346 replies to this topic

[Absolom]

This show is not as popular as Dance Moms it seems. Last night it received 1.112 million viewers and a 0.4 rating.

[TomGirl]

I watched last night, and I think I'm gonna like this show. It's nice to see a new crop of dancers besides the usual Dance Moms group, and some seem like great dancers and great kids. I especially like Brianna, Madison and Amanda, and little Asia is just too cute. Abby is balanced by the other two judges, and so far the moms don't seem like evil caricatures or screaming harpies. I suppose that part will change!!

Thanks for starting this forum, Absolom!

[Midoria]

I'm looking forward to this show too. It's nice to have a similar aspect to dance moms, but with more dancing and more kids. I like how the children get a chance to speak for themselves directly after they perform. Something about seeing them still in the moment is refreshing instead of the talking heads where things happened hours (or days) before they are asked about it.

Asia makes me laugh. I can't believe she's only 7. If I didn't know better, I think she was a dwarf posing as a child. She could teach Maddie a few things about facial expressions. Hers were off the chain.

[TomGirl]

I think Jordyn will be another interesting kid to watch. She kind of reminds me of a hybrid of Maddie and Paige, which will make Abby's reactions to her interesting.

[dreamcoat11]

This seems like a glorified audition for Dance Moms, especially with the emphasis on the moms.

[meatball77]

I thought the show was trashy fun, although the drama with the youngest group was horrible. Those poor crying kids. The idea that a six year old can compete in a competition with a 13 year old and it even remotely make sense is absurd.

Here's a video of Asia dancing. Horrifficly inappropriate
http://www.youtube.c...&feature=relmfu

[moreorlessnu]

When the group was performing Abby's choreography, it looked like a stage full of girls imitating Maddie's dances.

[GrrlPower]

This show is not as popular as Dance Moms it seems. Last night it received 1.112 million viewers and a 0.4 rating.

I wonder if people remembered, I certainly forgot with The Voice being on. This show is never going to be as popular as DM only because DM is often on in the summers when there's nothing else on. With AUDC premiering in the Fall the week after a bunch of other big shows premiered, I don't expect much in the way of ratings.

Here's a video of Asia dancing. Horrifficly inappropriate
http://www.youtube.c...&feature=relmfu

Oh dear...oh my....Inappropriate is not the word. There's no need to sexualize this child for a dance competition. The unfortunate thing is that this is standard choreography in the dance world (the police outfit bought at a sex shop is not standard, but the choreography is). I've even seen Abby having her DM troupe doing those same booty popping and "drop it low, pick it up slow" moves, too. The difference is that Asia is an excellent dancer and really sells those moves. When someone like Mackenzie does those moves, I get the feeling of a little girl trying on her mother's heels. When Asia does it, it looks like a miniature woman doing grown woman moves. It just looks more horrific when Asia does it because Asia's more cognizant of her body and her movements while Mackenzie just kinda jumps around - but it's the same moves.

No girl should have to do that choreography, but that shock-and-awe choreography is especially not necessary with a child like Asia who is so naturally gifted and wildly talented. Gimmicks of any kind - sexual or otherwise - are not necessary when the child has such passion for dance, technique (for her age), and performance ability. Point is - that was disappointing on many levels.

Edited by GrrlPower, Oct 10, 2012 @ 7:57 PM.

[aimlessbird]

I predict that Madison is going to be Abby's favorite on this show!

http://www.dancersha...madison-oconnor

She seems very similar to Maddie on Dance Moms except that she's a few years older than Maddie

[Sugarwater]

Jordyn reminded me a lot of Mia from Dance Moms Miami.

[twtexas17]

I know I'm gong to hell for saying this but why are all the girl's voices deeper than Zack's? His voice is too damn high (compared to the 13 y/o boys I know), but he is so cute and can dance his butt off. I don't know what to feel about Asia. On one hand I want to root for her because she brings the sass, but on the other hand, she is bringing it too hard for her age which makes it borderline inappropriate. At times it looks like she does the Honey boo boo sass because she was told to do it rather than it being natural.

