SYTYCD Season 2015

Here's a link to an article about the new season.  Mary Murphy is gone as a judge but she's being replaced by Paula Abdul.    And Jason Derulo is also going to be a judge, but I'm not sure if it's permanent or if he'll be a rotating guest judge.

A somewhat new format this year as well - during auditions they'll be divided into 2 teams with an all-star mentor.  One will be the street team (hip hop, b-boy, etc.) vs. the 'trained' dancers (not what they call them).  They'll end a Top 20 composed of 10 dancers from each team.  Then 1 dancer from each team will be eliminated each week.  Could be interesting??

http://www.ibtimes.com/so-you-think-you-can-dance-2015-spoilers-new-judges-exciting-twists-added-season-12-1795100

Thinking of Paula on this show gives me the shudders.  She ruined American Idol for me with that slurring, rambling dialogue.  If it was truly due to medication, I hope she's well.  If booze, I pray she's on the wagon.

I'm a blank on Jason Derulo.

Half the field will be hip hop????  Great.  It just keeps getting worse.

Well, half the field will be 'street' dancers, so hip hop, krump, poppers, lockers, animation, b-boy and all the other different variations on a theme.  I'm with you on Paula.  Aside from the vacuousness of much of what she says, I'm wondering how she is qualified to be a judge here.  To the best of my knowledge, she's primarily known for being a singer who does some dancing.  Has she really trained enough to be a judge?  Mary Murphy may have been obnoxious at times with her screaming, but you couldn't really fault her qualifications. And after I googled Jason, it turns out he's more of the same as Paula - singer, songwriter, dancer (listed last and probably not really trained). 

The 'team' concept with Twitch and Travis as mentors through the audition process could be fun, but I'm not a fan of the judging change.

From what I've learned, Paula began primarily as a dancer and kind of "fell into" singing.  I believe she choreographed for a number of people.  I just don't like her.  lol.

Twitch is always a pleasure to watch.  The talent is immense.  But...As I don't consider rap being music, I also don't consider most of the street antics actual dancing.  For me, it's a bit more than jerking and twitching.

Well, I'm relieved that Paula is on track.  If anyone is effusive, it's Jason.

I'm just not crazy about Team Street being in the season's premise.  Out of two hours, I used my thumb a LOT - probably an hour and forty-five.  lol.

Not my kind of entertainment either, SLA.  That's why I f-fwdd through most of the two hours.  I resent that this new crap is ruining one of my past favorite shows.  I hate to opt out, as I have with 'Ette.  But...I'm not even looking forward to next week.

I've watched this show off and on over the years.  Always enjoyed watching young people developing their skills.

Who thought up this "street" thing?  Really poor judgment IMHO.  Hope someone over at DWTS doesn't pick up on it as a "dance" category.

They've done a couple of hip-hop routines on DWTS, newto.  Karina and JR, if memory serves.  Derek incorporates elements of it.

It's hilarious to mute the dreaded rap and watch the dancers(?) move like they have ants in the pants.  I've done this when the music is too horrid to abide.  But I'll not be able to tolerate an entire season of this crap.  I'm guessing that we've had an abundance of street dancers in the auditions because there wouldn't be any opportunity for them to get exposure elsewhere.  But....when the season starts, HALF of the dancers will be Team Street.  Not something to anticipate with any enthusiasm.

This season's auditions suck for air.  I think I'll be skipping the show until they get to Hollywood.

The first two weeks of auditions didn't impress me much, but last night's were, I thought, really good.  I loved both of the ballet dancers and the first ballroom guy.  Second ballroom guy was good but not as good as the first.  Jaja was back and so was Marie Poppins.  Loved them both last time around.  I thought the Hebrew b-boy was pretty good, and I liked the whacker girl and the b-boy brothers. 

I'm still on the fence about the format as I'm not entirely sure how it's going to work once we get to the Top 20.  I have a sick feeling Team Stage will be like 7 contemporary dancers plus maybe one ballroom, one ballet, and one tapper.  Of course, they'll put a "jazz" dancer in so they can pretend it's not a contemporary dancer.  Or something.  But I honestly find the contemporary dancers mostly boring.  They're all the same - look angsty, throw out your arm, fall on the floor and roll around, rinse and repeat. 

I'm enjoying Paula more than I thought I would.  Jason doesn't seem to add a whole lot, though, although I did appreciate him buying a ticket to Las Vegas for the kid with downs.  That will be the thrill of a lifetime for him, and he'll get a chance to get some mentoring from the other contestants that will be a huge help to him.  So that was a nice thing to do.

mustang, I got through the entire two hours in something like seventeen minutes.  No interest whatsoever in the street dancing.  The Korean ballet dancer was fantastic.

