No way!
How cute was Mark when he found out he was safe 😀 Yay, my little one-man Pilobolus is in the semis! Or is next week the semi-semifinals?
Ballet?!?! Balanchine?!?! Los Angeles Ballet?! Am I dreaming? What did you guys think? This is the first I’ve seen Ballet on any of these shows. Was “Who Cares” wondrous enough? I love how people scream whenever there’s a lift or hyper-extended arabesque penchee 🙂
No frigging way! No way! You guys, no way! Ugh.
Update: here’s my HuffPo post on this week’s shows.
Yes . . . it brought me back to days when you could see Maria Tallchief, Edward Villella and later the ever-spinning Joyce Cuoco on T.V. as we used to call it . . . perhaps now Will can get on with his career as a dancer . . . he gave a great shout out at the end to all the dancers bustin’ their asses . . . would love to see Twitch in an evening at the Joyce Soho! Gotta get me to Times Square dance and get my Samba going . . . who do you recommend? Like Miss Basil said, I’m just curious and want to taste it all. I don’t know how you do it all, Ms. Plank — thanks for the relay to the Culturist and all that heady stuff to bring me back to Earth from my SYTYCD Wed/Thurs delirium!
I think that last sentence was referring to Will’s departure. I agree. I really thought he would win it, but he will have the exposure, tour, and all of the other benefits from showing what he can do. Look at Pasha and many former contestants that didn’t win. They have had as many doors opened as the winners of the show. He’s still a winner.
Ohh! Pasha put on his myspace that he is spending this month with his family in Russia. He gets to go home for the first time in 10 years.
Yes, it was, sorry Laurel! Thanks for updating me on Pasha 🙂 That’s true about the tour and exposure; being in the top 10, even being on the show anymore is becoming like getting an Academy award nomination — it’s not about who wins, it’s just being nominated that makes your name known!
Hi Marilyn — thanks for commenting! Oh my gosh, it’s been so long since I’ve been to DTS (they hosted Midsummer Night Swing tonight but I didn’t feel up to going); I don’t even know who’s all there anymore. I know a lot of people like Michael Choi, if he’s still there. There are also Jacob and Fred who are good. Best thing to do though is take the introductory offer, where you get two half-hour lessons. Take two different people and see who you prefer. Or you can go and just watch the floor for a while, see how the teachers interract with their students, who seems a good height for you, etc. For Samba, I’d also actually recommend Alvin Ailey studios. They teach Brazilian Samba, not ballroom, but it’s so much fun; I don’t know if I’ve ever laughed so hard or been so challenged!
Thanks Tonya — and good luck with your novel and the TAC
I always enjoy reading your posts, although I just can’t agree with you about Will. Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t think he’s all that brilliant — certainly not better than Danny Tidwell! He is more talented than the remaining male dancers, but I just wasn’t that sorry to see him go.
One question — why do you always capitalize the genre of dance that you’re discussing? Ballet, Hip Hop, Contemporary, etc. I was always taught by my high school English teachers and various editors that this is wrong, wrong, wrong. Dance critics at major newspapers (NYT, Washington Post, etc.) don’t do it. Are there different rules for blogs? (I guess there really aren’t any rules for blogs.) I’m sorry to harp on this, but it really annoys the copy editor/proofreader in me!
I was SO excited when Cat announced the Los Angeles Ballet (finally! ballet!) but the performance was pretty disappointing. Both dancers seemed super nervous and shaky, and the partnering was incredibly wobbly. The dancers had superb technique, but it seemed as if this was the first time that they had danced in front of an audience. The SYTYCD audience is different from a theater audience, to be sure, but these two dancers were supposedly seasoned pros! Not the best representation of ballet (although I love the piece), IMO.
Hi ZB — I guess I just like the way it looks better, with the capitalization I mean, though I didn’t always used to do that and sometimes I forget and it’s uneven! It seems to give more respect to the dance form that way. Also, some of the terms, like “contemporary” seems kind of confusing; without a capital C it looks like an adjective rather than a dance form. But when I capitalized that I felt I had to capitalize the others too. Just a personal preference I guess.
Yeah, I felt the same way about Los Angeles Ballet. Maybe they were just really nervous being in front of such a huge audience?…
Oh and also, I meant I thought Will’s Samba was better than Danny’s last season, not that Will in general was better than Danny! I think it is a hard dance for ballet dancers because it’s so different from what they’re used to with the straight upper body.
People on HuffPo seemed to think the ballet was flat — which it kinda was last night, but I hope people don’t turn against the dance in general! There needs to be more of it on the show!
Hey Tonya,
I have seen this Balanchine ballet performed wonderfully last fall here in Chicago, and I, too, felt the LA Ballet performance was rather lack luster. Probably the stress. I saw a male soloist from the SF Ballet and a female from another major company dance it as guest artists with the Chicago Ballet, a company of mostly pre-professional dancers.
Oops. Correction:The 2 solists that performed Mr B’s “Who Cares” in May 2007 were Julie Niekrasz of Ballet Memphis and Hamilton Nieh of Alberta Ballet. At least I think it was Julie N. that danced the lead.
I thought the ballet dancers just looked tenative about the floor — especially the woman — who knows what that floor is like for pointe shoes, and going live with an audience of millions can’t be a relaxing experience! We have to applaud the appearance of ballet on prime time — and Fox5, of all places — television — it was not, in any way, bad ballet . . .
since i don’t watch Fox with the exception of Bones, I never watch this shows… how now I”m curious… Tonya, could you point me towards some videos of the performances?
Katrina — I usually go to Ted at Blogging So You Think You Can Dance for videos — he’s usually pretty good about finding stuff. His website is here: http://bloggingsytycd.blogspot.com/
I just wanted to respond to ZB’s post. I recently had a sort of debate with another person regarding grammar/spelling rules in written language vs. electronic language. In my opinion they do not strictly apply. Whether blogging, chatting, texting, its more in line with informal spoken language than written language. When most of us speak, we do not focus on grammatical details. We focus on getting our message out and sometimes even use knowingly incorrect grammar or pronunciation to get our meaning across. I know “ain’t” is not grammatically correct and would not write it in a formal business letter or use it in a professional presentation, but I may use it in informal conversation. If I were emailing my employer, I would format my email more like a formal business letter and check spelling and grammar. When I email friends, I just write. When I text or communicate in forums or quick emails, I use shortened forms of words that I would not use in formal communication. To me, MOST on-line communication is informal, quick, and not subject to strict grammar rules.
I am a teacher and have many special education students. Many of these students are very bright but have difficulties putting their ideas on paper. Some will never be able to write a paper with correct grammar and spelling without help. They can text and email friends. Sometimes I practically have to put a gun to their heads to do ANY written work in class, but they will text like crazy because they know the same rules do not apply. MANY adults, at any level of education, also struggle with spelling and grammar. I STRONGLY believe that we should not impose strict rules or judge others in written online communication because we will exclude many people or lose the spontaneity.
About the ballet, I thought they looked like studio students (apprentice) and not full company members. She looked awfully careful in her turns. I remember Jessica of Season 2 did a ballet solo on the night she was kicked off.
Here is another website that has all of the vids for the show. I wouldn’t recommend reading the comments though, they can be pretty snarky at times.
http://mjsbigblog.com/category/so-you-think-you-can-dance/
http://www.rickey.org/?cat=194
Thanks for those links, Karen!