So I Thought They Could Dance

[ladysprite]

Okay. Inspired by this season of SYTYCD's tepid over-contemporary routines with lackluster choreography and mediocre partnering, I have spent the past hour going back and re-watching actually awesome routines. And so, for my own reference, and for those of you who haven't watched the show before this season, I am about to stash here a handful of the absolute best that this show had to offer, back when it was awesome. If you're new this season, or if you've never watched it before and want to see kickass tango and hip hop and even some contemporary, or if you're a fan and want to see if my favorites match yours, here goes....

So, what do you think? Good stuff? Or, if your favorite isn't on here, what is it? Share!

Comments

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

I wish I had faster internet in the hotel here. Instead, it is bed time.

[joannahurley.livejournal.com]

Must watch more later...I usually don't like contemporary, but that first one is just fun to watch. :)

[meranthi.livejournal.com]

I just went back and watched Girlfriend (Danny and Anya) the other day. Now *that* was Jive. :)

ETA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbaEGuMLbfs

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Like that one. I dance enough swing that there are actual bits of the routine that I recognise, that I've done, and places where I can pick out actual jive steps. Cool.

[hungrytiger]

Yup, you hit most of our favorites as well.

Last night's episode may have been the best episode of the season so far (because of the "all-stars" who were brought in to pair with this season's not-so-impressive dancers). However, the presence of the "all-stars" also just reminded us of how much better the show used to be.

[mr-teem.livejournal.com]

They should make PSAs with Kayla and Kupono's routine (Gravity). I get goosebumps whenever I see it.

[mr-teem.livejournal.com]

I was talking with citabria just now. Every season there are dozens, if not hundreds of routines, and a handful of them (and one or two dancers) stand out and the rest fade. So, this season, it's like, "Ew! Nineteen out of twenty of these suck!" so it just seems that this season is bad. Last night, Sasha and Twitch rocked my world with their routine but will I remember it in a few years or forget it because of something even better? Hard to say.

[citabria]

Okay, since you asked....

I'm a huge Will Wingfield fan, so two of my favorites are his:

Silence -- Will and Jessica

andImagine -- Will and Katee

Then there's Jakob Karr -- honestly, I could post almost *all* of his routines as my favorites, but here are my top 3:

Tore My Heart -- Ellenore and Jakob

Relax -- Ashleigh and Jakob (and the cane)

And, last but definitely not least, their lyrical jazz number together

I'll never forget the week, late in the season, when Nigel commented that every girl seems to dance at her best with Jakob -- well yes! Because he's a magnificent partner as well as dancer in his own right, duh! (As opposed to season-winning Russell, who injured at least 3 of his partners because, all the way to the end, he never learned how to partner. Am I bitter? Yes -- especially because Ashleigh didn't make it to the end because of Russell's incompetence.)

As much as I love Evan, I don't remember any incredibly special routines that he was in. Same with Melissa and Ade -- I loved them both, but because of their chemistry, not because of the choreography. Also Billy Bell -- I love Billy, but I don't remember any routine fully tapping into his strengths as a dancer.

And then there's How It Ends (or what I like to call "Brokeback Mountain, the dance" with Kent and Neil . I love watching men dance together -- it's a completely different experience than the traditional boy + girl. I think I'll end this comment on that note. :)

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Relax -- awesome, and love the interpretation.

[citabria]

As for your picks, some I agree with, and some I disagree with.

Gravity was, and still is, one of my favorite routines (Teem think they ought to run PSAs re: drug addiction using that video). I still want to know what happened to make Kuponu want to bow out and throw his solo, because I'd have loved to see what he did later in the season.

Ialso love, love, love Hummingbird + Flower! Hip Hip Chin Chin is another favorite. I've never seen the Pasha and Lacey hip hop number before -- both Teem and I love that! And you're right -- today's hip hop routines aren't nearly that clever or sharp. Sweet Dreams was fun and Tranji -- how have I never seen that before? I think I loved 2 boys doing what I call "stripper butt shake" the best!

Ramalama Bang Bang, on the other hand ... it's not my cup of tea so much that I can't really appreciate it.

Thinking on past seasons and routines that I've loved, I'm wondering what the difference is in choreographers? Who were the early season choreographers, compared to the usual team for this season? How many choreographers would they have working on a single episode? Is part of what's going on simple fatigue -- of the choreographers? I know that that's definitely happening with Tyce's Broadway numbers.

With regard to the talent, I think that, this season, there are a few dancers who are at least as good as the best dancers of past seasons; I'm not sure that I'd say better, though.

Personally, I'd love to see the SYCYCD equivalent of Top Chef All-Stars -- but with the dancers chosen by the choreographers from all past seasons, not the judges or the public. I want Melissa competing against Jakob and Billy and Will; I want Ashleigh dancing with Ricky. And I want Nick dancing with ... well, pretty much anyone. ;)

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

Coming in late, it's hard to find favorites that nobody mentioned yet!

The couple that come to mind:

Kherington & Twitch's jailbreak, aka Don't Touch Me
Pasha & Lauren's mechanical spider hip hop

Also, much as I love Kent & Neil's above-mentioned contemporary, their Broadway baseball bit is just too much fun not to name as well.

Oh, and Alex & Twitch

Gotta say, though, this season's Sasha & Alexander's paso made it onto my all time faves list. I've long since wanted to see a paso doble of girl-power, and this hit the spot.

Also from this season, the jail piece was a nifty exploration of constraints.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

I liked "please mr jailer". :)

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Fun stuff, good dancing, though sometimes it seems the flash of doing a dance routine overwhelms any interpretiveness of the music itself.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

But, nothing ballroom in that selection... no (viennese) waltz, tango, foxtrot, etc.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

Alas, neither my favorite foxtrot nor my favorite tango are available on Youtube - believe me, I looked.

But here, have an awesome waltz -

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Hm... some nice stuff, but the lifts, while impressive, seemed to lose the flow of the music.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

BTW, you are EVIL. I've just spent hours watch dance routine after dance routine after dance routine.

EVIL.

(in the best possible way!)

Damn, but I want to dance better. *sigh*

[aries-walker.livejournal.com]

All right, I have five here. I was pretty lucky in my YouTube search-fu, and managed to find all of the ones I was looking for. Well, almost - so many of them are 'embedding disabled by request', I'm just going to post links.

First is the very underrated Billy Bell along with Ade, doing their rich guy-homeless guy routine. Of course, it's contemporary, so not exactly making a grand statement against the flow of the current season, but whatever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jykFBUHZqfA

Second, here is the first time they ever tried Bollywood, and Katee and Joshua just blew the doors off of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBjQXMTA_Aw

I promise if you click on this third one, it will be worth it. It's Robert and Alison doing the 'Fix You' routine, which made everybody cry, and then call their mothers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TsR1yiAe9g

Fourth is Twitch and Lauren Froderman doing 'My Chick Bad'. I want to be Twitch when I grow up, especially if it means I could do a duet with Lauren Froderman. Holy cats.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9lGGp5eq4w

And finally, I do feel the need to sneak in this one from this season. I love rewatching it - the cycling of dancers means they each get to shine - and it's one of the few Sonya Tayeh routines I really liked. (I think I like her a lot better choreographing for groups rather than couples.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgcQziiI3a0