So You Think You Can Dance Season 4 Top 18

SYTYCD Performance Night Top 18

This was shown last week, when I was still in Malaysia so I'm only blogging about it this week. Took down notes while watching it so should still remember some of what happened. My last post for SYTYCD was pretty watered down because not many routines impressed me except for Joshua and Katee's Hip Hop, Mark and Chelsea's Contemporary and Twitchington's Broadway, the former of which was posted up as a Youtube video.This week should be much better because the dancing standards have generally increased and well, I basically just need a place to record my notes down before they get lost. Plus, I'm not half-asleep when I'm posting this time.

Show starts with the usual introductions. We have Nigel, Mary and my dear (awesomely bleached) Mia Micheal's as our, in Cat Deeley's words, jidges for the night. They talk, blahblahblah, and the show starts off with Thayne and Chelsea.

Thayne and Chelsea

Does anyone think that Thayne looks a lot like Benji? Especially when he smiles. But it sort of feels like he's mugging for the camera a bit too much. I'm still a little scared of Chelsea's abs - I think she can easily crush a full grown man between her pacs - and her general physique reminds me so much of Martha. Craaaaazee gal this one. They're doing a Jazz routine choreographed by Mandy Moore, with the concept of a King and his hidden lover. It's intriguing and got me excited, but surprisingly, I was pretty much let down after seeing the dance. It wasn't atrocious but I just didn't buy the concept from the execution. I can see where Mandy Moore is going with the choreography but Thayne and Chelsea couldn't pull it off. Thayne moves a bit too.. sissy for the part of a King. I love Chelsea's hair though. Fab. Their dancing couldn't match the hard music so I guess this is going to be a bottom 3 routine. Next!

Mark and Chelsie

Another Chelsie! Wahaha. They're doing Argentine Tango! I've got a feeling that outside of dancing, Chelsie is not really digging Mark. Finds him too weird or something. The routine was pretty hot and I daresay technically better than Allison and Ivan's first Arg. Tango. It was truly a war of the feet. Chelsie is just fabulous with her kicks and swings and turns but although she's technically superior, she felt a bit cold maybe cos Mark was bringing all the passion and feeling in his movements. And he was leading so well as a partner so the whole thing was actually swaying more in Mark's favour for me. But overall, really good. You can watch it here.





Will and Jessica

Hip Hop! Well, I thought it was ok actually. Will was great, as usual. I think all blacks, be it contemporary or ballroom or hip hop dancers, can do fab hip hop. It's almost as if it's in their blood or something. If you look at Jessica without Will, she's actually doing a really great job for a Contemporary dancer. But if you put Will The Great together with her, she pales in comparison and becomes a so-called inferior dancer. I think the judges are giving her too much flak. It's really hard to step up to Will The Great and I just hope she pulls through to Top 10 so that she can change partner and get the chance to excel properly. Their chemistry together, both onstage and off is fabulous though, one of the two couples I feel this season that have great chemistry together.

Matt and Kourtni

I think Kourtni looks so exotic. And a bit weird actually. Her eyes, hair and face. Matt was right when he said you can just fall into her eyes when you look at them. They're doing Foxtrot this week! And in my opinion, they did great. I couldn't keep my eyes off Kourtni! Though, Matt's arms and shoulders during the whole thing just spells out CONTEMPORARY DANCER. (How I miss having ballroom guys that know how to do really partner people. Sighs.) But other than that, I think Matt did a great job too and I loved the whole old school Hollywood shindig. So elegant and graceful. I've always enjoyed watching Foxtrots but it's weird that no matter how well you do it, the couple usually ends up in the bottom 3.

