. It sucks when BOTH of your dances are bad or not-as-popular styles (poor Caitlynn).

    Again, great job! I was excited to see the recap up so quickly!!

  15. 15
    zbird
    Posted July 28, 2011 at 7:57 pm

    Great cap, and thanks for getting it up so quickly. I love when writers enjoy the show they are capping, and you and PottyMouth clearly both really and truly love this show and these dancers. I have nothing to add here — I agree with your assessments, and I second everything Tommy Girl said as well. Just wanted to give you some love :) And thanks for our dose of Hugh! Freakin’ HOT!

  16. 16
    sagittariuskim sagittariuskim
    Posted July 28, 2011 at 8:48 pm

    I absolutely love Lady GaGa and I loved her as a judge. I’ll be surprised if Melanie doesn’t win, she’s just so amazing. I really don’t have much else to add, I think everything’s already been said.
    Great recap, I was surprised to see it up so fast.

  17. 17
    xxodettexx
    Posted July 29, 2011 at 7:34 am

    “Nigel thinks that Caitlynn needs to open up her legs a little bit more and Gaga gives him an awkward look.”

    actually, even better, gaga clearly said “oh i bet you wish she would spread her legs…” or something to that effect… my boyfriend and i rewinded it a few times and it was clear… i was actually okay with gaga, had serious reservations of her as a judge but as others pointed out, she gave really good criticism and a lot of encouragement [which is always nice]…

    as for the dancers, i actually like jordan but can see she was the next to go [girls just hate with other girls are too sexy] and i was so afraid rickey would be in the bottom but he is a favorite of mine! [granted, i totally see this season is melanie, marko or sashas to lose]

  18. 18
    Lizbot
    Posted July 29, 2011 at 8:43 am

    Wow, this got up fast! Thanks for filling in mcweanis. And don’t worry about still being bitter about Nick — I’m still a little bitter too. Plus, I’m STILL bitter about Nigel breaking up my favourite power couple of season 3, Sara and Jesus, in weak 2. I’ll never forgive him for that!

    I was pleasantly surprised by the Gaga. I was fully prepared to detest her as a judge, because of the way she can be kind of aloof and pretentious in some of her interviews. She started growing on me as the night went on (especially after she removed the douche-glasses) and by the end of the night I wanted to add her to my guest list for my fantasy SYTYCD party (along with Cat, Jesse, NPH, and Sonya). She actually gave meaninful critique and praise, she wasn’t afraid to call out the crap choreography (I disagreed with her bashing of Jason Gilkinson’s rumba, but I love that she’s the second guest judge to call out Tyce, by the way. Get a hint Nigel! And finally someone calls out nappytabs for their repetitive and dated soft-hop).

    @vallegirl and Hm21: I’ve noticed Melanie getting all of the soft genres too, and it puts me in a dilemna. If she were a lesser dancer or had a less endearing personality, I’d probably despise her for the favouritism the producers have been showing her. Because she’s so amazing when she’s dancing in or close to her genre, and because of her seemingly sweet personality, I love her, but it still pisses me off. The only time she’s really been pushed really far outside of her genre was with tango, and that was underwhelming, but I was just glad to see her do something different! I’ve also noticed that she doesn’t come across as impressively when she’s given harder-hitting styles of jazz. Like, her routine with Sasha – I know this is next to blasphemy, but I feel like Sasha totally outdanced her and it’s because Melanie’s movements tend to be powerfully soft, whereas that routine really catered to Sasha’s powerfully hard-hitting style, if that makes any sense.

    So, what I’m getting to (please don’t hurt me for this!) but I wonder if the producers are aware that Melanie is breathtaking within her wheelhouse but underwhelming too far outside of it. Again, because she’s just breathtaking in her contemporary routines (her routine with Neil was probably the routine of the night and her solos blow me away) I don’t hate her. I think she should win just because of what she’s able to do. But I have this sneaking suspicion that if she’s given a (real) hiphop, jive, samba, or chacha a lot of us would be very disappointed with the results. I can’t help but make comparisons between her and season 2′s Allison. Although I actually think Melanie could match or outdance Allison in contemporary, when I think of Allison dancing the Argentine Tango, there’s no contest.

    That being said, I hated Sasha in that quickstep (and I partly blame Jonathan — I cringed when I saw he was choreographing, but I did like his second routine for Caitlin and Tadd).

    Although he’s not my absolute favourite, I think Tadd is probably the most versatile dancer in the competition. I honestly forget repeatedly that he’s a b-boy dancer, and I’m thinking his background must be more diverse than that. I still would be shocked if Melanie doesn’t win (and despite her not wowing me with her versatility, I would actually be happy with that). Sasha, Marko, and Tadd are my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th choices, in that order.

