SYTYCD - Top Twenty

I watched the So You Think You Can Dance top twenty reveal show and the dancers are all incredible.  It’s not surprising, they’ve got hundreds of high caliber dancers to choose from.  They have enough that they can choose dancers who are all technically brilliant and exceptional performers.  The wider the pool, the higher quality you can choose from.

I’m pleased to hear there won’t be separate performance and result shows this year.  One of the big challenges for me to watch the show was the amount of time it demanded.  Luckily, it’s one I can watch with the boys (even if they would prefer to watch the Wiggles).  But since I’ve been trying to cut down on how much TV I watch, a three hour weekly commitment is a lot.

The only thing I’m not pleased about is bringing in guest judges whose sole purpose seems to be to plug other shows for Fox.  Zooey Deschanel is a beautiful and brilliant actress but she’s not a dancer, nor does she work with dancers.  Her comments were as general and inane as anyone picked at random off the street.  Perhaps more so since she has to think about protecting her image.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the season unfolds.  Part of the reason I didn’t watch last season was because the winner was predictable.  This year, there are a lot of strong contenders.  But I have noticed a pattern.  The winner is not usually one of the early strong dancers.  I don’t know if it’s because those dancers don’t visibly improve as much as the others and thus their performances become boringly brilliant.  Or perhaps the audience gets exhausted with them since they’re featured so much early on.

My early favourites are Janelle, the belly dancer; Amelia, with her silent film inspired performance and appearance; Cyrus, with his amazing isolations; and the guy whose name I can’t remember with his martial arts inspired style.  I feel sorry that Janelle wasn’t able to perform and wonder if it will end up costing her competitively.  Martial Arts Guy might have a problem with the sheer speed of his maneuvers.  His kicks are nearly invisible, they’re so fast and in dance, you have to be able to see the moves.  Both Cyrus and Amelia have had trouble with the choreography but their individual styles are incredible.