So You Think You Can Dance "Results" 6/19/08 *spoilers*

[Kamakzie]

Suzie goes home and so does her partner Marquise.

[JoBeth66]

Susie doesn't surprise me- she was clearly outclassed, and I think we all called her.

Marquise does surprise me. I thought of the 3 guys tonight, Thayne's solo was the weakest. Of course, they obviously are basing it on more than that.

[debtoine]

Glad Susie is out. I'm w/Jobeth on Thayne. He wasn't up to snuff.

deb

[wooh]

Don't know how Susie made it there in the first place. Wish I'd seen some more clips from Vegas, because from what I'd seen, I see salsa dancers out all the time that are soooo much better than that. (And "HOT" too!)
Sad about Marquise. He really brought it with his solo tonight. Then they say it was all tricks. But if they don't bring the tricks, then it's "you didn't bring enough."

[laststarfighter]

To me Chris or Marquise coulda gone. It will probably the other next week anyway.

[zalusky]

I wonder if they slanted in order not to split the couple. They did that last week as well.

[murgatroyd]

I wonder if they slanted in order not to split the couple. They did that last week as well.

Yeah, I hope they don't do that every week. Predictable, and boring.

IMHO Thayne missed a bullet. I was surprised the judges didn't rag on him for running around the stage more than he was dancing.

Edited to add: the TiVo is recording the premiere of (Randy Jackson Presents) America's Best Dance Crew on MTV. If you want to see some dancing with some flava, check it out.

I started out the evening with an episode of Made on MTV where a high school girl wanted to go from 0 dance training to trying out for her school dance team in five weeks. Watching her trying to learn a routine that was just an eight count -- not pretty.

Jan

[Ment]

Suzie : Accomplished enough to make the top 20 but was past time to go. Back to jaw-dropping teenage boys in classes everywhere..

Marquise: He is technically superior of the three guys. Seems the judges vary on what they look for week to week. Does each solo contestant choregraph their own routines or are they allowed to get outside help?

[murgatroyd]

Yes, I'd like to know more about how they choreograph their solo.

In the past, several contestants have made comments about just going out there and making stuff up as they went along. Maybe they think that will impress the audience, but it surely will not impress the judges, who will think that it is unprofessional to be so unprepared.

The solos are half as long as the time allotted for the auditions (not all the dancers in the auditions are allowed to continue that long, of course). It's just as important to have stuff planned -- if anything, since you only have half the time, it's even MORE important to know what the bleep you are going to do out there.

Jan

[zalusky]

It was interesting last night when they commented that Marquis just did tricks. I thought his routine was probably the strongest. What do I know!

Anybody notice how Nigel is ramping it up a bit lately. I am sure its deliberate to make him look less like and old fogey. I am not so sure I like it. It's kind of funny when he commented on the fake smiles and yet when they are introduced his smile looks a little staged as well. Still their judging is miles better than the competition.

[murgatroyd]

So here's my question: what makes a strong solo, for you?

For me, it's the perfect combination of music and movement. It has to have a strong through-line like a good symphony, where each note chosen has to be the right note to follow the one before, fresh and yet inevitable.

It's not just a matter of showing off your tricks, it's a matter of knowing where to place them for maximum impact, and which one is the right one for that moment in the music.

Sometimes the simplest moves can be most effective. One example from figure skating -- in Michelle Kwan's East of Eden program, there's a moment in the program where Michelle does a 'falling leaf', which is a type of split jump. It is perfectly placed. A simple move, and yet it has tremendous impact at that point of the music and that point of the program.

For me, a sure sign that someone has done a really good performance is that I want to go back and watch it again *immediately*. There are not many group performances or routines with couples on SYTYCD where that happens, and with the solo performances it is even rarer.

I don't know if that's due to the fact that the soloists are the people on the bottom, or that a lot of the contemporary dancers can't choreograph themselves.

I suppose the street dancers have a big advantage here because they could have many more opportunities to solo than the dancers who are traditionally trained. For instance, if you are in a dance crew, one or two people may be the best in the group, but they may let everyone step into the middle and take a turn to do some highlight moves. But in more traditional ensembles, e.g. ballet, there are corps dancers and soloists. The people who mainly dance corps may not get that many opportunities to dance solo.

I know that on Step it Up and Dance, all the contestants were really excited about making the final, because it meant they could do a solo and show off their stuff to the judges. (This was a longer solo than the elimination solos on SYTYCD, so we could see more of a storyline there.)

I know for the very best dancers in the audition rounds, the judges sometimes say that they wished the audition wasn't over, that they wanted to see what else the dancer could do. That's the feeling you should have at the end of the 30 second-solos, and I rarely get that.

Your thoughts?

Jan

[murgatroyd]

It was interesting last night when they commented that Marquis just did tricks. I thought his routine was probably the strongest. What do I know!

Don't feel bad. I fell for the 'bag of tricks' approach also.

I scribble notes down during the solos -- for Susie I wrote 'eh' and then for Thayne I wrote 'much better use of the stage'. My note for Marquis was that he had 'good stuff' by which I meant less running around and more content than Thayne.

Marquis may also have shot himself in the foot by using "Stop and Stare" as his music -- it seems to be the Song du Jour (Kherington used it in her audition, and she wasn't the only one). It will probably get a better reaction from an audience than a quieter song, but I'm sure the judges have seen a ton of different approaches to it by now.

But yeah, it would be interesting to be a fly on the wall during those deliberations.

Jan

[Havana Brown]

Susie was always trampy looking since the tryouts. I'm glad she's gone.

I really enjoyed the opening dance!

[rossmanbmw]

Its hard to watch this show.

I dont like to see people crying:(

All the losers are always crying and it makes me sad:(

Great dancing though:)