So You Think You Can Dance - Dance show, 7/11/07

I don't get what the judges see in Neil. He's just not into his partner. NTTAWWT, but all the other guys seem to be able to at least feign interest in their partners when they dance with them. Neil just doesn't seem to have any interest in Lauren at all.

This week's Wade Robson number was not as interesting as the last one.

My favorite this week was Sara and Pasha.

 

Let's see:

Yellow jersey: Fabian Cancella--

Oh, sorry, wrong page of the notebook!

Worked late, came home, FF through all the non-dancing bits, watched the dances, scrawled down notes. After a couple of hours watching guys on bikes, I can only vaguely remember -- oh, yeah, there was dancing tonight.

The dance gods were especially cruel to me this week.

Of course after thinking all season how much I really enjoyed Alex da Silva's "Black Mambo" routine by Heidi and Benji, and how none of the dancers who have drawn his stuff this year have the chops to do anything like that, of course Shauna and Cedric get the Mambo. Auuugh! Oh, how I hated it. Except for the one bit of footwork, look how he just clomps around the stage while being a prop for her. And if I'm not mistaken, he's also behind the music most of the way through. Ugh.

And after two weeks ago, with Jamie and Hok doing the most exquisite dance ever to the strains of "The Chairman's Waltz", what do they draw? A waltz. And I'm sure Toni Redpath's choreography is just fine for people who are already ballroom dancers, but clearly she didn't know how to draw Hok out into the kind of movement needed for this dance. Plus when both your dancers are 5 foot 3, it's hard for them to have the impact of somebody like Danny. Talk about an express train to the bottom three.

I give Hok props for trying his best -- loved his hands -- but the judges comments were dead on, no sweeping movements across the floor, rise and fall wasn't there -- it just didn't come off.

To round out my bottom three, guess who, it's Anya and Danny again. Because Anya was so obviously struggling, while Danny was off in outer space again doing his lords-a-leaping thing. Sure, Danny's dancing is gorgeous, but this was another one of those angsty routines that didn't seem to have any connection or purpose in it. I am bored with this kind of dancing.

For the quick recap of the rest: liked Lacey and Kameron's hustle, mostly, but I did see a couple of places where they did seem slow and heavy, as if they had screwed up the separation or their timing.

Pasha and Sara -- fun fun fun! Benji did pretty good for them, and I was impressed with the partnership for their first week together.

Sabra and Dominic -- I've got a soft spot for Shane's sweet routines. They aren't ever going to blow your socks off, but they are usually very watchable.

Lauren and Neil drew Wade, so got a chance to show off. I am beginning to wonder if Wade can actually work miracles and make anyone look good, but I'd better not think that too loud or he'll be stuck with Cedric next week.

Now, who do I think will actually go into the bottom three, as opposed to who actually belongs there?

Wanna bet that Cedric is safe again and either Neil and Lauren, or Lacey and Kameron, end up in the bottom three instead? Because I don't expect the voters to go for the hustle, and Wade's stuff is just so out there.

Oh, well, we'll see soon enough.

Jan

 

P.S. to JoBeth -- I thought the judges were carefully tiptoeing across the high wire over the crevice which is Cedric. If they diss his dancing too vehemently, people will do the Kelly Monaco "oh, she's really not that bad, the judges are just mean, I'm going to vote to show them!" kind of vote.

and +1 to what you said about Shauna in white. Such a bad choice for her, and yet -- week after week, there they go again. Is she doing it? Wasn't Nigel's "you looked frumpy and dumpy" comment enough of a clue that this is a bad idea?

Lauren can pull off the white in part because she's still got dark hair and is enough of a contrast type to look good in it. But Shauna's bleach job takes that away. Wrong, wrong answer.

Jan

 

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That's what came to my mind. His posture drove me nuts and I can't imagine any judge ignoring something so basic as that. But if they really want him gone they have to let the criticism go or they create a backlash of sympathy votes from the people who feel sorry for him having to stand there getting dissed each week. He was dancing desperately hard, and I think he did a great job considering, but he is way out of his league.

Pasha and Sara won the night for me- He danced the heck out of that routine and Sara did great herself. I'm not all that much of a Benji fan, but that was a fun and different routine- that music was perfect.

