I know I just updated... But I have to write about this somewhere!

I haven't been keeping track of SYTYCD this year, but I wanted to watch tonight on purpose because they are doing a night entirely dedicated to my favorite choreographer, Mia Michaels. So I decided to do some analysis on the dances--the new ones compared to the old ones.

"Butt Dance" i.e. the Poodle Dance
Original dancers: Randi and Evan
New dancers: Amelia and Will
I think Randi and Evan did an amazing job. Evan had SO much personality. And Randi, despite her hesitations with the dance, somehow sold it like crazy. I didn't think Amelia did as convincing a job. And Matt just wasn't as much of a character. Evan was hilarious.

"Dreaming With a Broken Heart"
Original dancers: Twitch and Kherrington
New dancers: Janelle and Darien
For some reason, the judges didn't love this one. For me, I liked it way better than the original. I didn't really "get it" in the original season. At all. But I got it better here. The judges didn't think Janelle sold it enough, but I sure thought she did! Her expressions were genuine and her actions were so And I rewatched the original and realized part of the problem of why I didn't get it the first time was, believe it or not, the camera angles. They had a super boring camera angle in the original. But I still didn't like it as much as I liked Janelle and Darien.

Door dance
Original dancers: Katee and Twitch
New dancers: Cyrus and Eliana
The original was better here. No question. Twitch just threw a whole lot of personality and motion into it. And while Cyrus threw himself all in, like the judges said, as a "robot" dancer, he has trouble moving his whole body. He seemed to not think he could do it, exactly, and in this part, you need to know who you are and where you stand (the story is a psycho ex-girlfriend and the ex-boyfriend just trying to tell her, "No, no, no!" again and again :) ).

Assisted run dance
Original dancers: Katee and Joshua
New dancers: George and Tiffany
I actually liked this a lot better than the original, which is saying something, because Katee and Joshua were my FAVORITE dancers of their season (besides Janette, who just got booted way the heck too early). I was really surprised at how good a dancer George is! Wow! And the judges thought Tiffany overperformed, and I can see that a bit, but I still think she did an amazing job in the part where they danced side by side--so in sync and perfect timing and everything. And George was just incredible. I would like to see more of him.

Mia's dad dance
Original dancers: Neil and Lacey
New dancers: Audrey and Matthew
So, I hate to say this, but I never really liked this dance. It wasn't exciting enough for me. So I was underimpressed and my review might be biased slightly. But anyway, I thought Audrey did a really good job with this one, better than Lacey (one of my favorite dancers!). I think it's a lot because Audrey's sweet, cute personality lent better to the part than Lacey's firecracker personality. And I thought Matt's cute smile lent , but the part the guy plays in this dance is still so...unadventurous, that I wasn't impressed with it this time either.

Bench dance
Original dancers: Heidi and Travis
New dancers: Whitney and Chehon
I didn't see the original dance in the season. I watched it on YouTube because people couldn't stop raving about it, but I didn't understand why they liked it so much. I still don't, sadly. :P I got a touch of understanding today, especially when I heard the story behind it, but I still don't quite get it. Anyway, that said, about the dancers specifically...I I was underwhelmed by Whitney until she was under the bench; then I finally caught some chemistry there. And Chehon is a really good dancer. It's funny, Nigel pointed out something I noticed, too...The part where Chehon slips down the bench, it wasn't quite right when I saw it; it looked like it hurt! And Nigel pointed it out during the critique. Apparently the "not quite right" I saw was that Chehon didn't loosen himself up quite enough.

Addiction routine
Original dancers: Kayla and Kupono
New dancers: Lindsay and Cole
Whoo. This dance still gives me creeps, amazing. I was impressed with how well Lindsay did; I was afraid she'd have a hard time being "not pretty," as Mia expressed. Cole put a different spin on it. As the judges said, Kupono was more "sinister," while Cole was more "quirky" and mentally bizarre. Nigel thought Cole's performance was way creepier than Kupono's, but I disagree. Kupono did play sinister, scarily well; he looked like a demon out of hell! I thought that lent hugely to the impression of the performance. But I still think Cole and Lindsay did a comparably well job.

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