[JoBeth66]

First night with the new partners.

First thing - I hated hated hated the 'all 10 do the same routine' for the solos. It probably didn't help that I didn't like the choreography on the solo, but oh well.

That being said, I think Lauren nailed the solo. She was the ONLY one of the 10 that grabbed me from the get-go - and I watched them all 3 times. I got the SAME emotional reaction from her dance *every* time. Sabra came in a very close second, and Sara 3rd. Of the guys, only Danny really worked for me.

And going a little bit backwards, Jaimie was criticized for having her mouth open during her dance. "catching flies", was how it was put - and I noticed it ONE time during her routine. And then NOTHING about Lacey. Lacey, who looked like she was fraking *chewing gum* through her samaba. Her mouth was ALWAYS open. She made faces, constantly, and *again* with the singing the song while she's dancing.

Her technique is great, and if I could pay attention to her actual movement, I might like her better - but every time I watch her, all I see are the stupid faces, her mouth hanging open, and her singing the song. It just seems like the judges are pushing for her to win this thing.

On to the partnering:

Lauren & Pasha - hip hop - Lauren looked hot. Hot, hot hot. Pasha did it well, but he just didn't have the intensity and the clean movements that Lauren did. Great energy and movement, though. I liked the routine, and I'm starting to wonder if they look at the routines to decide order of performance - start always with a strong performance.

Sabra & Kameron - contemporary - Sabra is just amazing. Just so strong and expressive. She outshone Kameron in this routine, but only because she's so good. On his own, I think his movements were very beautiful, but she just seemed to be part of the music.

Lacey & Danny - samba - I liked Dmitry's choreography, and I was waiting for Danny to take his shirt off or something. My comments on Lacey are above. From the neck down, beautiful. If she would just stop making the faces. Danny is gorgeous. His performances are simply amazing.

Jaimie & Dominic - viennese waltz - terrible choreography. If she WANTED to do a paso doble, she should've made sure they pulled paso doble. I really wanted to see Jaimie do the viennese, she just has such extension I think it would've been gorgeous to do a traditional waltz. I saw VERY few actual waltz moves in that dance, and I was disappointed. (notes taken as I was watching it - funny to hear Nigel say that he thought it looked like a paso doble too.)

Sara & Neil - disco - great chroeography, great routine, so much fun to watch. And where Kameron's roundoff felt out of place in his number - Neil's backflip just *fit*. I really enjoyed watching this routine.

Unfortunately, I'm going to miss what happens tomorrow night!

Oops - forgot to do my picks. I think Jaimie & Dominic should go, based on tonight's performances, Kameron would be a close 2nd for the guys.

 

[etexlady]

That waltz looked and sounded like a train wreck to me. It must be very awkward for the judges to offer criticism when the choreography was the worst part about the whole effort and the choreographer is sitting there waiting for praise. I just think about the waltz that Danny and Anya(?) did a couple of weeks ago....there was no comparison.

Edited to add: I change the radio channel whenever a John Meyer song comes on. I can't stand him so it was torture having to listen to him over and over tonight. And that pause for the dancer to scream or yell or whatever they were trying to do, bad, just really bad.

 

[tem]

the jidges should have totally slammed that waltz choreographer. That was HORRIBLE !!

I liked Jamie, though.

Sabra is definitely my favorite.

Danny blows all the other men away.

Kameron just blows.

Sara and Neil's routine was good, though ENOUGH with the freaking tricks, Neil. Sara seemed to be doing the same little shoulder pops that she's done in other routines.

Pasha was mediocre.

Dominic was awful.

Lauren was begrudgingly very good.

Lacey will just skate though on her somewhat slutty routines. She is pretty good, though.

And it looked like it was some sort of junior's dance competition as Cat was about 8" taller than everyone except Danny. What were those ? 4" heels ?

 

[murgatroyd]

Stealing some structure from my comments from Jobeth....

First thing - I hated hated hated the 'all 10 do the same routine' for the solos. It probably didn't help that I didn't like the choreography on the solo, but oh well.