I think they brought up the Hok/Jamie showmance thing to inspire fans to vote for them. They need Hok in good standing long enough to get rid of Cederic and Neil, then I think they'll be done with him.

I don't get the Danny love. He may be a great dancer technically but he leaves me cold.

 

This week we rewound to rewatch Pasha & Sara and Lauren & Neil. I'm sorry Hok's shortcomings were so obvious this week - like everyone else (as least if we go by the screams he gets), I love him, but his dancing isn't up to many of the others.

Lacey is clearly a fantastic dancer, but why is it that her routines never stand out that much for me? Is it because they look effortless? The luck of the draw of the choreography? I don't know.

 

I voted for everyone except Cedric & Shauna, same as last week. I thought his performance was the weakest by far. He looked like he was clomping around the stage like an early contestant on Dancing with the Stars (Master P perhaps?). He does not belong in this competition.

I really liked the guest judge.

 

I've gotten that feeling a lot this season. Not just with Lacey and Kameron, but with a lot of the couples.

It will be interesting to see what happens when they start mixing it up.

Exactly. He is great technically. His performance quality, not so much. I really liked the comments of the guest judge, even if Nigel disagrees, Adam is on to something there. Danny is off in his own little Danny-zone, separate and apart from everyone else.

If you assume that Nigel is right, and the kid is not really arrogant, just kind of over-confident, the A student who has always been an A student and just kind of takes it for granted that he's got the technical chops to do whatever they throw at him, then here's what I think is happening.

He has got the same problem that Nancy Kerrigan does. She did her routine at the Olympics, and it was clean, and then Oksana Baiul came along -- one of the superb artists of that era of skating -- and the judges placed her first. Nancy was heard backstage complaining that she did her routine and there were no mistakes in it, and she didn't know what else the judges wanted from her.

Well, there's more to a performance than just getting through your routine with no mistakes in it. MUCH more. Just doing things 'clean' is not what performing is about.

Technical ability and artistry seem to be quite different, but in some ways they are two sides of the same coin. The better you are technically, the more freedom you have to put your technical ability to work in the service of your artistry. (You can see what I mean in the routine from two weeks ago where Wade Robson deliberately made use of what Hok and Jamie do best when he choreographed the hummingbird-flower routine. When the technique is there to support the artistry, the results can be brilliant.)

Danny's got technique to burn, but like Nancy Kerrigan, he has no clue that there is more. Lots more. And so far, none of the choreographers have done anything to draw him out of his 'technical dancer' zone.

It's so frustrating. We see this every season -- some guy with fab technique gets through, and then week after week his performances are just meh -- but with Danny, even more so than what we saw last year. (There's a particular guy I am thinking of from last year, but I can't even remember his name now -- and what does that tell you about his performances?)

I respect and admire the people with great technique, but if I am forced to choose between people with performance quality and people with only good technique, if have my audience member's hat on, I'm going to pick the good performers. Because they can make something of their routines, even when they screw up.

Jan

 

No comments yet about Dominic saying Cat has a French accent?

He is such an idiot.

 

Um. That was a joke. I guess you don't watch South Park. Actually, I don't either, but I got the joke.

 

Hmm, I do watch South Park and totally missed the joke.

 

Jan- GREAT explanation of what is lacking in Danny. It really sums up how I feel about him. I know I should like him but I just don't. I feel the same about Nancy Kerrigan, can't stand her.

My top of the night was Pasha and Sara. Good for them!

Bottom three? Cedric and Shauna, Hok and Jamie and ???

You all know I love this show but..... Doesn't the camera work sometimes drive you nuts?! I want the full effect of the routine and sometimes they show just one dancer when they are dancing apart. I really noticed it during Anya and Danny's routine. Strange sideways camera shots, can't see what the other dancer is doing etc... I ruins it for me, takes me out of the moment.

Oh well, off to wait for the result show to start,

 

Agree with the comments made about Danny but I do think he is arrogant. I just remember his rather snarky laughter when he ended up in the bottom three a couple of weeks ago. It was like he could not believe the ignorance of anyone who did not appreciate his performance.

 

Me too.

On the other hand, I would hate to be the director trying to figure out at tech run-through how I was going to shoot Danny and Anya's routine this week. It would not be an easy thing to storyboard.

