SYTYCD Ukraine, Season 4! Options

[verak]

lol, ok, that makes more sense. I guess I thought it could be possible that that was some classic scene from a classic russian movie or something like that. I think I will downgrade their overall OTT grade to a D now that you've clarified. XD

Yea, it must be difficult for the dancers when the costumes participate in the OTT-ness of a routine. I would think the R&R people had it the worst this week, but I think the costumes were definitely worth it!!

R&R stands for Rock-n-Roll, and this couple left the competition
Ukrainian version is crazy not only in its dances, but in its voting. It was one of my favourite couples (oh, well, I love everybody in this show, but that particular couple is so great in lyrical and technical dances - and we did not have a chance to see them in it)

[Butte009]

I forgot to check the live stream earlier but I just caught who was in the B3. Without even seeing the performances I think we can all guess at who one of the couples are (Dasha and Kolya). Of the other 2 couples I'm happy about one and in disbelief of the other.

And of course the one I'm happy about just got saved.

Which probably means one of my other favorite couples is about to get the boot after the commercial break. Please let them be saved!!!!

[SyracuseMug]

I forgot to check the live stream earlier but I just caught who was in the B3. Without even seeing the performances I think we can all guess at who one of the couples are (Dasha and Kolya). Of the other 2 couples I'm happy about one and in disbelief of the other.

And of course the one I'm happy about just got saved.

Which probably means one of my other favorite couples is about to get the boot after the commercial break. Please let them be saved!!!!

Who are the others? I like Dasha , but there's a good chance I like the others who are in the bottom as well.

[Butte009]

Who are the others? I like Dasha , but there's a good chance I like the others who are in the bottom as well.

Already saved were Illya/Tisato
In danger are Basil/Katya

They're safe!!! So Dasha/Kolya are leaving. They seemed to take it well though.


This post has been edited by Butte009: Mar 30th 2012, 4:08 PM

[SyracuseMug]

Already saved were Illya/Tisato
In danger are Basil/Katya

They're safe!!! So Dasha/Kolya are leaving. They seemed to take it well though.

It's encouraging to see Illya & Tisato in the bottom, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Marta won't be going any time soon.

[verak]

Today in a "talking" part they compare each other to animals

1) Marta says Sasha is like a tiger - strong and flexible, but becomes angry if something goes wrong during rehearsals
And sure enough Sasha likened Marta to a monkey

Dance - QS (folko-QS ) - Karlsson and Froken Bock from Karlsson-on-the-Roof
You could see few moments from the cartoon during the rehearsals, here is a cartoon itself Dance at 17 min

Few steps of QS they had were danced unexpectedly not bad, but it was too little, the rest was a mess. In such a costumes it could not be anything else but a mess

2) Vasia is a BD boy this week

Katia&Vasia - Contemp by Isabelle!!! - beautiful, but I am afraid it may be not memorable among other "crazy" routines
Judges praised technical side, but said that emotional side could be better. I think I will need to rewatch this dance and will love it.

3) Dasha&Kolia - hip-hop by Alex Bullon - I am afraid for this couple, Ukrainian public doesn't understand much in hip-hop, it can be danced very well - but usually hip-hop means a B3, and it's a S1 couple, not well known...
Dasha was stronger IMHO, I did not notice Kolia beside her. I like how this couple is always so different.

4) Ilona&Roma - paso - witch and inquisitor - not bad, but the music was so slow - it's very difficult to dance this kind of dances slow.
Vlad said that when this construction (burning stake) was put on a stage - he thought it's prepared for him (because his voice was decisive in eliminating S2 couple last week)

5) Tisato likened Ilia to chameleon
Tisato&Ilia - waltz - Mermaid - I think it was their best ballroom so far (and I loved her dress). But Vlad said they don't grow...

6) Angela&Tony - wow! Jazz-funk! we did not have this style for... don't remember, may be ever -
but I don't like too much stuff on a stage and dance (choreo) itself did not impress me - I think they could do much more. I expected more, agree with judges.