Gev and Courtney

Do they intentionally line up same name ppl back to back to confuse us? Anyway, Gev and Courtney has got Contemporary with Mandy Moore this week! Their chemistry was pretty awesome onstage. (Gev has crush on Courtney!) I absolutely LOVED the routine... and I almost cried. Courtney was brilliant and Gev really good for a b-boy. Is it me or is the producers trying to channel Sabra and Dom through these two. The dance reminded me so much of their contemporary last year. I sort of get what Mia was trying to say about organic dancing but to me it felt like she was nitpicking a bit. Nonetheless, the choreography was fab, execution was great and I heart Mandy! :)





Joshua and Katee

I think no one expected what an awesome pair these two would make when they were put together by the producers. They have so much positive chemistry together! I think expectations were really high on them this week after the superb war Hip Hop item they did last week, which was easily the best routine of the night. Broadway! By Tyce Diorio, or Tasty Oreo according to Cat. Well, I thought it was great! So much fun to watch. Katee's actions were not big enough for my liking but her technique was really good and she brought grace to her character. Joshua was just mag. I didn't expect him to bring it this week but he broke every one's expectations. And he's so cute too! :D I'm so loving this couple now. Woots! Especially after Katee overwhelmed incredible odds against her to do so well. I love unexpected underdogs. Plus it's awesome that they're doing top three routines consecutively for 2 weeks.




Sidenote about the judges: Is Nigel Broadway deprived or something? And Mary's tra-la-la in her heart place? ZOMG. But I lol how they went "A POPPER?!? POPPER? A POPPER?!? POPPER!!!!"

Marquis and Susie

I think no one liked Susie when she got into top 20. A high school teacher? zOMG. Kelli Baker would make a much better contestant. But honestly, I think she and Marquis have started to grow on me, especially after the beautiful waltz last week (although Marquis' partnering was more Contemporary). Especially like how they interact in the video package. Susie looks much better without hooker makeup and is actually turning out to be quite pretty. Sadly, the Salsa they did was not good at all. It looked as if they were trying too hard at some parts. Alex Da Silva was pretty mean, with that tone he took when he complained about Susie being a street salsa dancer. Total confidence booster. But Susie did disappoint I guess, with the routine being specifically the genre she said she was specialising in. A pity, cos I was starting to like this couple.

Twitch and Kherington

There's a bit of controversy over choreography that has personal meaning in it, ie Mia Micheals' Time routine. It's more emotional than usual, hard or sometimes impossible to criticize cos you'd be discrediting or disrespecting the feelings and what happened to the choreographer. No one can tell whether it's really good dancing or just mediocre because of the drama surrounding it. But getting a routine like this is a sure way of staying out of the bottom 3. And a big boost or pressure for you to dance all you can. Twitch and Kherington definitely did that. Although Twitch's extensions were stunted and his footwork not satisfactory, both of them brought so much emotion to the stage. Add that to a Celine Dion song, people are bound to cry when they watch this. It's so sad that two amazing dancers (Jean-Marc and France btw) have a child that cannot do what their parents love doing all their life. I have a new appreciation now for the both of them.




I think Mia's being nitpicky about Kherington smiling though. It can be interpreted both ways. And it's weird how Kherington's dancing a waltz barefoot... first time I seen that. I think it's the second consecutive week she's barefoot while dancing! I hope she won't be next week. Anyway, I love Twitch! :D

Chris and Comfort

OH man. Chris still has the personality of a tree. It's even worse when he's next to someone who has the personality to fill a whole forest. They do Krump this week and I have a bad feeling about Mr. Rosy Cheeks. I was right. He so totally cannot pull off gangsta. Not his face, not his movements, not his attitude. Not ever. I disagree with the judges though. Comfort is not not good tonight; she's just bringing it down so that Chris dosen't look so white-boy. But it didn't work. I guess Chris is just too white he can't even touch Comfort's whitest attempt. Ugh I'm sorry about the colour connotations here but that's the only way to put it. Fully expect him to go home after this routine. It's quite obvious that the choreography was also trying to support Chris by taking out the solo parts but didn't work I guess. Chris is really sweet but just ain't cutting it. Comfort and Chris's Krump = Comfort's Krump.

SO.

Not a bad show. At least better than last week's. Now for the results.