I too am going to like this show and my eyes are on the red head, I think her name is Brianna.

On the first episode, I got my hopes up thinking Abby was really going to do an actual turn and leg extensions when she had to teach the group her routine. I was saddened. I only saw arms. I think the first episode would have been better if we saw more of an audition. Like, show how they chose the 14 and throw in some bad dancers. That would have made it more like SYTYCD , but that's the kind of think I want to see.

[Absolom]

Asia looked to me like she should have been on Toddlers and Tiaras instead of a dance competition. There was the same lack of concern over an inappropriate costume and booty shaking moves plus the ever present show off the crotch move. She's talented but that was far overshadowed to me by the over the top attempt at sexy and dancing in one spot playing to the judges.

[WelcomeStranger]

Okay, wow. Asia is amazing for her age. Performance ability cannot be taught.

Way too sexy, way inappropriate, what's her mother thinking--yes, yes, yes, all that. But damn! I can't help but look past that to her talent.

Great performance, great extensions, obvious X factor. Now it's time to get busy on technique. Let's hope that being on a reality show so young won't stunt that development.

As for the show itself, all the contentestants blended together to me. There hasn't been much of an attempt by the producers to differentiate yet. The thing that made happiest was seeing Anthony Burrell, the instructor. He was robbed--ROBBED!--of a spot on So You Think You Can Dance, Season 7.

[Porky]

Did that female judge really tell a child that she was born to be a Pussycat Doll?

Here's a video of Asia dancing. Horrifficly inappropriate
http://www.youtube.c...&feature=relmfu

Not only is this entire thing wildly inappropriate, but at one point I'm pretty sure she spanks herself. WTF?

[Midoria]

Did that female judge really tell a child that she was born to be a Pussycat Doll?

Yes. But to be fair, Robin IS the founder of the Pussycat Dolls. I'm sure she totally meant that as a compliment.

[dmmetler]

I can understand Lexine's mother telling her that it's ok-we can go home now (and that Lexine should feel good, proud of herself, and so on). In a competition where you can be handed any style, and you get a style you're not confident in, it's tough to recover-and it's important to keep perspective-that you can go out for ice cream , pick yourself up, and go back to ballet with your head held high. Since she's not a hip-hop dancer and doesn't Focus on tumbling, I'm not surprised she had trouble with walkovers in a way that girls ago do mostly competition dance don't.

[GrrlPower]

Yes. But to be fair, Robin IS the founder of the Pussycat Dolls. I'm sure she totally meant that as a compliment.

Which is why Robin should not be a judge for a kid's talent competition. Everything about her brand is inappropriate for children and it's not like the Pussycat Dolls actually dance anyway, so where is her credibility? You can talk about Abby all day, but at least Abby has a resume to support her - same for the boy judge - all Antin has is the Pussycat Dolls. She's a glorified burlesque dancer. Nothing wrong with that for adult entertainment, but her POV just isn't an appropriate criteria for judging kids. She has built her career, not on dancing, but on a specific type of entertainment - sexualized entertainment. Again, nothing wrong with that for adult consumption, but this is a kid's competition. What is Robin Antin doing here?

Asia looked to me like she should have been on Toddlers and Tiaras instead of a dance competition. There was the same lack of concern over an inappropriate costume and booty shaking moves plus the ever present show off the crotch move. She's talented but that was far overshadowed to me by the over the top attempt at sexy and dancing in one spot playing to the judges.

I was too busy looking for the hip hop in the routine to be bothered by the booty slap. How do you choreograph a hip hop routine with no damn hip hop?

Asia is a beautiful dancer. She is oversexualized because of her choreographers (and her mother who compromises Asia's well-being for fame). Asia is right where she belongs in a competitive dance show; it is her choreographers who should be pageant coaches on Toddlers and Tiaras.

[Porky]

Yes. But to be fair, Robin IS the founder of the Pussycat Dolls. I'm sure she totally meant that as a compliment.