7) Mariam&Jenia - modern from Radu Poklitaru - Orpheus and Eurydice - choice of music is very strange - there are two operas - by Gluck and by Krenek, there is an absolutely wonderful modern song-opera by Zhurbin - tons of beautiful music associated with this legend. Why take something else? It disturbed me very much. And I did not like their - choreographer's - interpretation of the characters, especially hers (I think a person having a chance to be saved from The Kingdom of Death would behave differently - but may be it's just my personal opinion). I was afraid they could B3 again, though it was danced beautifully.

8) Lena likened Jenia to a March cat (male) - he always wants to be liked by "female cats"

Lena&Jenia - Jazz-grotesque - some strange invented story, nightmare-like. Fun, but I did not like it - for me good dance is a beautiful dance, and that thing I could not call beautiful. But judges liked it - performance-wise, but criticized technical side.

9) Natasha&Jenia - cha-cha - again Andrey Diky with arms . Enough!
It was not Pasha-LoFro level, sure, but it was better than many other cha-chas. I would prefer to see just a sexy cha-cha, without any theme.

10) Tolik's nickname is wolf, but Galia says he does not live to his name.

Galia-Tolik - jazz from Isabelle - what's wrong with her? She made the first dance about an angel, and second - about a demon. I don't like such a topics.
And the dance itself - again, can not point exactly why, but it looked very generic - nothing special.

Group dance - I think this was the first (and only) dance I loved tonight!

Again totally don't agree with B3!
And from this particular B3 I would send home Tisato&Ilia.

It was not very nice - Dima asked judges to tell about each other - what animals do they see, and Vlad started to call Litvinov the peacock, the penguin, the mole (because he doesn't see how Vlad's couples are great) - actually, it looked like he called him names, it was not nice at all. And Oleksey called Vlad a grown up Bambi. Tatiana - Bagheera. Tatiana called Sysco Cheburashka, and Vlad again was not very nice about Sysco - but it's difficult to explain, because he used a double wordplay. And so on... it was fun but not nice all together.

Dances for life - jazz-funk - TBH, I liked all those dances more than the Angela-Tony's.
Audition - Bogdan - I think this boy can be versatile enough, we'll see.

Elimination - so sad to lose this couple - I loved them so much, and they were growing more than others.

This night I did not like much, last one was much better...
Next week the theme will be "love story" - mostly from the movies, but now from International cinema.

This post has been edited by verak: Jul 5th 2012, 12:25 AM

[verak]

OK, now videos:
The group dance - the only one I really liked this Friday



Modern - Mariam&Jenia1 (Jenia looks great and his hair fits very well in a character )



Natalia&Jenia2 - cha-cha - Ghostbusters (if it was without all those props - would be much better)



This post has been edited by verak: Mar 31st 2012, 1:52 PM

[verak]

Dasha&Kolia - hip-hop



Katia&Vasia - contemp



Lena&Jenia3 - jazz (grotesque)

[verak]

Angela&Tony - jazz-funk - dance starts at 2:15



Ilina&Roma - paso - dance itself starts at 1:35, but for those who like OTT factor - I recommend to watch a rehearsal part, too



Galia&Tolik - jazz

[Butte009]

For those wanting to watch or download the entire episode I found this site yesterday.

Sasha/Marta Quickstep - Her dress was a distraction for me. Too much 'acting' and not enough quickstep. But I did enjoy what Sasha did (even though it was more folk dancing). Overall

Basil/Katya contemp - I though the execution was great and very nice piece. I suppose not having an OTT theme and overacting won't sit well with voters. For me the best of the night.

Dasha/Kolya hip hop - terrible choreo and the music was annoying. It's unfortunate.

Roman/Ilona Paso - The movements needed to be as powerful as the music. But overall it was still pretty good.

Illya/Tisato waltz - He needs stronger frame. Getting into and out of lifts was clunky and not graceful at all. Just a meh for me

Tony/Angela Jazz-Funk - Angela got it right when she said Tony was a fox. Parts were good. She did nothing for me in this piece. He was much stronger IMO. So overall a

Zhenya 1/Miriam modern - well executed and very interesting movements in the choreo.

