Image Credit: Patrick Ecclesine/FOX
Okay, these celebrity guest judges on So You Think You Can Dance are getting faintly ridiculous. Megan Mullally had formal dance and Broadway experience — okay. Debbie Reynolds tap-danced with Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain — love it. And Kristin Chenoweth has won a Tony Award — not for dancing, but that’s fine. But last week’s celebrity judge was Carmen Electra, whose main contribution to last week’s judging panel was her ability to not always use the same generic adjective of bland praise and her ability to not show up for the results show night.
This week’s celebrity judge? Modern Family‘s Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Look: He’s lovely, and funny, and catty enough to diss soap operas on Twitter while waiting for his car to be serviced (even if he immediately regrets it). But if Jesse Tyler Ferguson is qualified to judge the dancers on this show, than so am I. Which I do! As do you! Every week! So why not get started now in the comments, and then come back tomorrow morning to read my dubiously qualified judgments of JTF’s dubiously qualified judgments? Dubious qualifications for all! UPDATE: The recap is live!
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Read more:
EW’s SYTYCD recaps
‘SYTYCD’: Mary Murphy on the Top 14 week’s new choreographers and new judges
‘SYTYCD’: 25 Best Performances Ever
Let the games begin. I hope the thumb gets some really weak hip hop, but she’ll get something totally her style and the judges will continue to blow smoke up her a$$
who are you reffering to when you say thumb?
ryan- the thumb
How did she get that nickname? I must have missed something.
She looks like a thumb!
PIMB christened her.
No, it was the Costume Dept who christened her the thumb. I just agreed:)
Anyone else see the boob grab by Alexander in the second dance? My goodness lol
HA! I did but couldn’t figure out if it was part of the routine or an ‘accident’!
Yes! I noticed it and told my husband he just grabbed her boob! Maybe he thought it was okay after the kiss in their first number that she initiated.?
Yeah, and when he kissed her after their second dance she recoiled and grimaced. hahaha
He also smacked her in the face during the opening moments of the dance as she tried to slide under his arm at the lightpost! I think no matter what he does, he won’t connect with the audience until he gets rid of the Denny Tario/Tony Manero hairstyle!!
Bwhahahah, that’s hilarious
Jesse Tyler Ferguson FTW!
I AGREE! I loved him, even though he’s not necessarily an “expert”, it was so fun to have a real fan on the show as a “judge”. I thought he was funny and kept it going, rather than being awkward. ABV, don’t hate! And how excited am I about NPH! (How does everyone I’m talking about have a 3-initial moniker??)
BTW, ABV, I would totally start a Facebook campaign to get you to be a guest judge on SYTYCD, if I weren’t afraid that the guest choreo judge of the week would be Tyce and you’d be the Tad to his (vulture) Jordan. (Not that I would be sad, but then we’d be stuck with a Tier 2 recapper)
Ryan and Ricky are getting hammered by the judges. It was a lackluster performance.
I think it’s because they zero chemistry together. And unlike Sasha or Melanie, Ryan never seems to completely inhabit the character she is given.
I actually felt that Ryan was more believable tonight than Ricky. I’m not a huge fan of Ryan, either (though i was during the audition rounds), but I do feel that she caught the character of the first dance and was energetic in the 2nd dance. I felt that Ricky, on the other hand, just didn’t make for a believably suave character in the first dance, and I thought his legs were rather sloppy in the 2nd dance.
I thought Ryan was great in the Broadway routine…she really was smooth and believable and honestly I couldn’t take my eyes off her though that was not my favorite performance of the evening. I loved the Janis Joplin number.
I thought Rickey was good in that first number. I was surprised that the judges didn’t like him.
I even thought Ryan was good in the first number. It was very weird for me. But she totally sucked in the ballroom dance. Awful, awful performance. Ricky was pretty good in that one.
Their second number was no better, Ryan stomped her way around the stage, she needs to go home!
Ryan looks like she smells bad and doesn’t take showers.
Parents let you stay up past your bedtime again?
I agree with Adam’s comments each week – when are these couple going to start doing routines totally out of their comfort zone? Where are routines like last year’s Tahitian dance? Granted I don’t want to see another folk dance and we had 1 Bollywood number but it just feels like every other routine is contemporary and boring.
Caitlynn’s face expressions were really distracting me during that dance.
