Acting Without the Drama

June 25, 2009. You know it’s coming.  SYTYCD commentary from the most flamboyant straight man you know.  I chose to refer to myself as a theatre queen, just so that we have the terminology down correctly.  Some day I’ll have to tell you all about the “secret” fund my wife has in preparation for the day I come out of the closet.

I was having the same reaction to the episode this week as I was last week, which is that it just didn’t live up to the first week of dancing with the top 20.  In discussing it with my friends, we realized why.  The first week, pretty much everyone was dancing in their style.  Plus, the choreographers were pretty much the top ones that they use.  Since then, it’s been much more of a mixed bag, both for the routines and for matching the dancers to their styles.

I do have to give it up to the dancers that manage to step outside their comfort zones.  Kayla, Brandon, Caitlyn (or is it Caitlin?), Phillip (at least with the Broadway routine.  Yeah, Nigel, I have no idea what the *&%&^%& you’re talking about)…all have shown amazing facility with styles wildly different from their own.

Thursdays are now becoming real nail-biters for me.  There are so few dancers that I want to go home.

Luckily, I wasn’t too sad to see the two leave that were voted off tonight.

Some of the highlights for me from last night were the Mia Michaels routine that Evan and Randi danced.  Wow.  That was my fave.  I was impressed by Brandon’s hip-hop, even though the routine wasn’t my fave.  The rhumba and the waltz were also pretty spectacular.

I was also very fond of the Broadway routine.  I know I said it earlier, but I’ll say it again.  I thought Phillip did a great job with it.  I felt like he really threw himself into it, risking life and limb.  I know I’m not a trained professional dancer, but I have no idea what Nigel was thinking.  Actually, come to think of it, I didn’t know what he was talking about tonight when he was calling Jason’s solo desparate.  What???  I think he may be smoking something medicinal.

Speaking of the solos…Caitlyn was amazing.  I love to watch her dance.  I was surprised by Carla’s.  It was much better than I thought.  Pretty much everyone else fell about where I thought they would.  When my friends and I watched the show, we all picked the routines we thought were in danger, and we were right all the way down the line, even though I was unhappy about Jason and Caitlyn being there.

Looking back at this entry, it’s pretty much a mess.  The one thing that you can definitely get out of it is how much I love SYTYCD.  And the reason why is simple.  It is watching art in action.  Every week, I get to participate in the physical manifestation of artists’ passion - the choreographers, the dancers, even the songwriters that create the music that’s danced to.  I ask you.  Is there anything better?

It’s late.  I’m tired.  I’m barely coherent.  I’m waxing poetic about reality television.

Bed is probably a good idea right now. 

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