SYTYCD Solos and Elimination Dances

I think the hip hop dancers in the solo showed how much they kind of grew together and their styles are starting to mesh and evolve in a really interesting way.

Comfort Solos Top 8




Comfort's really evolving to become a really great diverse hip hop dancer. I keep on seeing a lot of different hip hop styles in her technique. I think the influence of Twitch , especially with the head bobbing and swivels at (1:07) and (1:08).

I'm surprised with a little bit of house dance footwork (1:13 and 1:14), which made her walking transitions more interesting and also showed a different side to her.

Nigel panned down her solo choreography work compared to more experienced hip hop choreographers, but I see a lot of potential of her doing great hip hop choreography. She clearly knows a lot of styles and enjoys all hip hop styles, and yet combines all styles seamlessly into one dance that's not only educational but very entertaining.



AND THE GIRL CAN DO A SALAH (the back arms switch to the front)...that's NASTY! Comfort I'm sad to see go but the show provided a lot of open doors for her, and she clearly has a love of hip hop I could appreciate.

Twitch solo



Ahhh Twitch just glides into people's hearts doesn't he?

It's not hard to criticize his work becuase he's just plain good. He doesn't show off tricks, and he makes gliding look effortless and second nature. And believe me, it doesn't feel second nature and downright impossible.




I appreciate his old school locking in the results show, although he looked really sad or didn't seem to throw all his heart out. But that could be just me. Either way, Twitch uses his legs to his advantage: his kicks during the locking looks explosive, and his glides look like he's rollerskating. His arms are amazing (and his abs too!) -- he is just a plain good popper/locker because he's great to watch. That's it.

Joshua Solo



Okay...his solo is good. His isolations are great, he clearly knows how to work the robot style.

But there's one thing that he did that just ruined everything for me.

His tricks.

He busted out the breaking moves. Specifically, he tried to do footwork and did an invert freeze. Which was done WRONG.

The invert freeze has just been plain used and abused as an easy entertaining trick for hip hoppers.



As seen in the screen shot capture, Joshua didn’t lock his shoulders in and he’s not looking “up.” Essentially all he’s doing is a bent handstand, which is why he can only hold the freeze for only one second.



As seen, the bboy in this picture looks up that in a sense forces his head in between his shoulders. This allows stability, and you can hold this freeze for hours.



This shoulder bending technique allows you to do an invert variation, where you guys see it all the time as a “leg bridge.” This screenshot is of Victor Kim, and you can see he has his head CLEARLY in between his shoulders.

SYTYCD Top 8 Hip Hop

So now we're down to the final 8 in SYTYCD and I have to say it's getting harder and harder to find out who's the weakest link.....all of them have good qualities and bad qualities that make me love them all equally.

Here are the breakdowns of the Hip hop routines by Nappytabs, who I have to say had two really good and well executed hip hop routines this week.


Courtney and Will: Like You’ll Never See Me Again – Alicia Keys


Nappytabs has a habit at times of doing a literal interpretation of the song which gets cheesy pretty quickly, IE whenever the lyric says touch or kiss there would literally be a "touching" or a "kissing" moment in the case of the song for Courtney and Will.

As for the dancers, it was a solid routine but it could have been better. It's good by the show's standards, but it's not memorable.

What did they do wrong then? Both Courtney and Will (well Will for the most part) executed the snapping movements that this choreography entails and hit every beat and groove where it should. However, there are subtle indicators that there is not much hip hop technique or dance technique in general.

First of all, it's a bit monotonous and there's no progression of their snapping moves. At the song from about 1:45 to 1:55, the song has a hook with the "never will see you again"(something like that). They went with the groove and snapped to the beats, but could have slightly exaggerated their arm movements or flow to complement the change in pace.

Also from about 2:52 - 2:53, where Courtney handles Will's feet to do the snapping motion, there was no interaction between the partners. Courtney pulled on Will's foot, which meant that Will should have been propelling forward. Instead, he just switched his feet and stood in place awkwardly.

The pull showed the same issue of the propelling move at 3:03. Where yes, they pulled and retracted to the beat, but it's just a shifting movement. It should have been more of a rubber band movement -- pulling but feeling the lash back.

These are really subtle things that differentiates good hip hop dancers to great hip hop dancers. Both Courtney and Will did a good job representing hip hop, but there was a lack of technique.

