Yeah, I saw that--and does that mean no Mia choreo at all?? That sucks--much as I have disliked some of her pieces, for sure, I've also really loved some of her pieces.

Yeah, I saw that--and does that mean no Mia choreo at all??

I would think that it has to, unless she sits out a week. I am disappointed. I generally don't like contemporary, but her stuff is usually amazing. I like Sonia, but she's very uneven. It seems like it's amazing or schlock.

I think that Sonia has to be inspired by her dancers to produce good stuff. I was just rewatching my dvds yesterday and I still love to bits her Ellenore/Jakob number from S6.

SYTYCD: Well, I can't say I'm sorry to see Mary depart from the panel. She's fine in small doses, but I hated her as a permanent judge. Actually, I dislike the permanent three judge format entirely. I much preferred it when Nigel was the only permanent panelist and each week we'd get different faces in the other seats. I miss the variety of voice, opinion and POV and don't think Mary (or Shankdaddy for that matter) brought enough to the table to make up for it.

And I really, really don't want Mia on the permanent judges panel. She's a great choreographer but, IMHO, a terrible judge. She has shown through her past stints on the panel in the audition rounds, during Vegas Week, and when she's been one of the guest judges in past seasons, that she can be incredibly biased against classically trained dancers, finding them lacking in the more "organic" style of movement that she prefers. At the same time, she can be incredibly condescending to the "untrained" street dancers, making a big deal out of even the smallest advances in technique and downplaying flaws because the performance was "authentic" or "came from a real place". Feh. She's also very quick to form opinions about a dancer and what he/she can do and then be unwilling or unable to see past those preconceived ideas, which causes her to be biased against certain dancers. Just thinking about how she treated Brandon at certain points, or Natalie (Katee's roommate). Egregious. She brings what she knows of dancers from different pre-show contexts into her critiques of them on the show. And sometimes she's a bitch just because she can be. The whole Danny situation will never not make me boiling mad, even though she eventually came around on him, the damage was done. Did I mention I think she's a crap judge?

In happier SYTYCD news, Sonia, Travis and Mandy Moore are choreographing pieces for the final performances of LA Ballet this season and I soooo want to go.

TAR: Sad that the Cowboys couldn't win, but the brothers really did earn it. I'll be interested, too, to see if the producers outlaw using notes on the last task in future as someone questioned earlier. I thought I saw Jordan reading from a notepad and I think it would be a huge advantage for any team. Not that I think the Cowboys could've caught up, because they seemed pretty far behind at that point, but still.

So apparently, the cowboys on TAR ain't so nice - at least one of them. Jet used a slur in speaking to Jordan at TARcon. More discussion here:

[link]

Ugh... the more I'm reading the TARcon thread, the less I'm liking TAR.

Seems like they're casting specific couples more and more (like they were specifically looking for cops and lesbians).

Caite and Brent actually broke up before the show taped, but the producers told them to fake it.

You get a certain amount of money for whatever place you finish, but producers can pay you more if you're "storyline" is interesting. (I'd guess they're encouraging drama)

I also hate the stunt casting. They waived the age restriction so that Caite could run the race.

It seems like the less I know, the more I enjoy it.

Reality TV is not real. Sad, but true.

Caite and Brent actually broke up before the show taped, but the producers told them to fake it.

This is kind of a relief, actually, given how much they seemed to hate each other. But

Jet used a slur in speaking to Jordan at TARcon

ick. feh

Very disappointed in Jet. Very. And to be that rude in front of Dan and Jordan's mother is just. . . you are so not the person I thought you were.

At least Caite and Brent didn't pretend to be all fake-schmoopy.

I'd prefer to see some additional reporting on the slur -- if it comes from just one hearsay source it could possibly have been misheard or made up out of whole cloth, et cetera.