SYTYCD Grand Finale Results Open Thread

This is it.

SYTYCD Fan(s) of the week: Are male dancers sissies?

Some years ago, there was a lot of publicity centered on eating disorders in ballet dancers, and from the number of comments by Nigel about the masculinity of the male dancers (and the comments on his comments), it seems that homophobia is huge issue in the dance community, too.

But is Nigel really a homophobe, or is he just responding to a homophobic audience, anticipating them, and demanding that the guys dancing for him conform to the stereotype of virile, "butch" men, rather than fey, "sissy" men? I was wishing for some gender-bending dances (or "post-gender", as a commenter I quote herein says), but it doesn't look like that's going to happen in the mainstream dance world any time soon.

Consider these comments at AfterElton
Dan McCallum:

I'm not sure either about who's gay, but what is up with Nigel and his homophobia???!!! Is anyone else as annoyed as I am by his constant need to heterosexualize everything? Ugh. In case he doesn't know, the majority of men in the dance world are gay, and the dance world doesn't care and is very accepting of it. Nigel seems to be the anomoly.

Guillermo Serritiello:

One thing that we so agree on is Nigel, but I've beat that dead horse too long. He keeps trying to correlate "gay" with "flamboyant" AND "weak," and says the same tired thing that some of these "types" are not strong enough to do some of the required lifts or play a traditional role. Lots holes in his sweeping generalizations esp. in a field that is opening more and more each day as I see people wanting to see something exotic, organic, and at times even post gender. It also ignored how some gays are so good at play acting.

And then there's Sean Cheesman, a choreographer from Calgary slated to be one of the guest judges for SYTYCD Canada this fall.

In the video, note Sean’s comments to dancers at 3:00

“Crying does not work in this business. Get strong, now”; “Tell your problems to Jesus, because I don’t care”

and at 3:35, when he himself is in tears

[I’m feeling] “emotional now, and it’s because…we all know growing up as a male dancer isn’t easy, and if anybody says male dancers are sissies, they need to watch you dance.”

Robert Murraine in IKEA ads

Did you guys in the US see these ads last night, or were they shown only in Canada?

Here's the whole brilliant sequence (I love the argyle sweater):



And here's the article from his appearance on Canada AM where he talks about why he declined a spot in the top 20.

SYTYCD: And the winner is...

According to our exhaustive review of several (3) polls, it's going to be Katee.

Our sidebar poll - Katee: 34% Joshua: 31%
Yesterday's poll - Katee: 56% Joshua: 22%
Afterelton's poll - Katee: 53% Joshua: 28%

So, I'm curious:



Let's see what they have to say over at the LA Times Live Chat.

Nigel Lythgoe: "The public often gets it wrong"; Josh and Twitch hospitalized for dehydration

The Montreal Gazette:

"From my point of view, the public often gets it wrong on this program and American Idol," Lythgoe, who is an executive producer on both shows, told reporters in Los Angeles recently. "But, at the end of the day, they sort of put things right."

Series host Cat Deeley gives credit for that to the bond that viewers develop with certain dancers.

"I think that dance is the narrative that runs through the show," Deeley said, "but I think it's the human element that people actually identify with. And they're very interested when people get really difficult dances or when they're really challenged."

E!Online:

[T]wo of the four finalists [...] were hospitalized over the weekend after collapsing during rehearsal.

Mary Murphy: "The kids are completely dehydrated—two of them. I’m sure they’re doing a lot of blood work to see if there’s anything else."

Sunday rehearsals were called off.

"[The girls] could not rehearse as well, and so hopefully everybody is going to be in the same boat," Murphy said. "Hopefully everybody will be refreshed by having a full day off."

SYTYCD: Top 4 Open Thread and Poll

So that's where they went: I found the BSYTYCD gang over on Levy on TV.

After tomorrow, we'll be moving over to SYTYCD Canada. If you're in Canada and you want to help out, drop us a line here:

SYTYCD: Mark is a sweetie!

See how Mark reacts when Cat reads the results and Twitch doubles over as he realizes he's going to the final four.

SYTYCD Fans of the Week: 4 Real

Kelly O:

Hello friends! We don't have any recording cap[a]bilities either so it was great to see the show again. My four children and I are so in love with Joshua and Katee. As I told Ted one time, two of my kiddos looks like Joshua and two look like Katee so they have become such wonderful role models for my children Our one son looks at Joshua and says, "Mom, I can do that too?" Absolutely.. God willing! […] our 7 year old...he sees Will, Josh and Twitch and says "wow"...someone who looks like me doing such cool dance! We live in a very homogeneous town so shows like this give him a window to what can happen when you dream and work hard! :-)

demondoll replies:

My 7 yr old son is in love with this show and the dances! And it's funny- we too live in a pretty homogenous town, so that he can look at Mark and think it's cool to dance... it's all kinds of wonderful.

From last week's Top 6 Performance Open Thread on BSYTYCD.

BSYTYCD Readers To FSYTYCD

BSYTYCD: BSYTYCD Going On Hiatus Open Thread