I was intrigued by this idea, having first seen it done in a ballet competition. That was how I discovered just how different all those 'exactly the same' solos could be. Wade doing a piece which everyone has to do solo? How cool.

And then I heard the song he was using. Ugh, I hate John Meyer's voice. Not as much as I hate James Blunt's voice, but still. <FX: waves to etexlady>

My husband's boss called in the middle of the show, and at first I paused the TiVo, and then I realized I had a great excuse to just turn the sound off -- so I started the show up again with the sound muted. And while you miss whether or not the dancer is musical when you do this, it makes the difference in the movement really stand out. I'm not keen on the choreography, either, but I plan to watch them all again with the sound off.

That being said, I think Lauren nailed the solo. She was the ONLY one of the 10 that grabbed me from the get-go - and I watched them all 3 times. I got the SAME emotional reaction from her dance *every* time. Sabra came in a very close second, and Sara 3rd. Of the guys, only Danny really worked for me.

Ditto.

Lauren & Pasha - hip hop - Lauren looked hot. Hot, hot hot. Pasha did it well, but he just didn't have the intensity and the clean movements that Lauren did. Great energy and movement, though. I liked the routine, and I'm starting to wonder if they look at the routines to decide order of performance - start always with a strong performance.

Yeah, Shane did good with that one.

I suspect the dance order is determined after tech run-through or dress rehearsal. I've thought that for a while now. Just to have a good show, you want a strong routine up front and a strong routine at the end.

Sabra & Kameron - contemporary - I thought Kameron's dancing was more free and expressive this week than he was in his routines with Lacey. Not that I disagree with what Mia said, just that I thought he had improved in the partner dance, and that he did try to address Mia's concerns in the solo.

The samba -- eh. Sure, Danny is easy on the eye, but the technique wasn't there, and then how do you watch him and ignore Lacey. Ugh. I had more fun watching Emmett Smith and Cheryl Burke on DwtS, frankly, because there Emmett actually looked like he was at a party, and Cheryl is always a pleasure to watch.

Hated hated hated the psuedo-Viennese Waltz. Hated it. Doesn't help that I hate that particular cover of the song. A girl singing she's the Man of La Mancha? What's up with that? Hey, when I read Don Quixote, it wasn't a girl-in-disguise story. So -- music -- suckage. Then the performance -- major suckage.

Liked the disco. It saved the whole show from being a bust.

Oops - forgot to do my picks. I think Jaimie & Dominic should go, based on tonight's performances, Kameron would be a close 2nd for the guys.

Please, can they send Dominic home before he kills one of the girls?

And -- it wouldn't bother me a bit if a great gaping hole in the stage opened up and swallowed Lacey at this point. Because heck, how many times do I have to watch her hump one of the guys' legs?

As you guys know, Hok was my favorite, so I have no favorite dancer on the show now. If I'm lucky, I get a moment here or there where I think, damn, that was nice, but it never lasts. In Wade's piece, that leap they do stage left, when Neil did it, that was really nice. But to sit through the rest of the piece to get there -- major suckage.

Jan

 

[murgatroyd]

P.S. does anyone have a results show on 8/2 in their Guide Data?

Jan

 

[Cearbhaill]

OK- so I enjoyed this episode tremendously. If I wasn't way past it all I'd say I had PMS because some of the performances really got to me. Dominic's solo, the Sabra/Kameron thing- all around I thought it was a very strong show.

I felt just terrible for Dominic and Jaimie in that hot mess of a Viennese Waltz. You have idiotic non Viennese Waltz choreography, ridiculous non Viennese cartoon costumes, and a female singer going so far over the top of a non Viennese song as to sound catastrophically foolish. The vocals reminded me of the blue alien at the end of The Fifth Element when she wentway up into dolphin range- that choreographer should have to stand up there tonight and beg holy forgiveness for what she mad those two poor kids do on national television.

The solos did get a bit tedious but I still enjoyed the concept. Did not enjoy John Mayer.