Personally to me, hip hop dancing is kind of similar to drumming. You hit the beat, but there are times when you hit the drums harder or softer, plant the drumstick down to give a thump, or or obtain a more stacatto like movement. These techniques helps with the interpretation of the song, and thus put what was cute rhythms to what is a rhythm force.


Comfort and Mark – “Party People” by Fergie


First off, they did probably my favorite hip hop routine this season bar none. And Nappytabs showed how they have a great sense of story without being literal, and challenged the contestants finally with a really tough hip hop piece.

I can basically say within the first 15 seconds they did hip hop right.

This is a hard hitting song, and they could have booty shaked and popped the sternum off of their skeletons. But they didn’t. As seen in 2:03-2:06, Comfort starts THRASHING with the song, but simpers down to a thumping scowl as the song cools down, just in time to sneak a peek at Mark's desk. Notice also later how Comfort and Mark moves with a sense of movement; they kick and then felt the affect of the kick to lash back. There was a natural flow of movement with the song.

Comfort and Mark had great coordination that Courtney and Will didn’t have, and it’s not really technique wise. As seen in 2:48 to 2:59 ish, there is the stanza and of course Comfort and Mark hits it hard just like Courtney and Will.

But what differentiated the two routines’ execution was the last few seconds at 2.56-2:59, where Comfort and Mark kind of “shadow punched” the beats in the hook – stealth and effective. It’s not just a quick retracted punch to emphasize a decibal, but it emphasized the hook of the song.

The choreography was just as complex and intricate as Courtney and Will's. But what blew Comfort and Mark's dancing out of the framework was their technique that helped with the interaction and interpretation of the song.

As Shane Sparks would say, "They killed it."




****note that videos are from metalkintoyou.blogspot.com

ABDC - 5th Week

ABDC has reached a fervor, especially in the b-boy scene. Every b-boy knows about it, most love it, some have it. But they know that breakers are being represented, and they support every minute they're on.

Anyways, here are my rankings for the current crews

1) Fanny Pak -- I personally didn't think they would survive so long, but I grew to kind of understand why their hip hop style "works." It's not particularly executed well, but they have a great sense of musicality and represents the more music video type of hip hop dancing. They took Janet Jackson's "All Nite" song and made it quirky, where their style I would describe as in a sense "teen vogueing." Their flicks of the wrists, and their "bouncing" movements emphasized the beginning beats, and when they went sexy was really organic and a naturally progressed.

The routine represent the sexiness of a teenager -- kind of flirty, kind of taboo, and in a sense a good anxiety of knowing what they're doing is wrooong but so right.
The ending was horrendous though, with the fanny pak slap down. I actually in general hate the fanny pack/leggings 80's get up -- I think they're much better than to make themselves a schtick. Overall though, I felt myself being pulled to watch them again and again.

2) So Real Cru -- ahhhh called this season's Kaba Modern, but i think So Real is known for taking things slow and precise where Kaba Modern has more emphasis on the popping/locking/tutting aspect of hip hop. I think they handled the sexiness well despite the reservations, but sometimes I wince at the (lack of) asian booty shaking in one scene. I dunno...if you try to shake the booty, you either go all or nothing. Anyways, they really took the music about what was about a boy and a girl and made it for the pining of some girl on girl action. Nice job.

3) Supercr3w -- I feel kind of...underwhelmed? But they nonetheless did a great job -- they hold a dear place in my heart because they are really a phenomenal bboy crew. I liked how they implemented the choreography seamlessly between the supposed "tricks."

Also we finally get to see Ronnie showcased --- the world champion winner of the Red Bull BC One challenge (an international one on one breaking competition...no easy feat). His solo set (or routine) was insaaaane. I think given the song choice, supercr3w did a great job taking on JC's criticism of choreography without sacrificing their bboy style they take pride over.

4) Boogie Bots -- I don't really remember it now nor do I feel any interest in watching their routine again to see, which is a bad sign, since they're a great crew in the first place. I didn't think they were very clean and I think they're working out the niches of implementing the "robot" style Boogie Bots is now known for. The thing I DO remember is their great formations, such as the evolution to the robot.

5) Supreme Soul -- They had a challenging song to work with, an old 80s/90s Janet Jackson classic. I don't really remember their routine, ANY aspect of their routine, and that's not a good sign. The did some locking...but it didn't mesh well with the Janet Jackson song nor did it look really clean. I think they felt they were thrown a curveball with the song, but yet again supercr3w had an unusual song choice and excelled.