I agree. I don’t like it when dancers “act” while dancing. The acting comes off very phony and too expository.
Dancing requires some degree of acting though. Look at the biggest complaints about Ryan or Alexander…dancers who don’t emotionally connect with the dance or stay in character. Caitlynn was ridiculous though!
I think the good actors pull it off. The bad ones make it cheesy as heck.
Caitlynn reminds me of Miley Cyrus
It was like watching Jeanine’s sister dance, with the super-anguished expression. That was a bit of over-acting on Caitlyn’s part, I think.
7/13/11
The dancers were GREAT, the instructors didn’t do thier job! Thier numbers stunk!
Leave it to the phenomenal Melanie LaPatin to finally get an emotional connection out of Alexander!!!!
Also, everyone seems to be dancing outside their comfort zones in the first dance. Yes, Jordan & Tadd got contemporary but after 2 waltzes & hip hop, it was a nice change (and definitely outside of Tadd’s genre)! You can tell the weaker couples too because of it with poor showing from Ryan/Ricky & Caitlynn/Mitchell.
After hearing the context of the choreography for Caitlynn and Mitchell if you still thought it was a poor showing then it just shows how uneducated people in the US are about events in the world. We are touched by dances about breast cancer, addiction, abuse, etc., as we should be, but can’t seem to connect to a story about civil war and genocide that is also going on today. Also this is not directed towards you, just a general statement.
It was a poor showing because not only did they not dance it well but also because unless you heard the description in the clip you would have had no idea what that dance was about! I am all for Americans being aware of the daily atrocities being committed in Africa (for which we do far too little to prevent) but the choreographer wasn’t up to the challenge of that!
By the way, I hope to do charity work to help alleviate the suffering in Africa as soon as I am physically able to. That has been a goal of mine since my car accident because they so desperately need our help & support. Oh, I’m also a historian so I don’t need to be educated about the rest of the world, especially since World History/Western Civilization is my field!
i’m heavily involved with Invisible Children and was ecstatic about the story behind the piece, but the dance itself.. extremely underwhelming sadly. I don’t know if it was the dancer’s or the choreography, but I didn’t like it. However, I’m so happy that there was some major publicity for this cause!
Just because it is a serious subject, it does not give the dancers a pass on delivering. They made portions of the choreography look like dance 101. If based on the quality of the dance, not the subject matter, they should be in the bottom.
I also don’t think technically that it was fantastic but my point was more that we overlook technical dance during emotional routines but it wasn’t done for this. Yes, if there wasn’t context we probably wouldn’t have known but how do you portray that? Especially in any particular genre? I will also say that I think Mitchell completely outdanced Caitlynn and I think that added to the lack of synchronicity. @Lyndsey, I hope you get better soon and again this wasn’t directed towards you, just general commentary. @anon, thanks for your work.
Thanks Julz! It’s been a LONG 3 years! And I agree, Americans often are far too ignorant of history & current world events. I blame our poor education system (and I was a teacher)! I got happy when they described the dance but there was no follow-through for me. AND I felt the same way about the Coming Home routine earlier this season. I got the emotion from Sasha but Alexander’s detached dancing ruined it for me! :-/
I think sometimes choreographers can be little too earnest when it comes to creating a piece about a specific social issue. If they don’t take care with the piece and focus too much on symbolism, it can look and feel so obvious, as I think Chris Scott did with the Sudan routine. If it’s created around specific characters, though, as Stacey Tookey’s was last season on homelessness or Tyce’s on breast cancer, it can become much more affecting and effective and draw in the audience by making them care about the characters. I think Chris Scott just tried too hard to turn a contemporary issue into a relevant artistic piece–it was like We Are the World as dance.
oh please. Just because a choreographer tells me what the story is doesn’t mean I will feel it from the dance. This was a VERY difficult topic and I braced myself for the emotional impact and saw from the first few steps that this dance wasn’t going to have IT. The costumes, choreography and dancers were all wrong and it was their fault that they didn’t convey the seriousness and emotion the topic deserved -not the “uneducated” American masses.
This is one of the reasons I stopped watching the setup clips, because I like to see how a dance stands on it’s own. The dance should be moving without the sob story, it shouldn’t need the story for you to feel something. I was glad the judges didn’t fold under pressure, because while Invisible Children is certainly a great cause that dance didn’t live up to the story.
