<p>churchmusicmom, I agree with everything you said.</p>
<p>Some of my favorite performances have been choreographed by Mia Michaels. This week was not so great, though. And I don’t think Billy Bell was selected #11, it was just scripted that way. I’m thinking the add was probably Kent Boyd because the producers saw him as a popular draw.</p>
<p>Regarding Mia Michaels, I can believe that at times she can be a very caring instructor and dancer, but SYTYCD is basically a dance competition with a national audience. Each contestant/dancer has a finite number of chances to demonstrate to the judges and voting audience why he/she should win. </p>
<p>IMO, Mias choreography is solely about Mia …what she feels and what she wants to express -as demonstrated by that esoteric dance she choreographed for Alex and Billy in the last show. Now, contrast Mias dance with the intro number choreographed by Wade and Mandy Robson - their dance was designed to showcase the phenomenal talent on stage. Which is why I watch SYTYCD. :)</p>
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That is precisely why I think her choreography is so good. She usually does a fantastic job of using her choreography as a means of expression, which is what I think the art of dance is all about. And of course everyone will perceive each dance differently.
Personally, I am most “comfortable” watching conventional choreography where dancers dance “together” at times, changing formations, etc. I love musical theatre dance numbers, for example. But I have also grown to love dance that can be more “challenging” to watch, such as the piece by Mia shown last week where the three dancers did not dance “together” in the conventional sense, and yet their movement definitely was connected through the music and the idea behind the piece (of differing stages in one life). I absolutely think it did showcase those dancers’ ability to interpret subtle qualities of movement and emotion. </p>
<p>But dance is, after all, an art form and not a sport where you can objectify “winners” and “losers” by some sort of score. It’s a matter of opinion and visceral reaction to the dances presented and is why the show is about “America’s FAVORITE Dancer” and not “America’s BEST Dancer”. There would be no way to determine that!!</p>
<p>I just love watching dance!!! In almost any form.</p>
<p>Just wanted to clarify that I don’t have issues with Mia Michaels as a choreographer–though I do think her work can be rather overwrought at times–and I have no clue what kind of instructor she is; I just don’t like her as a judge. Her frequent overly emotional reactions to the performances turn the attention from the contestants to herself; it becomes more about Mia’s feelings rather than the dancer’s skill. And the mean streak she can show to dancers she doesn’t care for is simply unprofessional. I saw the same characteristics in Adam Shankman his first year judging, but he’s improved.</p>
<p>Can you tell the show is my summer guilty pleasure?</p>
<p>I think the new format is an attempt to level the playing field for the contestants. In the past, some weaker dancers were pulled along by a strong partner and conversely, some strong dancers were lost because of weak partners. I am also withholding judgement for several weeks. </p>
<p>I am threatening to cut our cable & DVR this summer because my kids spend too much time in front of it & the computer. SYTYCD will be the only thing I will miss if we do!</p>
<p>There are ways to watch SYTYCD on line (full episodes) even if you don’t have tv reception via cable or otherwise. My d. has watched during her travels all over the world-- generally there’s a couple of days delay between when the program is broadcast and when she is able to get it. I don’t know what service she uses to access the episodes, but I think if you Google you will find several options. (This goes for other television programs as well).</p>
<p>My favorite show has a thread here? Yippee!</p>
<p>Danny IS working this summer, he’s touring Europe with Rasta Thomas’ Bad Boys of Dance, so though I agree it’s not an All Stars w/o him, he’s working and doing what he loves. :)</p>
<p>I get the dislike of Mia, but I have to say she is one of my d’s favorite master teachers, d’s experienced Mia both in convention format and in-house intensives. She’s tough, but she gets the kids to do things and feel things in dance that they never expected that they could. I’m not a fan of her viciousness towards dancers like Brandon and Jessica, but often her judging is spot on, I definitely prefer her choreography over her judging.</p>
<p>I’m looking forward to Mary’s choreography, many of my all-time favorite ballroom and Latin numbers from the show were her’s. I was getting really tired of the hollering and the hot tamale train.</p>
