<p>Anyone watch tonight’s 2-hour opening show?</p>
<p>So happy one of my favorites is back! (Hoping that another Danny Tidwell will capture my heart–no one’s ever come close since Season 3). I caught part of the debut, but was cooking at the same time, so just saw snippets of the dancing. The only one who left an impression was the hyper little blonde who I can see annoying me for many weeks. I was glad to see Mary is back as a judge–I think she gives the most insightful and useful critiques during the actual competition (when not screaming, that is). I also adore Cat Deeley, who is the best host in reality TV.</p>
<p>jshain, you are our Competition Reality show Pied Piper :).</p>
<p>What, though? No Top Chef threads? Will you do Project Runway when it comes around? I heard there will be an All-Star version as well this fall, plus a new Project Runway Accessories (or some such title).</p>
<p>Arghhh - another dance show!</p>
<p>Momma, I also really admire Cat Deeley. She is a real pro. For me the judge I like the best is Adam Shankman, when he’s actually judging that is. I respect Mary Murphy’s knowledge of dance, but absolutely detest that scream of hers. I think it really detracts from the show. If I had to pick my favorite aspect of this particular show, it would be the quality of all the guest choreographers each week. My two favorite dancers of all time on SYTYCD would have to be Benjy (the brother of Lacy Schwimmer of Dancing With The Stars), the winner in season 1, and Travis (not sure of season- maybe season 2?), who is now one of the guest choreographers. I also like Twitch, from one of the more recent seasons in the last few years.</p>
<p>jmmom, I’m intimidated to be offering advice to our college-bound kids with the likes of all of you, so this fluff-stuff, keeps me out of trouble!</p>
<p>Saw snippets–wow, when dancing is bad, it can be REALLY painful to watch, made all the more painful because you know that people have really opened up their souls to you. (I’m thinking of that guy who had a major crying jag after he performed…)</p>
<p>I thought the turf dancing segment was very interesting, from an anthropological view. It’s not quite up there with the Viennese Waltz…but who knows? Maybe someday we’ll all be talking about the Oakland Turf Dance.</p>
<p>Our family LOVES this show! I was so excited to watch again last night, and very pleased that there was so much great talent in Atlanta! Also, I am quite grateful that they did not seem to spend quite so much time on the “bad” dancers as they have in the past. That part makes me very uncomfortable.</p>
<p>The dancer who stood out for me was the very first girl they highlighted in the show…the brunette with very short hair from Atlanta. She took my breath away. It’s going to be a fabulous season!</p>
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<p>No no, this is the show with the good dancers.</p>
<p>I loved the brunette girl with the short hair (sorry, I don’t bother to learn names at this stage), and the last of the b-boys who looks like he might be able to do something besides b. OTOH, the wacky blonde – too many tricks, too little dance. And waaaayyyyy too much wacky.</p>
<p>MommaJ, after Mia’s disastrous season last year, I suppose I’m glad to see Mary back, or maybe not. Her critiques are substantive but I just cannot get past the screeching. Are these really the only two choices?</p>
<p>^^ You’re right - it’s better than that celebrity dance show once they get past the stupid stuff in the first shows with the people who can’t dance. My W seems to like these dancing/singing contest shows that are on every single night of the week!</p>
<p>True, if you’re not a fan of the talent genre, this is an especially tough week. We’ve had the finales of American Idol and *Dancing with the Stars<a href=“two%20nights%20each!”>/I</a>, the start of SYTYCD, some record-producer show starts next week, and The Voice is ongoing. I do feel sorry for men sometimes!</p>
<p>The NBA finals are revving up. :)</p>
<p>Mary Murphy had surgery for a cancerous throat tumor several months ago so she probably won’t be doing quite so much screeching this season, thank goodness! I’m happy to see her back. The ones I can’t stand are Tyce and Mia.</p>
<p>I do not have issues with Mia, but did miss her choreography terribly last season, so I hope she will be back in that rotation.</p>
<p>Tyce is another story. He is so incredibly full of himself! Admittedly, he is an amazing dancer and choreographer, so maybe that’s just the good with the bad…</p>
<p>If you want a really fun insight into Tyce’s psyche, take a look at the movie “Every Little Step” which is about casting the revival of “A Chorus Line” on Broadway. Tyce is one of the finalists for a major role, but looses out to someone else. His audition is just over the top (you can see the producers and choreographers shaking their heads). Any way, it’s a fantastic movie if you are a fan of dance/musical theatre at all. Or even if you are not.</p>
<p>Plus, my daughter is seen in it very briefly… :)</p>
<p>Cmm, did she have a call back?</p>
<p>It drove us crazy that SYTYCD showed so many tiny little snippets of dance and very few actual auditions. It seems like they were WAY generous with the Vegas tickets in Atlanta…some of those girls didn’t seem very good at all, but again, we saw such short snippets.</p>
<p>Alex Wong…will he return or won’t he?</p>
<p>
That’s pretty cool.</p>
<p>^That’s very cool, churchmusicmom! I just added it to my Netflix Queue.</p>
<p>She attended the huge open audition in NYC when she was in her first year of college. She stayed all day through many cuts and just LOVED it. They said they were keeping their resume’s, etc, but she never got a call back, which is just as well as she really did want to finish college. 
There were trailers for the movie early on which included her dancing, but in the final cut all you see is a brief scene where a person running the audition is telling a group of dancers that they will need character heels for the next portion of the audition… But you do see her face full-on! Her dad and I rented the movie on Netflix and he was really surprised…</p>
<p>Any way, it is pretty cool! She loved dancing for Bayork Lee all that day…little short lady that she is (my d is around 5’10"), who was constantly telling the dancers to get down and “eat nails!!”. My d was proud that she never personally got that particular correction. I do know that after that long day of dancing she was as sore (and happy) as she had ever been!</p>
<p>jshain-thx for starting up this thread! Now I will work harder to remember the names, etc. for an intelligent discussion. I missed the first few minutes. Loved the various street dancers, esp the one they sent straight to Vegas.Did notice that Mary’s voice sounded off. That should keep her from screaming…! </p>
<p>This show is not just a dance show, it is impressive athletically (check it out guys!) and artistically. </p>
<p>IMO SYTYCD has it right and AI has it mixed up: Cat as MC bonds with the performers so the judges can get down and dirty with the criticism. Ryan is not all that personal with the singers, and this year, the judges bonded way too much with them, so not enough critiquing…</p>
<p>I have watched every season of SYTYCD. I watched most of it this week. I don’t get the attraction of Dancing with the Stars. SYTYCD is so much better because these are real young people who love to dance and are striving for a big break. DWTS is not nearly as compelling for me.</p>
<p>Agreed PackMom! I don’t watch DWTHS ever. Who wants to see people dance badly? I wouldn’t want to watch Singing with the Accountants, so I’ve never understood the appeal of that show.</p>
<p>If you enjoy SYTYCD and live near one of the places they perform after the end of the season, by all means go–it’s a thrilling show.</p>
<p>I don’t like DWTS as much as I used to. SYTYCD is by far my favorite. But the appeal for me of DWTS is watching the progression of the contestants and living vicariously a bit. I cannot imagine anything more fun and exciting than getting to spend 5-6 hours a day working with one of those professional dancers and learning to dance like that!!! :)</p>
<p>And I agree: DO go to a tour show of the SYTYCD dancers. We went last fall and it was fantastic. LOUD, but fantastic. :)</p>