Wednesday, March 12, 2008

So You Think You Can Dance Contestants Complaining about the format of the. WTF?

An article today in the Daily Terror about SYTYCD contestants who have been eliminated complaining about the judges being biased and not liking the format of the show has me completely gobsmacked.

The Daily Telegraph states the growing wave of discontent from evicted performers has forced producers to defend accusations that its judges are biased.

Marko of course was quoted, clearly still whinging about his elimination.

"I have had a lot of people tell me they're shocked I was eliminated because I was the only contemporary jazz dancer who knew about technique," said Marko Panzic, who was eliminated last week.
"When Hilton got thrown out in the second week I realised that talent and technique meant nothing, that this really was a reality TV show.
"Friends of mine from the Sydney Dance Company and the Australian Ballet are asking me, 'How can they (judges and producers) do this?'."


Maybe he should take his attention from the judges and blame the viewers as his elimination occurred in the week JD was made safe after completely botching the tango.

Also his and Stephanie's krumping routine was ordinary, as was their swap routine the week before.

Stephanie raised that as an issue as well saying "We were given really silly styles, with Swap (a combination of swing and hip hop) and Krump (aggressive hip hop) - and that was not good for us," she said.

The judges - Jason Coleman, Bonnie Lythgoe and Matt Lee - have also been criticised for inconsistency or, in the case of Lythgoe, commenting more on looks.

"Bonnie wasn't giving us as much about the performance as how we looked and what the performance was about - not so much anything about the technique," complained Sermsah Bin Saad, who was eliminated on Monday night's show.

I think the format of the show is much fairer then other voter participation shows, as parochial viewers (who will vote for favourites, rather then best) give the judges three people to pick from in the important early weeks when we don't know much about the dancers.

Then after seeing all dancers in five shows we then are given the "responsibility" of voting them out.

This is reality TV if they want to be judged on technique enter an eisteddfod.

For how to act post elimination maybe they need to follow Laura's lead who shows how to exit the show with grace and dignity in an interview with Adelaide Now.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have these dancers not watched any US SYTYCD?

I keep reading comments (by Marko(!) and the dancers who are still on the show) about how Marko is a technical dancer and a fabulous dancer, but I was underwhelmed by his solo. The flow of his solo was very good, but bent knees, lack of height in his jumps, and 'hoppy' landings don't make me think he is a fabulous technical dancer. Sorry!

Anonymous said...

I think these are just peoples opinions. And i loved Marko's solo thought it was fantastic but it was hard because JD should of been in the bottom three that week but he wasn't. Marko out of the top 20 did have the best technique if you know what technique is.

Anonymous said...

You really need to be more careful with these things. Twisting people's words, it's not right, and it's something the Daily Telegraph specialise in. Marko could easily have been prompted into those comments by questions. For example, they could have asked him "What have been people's reactions to your elimination?" to which he said "I have had a lot of people tell me they're shocked I was eliminated because I was the only contemporary jazz dancer who knew about technique."

Your headline is also inappropriate, Marko didn't complain about the format of the show. Stephanie did, complaining about how they were given "silly" styles to dance. I think that's a rather wtf thing to say, considering everyone knows the whole competition is based on doing different genres.

To be honest, I would rather read comments from people like Marko and Stephanie, who are interesting and make comments that we can all disucss, than bland, polite comments from people like Laura.

Anonymous said...

PS - I totally agree with Sermsah and I'm glad that someone close to the show has commented on Bonnie. His words weren't complaining or whinging or ranting, there was no tone like that. And again, his comments could be made because of being prompted by something like "How did you find Bonnie's judging on the show?" He made a short statement about something many people feel - that Bonnie doesn't actually JUDGE, or even talk about dance a lot of the time, instead she focuses on how people look.

I appreciate the honesty, and I hope more people express their opinions about things like this, and the producers listen, so next season can be better.

Anonymous said...

To the posters above, with all due respect, it is hard not to take it the wrong way when Marko reported that "a lot of people tell me they're shocked I was eliminated because I was the only contemporary jazz dancer who knew about technique." Vanessa is listed as a ballet/contemporary jazz dancer, and I think she does know about technique.

Anonymous said...

Yes, he did say that, and Vanessa is indeed a Ballet/Contemporary dancer, but he said that OTHER PEOPLE have told him he "was the only contemporary jazz dancer who knew about technique." He didn't say "I have issues with my elimination, I think it's crap because I'm the only contemporary jazz dancer who knew about technique". He was relaying what OTHER people had said to him, about him.

Anonymous said...

I understand that it was presented as what other people said, but it would not be cool to say "A lot of people told me that they thought the other dancers are not up to par.". So sometimes it is not the best thing to repeat others' opinions, especially if you do not agree with it.

Having read the other dancers' blog, it seems that everyone likes Marko. I am just saying knowing that the media can quote out of context, why risk it?

Anonymous said...

I don't know... I get the feeling he is one of those people who are very honest and don't censor themselves. Maybe he doesn't care about being misquoted and manipulated. Or maybe he was naive and too trusting of the reporter?

I heard that that article where Jack's sister "complained" about Demi was completely twisted. Apparently the reporter called her and lied and said that he was a dance teacher at a school and they were interested in Jack, and so on, and then got some sound bites and twisted it around to create "drama".

Reality Raver said...

By the way I don't like nor dislike Marko he was just one of those contestants who was middle of the road to me.

But quoting your friend or people you know - of course they are not going to say "It was your time to go mate".

If one of my friends was eliminated from reality tv show I would be saying "That sucked you were sooo much better then the others."

By the way I was not implying Sermsah was whingeing. I thought it was interesting what he said about Bonnie.

Sort of saying her comments were irrelevant, which is the view I am coming around to.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, she doesn't really seem to judge the actual dancing. She goes on about chemistry and candlelit dinners etc too much. I probably wouldn't mind her so much, if she didn't talk on and on and on and on. She rambles for so long and barely mentions the actual dancing!

Anonymous said...

You know, if all of the people who are quoted in the media were actually precise about what they were saying, then there would be no room for interpretation would there?
I really am sick to death of wannabes and celebutantes bleating about being "taken out of context" and having their "words twisted".
A vast majority of them are illiterate and inarticulate anyway.
Get over it...

Reality Raver said...

This may be mildly off topic - however I think we should remember how the reality tv producers and PR girls manipulate the viewer, and at times use the media to do this.

For example last year on American Idol to boost sliding ratings they were trying to tell us (through the media) that there was a feud between the judges.

And when that did not work the next week they beat up the whole Tarasai diva issue.

They are just two unsubtle examples.