I know we have some long-standing fans of the show here and was wondering what people thought of the new format that divides he dancers into “Street” and “Stage” groups and eliminates the “sending you to choreography” component. I have to admit I was getting dinner on the table at the start of the show, so I’m not sure I understand how this will all work–i.e., will both sets of dancers have to perform in all genres, and to the same extent? In any case, I was pretty disappointed in the new season. Jason Derulo and Paula Abdul have very little of value to say, and I’m missing Mary, who combined passion for dance with in-depth knowledge in a way no other judge did. After two hours, I felt like I’d seen very few dancers do their full routines and hadn’t even seen much of dear Cat Deeley. Having every dancer either go straight to Las Vegas or be sent home took away a lot of interest, as I always liked to see which “street” dancers could manage choreography.
I know the show has been circling the drain ratings-wise and made these changes out of a desire to save itself, but I fear the new format and judging may finish it off for good.
I missed the beginning, so I didn’t quite catch the explanation of the new format. I agree that the new judges don’t add anything. All Jason Derulo ever said was something very generic or a rewording of what Nigel or Paula said. I suspect this will be the last season of the show.
Additionally, there is a significant new twist, that will pit the “street” dancers against the “stage” dancers. Nigel explained to Yahoo TV how it will work!
No more choreography rounds in the individual audition cities. Either the dancers are sent to Vegas…or they go home.
Choreography rounds take place during the Vegas rounds, as usual. The stage and street groups will continue to dance in their genre until the Top 10.
Stage dance encompasses ballroom, tap, contemporary–styles that require formal training. Street dance breaks down into the different hip-hop genres, street salsa, street tap, street tango etc.
One stage and one street dancer will leave each week. Eliminations won’t be based on gender.
The finale will be two stage and two street dancers. Again, gender will not be a factor.
Travis Wall will mentor the stage dancers, tWitch the street side. Because of his new role, Travis won’t be choreographing competition performances this season.
At the Top 20, dancers won’t necessarily perform in pairs. There could be groups of three or four.
Not changing: The SYTYCD all star dancers will return to perform with the contestants at the Top 10.
How eliminations will work: It’s possible that voting will be done entirely via Twitter! The panel will choose the bottom 3 in each group, and America twitter saves one in each group. The judges choose the second. Too bad for you, west coast!
Why did they get rid of Mary?! I didn’t see any ballroom dancers. I get the format - how do you compare a trained dancer to a street dancer normally? It personally makes me shudder that street dancers tend to end up in the finals. Jason Derulo - what on earth does he know about dance? From last night I’d say nothing. Can he tell a sickled foot or straight leg in a turn vs bent? I saw some they sent through the Las Vegas in a quick clip and I wasn’t impressed.
I always liked the choreography round at the end, I was sorry to see it go. Nigel mentioned something that I agree with - the first round in LA could be a slaughter when people can’t pick up choreography.
It sounds like Travis Wall is a team leader and Twitch a team leader. I wonder if they’ll be learning all “legit” genres or if it’s just contemporary vs street.
I didn’t watch. Haven’t been able to take the show in a few seasons once all of the dancers figured out they had to have a backstory to get very far.
My problem with this new format though is that history tells us that very few of the SYTYCD untrained “street” dancers are really that. Many have come through the auditions talking about their lack of formal dance training when it ends up later on that they had, in fact, trained extensively (first and most famously we had Joshua with his brisee). I don’t care for any dancer who disassociates themselves from their previous training (and teachers) just to get on TV. It is a discredit to those who gave that training to you and this show (which claims to advocate dance training) encourages it.
With the dance community being what it is these days it never takes long to suss out all the lies and subterfuge in the name of this show. I know it makes it no different than any other reality show out there believe me. However, I do not like the influence a show like this has on young dancers watching out there in that they may think that training is not important if you want to make dance a career someday. In fact, training is most often the only way to get to a career. In the real world a sob story and a side aerial are not all that is required to get through audition cuts.
