Television: SYTYCD Discussions 2006-2015

[Momof3darlings]

Did anyone watch? What did you think? I saw quite a bit of the show but missed the "ballet" dancer. So fill me in, was she really a ballet dancer or a jazz lyrical dancer?

 

vj

[b1]

Can't answer your question because I, too, missed the ballet dancer. But, I only caught snippets of the show. The dancing was too short and the inane chatter was driving me nuts! Didn't really like the show.

[TomarkenFan89]

I did not get to see the whole thing last night (I recorded it), but I did see one girl who seemed like she could only do fouettes and not much else. (And I was so angry that one of the judges thought they were pirouettes!)

[mom1]

Oh my... what a horrible show. I was in and out of the room, packing for a trip, so I didn't see everything, but there were very few dancers shown who could dance in any form. Lots of break dancing!!!

 

I saw a little snippet of the ballet dancer and I think she really is a ballet dancer. They cut the only classically trained male... a student at Julliard. It may be that as they weed out the worst, a few real dancers will be shown later in the program. I was baffled by the number of "dancers" who admitted that they had never had any training of any sort, but were promoted through because they seemed to have "something".

 

It was sort of funny. There was one very over weight guy who could really move. We all liked him them best.

[mom2]

There were also the gymnasts who really couldn't dance at all (or speak english), but they seemed to want to be on American tv.......

[angel_lissa_91]

It was last night!! O I really wanted to watch it,but from reading what you guys all said.. I don't think I missed alot

[calamitous]

I was in the room the entire time it was on, but was not really watching most of it. Yes there was abellet dancer who looked like a dancer and for the 2 seconds she was did what should be considered ballet.

 

It was impossible to tell what kind of dnace they were looking for from who went through and who did not. But I am guessing it is for MTV style, so the hip-hop and break dancers tended to fair sort of well.

 

When they did the choreographed dances they did not show enough of the solo to figure out what it was. The paired dancings looked similar to ballroom.

[balletbooster]

They continually said that the Juilliard dancer was the best trained and had the best technique of any male they saw. But, they REALLY did not like his dance with the rhythmic gymnast ribbon and the lead judge was really turned off by this. He said that the boy was not chosen because he was looking for strong male dancers and he danced what seemed to him very effeminately. Even in the partnering round, he felt he was not strong looking.

 

It seemed to me, from watching the brief snippet where they were learning new choreography and partnering, that they were looking for dancers who could pick up new choreography quickly, who had some basis in dance and knew enough to keep up, but the dance itself was decidely Brittany Spears-like. He asked several if they had been trained in other styles of dance and said a couple of times that he was looking for 'versatile' dancers.

 

They kept the Irish step dancer, who they mentioned was 6 feet tall. HOwever, she did a very 'hip' Irish dance in her audition and was dressed much more like Brittany than Jean Butler.

 

The thing that struck me is how rude so many of the contestants were when they were disqualified. The head judge was very specific about his reasons for cutting each person and they were valid reasons, given in what I thought was a civil and polite manner. Some of the kids argued with him, yelled at him, interrupted him, cast dispersions on his judgement and were in general so discourteous it was apalling.

[Hans]

Makes one long for the old-fashioned courtesy of the ballet studio!

 

(Actually, not old-fashioned--good manners are good manners.)

[Redstorm]

I watched the show and was not impressed at all. 98% of the dancers looked to be either street/self taught or backup style dancers for the latest music video. Very few trained dancers. I was hoping for something more organized and showing real talent. There were a couple of dancers that caught my eye and they did make it through to Hollywood. I felt sorry for the dancer who fell apart and the paramedics had to be called. She never even had a chance to dance in the second round. Hopefully this show will get better and we are seeing the bottom of the barrel right now. (similar to what American Idol does in the beginning) Although in American Idol, we at least got to see a lot more talent early on.

DD had a teacher from her old studio make it through to Hollywood from San Francisco, but alas, he is another break dancer. It seems that most of that style of dancer is cut early due to the lack of professional training.

During the previews for next week shows there were some shots of dancers with pointe shoes on, but obviously not dancers that were ballet trained. It was more a spoof style clip encouraging you to watch to see a "prima ballerina".

I haven't decided if I am going to be a fan of this show. It was a hard decision between this show and the show on the bad kids sent away to a wilderness camp by their parents. Now that is real entertainment.

[tutumonkey]

I watched the show last night with my dd and dn (dancing niece), both 13. They were alternately appalled, horrified, fascinated and impressed with the "dancers" they saw. They were impressed with the break dancers spins and rythms but wondered how much better these guys could be with dance training. In their opinion there was alot of talent going to waste. They like the Juilliard trained boys technique but the ribbon dance did him in. They also liked the heavier gentleman from NY, he was very smooth. Everyone else seemed to be somewaht lacking shall we say. Ballet seemed to be practically non-existant but the head judge repeatedly stated that they are casting a show and looking for people who are "different". So I guess personality plays a large part in addition to technique and talent. We'll probably watch again next week just to see the prima ballerina that caused hysterics on the couch last night during the previews. Dd and dn will attend to their SI and work extra hard I'm sure and thank their lucky stars that they are receiving "real" dance training.

[vagansmom]

I missed all the dancing last night and just caught the part where they tell the dancers whether or not they're going to Hollywood. But I DO know quite a bit about the Irish dancer, Ashley Purl. She's a member of Trinity Irish Dance, a performing group from Chicago. This company predates Riverdance and it's always been cutting-edge Irish dance even though Michael Flatley claims he's the first.

 

Ashley is one of the senior dancers in the company, having started with their junior company and moved on up to the main company. She is one of two dancers who help to train the other dancers. Ashley's taken other dancing besides Irish dance but I think it's only been a smattering - no history of serious ballet training there. So it's going to be interesting to see how she competes with the other dancers. I hope she gets to stay in it for awhile because I'd like to see how much of an advantage or disadvantage her Irish training will provide her.

 

The only dancing I saw were the split second recaps at the end. They rushed by very quickly but some of what was supposed to be ballet was painful to watch!

 

You can find a brief blurb on Ashley Purl here

[MADancer]

Maybe I missed it but there was one ballet dancer who did pointe that advanced but they didn't show her audition. And also there is a boy, Craig Derosa, I competed against this year in a lyrical that is amazing he made it from NY also. I'm hoping that since they didn't show their auditions it means they made it quite far in the comptition, because in AI there was no footage of Kelly Clarkson until the final 10 and she ended up winning.

[MMH]

I heard today that one of the dancers that is moving on to Hollywood in this competition has been training at PBT (Pittsburgh Ballet Theater) for years. She was in their grad program just this past year and attended Chautauqua's SI in the Festival level last summer. What's strange is that she is doing hip-hop (not taught at either PBT or Chautauqua ) , not ballet????

[Skittl1321]

Is the program live in the finals like American Idol? If so we might be suprised who we see later. (That was what happened with Kelly Clarkson. The cattle call rounds were held months before the phone in voting rounds. I guess the producers just didn't think she was impressive enough...)

 

I missed the show last night because I went to sleep. I really hope that the "spoof" pointework someone alluded to earlier in the thread isn't their idea of entertainment- putting untrained dancers in pointe shoes. I will have to remember to watch next week.