Fame or Famine

My friend Nyxx roundly chastised me last week for being so lax in my SYTYCD coverage. I can’t really blame her; to be honest, it was a bit of stage fright, because I’d done a good job on it the week before (even got a mention on Blogging SYTYCD!) and I felt the pressure to come up with something even more entertaining

So…in rhyming couplets, perhaps?

Cat’s dress doth shimmer and sparkle with sequins,
Only six left? How the suspense doth peaken!

No, I’m thinking this is not going to go well…

Lacey’s gold top has suspenders untucked,
Her expression is that of one recently –ahem.

OK, let’s just forget the rhyming couplets, and get to the actual watching of the dancing.

Opening: Oh, I’m sorry Lauren is already not looking as good. I think that it’s pretty obvious that Lauren and Neil are going down tonight.

Lacey and Pasha

(hip hop) Great characteriszation by Pasha..as usual. Why is she just sitting there? This is not very much of a solo for her… well, when she gets into it, she’s all there…but there’s just not much, and while they were supposed to be in sync, they weren’t very well. Her sharpness was great, and it was very entertaining, but I just really wanted to see the two of them actually dance together.

(Slow Waltz) This is one of my favorite dances, personally, to do. Viennese is fun, but you have to concentrate so hard (Ok, I have to concentrate so hard) that there isn’t much time to actually connect with your partner. The slow waltz gives you more time to actually communicate with the other person. I can’t wait to see how Pasha does with this; he’s got to be familiar with it.

OK…love the lift. And oh, what a surprise, she’s wearing an elegant-but-revealing dress… Yep, he’s really putting so much into it, not just with facial expressions, but with his whole body, that she has room to simply, gracefully float along. All the weight sharing was great.

Huh. Nigel caught the hand thing, but I really missed it. I was too caught up in the rest of the lines, I think. Magnificent. But I don’t think he’s going to beat out Danny & Neil.

Sabra’s Solo….her arms didn’t seem as controlled and together as I’ve seen them in the past, but her almost effortless movement is still pretty incredible. Honestly, this seemed like coasting for her – I wonder if she choreographed her own solo? It just had a "student" feel to it.

Lauren & Danny

 (contempo) Yay Mia!!!…wow. This just comes out and does it… there’s a few moments that just seem like mistakes, and honestly, I can’t tell. When he reaches for her, there’s that mishmash of hands, and it really looked like that leap just…wasn’t there. I believe that Mia’s just playing with our minds. What I did love was the way his foot kind of had this suspension/release that really worked. But I really wish they would stop making Danny pirouette…he’s great, we get the point, save it for the end, can we see him emote more, please…well. Actually, come to think of it, he did. I really, for the first time, feel  that he was dancing with someone.

disco: I hate the song already. Huh…I’m kind of surprised…there’s a lot of stopping and lack of flow. Nothing seems to be pushed out the way I’d expect it to be…lifts, extensions, etc. just seemed to stop in the way that things did back in the first few shows. I understand it not being easy, but really, it just got clumsy, especially in that lift. It just didn’t flow. I gotta wonder why the judges are being so nice? They can see this. I’m kind of disappointed in the way things are being described.

Pasha’s Solo He’s got such CHARACTER. But if he doesn’t do more, he’s not going to outdo Neil & Danny – they’ve just got too much trainig.

Sabra & Neil (jazz): Neil. I misjudged you. This dance gave me CHILLS. Maybe it’s because I just had a fight with my girlfriend, but that parallel arm stand (plange) over her on the table…I’m just amazed. Sabra was dancing her normal brilliant self, but Neil…just stepped up and was ALL there. I want to watch this one over and over. Vance, get it up online soon!

Paso doble) Betty Wantsme joined me in time for this duet, and we’re both still picking our jaws up off the floor. Especially at the end – I thought that he was a little shaky in his base, but he pulled it together, and that strong lift at the end just blew us away. Best part? Her expression when he finally pulled her up – calm, collected, a confident "Yes, I did do that, it hurt, and I did it anyway. What are you going to do about it?"

Lauren’s Solo: See how her arms have slow, controlled motion, then going into sharper, harder moves? I think that is what was missing from Sabra’s solo. Not that she has anything to worry about, after that duet with Neil…but in terms of sheer technique, she outdanced Sabra in my opinion.

Oy. Mary Screamed. Damn. I guess it would just be too much to ask her not to.

Neil’s Solo: Nice. Good strong lines, and his high kicks I think are going to beat out Pasha’s "macking" expressions.

Lacey’s Solo: Um. Sex sells. She realizes this. And knows how to make it work. I really didn’t see much technique here – just a lot of booty shaking. Then again, as I said, I just had a fight with my girlfriend, so perhaps I’m just a little jaded.

Danny’s Solo: Hey, somebody actually told Danny that he needs to connect to the audience. It was a little much that he did it by stopping and smiling directly into the camera…but still, that arabesque out of the (thankfully few) perfect pirouettes? He really did a great job.

So, I’ve not been doing well with predictions…but I think that Lauren will go down, as well as Pasha. Neil was the surprise tonight; he seemed to grow years experience-wise in the past week.

Results show on Monday! See you all then!

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