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

Did I say Mark is dorky?

He could dance with these guys.


Travis And Benji SYTYCD - The best video clips are here

Thanks to the sadly defunct BSYTYCD for the link.

SYTYCD: Episode 426 Results Poll and Open Thread

And welcome to all BSYTYCD refugees. Please make yourselves at home.

SYTYCD: Episode 425 Open Thread

As far as I can tell, FOF thinks Chelsie is safe because she's the sexiest of the remaining women, and Katee's going home because she's not as hot as Courtney, but Mark will continue to get the BFF vote, while Joshua gets the anatomy vote, and Twitch loses out and toddles off with Katee.

No. That is not what's going to happen. FOF is out of his mind. Katee is not going home. How could Katee and Will both go home before the top 4? In the whole competition, can you imagine any other pair being able to pull of a pas de deux?
No, you can't.

Twitch is not going home, either, because he'll get the pity vote for his loss of composure last week.

My prediction: Mark is done, and so is Courtney.

If I'm wrong and FOF is right I hereby vow to slog blog my way through the upcoming SYTYCD Canada, provided FOF can come up with a suitable counter-wager.

Pissed-off Fan of the Week: From the Extreme to the Banal

Still in a state of disbelief over the elimination of Will, Stuph from Steph is considering a boycott.

Banal Fan of the Week eats breakfast while catching us up on the shocking events of the Results show. Or what he can remember of them.

UPDATE: I have no idea what TWOP is, but this site deserves special mention for SYTYCD I'm-not-sure-what of the Week.

Was Will Just Too Good for America?

FOF is wrong. It’s not that Mark’s girlfriends wannabe-BFFs were sticking up for him—it’s that people love underdogs, and Mark was in the bottom two the week before, so he got the rebound vote last week, just like Comfort got the rebound vote that kept her in it while Kherington went home.

My theory: Will went home because he was the best dancer. Doesn’t it make sense? If you’ve watched a few seasons of Survivor you know that eliminating the strong competition is a good strategy. People in general like to bring the top dog down, and boost the underdog up. Will had great technical skills, and he was a great partner. He was cool, charming, and classy. In short, Will was the best contender. That’s why America didn’t vote for him. As Nigel said during last Thursday’s results show: “Sometimes they’re so good, that America thinks, ‘I needn’t vote for them, I’ll vote for someone else.’”

Maddie and Janet think Will was overconfident (near the end).

Was Will overconfident? I don't think so. I think he was just that good.

FOF also seems to think it’s all about voting for sex, but if that were true, Will would still be in the top six, and one of the other guys would have gone home instead. Because Joshua? maybe when I was sixteen. No—not even then. It’s funny how guys can never figure out what women find attractive about other guys. Some of us think dorky guys are hot.

UPDATE: Maybe FOF is right, after all. SueB says that while she recognized Will's skills, she was just not that into him.

Voting For Mark

I just want to thank everyone who voted for Mark last week (for voting). I was voting for Mark too, and will be voting for him again, but not actually voting. So, I really do appreciate those of you who actually vote (for Mark).

Was it really a surprise that Mark didn't go home and that Will did? No, not to me, but yes, it was to my wife. Why? Well, the way I figure it, most any woman would pick Mark last among those final 4 guys to have sex with. So naturally she figures that's the way the votes will go. However, Joshua gets most all of the votes of the women who are voting purely on sex appeal (and that's most of the votes too) which levels the playing field for the rest of the guys who end up competing for the votes of the women who decide based on which guy they'd like to be "just friends" with. Mark is the easy favorite there. No risk of sexual tension whatsoever.

Of course Twitch is an affable sort. But here is where his sex appeal, while not overwhelming, ultimately works to Marks favor. That's why I predict that Mark is safe for another week (now that all of his girlfriends are sticking up for him) and Twitch, your time has come.

As for which of the girls is going home this week. Courtney, I'm sorry, but it has to be you. Or does it? You know, I think this is one of those times when the conventional wisdom is past its sell date. Courtney, I take it back. You are safe.

Katee, while no one expects it, I'm afraid your time is up. Yes, I'm going out on a limb, for sure, but I'm guessing that your fan base, while loyal, just isn't that big after all, and with Courtney's fans on notice (to vote), and Chelesie's fans voting for fear her weak-ass solos are putting her at risk every single week, I do believe an upset is about due. And an odd upset at that, since to be honest Katee, I'm really not sure what made you into such a sure thing in the first place.

SYTYCD Bitches!

SYTYCD: It's all so exciting

Mary: “Where’s Ashton?”

Will somebody please punk Mary? On second thought, it would hardly be worth it. How could the audience enjoy watching her predicament if the whole time her face never moved?

