Thursday, June 9, 2011

SYTYCD S8: Meet the Top 20

Um, I cannot handle these two hour shows. Eesh. And they're just going to stay that way, I know, I know. But it's... just... so... much! They mixed things up this year. Rather than just have the whole episode be about the reveal of the top 20, they had the top 20 dance group numbers as they were announced throughout the episode. I suppose I like that better than how they've done it in the past, where we have a whole other episode devoted to just letting them dance in their own styles. By that point we're all just like - on to the competition already!

Recap/Review of So You Think You Can Dance - Season 8 - Meet the Top 20 by freshfromthe.comWhat I found also very interesting about the top 20 reveal tonight was just how many dancers I swear we've seen not a peep of this entire time. At least six. I feel like that's a record. They usually have a few, and I always feel they're sort of at a disadvantage because of it, so maybe they tried to even the playing field? I barely know who half these people are! I guess it will be the luck of the draw for them all next week, because if you're an unknown and you get something you're terrible at? Be prepared to be dancing for your life.

Just who are these top 20 dancers? I'll go in the order they were revealed. These are going to be brief...

Ricky - One of the guys I don't remember ever seeing before tonight. I honestly barely remember what he looks like now.

Miranda - A contemporary girl we haven't seen up to this point. Halfway through the episode all I could recall was that she had dark hair.

Melanie - Yes! I know who this one is! She's the super cute and smiley quirky artsy girl. They seem to kind of be giving her the short shrift on footage since her audition, but hopefully she can continue to shine in the coming weeks.

Sasha - Yep, the older of the Mallory sisters made it through, which is the one I had a feeling would all along. Besides which, younger sister Natalia is only 18, she has some years left in her. I think Sasha's going to have a pretty big following already.

Chris - I knew this b-boy looked familiar. Apparently he was in this same position in the past. Though we didn't see a lot of him tonight, I thought he really stood out among the other hip hop style dancers.

Wadi - Wadi got a lot of footage in the Vegas week stuff, so it's no surprise that he made it, but he didn't really do much to stand out for me tonight. Then again, it's tough when we are pelted with so many people at once.

Tadd - I feel like we did see Tadd in the earlier audition rounds, but I can't be sure. I honestly don't have much to say about him yet.

Robert - The woo guy made it! I have to say, I love it when the hip hoppers embrace the silly side. He seems like a sillier version of Twitch, which is not a bad thing. Is he as good of a dancer as the others? Remains to be seen. But personality can take you quite a long way in this competition.

Iveta - The lone ballroom dancer to make it through this season, and it was her third time trying out. Admittedly, she's great at the ballroom dancing, but there's something about her that's not connecting with me. Am I alone?

Jess - The broadway dancer looks teeny tiny up against his competitors, but he's got a pretty big personality to fill the height difference. Something about him comes off as a little standoffish, though, so he's going to have to work on that to get people voting.

Nick - Okay, we'd seen nothing of this tapper before tonight, and he's already one of my favorites. Tappers haven't had the best of luck on this show in the past, hopefully Nick can break the mold.

Clarice - I think we saw like two seconds of this jazz girl in Vegas week. I remember next to nothing about her other than she was pretty. Go figure, pretty girls on this show!

Marko - Ah ha! The cute Asian was actually someone we'd seen before - the dude with the bullet in his arm! I feel like a dummy for forgetting that, but oh well. We all know I like Marko already, get over it.

Jordan - Okay, here's a girl I'm not so sure about. We've seen a lot of her over the course of the show so far, but I'm not sure that's going to guarantee votes at this stage. There's just something slightly fake about her that bugs me.

Missy - All I can remember about this girl is that she had super long hair and likes to be the sexy one. Moving on.

Caitlynn - Apparently one of Nigel's favorites, it's weird that we didn't see any of this girl before now.

Ashley - Is this girl the Zoe Saldana lookalike from one of the auditions, or someone else? I'm being a lazy bum by not checking for myself, but whatever. She kind of blended into the crowd for me this week.

Mitchell - I.. don't remember Mitchell. Um. He had a boxing glove shirt on?

Alexander - Another contemporary guy. These guys are really going to have to wow to gain some traction.

Ryan - Oh Ryan. I know she's a good dancer, but there's still just something about her that rubs me the wrong way. But when she was one of the last two girl dancers, and the other girl looked exactly like her, it would've been super weird for the other girl to make it after all the focus on Ryan.

To be perfectly honest, everyone danced fine tonight. But they were all in their comfort zones. It's once they get pushed outside of them that the magic can start to happen, and that some people seriously crash and burn. Plus we usually get to see some amazing chemistry crop up. Who are the couples going to be?!

We'll find out next week!

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2 comments:

  1. Zoe was featured briefly in her initial try out where she went straight to vegas. Tyce said she danced like a gazelle. She had a bio where she said she loved dance and could never see herself in an office building type job.

    Last night definitely left me falling back in like with tihs show after a shabby last season. Honestly, no season has come close to season 4 for me so maybe these can do it!

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  2. Yes I remember that, I just couldn't tell if it was the same girl.

    I hope this season is a step up, because I agree, last season was really lacking.

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