Results Night

Shane Sparks Hip hop!!! :DDD 'm so glad Shane is still choreographing group numbers this season. His brand of hip hop is just so different from NappyTabs'. Even though Marquis and four of the hip hop dancers were showcased during the dance, Comfort totally stood out for me. Nigel was not bluffing when he said she's the best female hiphop dancer he's seen. She even pops better than some of the other hip hop guys. Watch her in action below.



After Comfort and her background dancers had finished performing, the cuts began. I think the bottom 3 was expected. What I didn't expect was Marquis going home so early. Marquis's solo was the best of the night I think aside from Comfort's rocking FAB solo... or maybe the others' were a bit more mediocre. Anyway, I knew Susie was going home when the 3 of them stood there, no surprise. But what shocked me was that Marquis was sent home too. I totally wanted Chris to go home cos he wasn't doing anything for the show at all and Marquis's solo was awesome. Don't get what Nigel and gang were saying about tricks - Neil did lots of tricks last year and look where he got. Danny too, was all tricks even until the end of the season. And I think Marquis and Comfort would have made a great pair. Oh wells. Reality TV. You never know what the producers are thinking.


Aaaaaand, a SYTYCD experience is never complete without Leee's recap! He is awesome with his screencaps and lauches into occasional scholar analysis stuff that I totally dig. Check him out. He does his hilarious recaps for America's Next Top Model and Runway too. FAB.
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So You Think You Can Dance Season 4 Top 20

I feel so exhausted today. Slept 2 hours last night. I shall explain why in another post coming up shortly, but as of right now, I'm obliged to blog about the Top 20 Performance show of So You Think You Can Dance Season 4.

That's right. Season 4. Channel 5 always lags a full year for SYTYCD. It's almost like it's mocking us or something. Anyway, although I'm definitely looking forward to watching Season 3's (awesome) choreography and dancing on the big (ass) TV screen instead of the lousy Youtube window, I'm much much much more excited about Season 4. ... Basically because I have watched Season 3 and 2 dances ad nauseum online and crave for more SYTYCD! But also because new season brings in a new batch of dancers to watch, to enjoy and to drool over (Sara! Danny! Pasha! Dom! Sabra! Neil! And so on and so forth!)

Without a question, I'm a big fan of the show. Because it's just pure entertainment. Loads of true talent, so many fresh personalities and relationship dynamics, choreography by renowned choreographers, real criticism (sometimes.. better than AI at least) and not forgetting fabulous dancing week in week out. And having a gorgeous excellent and botox-free host dosen't hurt at all. :) Dancers, I realised, by default have great bodies because of the movements they have to make, are mostly good-looking because dance innately appeals to the eyes hence appearance of the dancer is therefore very important and lastly have quirky and unique personalities different from that of the rest of the population. That's what makes this show so cool. What makes this the most watched FOX Summer TV show ever since Season 2.

Season 4 started on FOX in the US of A a few weeks ago. And on Wednesday it was the Top 20 performance! Thanks to Youtube and TiVo, I was able to catch it hours after the show ended. :D Quality sucks though. Here, I'm just going to briefly mention the routines (I don't take notes while watching them... not like SOME ppl) and talk more on my favourites!

I may be making some mistakes on the names though. Everybody, please be ready for some really creative spelt names. Yes, it's even worse than previous seasons (Jaymes, Ashle, Ashlee..) and this season, there are 2 Chelseas and 2 Courtneys. Chelsea and Chelsie, Koutni and Courtney. Thayne, Rayven, Twitch, Katee, Marquis, Comfort, Kherington and many more. They seem like a whole lot of random guys and girls that didn't have much airtime in auditions and Vegas week. Really bad editing. It's like going into the show with a handicapp and few particular people with really severe ones. Katee, who said something that was misunderstood, Chris for having the personality of a tree, Gev, for supposedly taking Brandon's place and Kherington, for being a soccer player who dances. Plus, this year there are sooooooo many contemporary guys! Where's the hot sexy Russian ballroom dude? There's only Jamie, who coincidentally is Lacey Schwimmer's dance partner (some ppl
just can't stand the Schwimmer connection. Nepotism they say). Anyway, too many comtemps makes ballroom weird. They need time to adjust to the partner thing or end up like Danny - having great technique and lines but lousy partnering skills, making their partner work so much more.

