All the bottom 3 couples have been there more than once. None of them was a surprise. Kherington/Twitch escaped the “curse of the first” and were safe, I feel they are a popular couple. Once again I loved Matt’s solo, very well choreographed. I thought Chris and Comfort would be eliminated but it turned out to be Chris and Chelsea. So this was the first time they broke up a couple in 3 weeks.
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Performance wise this was the best week so far. I absolutely loved Chelsie/Mark’s Hip-pop routine choreographed by Napolean/Tabitha. Both were outstanding and the choreography was fantastic. They are a very strong couple and Adam said they were “the couple to beat”. My second favorite of the night was the Samba by Katee/Joshua. For a popper dancing Samba for the first time in his life, Joshua was surprisingly good. This is the first time I truly see why Mia said he would go to final 4, he is extremely versatile. Katee’s costume I personally felt was a bit too long for Samba. Had it been shorter it would have enhanced her hip action more. Luckily the vibrant choreography covered up a lot of ground for them.
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The right couple went home. Susie for being the weakest female and Marquis, whose solo demonstrated his technique but more importantly I felt it also showed his lack of ability to interpret and express the music. He piled up turns after turns without choreographing to the music. Nigel took the words out of my mouth when he said it was all “tricks” and was not what this show is about. His solo is like the polar opposite of Will’s solo, the latter was all about interpreting the music.
Of all the solos last night I liked Comfort’s the most. I also noticed something interesting, but not surprising: it’s been two weeks in a row that the first couple that danced on Wednesday landed in bottom three the next night. Let’s see if the trend continues.
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Overall I feel it’s a better night than last Wednesday. Here are some of my chaotic thoughts:
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It’s Martin Seligman again. I didn’t read every paragraph of the book, kind of picked and chose what I read. There are some interesting facts mentioned, such as a ranking of countries by how happy their citizens are (the happiest ones are not necessarily the most developed ones). China ranked fairly high. I bet that surprises lots of Americans.
A few points I’ve taken away from the book:
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Posted in Books
Tagged authentic happiness, Books, Martin Seligman, Positive Psychology
The show started with a Wade-Robson-style group dance that featured the kidnapping of Nigel Lythgoe. I got a chuckle out of it. The dance itself was okay, but the line Nigel delivered in the end was pretty good, “Let’s be kind to the dancers, they are evil!”. He also joked that this was Wade’s revenge for his criticism last year on the fox routine Wade choreographed for Lacey and Sabra. I for one really loved that number.
The only surprise in the bottom 3 couples was Jessica/Will. I was sure Gev/Courtney was going to be in there instead of them. Good thing is the judges pick who goes home out of the three, so I wasn’t too worried Will will get the boot. His solo reminded me of Danny, my favorite dancer from last season. It was unique and full of expressions.
Jamie’s solo was clearly the weakest of the three guys and his bad outfit didn’t help. It didn’t flatter his body at all. On the other hand I really liked Matt’s solo, very fluid. This was the first time I saw him dance solo. I hope Nigel, who does this to someone every season, would stop telling him he has no personality, because, guess what, everyone has a personality! Stop telling people in their face they don’t have personality. Just because they don’t appear outgoing on TV camera doesn’t mean they don’t have a personality!
In the end Rayven and Jamie were sent home. I correctly predicted both after the solos and before the judges revealed.
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Some random thoughts from the first night of the real show:
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It’s always exciting to watch the Vegas rounds, not just because of the dramas, but also because it is so challenging. The contestants have to learn choreographies in Hip-Pop, Broadway, Ballroom and Contemporary, all in a limited time, on top of that they also have to choreograph themselves in groups and perform. With six judges scrutinizing their every move, one bad routine means it’s the end of road.
Robert Muraine, the amazing contortionist popper, was having trouble learning the Hip-pop choreography just when the first round started. He looked ready to give up. Nigel asked him to perform a solo perhaps hoping that would change his mind, but in the end he still said he’d rather go than give it at least a try. I wonder if he made that decision because all the instant fame that resulted from his spectacular audition has got to him, that he didn’t want to make a fool out of himself doing something he’s bad at on TV.
