<p>That last dance with the guys was indeed pretty bad.</p>
<p>The statue dance from week one with Melanie and Marko just took my breath away. Melanie has always been my favorite though I would be okay with Sasha.</p>
<p>I voted online only for Melanie…a bunch of times.</p>
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<p>I can’t believe that was the last dance of the finale. Bad bad bad. The dances over all were not finale worthy. The only dance of the whole season I want to watch again was the statue dance. Last season I could name LOTS of the dance and couldn’t wait to see them on tour.</p>
<p>[The third party ticket agencies (e.g. legal scalpers) have bought up all the decent seats. I hope they lose their shirts.]</p>
<p>I really feel sorry for each dancer, hoping for the break through, memorable dance that would make everyone get up and call.</p>
<p>Bring on new choreographers next season!!! I can’t fault the dancers.</p>
<p>Mark Ballas was horrible as a choreographer. He did a great cha cha with shawn johnson, but ever since this season of DWTS he thinks “hip choreo” is better than actually following the roots of the dance. He shares part of the blame. I never connected to Sasha. Her emotions don’t hit me right. They’re almost too full-on to appreciate. There is no filter separating her real life and her dancing character emotionally. Tadd had two dances that just utterly bombed… yet I get the sinking feeling he’ll do better than we think… ugh…</p>
<p>I’m torn between disco and stepping as the worst dance of the night. Both were awful. Melanie has been pretty bad outside her genre (and I consider a “waltz” that is mostly lifts to fit well within her wheelhouse) and the disco really put the icing on the cake. But I never expected Tadd and Marko to do such a terrible job with stepping either. No idea why Mary thought this routine was at all good. </p>
<p>Really a terrible final performance show overall. And Katie Holmes seems to have had a lobotomy that resulted in her reinforcing every possible stereotype about Scientology zombies. Just ick.</p>
<p>idk the disco seemed fun. Of course I’ve never seen a sytycd disco before as I started watching this season. Melanie wasn’t “bad” in any of the genres, but none of her routines tonight besides her solo were even close to her best. I personally like her hip hop for some reason. (not the lyrical one)</p>
<p>Sasha’s cha cha with Tadd was painful to watch. Melanie’s disco with Marko wasn’t much better, but at least it happened early on. Marko and Tadd’s stepping routine looked more like a high school talent competition. I hit the mute button every time Katie Holmes spoke. Melanie probably wins by default. </p>
<p>You know tonight’s show was a dog with fleas when the highlight of the evening was the baby in the Huggies diaper commercial.</p>
<p>What a dissapointing finale. I don’t remember there ever being such a bad one in the past. I haven’t been able to get really invested in any of the dancers this season, but I certainly expected better than tonight.</p>
<p>omg, all- I missed tonight’s show due to air travel…
Sounds like tonight was a real bomb- your comments helped me feel good about not being able to watch… but I am feeling sad about how the show seems to be losing its oomph this season.</p>
<p>What is happening with SYTYCD this summer?
My read:
a. poor choreography (much weaker than previous seasons)
b. strange dance type selections and order (amplified below)
c. not enough soul and edge and pathos in the male dancers this season
d. too many tricks and not enough genuine use of each style
e. useless judging from most of the guests (too close to AI for comfort!!)
f. yucky costumes: too cheesy or not flattering or not appropriate for really judging how the dancers move (not true in past seasons- is there a new dresser? more like my un-favorite show DWTS, unfortunately…)</p>
<p>I sooo hope this show gets back on track with its momentum and strong dancing and super choreography- the dance world needs good PR and exposure to the public. Right now I am not just disappointed, but worried. I hope Nigel Lythgoe gets the message. I wonder how ratings have been this season.</p>
<p>Frankly, while I like Sasha and Melanie plenty, they did not dance much out of their comfort zones at all till now- not a good thing IMO. There should be a fair way to get ALL the dancers to do things out of their lanes early on.</p>
<p>My suspicion is that the producers worry about losing the audience’s interest- so they do not have all the dancers dance the same style or same dance in a row- would be too boring. So they provide variety and draw the dances out of a hat (or they used to).
I think they also worry about every dance being a bust, so they do want some to be in their comfort zone each night.
But it really stacks the cards for some and against others, and can lead to an inaccurate sense of the breadth of the talent of each dancer.</p>
<p>I am bummed.