I've blabbed enough I think. On to the show and my favourites! The best routine, most undoubtly came from Katee and Joshua, the eighth couple to perform.

Who knew the first goosebumps/chills and almost tears of the season came from a Hip Hop routine!



I have a sneaky suspicion that NappyTabs (Napoleon and Tabitha) actually did a Contempary routine done to Hiphop moves. Were they trying to help Katie by making the last part of the dance almost into a Contemp. routine? I say they didn't need to cos Katie was just fine all on her own. Granted, her steps were stiff and sometimes she wasn't hitting hard enough but what she lacked in technique was made up with her ability to emote and her brilliant performance. I just don't like her lipstick color though. Joshua was just fab. FAB. And he's such a big softie! :D Plus, when they dance together, they're totally emoting on the same level and what Katee lacks in technique is made up for by Joshua's SUPERB popping. I loved the part where she wrentched him up from the ground. Joshua did great coming up but without Katee acting it out it wouldn't have been so good. The concept was great, choreo was well done and the dancers took it up another level. Absolutely best routine of the night. Katee and Josh are so not going home. Soft hiphop HURRAY! :D And I've become a freshly minted fan of NappyTabs! Take that Shane Sparks! Ha!

I kinda disagree with Nigel on the ribcage shift/chest pop thing. I thought the ribcage shift was what she was actually supposed to do ie part of the choreography, like ripping her heart out or something. If it was a chest pop, she would have done it properly; didn't you see her pop moves in the other parts of the routine? Anyway, heavy chest pop would have been a bit weird here. Gosh, I'm starting to hate the main jidges already. They just seem so much more obnoxious and self-assuming than other seasons. And less sincere. Mary was holding such an obvious bias torch against Katee, most likely for what she said in Vegas. Which she was misunderstood for - another example of the judges jumping too quickly to conclusions. I feel so sorry for her and all the unfair unjustified flak, though didn't feel much love either cos I've never seen her dance properly until yesterday. I think only Dan was making sense the whole night - the others are either too lenient or weirdly strict/bias. Love Dan! He's impartial, expresses his points well and in a succint manner for the audience. Not really fond of his choreography though.

Ok, I'm babbling again. You can view all of the routines under the same Youtube user in the video above. I thought Twitch and Kherington's (Or Twitchington as they call themselves) Broadway was pretty good, Mark and Chelsie's Contemporary was intriguing too. Mia Micheals has done it again! Tim Burton's wedding indeed. ChelsEA and Thayne's Cha-Cha was not bad but all the other routines were either average or had one crucial element that made me dislike them. Though the personality of the night award definitely goes to Comfort! She's so hilarious! :D She has the quote of the night:

"You ain't never seen me in no bra and panties and beeeeeads!"

And her partner Chris ain't doin so bad either.

"No more tree. No more tree. I'm not a tree, everybody!"

Lol Chris. But I think, dear mr ruddy cheeks, that you still have a long way to go and it's hard to not be a tree next to someone like Comfort. Good luck.

On to the results show. Keeping it simple, Jamie and Rayven got cut.They danced a slightly cotton candy tasteless hiphop routine chereographed by Nappytabs. :O Oh well, I didn't really like them anyways. Too much acting out their personality and mugging to the camera. I got irritated of them in the video pakage already I dunno why.

I think this post is ridiculously long. I have no gift for succintness AT ALL. Gah. Anyway, everyone please watch SYTYCD Season 4 on Youtube every Thursday night (a few users post full episodes a few hours after broadcast) and Season 3 every Monday night on Channel 5 - it's fabulous. I garunteen you this is a really entertaining show and you won't waste your time watching it.
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