Yay, SYTYCD. I forgot about it and of course my last season's pass didn't pick it up, so thanks, thread! I caught everything but the first half hour.
It's funny how the little clips of last season made me all yearny. I just can't wait for this season. And I might need to go back and watch some of last, since I still have the discs from meara who saved me at camp all last summer. Hee.
Anyway, I'm very excited about this season. I had to rewind the umbrella dance. And I kinda loved the same sex ballroom guys and thought that the response from the judges was disappointing. But I've never watched the audition rounds before so I'm not too sure what I should have been expecting.
I just love watching dancers' bodies. I love how they move and shape space and emote and communicate.
And it cracks me up how physical they are with their "I won" reactions. AI contestants scream...they're vocal. But SYTYCD contestants leap up and down staircases. They think with their bodies.
Yeah, the same-sex guys weren't great, but I wasn't all that surprised, sadly, by how homophobic Nigel continues to be...
I don't know if it's homophobic so much as unwilling to break with tradition. He and Mary have a very particular idea of what dance should be and are unwilling to change their minds. They will accept a new genre, just not changes to old ones.
As for Fashion Show, I find that I m really disliking the contestants. At first, I thought that Rico was fun and snarky, but now he's just an asshole. Talented apparently, but an asshole. Daniella's just a spoiled brat, as evidence by her need to call out Adam. Many of the designers have this whole "I'm a designer, not a sewer" bullshit going on.
I watched the SYTYCD auditions intermittently, and maybe the gender issues raised my the same-sex ballroom guys were pinging me, but I was depressed by how all the good female dancers we saw highlighted were fairly similar contemporary dancers (I get so tired of those little black shorts and flingy hair) and all the male dancers were *individuals* where character was as important as technique (many of them being street dancers). Women can be quirky and express something other than Sara McLachlan, too, you know!
They will accept a new genre, just not changes to old ones.
I have to say that I find Nigel to be very conservative overall in his approach to dance: whether it be gender issues and diversity of dance. I have a serious beef with Nigel discussing the kind of hip hop he likes. He likes NappyTabs hip hop (which at times is not hip hop at all - but that's another rant on another day), but he complains when hip hop is "hard."
Nigel also complains when male dancers are "masculine" enough - and gives this constant criticism. He on the flip side does not like it when female dancers aren't "feminine" enough, but he uses more coded words for that critique and while sometimes directly says it, he more often indirectly says it.
Nigel isn't a strict traditionalist or anything, but he also doesn't truly "get" and cannot adequately critique other forms of dance that do not have ballroom as their base training.
Finally, I very much wish that Nigel would be a judge OR an executive producer and not both things. I love SYTYCD for the dancing and the awesome young adults, but I hate the manipulation and Nigel brings it in full force.
Hey, BBCA is going to run a David Attenborough series on Darwin - that should be good.
I'm looking forward to TC:Masters. I think I will catch up on Fashion Show this weekend.
And they're finally going to run the most recent season of F Word this summer.
What is Nigel's dance background? I looked at his bio on the show site, and it seems like all TV and producer credits.
That's what missing for me on Fashion Show. The lack of Tim Gunn is just ... a big hole.
There's also the almost complete lack of talent among all the contestants. The constant whining about sewing makes me want to bitch-slap every last one of them.
Can we just skip to the end and give the prize to the tiny pretentious Asian guy whose name I can't remember? The one with a philosophy of lines and stealth fighters and shit? I like his clothes. Everyone else can please go home now.