After the broadway round, twins Anthony and Antwain faced their fate. Anthony, who ironically was able to come to Vegas because of his brother’s plea (see my DC auditions post), got through and Antwain didn’t. He eventually survived through the very end but didn’t make the Top 20.
Ballroom round has always been tough for street dancers/breakers alike, so when Joshua and Comfort, both from Texas and are popper/breaker, cried after they learned they did well enough to survive the Foxtrot, you know it must have not been easy. Hard work doing something you are not very good at, it’s good to see that rewarded.
The pageant girl was eliminated. Her dancing to me lacks authenticity, you don’t feel anything watching her dance.
As the rounds went on I found myself liking Twitch more and more. He just seems such a likable person. I was so happy when they told him he made the Top 20.
The group performance round, where contestants were divided into groups and was given a piece of music to choreograph themselves overnight, bore some resemblance to what was shown last year: the bickering. I’ve always wondered the merits of such a format. You put a group of dancers together and have them work out a choreography all by themselves. When every one of them is fighting for their own survival and there is no authority or any form of designation, there’s bound to be lots of conflicts on who is in charge and who makes what calls. Teamwork spirit is rewarded here but when the real show starts they won’t be required to do something like this again. They will just perform professional choreographer’s routines. So there is not much incentive here for them to strive to be the best team player. That in my opinion explains why most of the group performances were not very good and sometimes the dancers didn’t even look happy doing them.
After Mia Michael’s contemporary round, Liz the female tapper from Milwaukee was eliminated because she “talked too much” back to the judges arguing about her apparent stress. I guess they don’t want someone who gets stressed easily and who argues a lot on the show, which is reasonable.
Among the top 20 revealed, the fabulous ballroom girl Chelsie Hightower is my early favorite. I was surprised that Kelli Baker didn’t make it. Nigel suggested she needs to show more personality, I then remembered what a personality contest this show is and didn’t like it. Even more surprising was that girl who auditioned a latin like routine in boots, Susie Garcia, made it. I didn’t see what’s so good in her at all. Both Joshua and Comfort made it. Brandon Bryant did not! After the judges told William Wingfield he was the “best all around dancer by far”, I became interested and looked him up on youtube. Turns out he auditioned in LA which I didn’t write much about. I’m looking forward to see how he does on the show.
I thought the whole re-vote thing with Katee just because she said she wouldn’t come back for a 3rd try was a bit overreacting. Nigel wanted some TV drama so he took the opportunity to stir it up. These artificial moments are times when I don’t like the show.
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Final destination for auditions (I wonder why they skipped New York this year). A few sketchy notes:
Tomorrow is Vegas callbacks. Top 20 will be announced, then the real show begins!!
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Are you a pessimist? Is it better to be an optimist than a pessimist? Can you learn to become an optimist even if you are not one yet? These are some of the questions answered by this book, Learned Optimism by Dr. Martin Seligman, known as the father of Positive Psychology.
I find the book very interesting, but not “life changing” like some Amazon reviewer wrote. It contains a test that will tell you whether you are an optimist or a pessimist. In the end you will be able to understand your own explanatory style, i.e. how you tend to explain good and bad events. I found the exercise illuminating, and thought provoking. When you blame yourself for a project’s failure, are you being pessimistic, or responsible? Having done the test myself and had my husband do it, both of us Chinese, I’ve also come to a prediction that most highly educated Chinese people, especially people like us who majored in engineering, will probably test to be pessimist, like we both did. It’s a baseless speculation on my part, and won’t be proved unless all my Chinese friends go and take the test (by the way it’s available under Questionaires->Optimism at www.authentichappiness.org, free registration required). Well, it’s not entirely baseless, it has to do with how we were raised and taught, but I won’t elaborate further because if I do it will ruin the test for anyone who is interested in taking it.
The disputation techniques introduced in the later part of the book are interesting. I can see it being helpful to some extent but am not sure how effective it really can be in practice. Maybe I’m just hopelessly pessimistic and hard-headed. :-(
Posted in Books
Tagged authentic happiness, Books, Chinese, explanatory style, learned optimism, Martin Seligman, pessimists, Positive Psychology
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