6) A.S.I.I.D. It's the challenge that they could of killed, and they kind of fell short to being "amazing," hence I'm not surprised that supercr3w got it. I agree with the judges that the energy didn't pick up until the girl kind of sexily fell from the chair, but they nonetheless had and always had 10x more energy than many of the other crews.

They had such an upbeat personality that it's hard not to like them, so I'm really sad that they left because they always entertained. Are they the best crew with the best technique? I don't think so, but I think they showed the super entertaining side of hip hop. They always deliver choreography that puts a smile on your face, and this routine was no exception. I liked how they brought in a locking kind of element, and the "arms wrapped behind back" tutting was really refreshing. Given other circumstances, I would put A.S.I.I.D. probably in 3rd/4th place this week.

Predictions:
Fanny Pak -- SAFE
supercr3w -- I think being in the bottom two woke up a lot of fans and they'll vote like crazy so SAFE
so real cru -- I think also woke up a lot of people but might not have as strong of a fan base nor had much of the judge's praise, so PROBABLY SAFE
boogie bots -- Has a big fan base also, but not a great routine so my prediction is BOTTOM TWO BUT WILL BE SAFE
supreme soul -- I don't think they have as huge of a fan base, their routine wasn't the strongest this week, so BOTTOM TWO ELIMINATED

SYTYCD....hip hop?

I know it's a bit late to say so far in the game, but I felt that this season's SYTYCD hip hop has been lacking, or in general lost the spark that I so loved in the last season.

Maybe because I was so attached to the breakers last season, the ones who helped me find the conviction to dance. Maybe it's the change of choreographers in a style I'm not use to (Nappytabs) or it's just not as greatly entertaining or good (Kourtni and Matt), but I'm just not feeling it.

Nothing wrong with lyrical hip hop, which is the style that Nappytabs go through, or telling a story. Nor did I felt like anything is necessarily wrong with C+O (I think it's Cecily and Odille but I could be wrong), or Lil C's krumping routine. I just felt maybe the execution is getting confused. Hitting hard or hitting the routine does not mean thrashing about, or acting necessarily gangster and touth. Like any other dance, you have to learn when to emphasize the beat and when to back off, even in something as tough as krumping.

Last week, though, with Dave Scott, it changed my skepticism on how good the dancers really are.

Joshua and Courtney's Frankenstein storyline I felt was really cool and worked with Joshua's hitting/popping methods. I think although Courtney did not "hit" as hard as Joshua, her concept of popping was very clear and she was convincing. Although she did a (supposedly) horrible job with doing an illusion turn, I think it is mostly the jeans to blame because they limit the range of motion.

Comfort and Twitch's Studio 54 theme I thought was great. I felt they hit it hard and hit it well, and had more dynamics in how hard or how soft to take the song than any of the other routines thus far. I think they finally showed to the audience how a couple can work together to show off why hip hop needs great musicality. It's not just HITTING EVERY BEAT with a hard thrash of the body, but knowing when to "pop" more or less or when to flow depending on the beat.

Twitch is very professional and clean when he dances, and I think he understands the nuances of dancing to hip hop very clearly, whether he does krumping or popping.

Comfort I have a feeling that she would grow to become a phenomenal hip hop dancer; reading she has only been dancing for 2 1/2 years, it's amazing how much she understands rises and falls. When most girls think of hip hop dancing as twitches and sexy tosses and turns to play up their femininity, Comfort's solos provide that she just...understands. She knows the basics of tutting, leveling herself up and down, and shows off her femininity very well in what is really a "masculine" dance.

I think many people who read my board posts know I have hesitations about Gev, mostly because I don't think he's a b-boy, but just a breakdancer (I'll go through differences later). I think he knows a lot of powermoves, and he certaintly would know the foundation (ie footwork and basic structures) that many breakers have to face, it's just my opinion that the judges threw the word b-boy haphazardly.

Gev has a strong sense of knowing what the people want. He has a gift of combining styles and implement breaking moves not as cute accessories or just "WOW" factors, but a part of a greater picture. I don't think his last solo was particularly great, where his execution was like a competition jazz dancer (you know, move #1...move # 2....then move #3.....), but I felt that his audition piece and his top 14 piece was an indicator that he has a gift of telling a story. He certainly also knows how to pull of other styles, and it's a shame he didn't get the fanbase to support him and push his own personal style even further.