Zhenya 3/Olena Jazz - That was different for sure. They executed what they were given very well. It was very stylized but I'm on the fence since I don't think it was a jazz piece. I don't know what genre it was supposed to be.... I guess I'd stick it in Musical Theater, but even that's a stretch. So somewhere between a and a IMO.

Eugene/Natalia Cha Cha - His hair was distracting . I wish they had been given a pure cha cha rather than this silly ghost-busters theme. I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Still a

Tolek/Galina jazz - wow the lack of technique was very apparent in this. But still compared to other routines it was a .

The group number was ok. There's still too many dancers for it to be clean.

B3 Jazz/Funk performances:
Couple 1 - terrible
Couple 2 - ok. This couple's own choreo was better than what they were forced to do earlier.
Couple 3 - meh. This couple has no business being in the B3 It should be Marta/Sasha.

Auditioner was meh. A bit repetitive.

All I can say is that Illya/Tisato lucked out by not being B2 in votes. They were clearly the worst of that B3. Instead a stronger couple goes home again.

[Butte009]

Double post

This post has been edited by Butte009: Apr 1st 2012, 9:07 AM

[verak]

And the last ones:
Tisato&Ilia waltz - as I say, I liked it but it was rightly in a B3 because of Ilia



And here is Marta&Sasha (I guess somebody will give them a good mark for OTT factor)

[verak]

And dances-for-life - jazz-funk:





And after this they were sent home...

This post has been edited by verak: Jul 5th 2012, 1:13 AM

[poopooface]

R&R stands for Rock-n-Roll, and this couple left the competition
Ukrainian version is crazy not only in its dances, but in its voting. It was one of my favourite couples (oh, well, I love everybody in this show, but that particular couple is so great in lyrical and technical dances - and we did not have a chance to see them in it)

OH NOZ!! How could they let that awesome dance B3?? But I guess it was a pretty strong week for routines which elevates the randomness of who end up in B3.

[poopooface]

OK, now videos:
The group dance - the only one I really liked this Friday

Modern - Mariam&Jenia1 (Jenia looks great and his hair fits very well in a character )

Natalia&Jenia2 - cha-cha - Ghostbusters (if it was without all those props - would be much better)

I love the beginning and end, especially how each couple is doing its own thing but staying in the same atmosphere. Overall though, I wasn't too excited. For me, the power of the tango lies in its sexual intimacy and doing a group tango ironically defuses that rather than enhance it.
Overall OTT grade: D

Modern - At first I thought "Orpheus? really? Of all the OTT Greek Myths to choose from, you go with this?" But Ukraine has a knack for pulling off OTT when you least except it, and this ended up being a solid OTT piece; a worthy successor to the kill-you-with-a-gun endings of the previous weeks. The melodrama towards the end was certainly rivaled those routines and since the wife has to go back to the underworld, it still counts as one of those dances where somebody dies at the end! XD Actually, I thought the parts before the end were kinda campy too. I dunno, those smiles came off kinda creepy to me. So ultimately this was more of a camp OTT routine rather than a good OTT routine for me, but OTT is still OTT.
Overall OTT grade: A

cha-cha - Yes! This is what I'm talking about! Ukrainian SYTYCD at it's finest!! I have to disagree about the props though. The props are the star of this routine. The ending with the missing judge?? LOL! Good fun creative piece.
Overall OTT grade: A

[poopooface]

Dasha&Kolia - hip-hop

Katia&Vasia - contemp

Lena&Jenia3 - jazz (grotesque)

Robot/Fraken hip-hop is more of a cliche than OTT so no creativity points here. It was ok but nothing that really stood out.
Overall OTT grade: D

Contemp - Is Isabelle the Ukranian version of Travis/Tookey? Certainly seems like it from the choreo. Even Travis and Tookey are more OTT than her though so I'm not digging her style.
Overall OTT grade: D-

Jazz - Niiiiiicccccccceeeeeeeeee. YES!! THIS IS WHY I'M FOLLOWING THIS THREAD!!! This is the kinda shizz that will never fly in the U.S! Totally Ukranian original masterpiece and hands down my favorite of the week. I see as the spiritual successor to the crazy tik-tok routine from last week. Nicely done!
Overall OTT grade: A