And I would enjoy this show ever so much more of I didn't listen to the jidges comments. They show such a blatant bias as to who they have chosen- tonight they "dismissed" Pasha, Kameron, and Dominic, and were cooling on Jaimie and Sara. Clearly Lauren and Sabra are on the fast track to the finals with maybe Lacey rounding out the final three. Danny will probably be the last of the boys, and I can already hear Nigel dismissing him with a lame "must be the year of the girls" speech. He's probably already preparing it.

Cat Deeley does not get enough credit for being an absolutely smashing hostess. She smooths over the rough spots and makes each contestant feel good after they get blasted. She chides the jidges, reprimands the audience, and keeps everything marvelously on track. I have never seen her lose her place, screw up her comments, or look flustered ever. She is just great.

 

[jehma]

I didn't like this episode much. I didn't enjoy seeing them all perform the same solo. I think this was the first thing of Wade Robson's I haven't liked and if I never hear that song again, I'll be happy.

Lauren really stood out for me tonight, much more so than in previous weeks. Again, I think Lacey is a great dancer, but those facial expressions have to go and she has to do something other than the sexpot routine. This is getting old and she's never going to get votes this way.

I'd be happy if Dominic or Kameron go. For the girls, I don't know. Jamie rubs me the wrong way. I love Lauren, Sabra, and Sara, and I would like to see Lacey do something different.

I'm enjoyed seeing classical dances to classical dance music last season. I think the choreographers are going too far away from that this time around.

 

[lodica1967]

I actually thought Kameron was better than I have seen him. Maybe being a way from Lacey, who is so clearly better than him, has helped.

I like Dominic but you could really see his lack of training in the solo. I know it's not what he normally does but it's not Sara's area either and she rocked it!

Sabra has only been dancing for 4 years? Holy Cow, she's fun to watch.

I still don't like Lauren but she was good in both of her routines. Neil is much better now that they aren't partners. His backflip was flippin' awesome!

I think Jamie is gone, not sure on the guys. Dominic seems more popular than Danny. Kameron isn't going anywhere because of his leftover Lacey popularity. I am sad to say it will be Neil or Danny, two of the better dancers. Neil may have won enough votes with the disco routine. I am worried for Danny.

Also, are we sure that it's a guy and a girl leaving? When do they start just sending one person? Or do we always end up with a guy and a girl in the final? My memory is faulty on this.

 

[lodica1967]

Totally forgot about Pasha!!! He's gone.

 

[zalusky]

Something about Danny bothered me until my wife reflected it. His technique is great but his emotional performance is so totally not there.

Last night it was his smile. He was suppose to be acting a serious focused dance. If you looked at Laceys face it was focused. Danny was soft smiling and it was distracting.

 

[bkmunroe]

Lacey, who looked like she was fraking *chewing gum* through her samaba. Her mouth was ALWAYS open. She made faces, constantly, and *again* with the singing the song while she's dancing.

Her technique is great, and if I could pay attention to her actual movement, I might like her better - but every time I watch her, all I see are the stupid faces, her mouth hanging open, and her singing the song. It just seems like the judges are pushing for her to win this thing.

I never noticed Lacey or anyone else making faces until after a few weeks of you complaining about Lacey. The past 2 weeks I started watching faces and noticed everyone makes faces. Pasha seems to make more faces than anyone. He's like a lost Baldwin brother part good-looking and part goofy-looking.

The only time I ever noticed anyone making a face on the show was Heidi, last year, who had this bad habit of, occasionally, scrunching up half her face.

 

[bkmunroe]

And -- it wouldn't bother me a bit if a great gaping hole in the stage opened up and swallowed Lacey at this point. Because heck, how many times do I have to watch her hump one of the guys' legs?

Well, to be fair, shouldn't you be blaming the choreographers who make Lacey do the leg-humping?

 

[murgatroyd]

It's up to her HOW she does the moves.

The samba is supposed to be a party dance, with some stranger you've just met! It's not a rumba, for crying out loud.

Jan

 

[jehma]

It's up to her HOW she does the moves.

That's a good point. However, she's very young and I think she needs some more guidance from her choreographer.