No one needs to apologize or be lambasted as uncaring, stupid, or both for not liking a badly choreographed and executed dance, no matter what the choreographer’s message was supposed to be.
I like Jesse as a judge.
I think he’s been pretty hysterical so far! As long as they’ve got a choreographer as a guest judge along with the celebrity, I’m perfectly fine with it (EXCEPT Carmen Electra) because performance IS a big part of the dance so these great actors are more than qualified to judge that part of the dance!!
Agree about Carmen Electra. She was useless.
I agree with you; however, I was disappointed with Sonya overall. She was super sweet and I love her, but she didn’t give critique on technique as much as she’s qualified to. Her praise/criticism was very performance-based, “I feel good or I feel bad about this performance. But I love you anyway.”
I was surprised she didn’t give better critiques! I’ve really missed Mia this season!!!!
I thought Mia was a great judge. Tough, yes, but always honest… to a fault apparently. It seems a lot of people didn’t like her as a judge. I definitely am also missing her choreography. That was one thing about Travis last week…he was VERY specific with criticism for the individual dancers. Hi, Lyndsey!
HI!!!!! Good to ‘see’ you again!
Yes I LOVED the Mia/Adam combo last season & I’ve thought the judging has really been lacking this year without them! I don’t see how anyone couldn’t love her! And yes, her choreography was always so inspired & so good! I adored the “butt” routine in season 5 with Evan & I believe she also choreographed “Addiction” which is the most gut-wrenching, powerful dances I’ve ever seen! I do not cry easily at all but this routine manages to wring it out of me every time! Maybe we’ll get her back if they dump Ryan quickly!!!
Agreed, I think he’s very entertaining and he does have Broadway experience so it’s not like he has zero dance background. I like that he’s obviously such a big fan of the show, which isn’t necessarily true of all the guest judges.
Five bucks Ryan’s through to next week.
I’m hoping Ryan will go home and either Ricky or Alex (though the latter did a better job today, I still find him to be too preening and vain). I don’t think Tadd is in danger because they like his versatility and he’s the only hip hop guy left. Same with Jesse. Marko is a given. Mitchell could be in danger if they feel he’s not expressive enough facially.
Meg… is that five bucks payable to each of us or do we all have to split it? LOL
Ryan needs to go. Sure she had a good week last week but out of how many?
great show. Please refrain from using murder and kill to compliment dancers. Murder is ugly and so bad. There is enough violence in the world without using those words to make it sound like it is a thing of beauty. Dancers nail a dance. That simply means they got it bang on. Thank you
Calm down, its just a dance show. Enjoy the drama of it all.
PLEASE! The closest thing I had to a sister (who was also a dancer…I watch these shows because of her) was murdered at only 17 YET I have no problem with people using that term to describe dancing or anything else! Heck I use it! Enough with the over-the-top PC crap!!
Only M&M will be safe, although the only thing that really made that tango was the final lift, and the luck they got to completely match as partners.
Ryan and Ricky, Caitlynn and Mitchell in the bottom probably.
Was imagining Ashley in Travis Wall’s Vulture routine. Boy was that girl cheated of good routines and a capable partner.
Hell-o! ^^^ Love this!
Ashley could of killed that vulture routine. And looked extremely beautiful doing it. Miss that girl.
I feel like Nigel and Sonyeh are still trying to make excuses for Ryan, like that her conviction doesn’t always translate, or Louis van Amstel giving his umph about them having been in the bottom twice (seems like more), like the very idea is ridiculous. Ryan SUCKS. And her heels kept slipping during the chacha. She was a wobbly mess.
Watching Cait’s and Mitch’s weak ass jazz number right now. *sigh* I hate when Mitchell speaks, that voice doesn’t belong to that body.
just happened to switch to it while i’m at work — Ryan doing latin dancing …BLECH! No bueno.
They are finally getting it. We love Ricky, Ryan not so much.
Ricky was great but Ryan was a hot mess!
Why is the audience booing Nigel for finally critiquing Ryan?
Didn’t think Ricky was masculine enough in this chacha routine. He looked like a tall scrawny boy in his partnering, and more worried about making his arms and legs look better and reach higher than the women. Not to sound like the masculinity police or anything, cuz I hate when Nigel does it.