  19. 19
    vallegirl vallegirl
    Posted July 29, 2011 at 9:11 am

    I don’t blame Jonathan for Sasha’s relatively weak quickstep performance. Because he didn’t choreograph the dance to look like Pasha reeked of BO and Sasha couldn’t lean far enough away from him while they were dancing. And I don’t think he choreographed her to shake and vibrate through the torso the way she did. And he certainly didn’t choreograph her stiff legs.

    She just didn’t seem comfortable with the dance and that discomfort expressed itself in her coldness toward Pasha. She never seemed to fully trust his abilities to lead and support her through the dance. With Alexander she was the dominant dancer and with Twitch she was his equal but she seemed to chafe at needing to be led through the quickstep.

    And not connecting with Pasha really should be a cardinal sin for SYTYCD. I’m not even that much of a fan, but the guy is a pro at making his partners look exquisite, if they trust him enough to do so. Sasha just look tense and out of her depth trying to keep up with him.

  20. 20
    Lizbot
    Posted July 29, 2011 at 9:58 am

    I honestly don’t get all the Sasha hate. I agree with you about Sasha leaning too far back and seeming to stiff in her upper body during the dance, but I think people over-assume about her attitude towards her partners for some reason. What some people see as being cold and rejecting might just as easily be nervousness and discomfort with the dance. I think Jonathan’s choreography was kind of crappy (I’m not a fan of his from DWTS) and I also agree she didn’t dance it well, but I wouldn’t go so far as to assume that the difficulties with her dancing have anything to do with her character.

  21. 21
    here4beer
    Posted July 29, 2011 at 10:16 am

    ITA with vallegirl… about everything. Especially Pasha making his partners look good, always. Love him.

    I think we’re all still bitter about losing Nick so early. I hope they feature him on the finale in some way to make up for being such assholes.

    Nice job filling, in, mcweanis! I actually didn’t hate Tycy tonight, either, which is a giant shock. Some of the other dancers in the opening credits that I recognize are Mousa (s2), Ivan (s2), Nick L(s1) and I think that’s Artem (s1) doing ballroom, but I’m not sure.

  22. 22
    here4beer
    Posted July 29, 2011 at 10:20 am

    P.S. Gaga was a pretty good guest judge. I was prepared to FF every time she opened her mouth, but she was far better than I expected. Thanks to her I was able to save my FF muscles for Nigel’s comments this week. :)

  23. 23
    vallegirl vallegirl
    Posted July 29, 2011 at 10:22 am

    How is what I wrote an attack on her character or hate? I said she looked uncomfortable and that expressed itself as a coldness or disconnect from Pasha? She did look uncomfortable and she didn’t connect with Pasha.

    Sometimes Sasha’s weaknesses and mistakes are actually Sasha’s weaknesses and mistakes. It’s not hatred or a character attack to point that out.

  24. 24
    Lizbot
    Posted July 29, 2011 at 11:03 am

    Vallegirl, I wasn’t trying to start a fight. Sorry if it came across that way. I probably shouldn’t have used the term “hate” — I used it colloquially and that probably came across stronger than I intended it to.

    What I was referring to was the statement about her coldness with Pasha, which to me (and I apologize if I was wrong) kind of harkened back to previous comments that I’ve seen people make about Sasha being rejecting with Alexander and thinking she’s too good for him. I just wanted to suggest that there might be other reasons for appearances other than someone having an attitude. And I agreed with you about Sasha’s weaknesses. It’s just that some of the commentary seemed like a little more that that, so I apologize if I misread you.

  25. 25
    CattyFan cattyfan
    Posted July 29, 2011 at 3:54 pm

    vallegirl totally hit it with her description of Pasha and Sasha (sounds like the title of a children’s book.) You have to be dead not to connect with Pasha.

  26. 26
    hazmad
    Posted July 31, 2011 at 10:23 am

    …and I guess I was watching a completely different dance, because I enjoyed the quickstep and didn’t notice any lack of chemistry between Sasha & Pasha. I liked the quirky vibe and just thought the quickstep doesn’t seem like the type of dance that is supposed to have sizzling chemistry…it seemed appropriate for the routine.

  27. 27
    vallegirl vallegirl
    Posted July 31, 2011 at 10:32 am

    Chemistry doesn’t have to be sexual, but a partnered dance should at least look like the partners are dancing the same dance together. Kent and Neil had plenty of chemistry when they did the Shoeless Joe dance and that was about baseball. But, to me, it looked like they were performing two entirely different dances and Pasha was at the tail end of a three-day bender and Sasha couldn’t lean far enough away from him to get away from the BO.

  28. 28
    hazmad
    Posted July 31, 2011 at 10:45 am

    @vallegirl I guess it’s just ymmv and all that, cause I just didn’t get that impression from their dance. Also, didn’t Mary specifically say that Sasha’s upper body was in great position? It was Sasha’s lower body that got some criticism.

  29. 29
    vallegirl vallegirl
    Posted July 31, 2011 at 11:00 am

    Maybe she did, but my eyes told me it wasn’t and that she was shaking throughout the dance. Sometimes I don’t need an expert to tell me what my eyes can plainly see.

