So It's time for So You THINK You Can DANCE Season 7! It's been a while since the boring Season 6, the "Fall" season. (There must be something in the whole feng shui thing because that season was blah.) It was not particularly memorable, the only things that I can remember are Ashley's creepy lipstick, Jakob Karr and... Rasul? Oh, Russell and his Santa Claus costume. Hmm... Anyhoo, let's go straight into the recap.
First of all, it's really a joy to see the all stars back on the show, particularly Allison from Season 2. She was the girl who did the amazing Shane Sparks routine to Sexy Love with Ivan (a.k.a the umbrella dance, which in my opinion is still the best lyrical hip hop piece on the show). She also did the cool Alex Da Silva's Argentinian Tango routine (it was the red item with all the kicks below the crotch thing), and when she left the show she did this emotional solo piece in which she hugged Travis Wall (who's now one of the highly celebrated choreographers on the show) which misled me into thinking that there was something going on between them and that Travis was straight.
It's also great to see Mamma Mia back, although her first piece last week about Time/Journey featuring Alex Freaking Wong, Billy Freaking Bell and Ade What-The-Freak-Is-His-Last-Name was a major disappointment. You could have just put the three of them into three separate rooms and it would look like as if they were doing three different solo pieces. I didn't like it. And Mia is now a permanent judge on the panel together with Nigel and Shankman. What happened to Mary Murphy? Perhaps they sent her to get a thesaurus since, I don't wanna be mean, but she had been repeating what she said over and over and over and over again. Way too much! Lil C should really give her his thesaurus.
Enough about the judges, let's get into the dances!
First up was Billy Bell, and together with Lauren he did a Tyce's broadway number to Footloose. It looked very high school-ish which totally suited his persona. I just wonder whether he would be able to handle the more intense styles such as the Paso Doble and Krumping because Billy reminded me a lot of Kupono from Season 5: scrawny, a bit effeminate and very very young-looking. Kupono's Paso Doble with Randi was a catastrophe of epic proportion, but then again, the judges loved Billy, so may be they would give him all the more "friendly" styles. (I mean Ms yoga/ballerina Melissa from Season 5 didn't do a single hip hop item throughout the season and was given Sytycd's very first pointe-work together with Ade, can I say rigged much?)
Next was Adechike, who did a Travis Wall's number which was something about sex in the office, which kinda reminded me a bit of Chun's Danz People Recital item (concept-wise). I have to agree with the judges that he was giving empty technique (nicely said Mia!), and not enough performance. I gotta say though, the video package talked about him taking off Kathryn's heel and they made such a big deal about it, but when I watched the item, that part was so~so minor that it made me a bit sad for him. I mean, if he had to depend on such lame taking-off-the-heel problem to show his fun side, that spoke volumes for his TV personality (or the lack thereof). And I'm not a fan of his military-style answers ("yes ma'am", "yes sir").
Next was Christina, and her Sonya's jazz routine. Not a fan. She looked too much of a gold fish that her character (which was supposed to be a snake) was utterly not believable. Mark was fantastic in the item. Overall, it felt too posy wosy for me. The song was horrible too. Up next was Jose Ruiz, the "homo, but confident" BBoy who had been blowing the judges away since Vegas week. It thought the item was ok, there wasn't something special or memorable about the item. The video package with Nappytabs Dumo was louder than the actual item. Next was Melinda, the tapper, and she danced the Jive with Pasha from season 4. (I'm sorry if it feels as if I'm rushing, but some of the items were really just blah, blah and more blah.) The judges criticised her for her technique, but I don't the Jive to begin with, so I can't really be bothered about whatever happened in the item.
Finally, Alex Wong and Allison, with Sonya's Hallelujah. It was by far the best of item of the night, but by no means that this item was the "best item ever performed on Sytycd stage anywhere in the world." Mia's comments were stretched a tad too far I think. Allison was the BOMB! I felt that she alone carried off the item with her performance because truth be told, you don't really see much of Alex's facial expression during the item. Sure, his techniques were hands-down flawless, but without Allison this item would not have been a huge success. Back-paddling a bit, I hope that they would let Allison do the hip hop items, especially if they were lyrical (recall Sexy Love?) because I can't imagine Comfort being able to hit it off and create another Bleeding Love or No Air, and I DO wanna see more of such hip hop home-runs.
Next was Alexie. She did Butterfly by Jason Mraz. Cool song, cool concept, but sadly, nothing cool about the execution. I hated her hair and make-up for the item, she should have been made more sensual and organic, say if she had her hair down completely, she would have been less "cute-sy." Next was Ashley and Neil. Some love contemporary item, already been done a million times, not exciting enough. Ashley had a voice of robot and a personality of one as well. Not memorable. Next was Robert, and he did some African dance with Courtney. The item was well danced, but I hated his personality. I felt that he was too in-your-face reality-TV personality (the same applies to Melinda as well), and he looked like he was a cross between Woody from Toy Story and Edvard Munch's The Scream (google for photos!), too fakey fakey for my liking.
Last two (finally!!!) were Lauren Froderman, whose solo in Vegas week I love love love, and Kent Boyd. I don't really get the whole Lauren not knowing how to be sexy. I mean, look at her audition piece and Vegas week solo. The former was about seduction, and she said it herself that her style was more sexy, albeit PG-sexy, so... what's her problem? It felt to me that she wanted to make it seem as if she struggled, thus lowering our expectations, thus it would be easier (?) for her to blow us away during the performance show. Hmm... curious. Anw, Kent's item was ok, he was probably the contestant with the most personality, although it did feel a bit contrived at times, but in those few times where it felt genuine, he was sorta endearing. Throughout the whole Cha Cha routine, the thought that kept popping in my head was that Anya and he looked like a lady mistress devouring her boy toy. Yikes!
So yeah, that's it! Heard Alexie was cut. No response whatsoever.
Haha. So till next week, ciao!
