So You Think You Can Dance 25 July 2007
This was supposed to be posted earlier today. I wrote it late last night. Drat! Keep in mind the time I wrote it when reading it, please. I’ll be back with an update afterwards:
Cat Deeley stepped out of a FLASHDANCE music video to host the show last night. . .
Wow, the judges gave up early this year. Just when they start expressing opinions critical of most of the dancers, they also hand the final decisions off to the viewers at home. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the last couple of seasons have only come down to popular votes for the final decision in the last two or three rounds of the competition. The judges have abdicated this responsibility this year with the Top Ten. Interesting. It ought to make predicting the losers a little easier. Danny is perpetually in the bottom three, for example. (Mia Michaels may think he’s the second coming, but don’t forget: She’s the woman responsible for choreographing a Celine Dion stage show.) Jaimie is down there an awful lot, too. So is Sabra, though she’s least deserving of it.
Of course, the AMERICAN IDOL rules apply now, too. The harsher the judges are on a contestant, the more votes they get from loyal supporters. DANCE has been getting about five million votes a week. I wouldn’t be surprised if that number jumps up a little bit this week, because the voters-from-home are now in total control.
It also looks like the girls are starting to pull ahead of the guys, on the whole. Will this be the first season a female contestant wins it all? It’s growing more and more likely each week. Will a Schwimmer Dynasty be born in a few weeks?
Those solos were just profound, weren’t they? I wanted to scream, too. I was moved to join Amnesty International, the UN, Greenpeace, and any organization Michael Moore donates to. I think I might pick up a John Lennon CD or three today, while I’m in the mood.
Seriously, though, I liked the idea of all of them doing the same solo, so you could compare and contrast the styles. It showed a lot about who has natural abilities, who’s pushing to get through the moves (Pasha), who’s interpreting more and mimicking steps less (Danny), and who can hear the music better (Lauren).
Pasha’s solo was the worst of the lot, though. He might be in trouble tonight, too. I bet Anya wishes she had survived one more week, if only to not have to choreograph her own solo. She might have been annoyed at having to wear such “normal” clothes for it, though.
Update: Well, the jacket was a Marine jacket, but Mia screwed it up. I thought it was just lifted from Michael Jackson’s closet. Nigel apologizes if you’re offended and blathers more cliched anti-war apologies. And the votes were up, as I predicted, to 6.5 million. Can’t believe Pasha was spared, though. . . After the bottom four were announced, I guessed the bottom two correctly, though.
27. July 2007 at 11:55
After Danny escaped the bottom two (guys) last night, we (the wife and I) wondered if Anya had been dragging him down in the voting. We don’t care for him; the appearance of arrogance thing just made him unlikeable early on – though he’s shown much more personality the last two weeks.
As for Sabra, the only time she was in the bottom three was the first week, when she and Dominic were saddled with a horrible disco routine. They were safe each of the next four weeks. And when Dominic made the bottom two last night, we wondered if Sabra had been pulling him up in the voting before now.
And Lacey was clearing pulling Cameron up in the voting until last night — and I believe she’s now the only dancer left to have never been in the bottom two or three.
On the girls’ side, we like Lacey, Sabra, and Sara the most, but in all honesty, we’d hate to have to choose between them. On the guys’ side, Dominic and Neil are the only two dancers we’ve been able to get into (though the wife likes Pasha).
While I do believe Danny is likely the best dancer, I don’t think he’s going to win. I do hope one of the girls takes it this year — they’re better on the whole.
28. July 2007 at 08:05
Augie, once they reached the top ten last year, it was given over to popular vote as well. I didn’t watch first season, so I don’t know about how it was handled then, but last year it was popular vote at top ten time. :)
28. July 2007 at 08:10
Also, I think Pasha is quite popular, so in spite of having done poorly on his solo, he still pulled in the votes. His partner dance was substantially better than Dominic’s or Kameron’s, in my mind. Yes, there are the solos, but I think people are in fact looking at the entire evening’s work.
And I HATED those solos with a fiery passion. I hated making everyone dance the same moves – it was repetitive, particularly when you had the exact same portions of that song playing for everyone. I started zipping through them after 4 or 5, because I just couldn’t stand it.
Jeff – agree that Danny seems to have gotten slightly more personable over the last couple of weeks.