Am I the only one that HATES the new stage? All of the bright, bright lights behind the dancers combined with the high camera angle (at times) is really distracting. All sense of intimacy is gone.

Perfect description. I have watched Nathan and Mollee’s Disco performance 5 times, and their background has been the most distracting of all the dances. It is too loud, too busy. At times, they seem to get lost in it.

Who is advising the camera man on what angles are needed? I wish someone from the show would pick up on these flaws and correct the problems!

Regarding the set – I hate it, too. There is too much set/lighting behind the dancers and I much preferred the “theater in the round” set.

Initially I didn’t like Katherine at all but that was based on her screechy crying edit, I loved her dancing and her chemistry with Legacy so i’m reversing my opinion and Dave Scott is SO much better than the over-rated NappyTabs, I want more from him.

Mean of me I know but I hope Noelle does not come back next week and Arianna does. How can she not know what a foxtrot is? Seriously? She a dancer! Ugh, she annoys me as much as Mollee. I was sad to see her paired with Nathan and in the last spot. I’m guessing she’s there for the younger Taylor Swift/HSM/Disney voting crowd.

I love Travis and his choreography is amazing but I did not love Victor and Bianca. I don’t know what it is about her, maybe it’s that she just doesn’t seem very feminine and graceful to me, I don’t know but the whole thing seemed odd.

I don’t understand Russell being in the bottom 4, that was weird, i’d have put Peter or Philip there before him and I felt bad for Brandon it was obvious he wasn’t staying so I hope they change the rules and let him back on. This means that Pauline will now dance with Peter right? And if Noele doesn’t come back will Arianna dance with Russell?
I am so happy Adam is on the panel permanently, I like him and it’s nice to see new choreographers, at least I think they were new?

Am I the only one that HATES the new stage?

No, I don’t like it either.

Ryan surprised me. Not bad.

I really like Nathan’s dancing..not his shining moment for sure. My back ached for him on some of those lifts.

Jakob is a constant stream of perfect poses isn’t he. He seems almost double jointed when he stretches his legs out. Beautiful to see.

I want Billy back. Loved his fluid movements and passion.

erennick
October 28, 2009 at 8:50 am

Am I the only one that HATES the new stage? All of the bright, bright lights behind the dancers combined with the high camera angle (at times) is really distracting. All sense of intimacy is gone.

As someone who has been in the audience and hopes to be there again, I don’t like it. Before, the audience could wrap around the stage and go up on the catwalk, so there were maybe six or seven rows max. Now everyone’s forced in front of the stage, and I saw about twenty rows of people. The floor is flat and you’re standing for three hours, clapping over your head. The people in back won’t see much unless they’ve really raised that stage higher.

As far as performance goes, I haven’t noticed yet.

Travis! Omg. The baby choreographer rocks so hard.

LOVED the choreography from Sonya and Travis tonight.

* Absolutely adored Travis’s choreography. Delicious!

* The pieces I loved the most were:
>Bianca and Victor – “Wasted Time”, by Travis Wall
>Ellenore and Ryan – ‘Arcadia”, by Sonya Tayeh
>Kathryn and Legacy – Hip Hop, by Dave Scott

All 3 of those pieces were jump up and down, applauding widely kind of great. So impressed to see both great choreography and great dancing right from the start. I really cannot express how amazing the Travis piece was to me. Absolute perfection! And the Dave Scott hip-hop telling of the stone age! Kathryn and Legacy completely inhabited that world. Loved it! I can easily see all three of those pieces skyrocketing to the ‘best of’ the season. If they can keep that caliber of dance on every show, we will, indeed be in for an incredible season.

I pretty much agreed with the judges for most of the night. Occasionally I thought they were being a tad too generous to some of the weaker dancers, mainly, I think, to keep the first competition show on an up note.

Besides the 3 pieces I highlighted in which I felt that all of dancers involved did an incredible job, I was also particularly impressed with Jakob’s lines and Karen’s hot sultry dancing (oh Adam!). I share Nigel’s sorrow at not having a chance to see Billy Bell and Jakob go head to head. Sigh. I was also shocked to see Russell in the bottom 4, but figured they wanted to help further build up his supporters cause the guy is crazy amazing. Did you notice now people couldn’t stop screaming after he finished his solo?

Jakob continues to amaze. If Victor and Bianca weren’t so good, and Russell hadn’t danced that fierce solo, I’d give tonight to Jakob, too. So, if his performance in the Wade piece was any indication, he should be able to sell a character driven piece as effortlessly as he masters technique, which means this season is gonna be way fun. WHY did they pair him with Ashleigh of all people, though? Blergh.

Nigel continues to annoy me with his lame reactions to the more quirky, out of the box pieces. Bleh bleh, I don’t know what to call that, impossible to critique, but what you did you did well, yada yada yada…. Shut up, Nigel, and stop insulting my intelligence. That Sonya piece was mind blowing, and I didn’t need a translation, kthx. One of her best, up there with The Garden.

Travis is, as always, brills. Victor and Bianca sold it very well. Best of the night, I think.

I’ll give you Pauline, because her solo SUCKED BIG TIME but I certainly didn’t think Ariana deserved to be in the bottom, not for the Hip Hop routine (which she performed better than her partner Peter, who should have been in the bottom instead of Russell) or her solo.