Jan

 

OK...I'm convinced. The "deck" has to be stacked. First with Cedric drawing contemporary (or was it lyrical?) with Mia after she fought to keep him in. And this week with Lacey not drawing West Coast Swing. I really think there is only one piece of paper in the hat when they draw it out.

Beyond that...Jan...are you a dancer? Your opinion seems to go much farther than mine ever would. I watch simply for entertainment value. You talk about Hok's hands, the "rise and fall", etc. I watched them and thought both of them looked great. I thought they looked like they were floating. I'm such an amateur!! (I wasn't too impressed with Cedric when he was sitting off to the side, though! I managed to realize that wasn't dancing.)

 

I watch as a non-dancer too, and find the comments here fascinating - they see things I never would. All I know is whether or not I enjoyed it.

 

There's absolutely nothing wrong with watching for entertainment value. Enjoy the show, enjoy the performances, and don't let anyone else's commentary spoil that for you.

And no, I'm not a dancer. I'm a figure skating fan. What I know, I know from watching, and a little reading. There are TONS of things I don't know about dance. Tons.

But the thing is, when stuff is pointed out to me, I can see things. I watch and listen to the notes they give the dancers, and I learn.

I can see that something is bad, or really, really good, or somewhere in the middle. I might not know WHAT is wrong with the stuff that is good but not great, but I know that something's not quite right, I'm seeing something 'off' but I don't know technically what is lacking.

Then when one of the judges gives notes and they say "you were doing this and you should have been doing that", I'm usually sitting here thinking, right, that's what I saw, too, but I couldn't articulate it -- like when Neil danced the samba early this season and he was carrying his body way too high, and they complained he was dancing the routine like a cheerleader.

That's why I really like So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing with the Stars and skating shows with good commentary, because when I hear the commentary, I learn about what I'm seeing.

Having a TiVo is great for learning to watch things like dance and skating because you can run it back and then watch again. And again. And again. You can decide, okay, this time I am going to watch what Jamie does with her hands. And if you can avoid being caught up in the performance again (difficult) you can focus on that.

There's a lot going on, and with a really complex piece, it's really hard to take it all in at once. The choreographers ARE dancers, so they can 'see' all these things much faster and better than we non-dancers can. It takes experience to be able to see a program once and take in all the details at once and then to be able to say what you saw immediately afterwards. You have to train your eye by watching.

With the butterfly-flower routine from two weeks ago, the other day, I sat down and replayed it at least half-a-dozen times. One time I decided to just watch Jamie's topline, her shoulders and arms. Another time I watched Hok's hands. One time I watched again to see the unison between the two of them. Once I was watching for the phrasing (how their movements matched the phrasing in the music). Once I watched it to look at the cinematography (how they 'framed' the dance with the camerawork). I would think of some other detail I wanted to see again, so I would run back to the beginning and watch again.

There's a tradeoff involved. The more you learn about what makes art good, the more you can see the things that aren't quite right, so there is a danger that you enjoy things less, if you let yourself get caught up in looking for mistakes. I had a drama teacher in high school that couldn't watch community theatre because he got all caught up in the glitches in the performance and the production, and was in agony every time stuff screwed up.

But when things are really good, you understand just how much better the superb performances are, so you appreciate it more. So on the nights where everything works perfectly, it is magical.

Don't worry that you don't see stuff that the judges are talking about. Just keep watching. When push comes to shove, a piece either works for you or it doesn't, and that's true for everyone, choreographer and non-dancing audience member alike. There will be times you 'get' a piece and one of the judges doesn't, and you'll love it and they can't stand it. Then you can be smug and say you understood the piece when the judges didn't.

I thought Hok did really well with the waltz, given the circumstances -- and if you look at the places where they cut to choreographer's row in the audience, Toni Redpath, their choreographer, did too. But someone who is a ballroom dancer and whose specialty is the waltz can make it look even better -- and the judges know that.

The fun thing about this show -- and about watching skating for a long time -- is getting to know the dancers / skaters, seeing them do performances that are good but not great, then seeing them do better as time goes on and they learn more. And then every now and again everything clicks and they perform better than you've ever seen them do before. It's all the sweeter then because they know how well they've done and you know it too.

Jan

 

So, if you still want to talk about Danny, I have a new theory.

Meet me over in the results show thread.

Jan

 

Wow!! What a great response. I look forward to reading your commentary in the upcoming weeks!!