  30. 30
    jerseyj
    Posted August 2, 2011 at 6:06 am

    I have to say, I totally disagreed with the judges about Caitlynn’s lyrical hiphop routine with Ivan…they were way too harsh on her. In fact, I really liked the dance (even though it wasnt’ anything that blew me away). I think the main reason most people thought it was boring was because it was lyrical hip hop (so even softer than NappyTabs routines…which often border on lyrical themselves). If you compare it to the giant dump Ryan took on the stage in Week 1 doing lyrical hip hop you can see how much better it was :)

    As for Melanie, I have to agree with everyone that she is amazing when in her wheelhouse (contemporary) but underwhelms me in everything else (even jazz). I just don’t think she’s as versatile as past top females on this show have been (i.e. Sabra, Katee, Katherine). I still think she’ll win because there’s no one else this season that is tremendous either, but I would like to see her do SOMETHING impressive in ballroom or “real” hip hop (that Nappy Tabs routine she did was basically lyrical and I didn’t even think it was that great).

    Also, I’ll probably get shot for this opinion, but I didn’t really like the Sasha/Melanie jazz number at the end. I thought Melanie was better than Sasha, but overall it underwhelmed me. I think it was the choreography, not the dancing, but still…left something to desire in my opinion.

  31. 31
    jerseyj
    Posted August 2, 2011 at 6:11 am

    Oh and I am still on the fence about this All-Star thing. I’m having the same problem with it this season that I did last season. The All-Stars are so good that they often overshadown their partner and make their lack of skill glaring. The place where I think this happens the most is when Anya dances with anyone. She is just amazing at what she does so anything she dances with a non-ballroom guy it looks like she’s leading him and not vice-versa. I noticed it last season, and on this episode with Ricky. I don’t have the same problem with Pasha, because in ballroom the male is supposed to be the strong one who leads the female. But, in the reverse it just doesn’t work. Also, seeing Allison (and Katherine) dance contemporary also makes me like Melanie/Sasha less. I think Melanie is very, very good. But seeing Allison in the same show just cemented my belief that she’s not as good as people from years past. I know I’ll have a lot of dissenters against this opinion, but it’s just how I see it :)

  32. 32
    Liz
    Posted August 2, 2011 at 11:52 am

    I totally agree that Melanie doesn’t seem as impressive in anything but contemporary, but I’m mostly annoyed with the fact that we really haven’t seen her in anything that far out of her comfort zone, besides that tango, which was underwhelming. Everyone was up in arms that Ryan always got contemporary but seriously – every dance Melanie gets seems to be lyrical something that all kind of looks like a version of her contemporary style. I want to see her do something else, and be impressed by it! I actually thought Ricky was better than Marko in the hip hop routine, but I guess I’m alone in that. I just thought he hit it a little harder. Yes, he’s taller, but he had more extension – so he went up further and came down farther – does that make sense? Maybe I just suck at judging hip hop but to me, him being up meant he could come down more, instead of staying in the same little space the whole time.

  33. 33
    PottyMouth PottyMouth
    Posted August 3, 2011 at 4:13 am

    McWeanis, THANK YOU so much for doing such a stellar job filling in! I cannot believe you were able to turn this around so quickly. Note to everyone else: I am incapable of an overnight turnaround. Juss keepin it real, yo. :)

    Just a couple of random thoughts…..

    Rob Marshall looked like an oompa loompa – they should discontinue the orange self tanning line.

    I was shocked at how much I actually liked GagMe as a judge. Y’all know I’m not her biggest fan, so I was prepared to fully hate everything about her judging stint. Instead, I thought she was insightful and honest in her critiques and she made me choke when she called Tabitha and Napoleon contrived not just once, but twice!!! Too funny!

    I think you all have already covered all the dancing notes, so I’ll save my rants and raves.

    Thanks again to McWeanis – it was so nice to be away and know that the show was in good hands! I definitely know who I’ll be calling next time I need to go out of town!

    SWAK, PottyMouth

  34. 34
    scal
    Posted August 3, 2011 at 11:07 am

    I think the Allison/Marko dance was purposefully done by Sonja as a direct ‘sequel’ of last seasons Alex/Allison dance. I’m thinking she’ll do a trio if the all-stars come back next year..

  35. 35
    Veronica
    Posted August 3, 2011 at 11:34 am

    I’ve been reading these recaps forever but never commented until now. Because now I’m finally angry enough to comment. And encouraged. Encouraged that others are as bothered as I am that Melanie has not been challenged this season. Sure, it’s fine if she wins, she is very good at what she does, but shouldn’t the winner actually excel at something beyond their style? It makes me almost want to see Tadd win. He’s the most versatile, he’s super dreamy-cute, and if you think about any routine in which Marko or Ricky (or any of the other male dancers) shines, Tadd would totally outshine them. He’s awesome! :o )

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

*
*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Human Verification: In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.