<p>Really disappointed that that marvelous blond ballroom champion was cut in Vegas again as well as Giselle Peacock (Artem’s ex-wife), along with Ryan Ramirez and Anthony Burelle. The inclusion of Billy Bell w/o a female counterpart seems really unfair to me too!</p>
<p>Thanks for the info about Ida. I had read that article in the Dallas Morning News when it ran, but I didn’t connect the names. Isn’t Kent going to NYU in the fall, also?</p>
<p>This is a big fav for my DD and me. We only watch in the summer when she isn’t in high school. Agree the format last show was weird and didn’t work. Hope they are done with that.</p>
<p>Regarding Mia - we love her, think she’s just brilliant, really lifts dance to a serious and often profound art form. Just about everything she does is fascinating.</p>
<p>We don’t have clear favorites yet this season. They are all extremely athletic. All appealing. We were surprised when Burrell was cut but kind of felt as if he over did the complaining on his leg injury at Vegas. His last costume, the one piece red unitard with really short pants legs fully displayed the bandaging on his thigh. It was a little too much. They may have felt he was going to be a bit too high maintenance.</p>
<p>Does anyone really believe the hip hop dancer from Miami has never had formal dance training? Love his performances but just having trouble believing he’s never had some serious training.</p>
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<p>Do you remember Joshua Allen, the Season 4 winner? All season, he was billed as having no formal training, but he was a local guy and everyone around here knew at what studios he had danced. (The Wikepedia article says that he has “since clarfied” the issue about the dance training.) </p>
<p>Maybe they consider a dancer as having “no formal dance training” if they’ve only taken dance at the local dance studio in the strip mall, rather than at a “serious” studio.</p>
<p>Josh had also been doing Debbie Allen’s summer programs both in Dallas and LA for years. Season 4 and season 6 have been the most disappointing for me. I loved Will, and was very disappointed when he went out Top 8.</p>
<p>Regarding this season’s b-boy, we’ll have to wait and see, information seems to seep out as the season goes along.</p>
<p>I have to agree with everyone else that D and I do not like the format of the show this summer. With that said there are some fantastic dancers and I can’t wait to see how they do with the different styles of dance.</p>
<p>D and I hope to get tickets this summer to see the show in person!</p>
<p>It is a very nice mother-daughter TV show. But what makes us laugh is when son was home briefly from college he actually watched one of the on-the-road audition shows. This is a boy whose idea of culture is ESPN. He was impressed by the athleticism and the gorgeous girls, of course.</p>
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<p>Son will occasionally get involved in these shows to his embarrassment. He was very invested in Heather when she was on *America’s Next Top Model *because they both have Asperger’s. He became interested in *Project Runway *this season because Seth’s designs looked like they were straight out of anime.</p>
<p>I enjoyed the first live show of the new season, even though I kind of miss seeing the dancers getting to know each other in their partnerships. All in all, though, i think with the “Allstars” partnering the contestants, the quality level of dance presented was enhanced.</p>
<p>And didn’t ya’ll think Mia was nice?? :)</p>
<p>I loved the african jazz, but I thought last season’s was better. (However, I am a little biased because I know Noelle Marsh from high school 
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<p>My absolute favorites were Alex Wong (breathtaking!) and Kent (absolutely adorable).</p>
<p>I thought the dancing and the choreography were great–especially for the first show of the season. I think I’m going to miss watching the partnerships develop during the season. I guess the contestants will dance with a new all-star each week?</p>
<p>Was anyone else bothered by the camera work? I thought it was awful. They try to get creative and you end up not being able to see the dance clearly enough (if that makes sense).</p>
<p>The camera work almost always annoys me on that show for those exact reasons. Particularly in the beginning of the show as they were introducing the contestants, some never even were shown! </p>
<p>But it WAS done live, which is a new and different thing for this show. In past seasons, the “performance” show was taped on monday and the results show was the actual live one.</p>
<p>Wow. I didn’t know that. I thought both performance and results shows were always live. </p>
<p>I hope they learned from their mistakes. I couldn’t believe that they missed the introductions of some of the contestants! </p>
<p>It seemed like they were using more of the longer shots than usual, too. I kept wanting to scream, “Close-up, please. I want to see exactly what they’re doing!” LOL.</p>