So You Think You Can Dance, S3 Top 4

[oyceter]

So I went to lindy for the first time in forever, and I actually stayed for a little of the social dance! Not for long, but long enough to realize how much I'd missed it.

And!

It is the SYTYCD finale tomorrow!

AND!

OMG! OMG! OMG! PEOPLE! LACEY AND NEIL DANCED LINDY!!!! OMG!

I am so excited! They've never had lindy on the show before for a couple! And lindy is so different from everything else up there! Including West Coast Swing! OMG! And the judges were talking about how hard lindy is!

Seriously, when they announced it, I sat up and squealed and scared my mom. But! My dance is getting some recognition!

That said, I think the judges were more impressed with Lacey and Neil's performance than I was (wow! for once I actually know what's going on in a dance!). The aerials felt a little slow and not bouncy enough, they should shoot whoever came up with those costumes, and Neil's footwork was off fairly often. Also, Neil just didn't go down enough -- lindy should be really low and bouncy. I mean, I should cut them some slack; those aerials were incredibly hard and they did so much. But it's the basic steps bit that irked me, and I am a little annoyed because Nigel and Mary are both ballroom people and so really nitpicked Sabra and Danny, and no one nitpicked Neil and Lacey, and they should have been nitpicked at some points for just being sloppy.

Still! Lindy! Also! They had several moves in there that I just learned in class today! Mostly it was the Charleston stuff, since this month's series is on Charleston, which excites me to no small degree, as I love Charleston. (Charleston is basically all the kicky stuff.)

Also, YouTube, why do you fail me now? I couldn't find any clips of today's dances, so you all will have to search yourselves.

My favorite tonight, hands down, was the incredibly awesome Neil-Danny routine: the aggression channeled into dance, the over-the-top-ness of it, the costumes, the lighting, the stylization! Awesome. It actually felt more like a Wade Robson routine than a Mia Michaels one.

I'm sad that Lacey and Sabra's routine wasn't better; last year the women got shafted as well. I wonder if in part it's because the choreographers are trying to make the routines too "female"? Last year's was an attempt as sexy, this year's was an attempt at maternal, and I compare it to Benji and Travis' dork hip hop last year and Danny and Neil's violence-as-dance. I don't know. It's too hard to tell with so few data points. But I do wish they had more same-sex couple routines throughout the season, because I think there are some pretty cool things you could do.

I loved loved loved Danny and Sabra's solos; Danny's insane ballet jumps in particular. And I love watching Sabra dance, because she just throws herself into it. I still can't get over how small she is, physically, but she just flung herself all over the place in her solo, and it seemed like her legs and arms and entire body extended out to forever.

I also loved Danny and Sabra's cha cha, and now I am sad because they were awesome together, and I wish they had drawn each other during the competition.

I am still ehhh about Neil, slightly happier with Lacey though I still think she's a little too glossy for me, sad that Sabra got stuck with two so-so routines, and think Danny will grab the title. That makes me mostly happy, as he is awesome, but damnit, I want a woman to win!

Comments

[i-naiad.livejournal.com]

Check Dailymotion for the clips, they usually go up there faster than at YouTube. Also rickey.org always puts the clips up on his blog very quickly.

[oyceter]

Oh, thank you for the links!

[i-naiad.livejournal.com]

No problem. When you're addicted, but in another country, you soon discover the quickest way to get your hands on things.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

I was thinking much the same things about the same-sex concept and choreo issues. But isn't it just a reflection of what happens in real life? Men are people, and get to do things that encompass the whole of human existence, but put two women together, and all you can have is the male-defined sterotypical imagery that's gone on for centuries - whores or madonnas, sex-objects or mothers. No wonder the actual choreography for Danny and Neil's routine was so much more captivating than that for Sabra and Lacey's routine.

And yes, Sabra is definitely going to suffer for less than stellar choreography in two out of three routines. But the number she and Danny had was just... astounding. I melted.

[oyceter]

Yeah, I was thinking the same with regard to "men get to be people, women get to be roles," but was a little hesitant just because I only have two data points. I now really want to see what the female routine was for S1.

ZOMG! Sabra and Danny! I am so sad they were not partners before because they melted my brain!

[i-naiad.livejournal.com]

Here's the female routine from season 1 (http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/so+you+think+you+can+dance+melody+ashle/video/x2pens_melody-ashle-contemporary-season-on_creation). I liked it a lot and would like to see more of this sort of same sex dancing - I actually wish Danny and Neil's piece had been a little more like this.

I liked the foxes thing though. Parents and children aren't something you see explored in these sorts of shows very much, but we had it twice this season with Mia's and then Wade's routines.