So You Think You Can Dance

[thistle]

I alternate between disaster preparedness & critiquing SYTYCD, which I discovered a year or so ago. The top 20 performed last night, I thought the ballroom routines were the best, w/ the Paso Doble being the best dance of the evening. Of course, I love the Paso Doble so much, I'd probably enjoy Mitt Romney doing the Paso Double (ok, maybe not).

I thought the best dancers were Eliana & Cole, w/ a shoutout to some underdogs-Chehon & Daniel (ballet), & Janeen (bellydance). To tie this in with food, none of these dancers look like they eat a lot, they're all extremely young, w/ amazing bodies-total escapist tv....

[Drive-by Critic]

SYTYCD is the only reality talent show we watch (unless you count Top Chef). The cheesiness can be annoying (i.e., the backstories) and they stretch it out with all kinds of irritating filler. The critiques can be over-the-top. If Lil C yells "that's sick" one more time, if Mary Murphy screams "off the hot tamale train" one more time, if they have more idiot guest judges like Zooey Deschannel....if they keep one more totally untrained guy doesn't actually dance but just twitches in a self-created style called "robot" while they dismiss a brilliant dancer...I am going to stop watching. But I don't.

Because. The love of dance is so evident and so buoyant. In any other context, Nigel Lythgoe would be a complete a-hole but here he is a true champion of the art of dance. He was a dancer and on occasion, he gets up out of his seat and dances. His face is radiant when he sees a brilliant performance. His critiques are knowledgeable. Mary Murphy may be irritating but look up her performances on youtube. She floats. Some of the choreography is beyond. Mia Michaels' "Park Bench" is incredible (won an Emmy; you can see it on YouTube). Some of the performances have been breath-taking. Neither one of us would ever go to a live dance performance of any kind, and yet we are spellbound by twitch, Will Wingfield, Travis Wall, Danny Tidwell.

We have a snack while watching the show. Cherries are very good this year. Sometimes we don't have a snack, but we think about food during the commercials.

[thistle]

OK, yesterday's show was uninspiring, but this still is one of the best shows to DVR, so you can ff through the 'joodges' critique, & the backstories, & still enjoy the dancing. I hated almost everything Wed., except the Bollywood, I am a sucker for flashy, energetic dance routines. I knew who was going home, although I wish that Daniel could have been saved...I really love watching these dancers, but they need to get some better choreography, STAT....it was really bad, & I know next to nothing about dance, I felt sorry for the dancers....