[poopooface]

Angela&Tony - jazz-funk - dance starts at 2:15

Ilina&Roma - paso - dance itself starts at 1:35, but for those who like OTT factor - I recommend to watch a rehearsal part, too


Galia&Tolik - jazz

jazz-funk - Dancing with the wolfman is also kind of a cliche so no OTT points awarded for that. In fact, even though this routine has higher production value, I would argue it's actually less OTT than it's american counterparts (Comfort/Jose from S7 and Melanie/Twitch from S8). In the American versions, we at least see the guy do some OTT "AAWoooooooooooooooooooo"-ing but in this one he just disappears and lets the set awoooooo for him. The rest of the dance was also nothing special.
Overall OTT grade: D

paso - the rehearsal package is a little bit OTT but that dance is only so-so in that department. I do like the beginning where the girl is on the stake but then we find out she's escaped soon after. XD Otherwise, I've already forgotten most of it
Overall OTT grade: C

jazz - ugh, more of the Ukrainian Travis Tookey? This is no better than angel version. I do like the idea of doing an angel dance and a demon dance but what's the point if the only difference is that they're going to be the same except in costume color scheme? Or maybe there is some meta-meaning to this duology? The point is that heaven/angel dance and the demon/hell dance are really not opposites but the same state of no-consciousness (because both routines induce sleep)? In other words, the two routines together was some sort of atheist manifesto? If so, then both routines deserve an A+ for the OTT grade but unless they talked about this in the video-packages, I'm going to assume that's not the case.
Overall OTT grade: D

This post has been edited by poopooface: Apr 2nd 2012, 9:54 PM

[poopooface]

And the last ones:
Tisato&Ilia waltz - as I say, I liked it but it was rightly in a B3 because of Ilia

And here is Marta&Sasha (I guess somebody will give them a good mark for OTT factor)

My two favorite couples!

waltz - pretty solid OTT ending here with the girl disappearing and the guy getting upset. I've come to expect more from Ukraine though so not that exciting for me.
Overall OTT grade: C

Quickstep - This is a very promising OTT setting but ultimately I don't think they fulfilled it's potential. I would use the fact that it was a ballroom routine to argue that the routine's OTT potential capped, but other OTT masterpieces such as Corpse Waltz and the more recent peasant-girl-with-machine-gun-jive has made destroyed that defense. Still an overall solid OTT performance, but I didn't feel the quickstep portion of the dance maintained was integrated well into the OTT atmosphere the way, say, corpse-waltz was. Also at them covering up Marta so much, stripping away any jiggle-factor that an extra-bouncy dance like a quickstep could have had. Why couldn't she have worn the same fabric as last week?
Overall OTT grade: B
Overall jiggle-factor grade: D

[poopooface]

And dances-for-life - jazz-funk:

And after this they were sent home...

hmm.... Not much memorable stuff going on here IMO, OTT or otherwise. I think this might be counted as evidence that dancers are not quite ready to take over choreo duty for the main part of the show.

Somebody's gotta go home though. Maye there are too many foxy brunettes splitting votes? XD I've only been watching the youtube vids, but I can't really tell much difference between fraken-robot and cha-cha ghost. The only two dancers I can actually tell apart from the others at this point is Misato and Marta and the red-head.

Anyway my personal top 3 are Kitchen-nightmare, Ghostbusters, and quickstep, in that order.
My personal B3 are the two Isabelle routines and the werewolf routine.

I'm just glad Marta is safe!

[verak]

Contemp - Is Isabelle the Ukranian version of Travis/Tookey? Certainly seems like it from the choreo. Even Travis and Tookey are more OTT than her though so I'm not digging her style.
Overall OTT grade: D-

Isabelle is the "normal" guest choreographer from NL. I would say her level is something between Stacey and Mia, IMHO. She is very far from Ukrainian OTT style, she is serious.

This post has been edited by verak: Apr 3rd 2012, 2:26 AM