I agree with your division of dancers on the stage side, but I'd give us two for ballet.  I do like contemporary.   Most all of the street dancers have to be muted for me.  It's gotten to be a matter of principle that I f'fwd through them.  It's my personal protest for rap and this genre of dance and "music(?)"  As I've said before, if you mute the music, they look like crazed chimps writhing in pain or anger.

Something tells me I may bail on the season.  Shame of it is, I once loved this show.

rkc1960--most forms of 'street' dancing are offered in dance schools now.  My great-niece had her first dance recital on Sunday.  I sat through 3 hours of watching other people's kids dance just to see her do about 60 seconds of being a little jellyfish.    They had at least 4 hip-hop groups of different ages in the recital, although only one group was boys.  All the rest were girls.

Personally, I really enjoy a lot of the street dancing.  The straight animation can get boring after a while, and I've never liked the twist-your-arms-behind-your-back style, but I do love me some good b-boy stuff.    I once asked my son, who was a competitive gymnast for 13 years and was good enough to get to the junior olympics twice, if he could do some of that b-boy stuff like the one-arm handstands and some of those flips.  He just looked at me like I'd grown a second head and asked, "do you have *any* idea how hard that is?"  Obviously, I didn't, but I'm more impressed than ever at what they can do if my son, who is pretty darn athletic, is in awe of them.

Well, I'm still zipping by the street dancers but it's occurred to me that they may up the ratings with younger viewers.

I love to watch Jim, the Korean ballet dancer.  Beautiful movement.  With the exception of red-headed Kate and tap-dancing Gabby, I haven't learned the names of the other seven.  Give me some time.

Do we know if all will stick to their genres, or will they have to cross over?

I'm having such a difficult time with this season.  I truly don't like street dancing.  There's NO grace to it, and the music sucks.

singlyme wrote:I'm having such a difficult time with this season.  I truly don't like street dancing.  There's NO grace to it, and the music sucks.

I agree.  I do not like the teams, I do not like the judges, the down time between dances is unbearable.  A good show has been ruined.  Their 10 year anniversary special was terrible.

As with many other shows, they seem to be playing to youth and forgetting about class.

Okay.  So I'm ffwdg through everyone but Jim and YaYa.  There's a huge disconnect for me this season.  I hate that another of my favorite shows has chosen to devolve.

Oh dear.  I'm sorry you're not enjoying it.  I thought it's taken a while to hit its stride, but I really enjoyed last night's program.  I thought all of the dances were good to great, and I'm especially enjoying Jim and Gaby on the stage team and JaJa, Megz, Yourelis, Neptune and Virgil on the street team.  But I generally enjoy the street dancing, so that helps, I'm sure.  That plus there hasn't been a ton of contemporary, so yay!!  I also find that I am generally liking Paula Abdul as a judge here.  Jason is ok.  Nigel is Nigel, so sometimes he's pompous and generally a jerk.  But overall I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

You've been missed, mustang!

There's something totally captivating about YaYa, isn't there?  And Virgil has a sparkle, as well.

But Jim is my favorite to watch.

Jaja reminds me of Anna Trebunskaya from DWTS.  She's just adorable and so much fun to watch.  I agree with you on Jim.  He's marvelous.  And I absolutely love that he adores bubble baths.  Me too. 

Speaking of DWTS, it looks like the ABC board is closing down, and a lot of the folks from there are now over here.  I noticed there's a new thread for the upcoming season on the home page as well as the forum in the 'other programs' page.  Not sure if I really want to hook up with the crowd from the old board.  Are you guys planning to join that new forum or continue on in the original one?  Or have you even thought about it? 

Yes!  She is reminiscent of Anna! 

Many of us came here when the ABC board got wonky the first time.  Then, there was a mass exodus when they got it working again.  For a long time, there have been four of us keeping this board alive.  Had I not been here all along, I would have found this influx of people intimidating.  That's my problem with the bachandbachette forum.  Too many people - too many threads.  At least, here, I know the neighborhood.  It's sad they closed the SYTYCD board.  Where have you been posting?

I've been doing most of my posting for SYTYCD at previously.tv.  I like it because they don't allow you to start a bazillion threads - there's one thread for each episode.  And the mods, while not being unreasonably strict or deleting posts for ridiculous reasons, do step in to prevent threads from getting nasty.  You are simply not allowed to personally attack another poster, and they'll even step in if posts get too personal about a dancer.  When they do step in, it's always a gentle warning, often done with humor, and posters will take it down a notch.  I guess I'm a bit afraid of this board ending up like the ABC board with all that nastiness.  Even just looking at the DWTS thread on the main board, there's a lot of just junk posts so if you're not already part of the group, a lot of them don't make any sense.  A lot of talking just to hear themselves talk.  At least that's what it seems like right now.

I'm not accustomed to the kazillion General Hospital threads cluttering the board.  I don't watch the show, so I weave through them.