Comfort’s solo: Love!
Twitch and Katee: The Kiss! The Crazy! Nigel was funny! The judges’ excitement is so cool!
Enough with the choreographer worship!
Mark and Comfort Hip Hop: Personality! Amazing lift!
Katee’s solo: Ho hum!
Joshua and Katee Tango: Dmitri is soooo hot!
Mark’s the dorkiest dancer ever! Fun solo, though! Circles and circles – wheeee!
Twitch is a rock star!
Chelsie and Joshua: The Disco Queen and her footman!

Someone over on BSYTYCD said Will was throwing Courtney around. I thought so, too! Perhaps he was trying to be the man that Josh was for her? And I thought we were promised some Josh nudity. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, people?

Favorites of the night: Twitch, Comfort, Katee, Mark

I don’t want anyone to go home...

SYTYCD: Revealing Character

The longer they stay in the show, the more we see of the dancers as individuals, as people. The physical and emotional demands the show makes on them week after week effectively strips off layer after layer of the masks they hide behind until there’s nothing left between them and the audience.

It’s what we want: raw emotion, passion, vulnerability, nakedness. It’s hot. It’s what keeps us coming back.

We watch them practice and interact and perform, and we decide who we like best. As we see more of them as people, we start to make guesses about what they’re about, like, Gev has poor boundaries around women, and Comfort was probably bullied when she was a kid—by an older brother, maybe? And life will be good to Kherington, but for the wrong reasons.

Of course, there’s a selection process at work behind the scenes, too, in deciding what the audience sees, and what it doesn’t see. For instance, we saw Gev swooning over Courtney, and joking about how hot Chelsie is, complete with footage of him pouncing on her during practice. We saw Comfort pull away from her partners. We saw Kherington complain that the judges hate her.

We watch them in these clips, and we form opinions about them as people. I loved it last week when Mary Murphy said, "Dancing doesn’t build character, it just reveals it," but do the show’s editors help that revelation along by choosing what we see and what we don’t? Do they help the fans decide who they’ll vote for by showing the less-attractive traits of the contestants?

— — —

Two predictions for tonight: Mark’s close call last week will bring a flood of support his way tonight, and Joshua will be dancing without a lot of clothes on (they promised!).

And I’m not the only one with a conspiracy theory. Leeloo Dallas thinks s/he(?) knows what’s on for tonight.

BSYTYCD identifies a groundswell of support for Mark.

SYTYCD: Feeling the Top Ten

Gev: I’m ready to see him go home just for the way he drools all over his partners. Gev is one of those guys. You know—one who blithely ignores the fact that your body is not in close proximity to his because you can’t resist his manly hotness, but because the job demands it, and his using the opportunity to hump your leg doesn't make you want to take him back to your room, it just makes you feel squicked-out and too uptight to do your best work. I just know that at some point Chelsie and Courtney have exchanged a look that says, "Sister, I feel your pain.”

And did I hear it right—after the second dance between Gev and Chelsie, did Mary actually say, “It was respectful. It was respectful”? Because that would be a slip of the freudian variety.

Comfort (now I’m channeling Mia): “Comfort, you’ve been hurt, and now you won’t let anyone get close. Your fear stops the chemistry from catching fire. You’re emotionally unavailable, and we can all see it.” I'm a fan of Comfort, but I get the sense that she's doing her best not to feel it.

Will: I think we haven’t seen half of what he’s capable of, and I want him stick around long enough to show us.

Katee: Katee is the best dancer on the show. I’ll hate it when if the voters send her home ahead of a prettier dancer.

Mark: Yawn. Was having Kherington as a partner really that uninspiring? Dude was phoning it in. I was so not feeling it.

Kherington: Ouch. Looking like Sharon Stone might just keep her in it for another week, which is too bad, because Comfort is so much more fun to watch. Double plus unfeel.

Chelsie: She’s awesome, but I couldn’t stop cringing for her the whole time she was dancing with Gev. Please people, send him home.

Twitch: He’s got a lot of personality, and I have a wee crush on him, but he should go home soon (just not before Gev).

Courtney: She seems so much more comfortable with Joshua (“He’s such a man!") than she did with Gev. I feel Courtney, but it's a small feel.

Joshua: Break-out dazzler of the night. Wow. I thought his “It’s so much more than just dance” was over-the-top pandering cheese, but apparently he really is that sweet. I loved his face buried in Courtney’s hair. So, so hot. I am feeling Joshua. Nigel is, too. Nigel sez: “You were just so butch all the way through it, but a lot of women like that.” It’s true, Nigel, we do. That must have been awfully hard on you.

Most sublime comment of the night:

Mary: "Dancing doesn’t build character, it just reveals it."

Word.

SYTYCD: Compare the solos

From Season 2, Heidi:




Chelsie:

SYTYCD Episode 421 Top Ten Open Thread