Read an article about this that basically said that Dancing with the stars puts lots of focus on ballroom and one other (can’t remember) and that this shifts allows SYTYCD to differentiate itself. The fact that this probably makes ballroom dancers outsiders in this new format may have had something to do with Mary Murphy leaving. One article noted that as ditzy as Paula Abdul can come off, that in the auditions (many that we don’t see) she gave excellent, point-on advice about dancers’ specific techniques and how they could improve. The other guy adds little IMO.
I’m not sure I’ll like this as much. The dances I really connected with were contemporary. There have always been a couple of “street” dancers real or imagined as noted above, but not half and frankly they often get by on the fact that they are fan favorites, not technically superior and often seem to get a pass by choreographers on difficulty.
Jason Derulo was a guest judge on another show - probably DWTS and was awful. So why he now on SYTYCD us beyond me. Paula was surprisingly boring and bland. Did she want to be there? Not a great first show.
I stopped watching several seasons ago when Nigel shamelessly stumped for an untrained dancer, who somehow ended up drawing hip hop every single week, but rode the trained dancers hell for leather. The whole thing started to seem underhanded. Was Mary Murphy let go, or did she just have enough?
Hadn’t watched until the LA auditions and was impressed overall. I probably won’t go back and see what I’ve missed even though I’ve taped them.
Two men in particular really stood out-- both ballet trained. The guy from Armenia now living in LA named Abo (?) and the Alex Wong equivalent with the Japanese last name and first name Jim (?). Apologies if I butchered both names but I didn’t feel like searching on the Internet.
Paula has already gotten on my nerves, after just one audition. I hate how she makes “ooh” and “aah” comments during a dancer’s audition. Very annoying, especially since they are NOT spoken softly.
Jim-the-ballet-dancer was fantastic, probably my favorite audition of the series.
When Nigel mentioned borrowing Jason Derulo’s word, “Dope,” all I could think was that poor Jason has so few, few words that it is a crime to borrow any of them. He’s in a race to the bottom with Redfoo. He’s also made a few very questionable comments. I’d much rather see Twitch as a judge.
I agree with Singersmom on both counts about Mary Murphy. The “hot tamale train” shriek was SO annoying. Last season she seemed to use it much more sparingly. I completely agree with you, that the show will suffer without her expertise in not only her ballroom specialty but all the others as well.
LA auditions:
I disagreed with Nigel’s decision regarding the girl involved in that horrific auto accident in which she was thrown out of a car on the freeway, but was glad to see the others vote her through. Not a huge fan of most back stories but that girl’s ordeal, the injuries that resulted (including her mangled/reconstructed leg), was nothing short of amazing.
Hated that segment with the girl and her father who was brought up on stage to dance while his D sat at the judging table.
Nigel is becoming more of a dirty old man as each season passes while Paula has ALWAYS had her eye out for young, fresh males going all the way back to her AI days.
Well I finally watched - from the treadmill at the gym. I typically skip the audition shows because what I love is the dancing, not the back stories. I do love seeing tWitch working with his group. He always seems kind.
I can tell that I will tire of Paula VERY quickly.
I enjoyed watching the 2nd Vegas show last night and agree with the decisions about who made the top 10 in each style. And I will say that the final group piece they showed—the “stage” piece with the variety of styles (ballet, jazz, tap, etc) was stunning. That one could be on the tour, IMO!
I am very interested, going forward, to see how I like this new format. Bring on the live shows!
I have lots of catching up to do and things to learn about this new format.
Does anyone else think a 50/50 split, stage to street, is unfair given all the stage styles of dance compared to street?
Will stage dancers and street dancers ONLY dance in their categories throughout? In previous seasons, I enjoyed seeing the dancers perform dances outside of their given specialty and would hope that doesn’t change.
The jury is still out with me on the new format. Im sorry but I just don’t prefer the street style knowing all that goes into training as a real working dancer. I could tell in the audition process the street side struggled with picking up choreography. I want to see well trained dancers compete, there had been no other show out there like it and it’s a shame to water it down.