What can we say about a show like this if we really do not care who wins??</p>
<p>missypie-
Thanks for the link to the NYTimes article- very interesting!</p>
<p>P.s. kudos to whoever said that Melanie should be given a movie role- IMO she can really act and has charisma, and fills the stage and screen.</p>
<p>It’s a shame that the show is limping to the end, because at the beginning, I thought it was going to be the best season ever. The raw talent of the top 20 was amazing, especially the girls.</p>
<p>One thing that made me lose interest was that the choreographers just could not seem to get away from romantic storylines. There are so many other things that can be done with a boy-girl pairing, almost all of which are more interesting than the obvious variations on a love story. I hope they’ll use a little more imagination next year.</p>
<p>I also hope they’ll stop inviting guest judges who don’t know the first thing about dance. Katie Holmes was ridiculous.</p>
<p>I have no dance background–am just a basic viewer enjoying the entertainment (and supporting our hometown favorite). Would the producers be aiming to please the lay viewers, the knowedgeable dance specialist viewers, or both? If the last, is it possible to successfully bridge that?</p>
<p>I think they are playing more to the total lay audience with all the lifts. The folks on this thread have even pointed out that they’re not appropriate in ballroom. Seems like maybe there should be a trick and/or lift limit. Every dancer gets x a night or x a dance, to make it fair. </p>
<p>It seems like they didn’t do well by the target audience this season. My younger D is the perfect demographic…15 year old girl, with some dance background. She complained about the dances this year.</p>
<p>Where was the male power, the sex appeal? I looked at Jakob Karr’s webpage yesterday. He is a guy who is small in stature and build and I’m pretty sure is gay, but man, could he smoulder. I remember a muscular African American guy last season or the one before. Did this very very sensual dance…OMG…then gave a little finger wave leaving the stage…again, was able to turn on the masculinity when needed. This year’s guys were just cute. Or was it the choreography? </p>
<p>As for the step dance…I bet that both Mary and Nigel thought that it was very bad, but didn’t want to be criticising the dancers as the last thing. I did wonder why Nigel felt it necessary to tell the guys that he thought one of the girls would win. Was that supposed to rally their troops? Seems mean to me.</p>
<p>If Katie Holmes said “amazing” one more time, I was going to throw something at the TV. She added absolutely nothing.</p>
<p>Watching the male all-stars, it was so obvious how lacking this year’s group of male dancers were. Why did the choreographer put so many lifts into that disco routine? It just highlighted how the male dancers couldn’t handle that.</p>
<p>I like Melanie, but wouldn’t be surprised if Sasha wins.</p>
<p>I haven’t watched the show very much this season but I always enjoy the finale shows so tuned in. I have to agree with all of you that it was a disappointment and not a very entertaining show at all. One of my Ds who was watching with me said that the only thing that could have made it worse was if Rebecca Black showed up to perform. Apparently, she was busy over at America’s Got Talent (does it? ;)) so that didn’t happen.</p>
<p>DD was gone this summer so we DVR’d the season and are now glutting ourselves with the recorded shows. Are down to the top six. Loved Lady Gaga, thought she was really insightful and appreciated that she was not afraid to call out some really bad choreography. What is going on with Tabitha and Napoleon? </p>
<p>Our favorite alternates between Melanish and Sasha – would be at peace with either of these magnificent dancers winning.</p>
<p>Katie Holmes was the worst celebrity judge of the season, which is saying a lot. She refused to say anything remotely critical – or helpful – to anyone, so why was she “judging?” And why do they need four judges in the first place? I think Mary Murphy, Nigel and one other person is plenty. Actually more than plenty, when all they’re doing is repeating themselves.</p>
<p>We needed to swap the cable box Tuesday and the replacement freaking Comcast gave us didn’t have a DVR and doesn’t work, so we can’t use our large screen TV! I watched the last hour of the show on the 18" kitchen TV and was unimpressed. (turned it on just in time for the scathing remarks on Sasha & Tadd’s hot mess - missed the dance, however). </p>
<p>I keep trying to put my finger on why the show was so weak this year and keep coming back that it was too choreographed (the show, not the dances). I used to love when the top 12 would randomly pick partners’ names & genres out of the hat. This season it seemed that all we got was contemporary and some other stuff randomly thrown in. The true test of the excellent dancers in the past was being able to perform styles that were not your own, especially ballroom.</p>
<p>The stepping routine was an obvious move by producers to make sure the Melanie v sasha ending happens. Made even more obvious by nigels comment that a girl would take it. He has probably also seen the voting distribution. </p>
<p>Sent from my LG-P509 using CC App</p>
<p>I was surprised by the routines in last night’s finale too! They were, with the exception of a couple being mediocre, horrible. Why not have the top four dance TWO good routines instead of spreading themselves too thin dancing 4 routines and a solo. Why not have them dance in their own styles to show what they do best? How about repeating their two best routines of the season? </p>
<p>This is one of my favorite shows and between the ridiculous camera work, over-the-top or irrelevant (celebrity) judging, and lackluster choreography this year, I’d be surprised if they gain any new viewers. They may lose some of us who have been watching since season 1.</p>
<p>Katie Holmes seems to be trying to get back to being someone other than Mrs Tom Cruise, not very successfully. When I was home in England this summer they aired the Kennedy series in which she played Jackie O. I had always been curious why the history channel over here refused to show it after having commissioned it. Soon found out - it was dreadful and she was outstandingly dreadful - we watched 2 episodes (because they were on one after the other) and gave up on it - it was panned by the critics. </p>
<p>Agree the guest judges as a whole were a waste of time. </p>
<p>When I think back to come of the previous seasons, I just can’t get over how poor overall this season was. The first dance was terrible - couldn’t figure out if it was poor choreography, the male couldn’t do the lifts, or what. Couldn’t imagine Melanie or that partner even making it to the final 20 based on that performance. And the rest of the night was not much better.</p>
<p>I haven’t voted once this season. Whoever wins will not be a worthy champion compared to previous years. First time I have really not cared (usually my favorite doesn’t win - I think Joshua was the only one as far as I recall - but at least I cared!).</p>