With a super chop from 14 down to 10 this week, we find ourselves halfway through the SYTYCD Finals. Is the season all we expected and all it could be?
By Owen Panettieri (playwright, lyricist)
Just as I was thinking earlier tonight that with 14 dancers left, we had so many weeks still left in the competition, So You Think You Can Dance responded by saying, "GOTCHA!" and ditching four dancers tonight. So we jump straight to the Top 10! My heart sank a little bit when Cat announced the news. Up until this point, I was perfect on my previous Top 10 predictions. Every one of my pics had been safe and performing well, But getting rid of 4 dancers at once meant that I was likely to lose someone I really enjoyed. And that's what happened on both Team Stage and Team Street this week. The lovely Yorelis from Team Street and my dark horse Ariana from Team Stage are out of the running, having fallen into danger for only the first time this week. If it was a single elimination week, they both would've been safe to fight and dance another day, considering Ariana and Kate had been in the bottom multiple times and were likely at the end of their journey. Ah well. Can't win 'em all! 8 out of 10 ain't bad.
The 14 to 10 cut was just the latest in a few surprises that I've experienced in the revamped Stage Vs. Street season. Here are a few others.
1. I enjoy it just the same! SYTYCD is a shining example of the phrase, "The more things change. The more they stay the same. "Yes, they change the set, and the rules and the judging panel, and the voting mechanism, and the elimination process, and they basically killed off ballroom from the show, but you know what? There's always at least one dance per episode where I'm like, "Wow. That's amazing." There will always be an amazing technical dancer who, "doesn't connect." There will always be a pretty boy who's not that great, but gets put through because of his "personality." There will always be one female dancer who is incredible week after week and she's always in danger because for some reason no one at home votes for her despite having the support of the judges. These roles must always be filled, so the show feels familiar no matter what. As long as Cat Deely is hosting, they can change whatever they want and I'll still tune in and I'll see something beautiful and enjoy myself.
2. It's not really Stage vs. Street. It's Stage vs. Stage and Street vs. Street. If the show gets picked up for another season (here's hoping!) and they bring back the Stage vs. Street format, they could make it make a little more sense. I mean, the teams are literally not competing against each other at all. They dance with members from the "opposing team" and then face off against their own teammates when it comes to elimination. So what's the real team competition going on here? I really like that the eliminations are not gender-based this season (although we happened to wind up with an even number of men and women in the top 10 that was a result of 4 women getting sent home by the votes this week. Before that they were dominating.) I just think there should be more weight to being on a team. Each week Cat tells Team Captains tWitch and Travis which team got the most overall votes, but it's just a fun fact. It doesn't give the team any real advantage. Maybe they could work that into the equation so your own teammates aren't also just your main competition.
3. Two is a Magic Number. The first few rounds of competition featured a lot of small group dances instead of just pairs. This was an interesting experiment but not incredibly successful. It's not that it's too distracting to watch 3 or 4 people dancing together on stage. I believe it's harder for the dancers to make a strong connection to each other in a larger group. When you're partner dancing you can focus all your attention on one person, but in the groups you're constantly switching focus and it's just not as deep a bond between the dancers. The show seemed to realize it was missing some of the magic of pairs after the first two weeks and went back to partners the last two weeks with improved results. Let's stick to pairs when the All-Stars show up to partner next week, please!
So how'd my predictions actually go?
TEAM STAGE
1. GABY DIAZ, 19 (Tap)
2. JIM NOWAKOWSKI, 26 (Ballet)
3. EDSON JUAREZ 24 (Contemporary)
4. HAILEE PAYNE, 20 (Jazz)
5. ALEXIA MEYER, 19 (Jazz)
5.DEREK PIQUETTE 18 (Contemporary)
TEAM STREET
1. JAJA VANKOVA, 23 (Krump)
2. VIRGIL GADSON, 28 (Hip Hop)
3. YORELIS APOLINARIO, 19 (Freestyle)
4. EDDIE "NEPTUNE" ESKRIDGE, 25 (Freestyle)
5. JESSICA "JJ" RABONE, 29 (Freestyle)
3. MEGZ ALFONZO, 29 (Hip Hop)
Derek is a surprise to me, since he didn't perform last week due to injury and was saved by the twitter vote TWICE after that. It's not like the judges are just passing him through. He's a cute kid and he has great contempo technique and there is a voting block out there for that. On Team Street, I underestimated Megz. I pretty much knew two weeks ago she was a lock for top 10, but I thought she might bump JJ or Neptune out of the Final 5, instead of Yorelis. Team Street is OLD, y'all The average age of the Team Street Top 5 is almost 27 years old. By comparison, Team Stage's average age is only 21. I like to see the older dancers on Team Street having success.
This is a very impressive Top 10. I can't wait to see what they do with All-Stars next week. I think the best is yet to come. That's a feeling about So You Think You Can Dance that never comes as a surprise and one thing that I hope never changes.
OWEN PANETTIERI is the author of the awarding-winning plays Vestments of the Gods and The Timing of a Day. Member of Playwrights Gallery in NYC. Hi thinks Piggy should've broken up with Kermit long ago. www.owenpanettieri.com
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