Tuesday, June 10, 2008

So You Think You Can Dance Top 20 -- Bring. It. On.

Finally!

After weeks of horribly bad auditions, we've finally arrived at the live performance phase of So You Think You Can Dance, and I couldn't be happier. Remember the Top 20 week last year? Kameron and Lacey's contemporary dance to Mia Michaels' choreography? Ooh, I got goosebumps just thinking about it!

(Click here to view a video of that sensational performance).

(And click here to view my list of the Top 12 SYTYCD performances of all time.)

Excited as I am for tomorrow night's show, I do have a confession -- no one has blown me away so far. Sure, there's some talented folks, but I'd be hard pressed to name one or two folks that I think will really knock it out of the park week-after-week. The reason for this, I'd argue, is that the producers have spent so much time giving backstory and showing us contestants who did not end up making the Top 20 cut that they've robbed us the chance to get to know the real contenders. I mean, the two dancers I felt most strongly about (Kelly Baker, the daughter of Bonnie Story, and Gene Kelly-esque Evan) are already gone!

Instead of lamenting that fact further, however, I'm going to choose to be positive, and look forward to being surprised by the level of talent this year's show has in store for us. I feel like I'm coming in with a clean slate -- and I'm ready to be impressed!

How about you -- are you excited about tomorrow's show? Do you have a favorite picked out already? Lemme know!

2 comments:

Spenc said...

I'm totally with you on this! I feel like they really screwed the pooch this season -- there isn't a single stand-out for me (except maybe the Debbie Allan prodigy, but he seems like an ass...)

Anonymous said...

I must respectfully disagree that they spent less time this year on highliting the Top 20 dancers in the audition/Vegas episodes. This year, only Jamie Bayard & Marquis Cunningham for the guys, and Rayven Armijo & Chelsea Traile for the girls go into the first week as complete unknowns to us. Of course Chris Jarosz & Jessica King only got a little facetime in Vegas at the final 20 cutdowns. But compare that to last year when Sabra, Jaimie, Shauna, Kameron, Neil & Jimmy were complete unknowns going into week #1 of the competition, and Ashlee, Sara, Danny & Cedric had only been given some facetime in Vegas at the final 20 cutdowns. That's 50% of last years Top 20 who were not well known going into week #1. I may not have agreed with all the judges final cuts, but I do give the producers "props" for improving on focusing on the Top 20 dancers in this year's auditions & Vegas week episodes.