Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Teldon's Rewatch Review --: Season 5, Episode 6: Lady Gaga Challenge

Please note this is a non-elimination round due to incorrect voting numbers that were accidentally displayed at the end of the previous episode. Tonight, instead of sending one crew home, the judges will hand out immunity (for the first time ever) to one crew for the next show.

Tonight's Judging guideline:- How well did they bring Gaga to the stage with their dancing?  Did they make you feel like it was a Gaga-style show?
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Static Noyze dancing to "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich" by Lady Gaga
Was it clean/Was it Difficult? What a great way to start off the show.  This routine was seductively clean.  They moved as a well oiled unit from beginning to end. Only thing was the girls' partner work was sloppy and off sync for their solo. 9 pts
Was it well thought out/How well did they handle the theme? This was another one of those routines that built on itself.  Every element was introduced at the beginning and used with care.  They had smart transitions that highlighted their moves and framed them nicely. They took some risks with their visuals and made them work. 10 pts
How well did they do the challenge? It really did feel like a Gaga performance with the way they danced and used the props. The casual indifference they brought to the routine really made everything stand out as well. 10 pts
What were the highlights? The upside down foot tutting and the flip off the table.
Total points- 29 pts

Blueprint Cru dancing to "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga
Was it clean/Was it Difficult? They managed to marry their style with the stylized randomness of Gaga.  Everyone was on point and they worked outside their comfort zone to make a great performance. 10 pts
Was it well thought out/How well did they handle the theme? They delivered another routine that just kept getting better and better, from the march up to the chairs and revealing the ladies to powerful ending. 10 pts
How well did they do the challenge? Another knockout blow for this episode.  The look and the attitude was there and in the dancing as well. 10 pts
What were the highlights? The ending. One year later and I am still creeped out by it.
Total points- 30 pts
Note- JC announced: "That was the best performance of Season Five." JC --  Don't you think it is still just a bit early to say that?  I admit this is a great routine and one I would expect as a Last Chance Challenge or end-of-season routine.  Let's wait a few more weeks before we start saying things like that.

Jungle Boogie dancing to "Video Phone" by Beyoncé featuring Lady Gaga
Was it clean/Was it Difficult? Eck!  That was not clean (in more ways then one :P).  Everyone was either lost or screwed up something in this routine.  From the chairs and the handstand to floor work, something was off.  I can tell they put thought in this and they really did try but it is what it is. 5 pts
Was it well thought out/How well did they handle the theme? It was well thought out but boring.  Nothing really jumped out to me as exciting. 6 pts
How well did they do the challenge? They did okay here since they had to do both Gaga and Beyonce (BeGaga!) and Raqi worked her butt off to pull that off.  Besides her and the wardrobe, nothing really stood out as Gagaesque. 6 pts
What were the highlights? The ending was delightfully nasty.
What, if anything, took away from the performance? the chair screw ups
Total points- 17 pts

Heavy Impact dancing to "LoveGame" by Lady Gaga
Was it clean/Was it Difficult? It was clean for the most part, but it felt like they were off on their moves throughout this set. I can't really pinpoint anything wrong with how they danced; it's more of a gut feeling. 6 pts
Was it well thought out/How well did they handle the theme? Come on, once we saw them on the poles in the package you knew this was going to some kind of special. 7 pts
How well did they do the challenge? They handled this part okay.  They delivered some moves of Gaga and brought the spirit of her to the stage.7 pts
What were the highlights? THE POLEDANCING!!!!!  OMGBESTTHINGEVER!!!11!!!1!
What, if anything, took away from the performance? weak stunts
Total points- 20 pts
Note- this was like Vogue Evolution's Week Three routine.  I love the hell out this routine and that may have colored my ability to judge it fairly and they may have gotten too high a score.

Hype 5-0 dancing to "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga
Was it clean/Was it Difficult? Despite the rocky start, this was a clean routine that highlighted that they can do more then just power choreo and big moves. Moves were handled well, with no glaring mistakes.  The ladies stepped up their game from the previous week as well. 8 pts
Was it well thought out/How well did they handle the theme? Besides the opening, they thought this one through.  Great formations and transitions helped this performance get better the more it went on. 8 pts
How well did they do the challenge? They did okay here.  Besides the opening nothing really felt like Gaga to me. 5 pts
What, if anything, took away from the performance? The living mannequin opening.
Total points- 21 pts

Poreotix dancing to "Paparazzi" by Lady Gaga
Was it clean/Was it Difficult? It was clean, it was boring, and it had no energy to it whatsoever.  There were moments I thought they were gonna pick it up but that too fell flat.  The moves were nowhere near as exciting as they have shown in the past few weeks. 3 pts
Was it well thought out/How well did they handle the theme? I could somewhat tell where they were going with this, but nothing in it made much sense at all. The transitions just seemed to be the same thing over and over again.  The use of the cruthches was poor.  Yes I do realize it was a tribute section to the other crews, but they could have done much more with them. 4 pts
How well did they do the challenge? Poorly.  The jokester crew is finally given the keys to the kingdom to go absolutely insane with thier ideas, and they bring nothing to the table except a gay joke.  Really?  That is all you could think of?  Fail. 1 pts
What were the highlights? That it was over
Total points- 8 pts
Note- I already can hear the complaints of me not getting this crew or that they were limited by such a short time.  Blah, Blah, Blah.  Don't make excuses for them.  They sucked this week, plain and simple.


Saltare dancing to "Just Dance" by Lady Gaga featuring Colby O'Donis
Was it clean/Was it Difficult? And they're back, ladies and gentleman!  Good set that was mostly together.  The actual dancing and non rope tricks were clean and together.  It was the rope work this week that was a bit off sync, most noticeably toward the end before they do the sitting butt jumps. (8)pts
Was it well thought out/How well did they handle the theme? It was a good routine that built on itself, and the only real problem I had was their song. Yes, they started out dancing and it would have loved to see just a bit more of it. 8 pts
How well did they do the challenge? They may not have captured the physical look 100%, but they did capture Gaga's spirit with their attitudes. Nice job. 8 pts
What were the highlights? The butt jumping
Total points- 24 pts

Did the judges give the free pass to the right crew? I wanna say yes, but I wanna say no.  Hhands down, Blueprint Cru did the best this night score-wise.  Static Noyze also really killed it.  In the end I was glad it went to one of those crews.

Which three crews should be in the bottom for next episode and why? Based on tonight's performances, I would like to see Jungle Boogie, Heavy Impact and Poreotix in the bottom next week.  They gave poor performances and all three could use a kick in the butt to wake up for this competition, especially Poreotix.
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Tonights Rankings (based on tonight's score)
1. Blueprint Cru 30 pts
2. Static Noyze 29 pts
3. Saltare 24 pts
4. Hype 5-0 21 pts
5. Heavy Impact 20 pts
6. Jungle Boogie 17 pts
7. Poreotix 8 pts

Power rankings (based on placement average)
1. Static Noyze (8)
2. Bluprint Cru (6.7) granted immunity this week
2. Hype 5-0 (6.7)
4. Royal Flush (5.7) 8th place
5. Jungle boogie (5.3)
6. Saltare (4.7)
7. Poreotix (4)
8. Heavy Impact (3)
9. Swagger Crew (1) 9th place

Thoughts on the episode as a whole- It was an okay episode.  I wanted this episode to happen for so long, but I feel only two crews really understood the singer and delivered on it.   

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