I don't doubt that she meant it as a compliment. But any child, or especially their parent, should be ashamed at receiving a "compliment" like that, especially at that age.

Was it my imagination, or did the hip hop dance appear to be more hip hop during rehearsals than during the performance?

[dmmetler]

A lot of hip-hop done in dance studios is really more "street Jazz" than hip-hop, and even if the girls were starting to relax and get into the hip-hop feel/groove, I can see why they'd have lost that on stage. Even those who take hip-hop classes are probably spending a majority of their time on ballet and jazz technique, and once you're trained in Ballet, especially, it's hard to lose that. It takes more than just changing the music to make a dance a new style.

I'm guessing that it's easier for young, physically talented girls to excel at tumbling than at highly technical dance? Asia is extremely good for her age, but I notice that her "hip-hop" routine, like Mackenzie's "Jazz" routines, seems to focus on handspring, a few dance steps, side-Aerial, a few steps, pose, etc. The older girls seem to actually be dancing a majority of the time.

I'm also guessing little Asia and the boy, whatever his name is, are going to be around awhile. Not because they're necessarily better than the dancers that were eliminated, but because they make good TV. Similarly, I assume the moms who are kind of ignorable and are setting their daughters up to be cannon fodder. (Personally, I'd have been tempted to drop my daughter off at class and go explore LA!) I do hope that they have some different talking heads next time. It was very, very jarring to have exactly the same "mom and daughter talking about dance" clip in BOTH the casting ep and the 1st competitive ep, especially when watched back to back. I actually checked my TIVO to make sure that I wasn't watching the same ep twice.

[Absolom]

I was wondering how they got to the fourteen dancers who initially competed. Auditions? I think it would have been more fun if it had been a true competition more like the big shows where thousands compete. Seeing at least 100 try out would have made it better for me. Asia and the boy are immature dancers and pretty sloppy appearing. That's normal for their ages and amount of time dancing. For both of them the time will come (or should be here) when they slow down learning new tricks and refine what they are doing. As Abby said three turns done perfectly is much preferable to five sloppy ones. I can't believe I agreed with Abby. The "judges" seem so diverse and like they grabbed who would do the show rather than aiming for quality or reasonableness. Robin has been widely panned as not being any kind of choreographer. In fact she hired a choreographer for the PCD.

[Midoria]

I don't doubt that she meant it as a compliment. But any child, or especially their parent, should be ashamed at receiving a "compliment" like that, especially at that age.

True. But considering how Asia's mother lets her basically do a sexy cop stripper dance in a competition, I can't really be too offended at Robin's comment. Asia does look perform like an adult (fake eyelashes and makeup when she's not performing, really?), so Robin assessed her as one. It's not right, but it's understandable in this particular case.

[cupFloweR]

I just watched it online and at the end they had this "small print" :

Portions of this program not affecting the outcome of the competition have been edited/recreated.

Contestants are provided the rules for the competition in advance of their participation and are also advised that the judges consider their own scores and the input from the producers and Lifetime Television in reaching their elimination decisions.

We all know reality is not real. But they clearly state that it is not a real competition based on talent since the producers have input on who stays and who goes. This would explain why that girl (Elizabeth?) gave her whole spiel about the divorce (pity from producers) and that the cast is playing to the producers.

This is not new information, I just found it interesting that they laid it out the way they did. I haven't seen/noticed this on the bottom of other shows.

[Absolom]

Perhaps the TLC Amish fakery is causing others to feel a need to protect themselves? This show has a very fake vibe to me and I wasn't sure why. I think part of it was beginning with just 14 students and they were already in LA. I'm more American Idol trained when it comes to seeing the competition shows and even a clip show of the early auditions would have made it seem more solid to me. This show feels to me more like they sent them through casting instead of auditions. I'll probably still watch but so far no kid or mom has drawn me in.

[onmytiptoes]

I'm starting to get into this show. I don't doubt these kids (and their moms) were chosen through a casting process rather than a talent search style audition though. It's more important for them to have moms that'll bring the drama than the best of the best dancers (especially given how badly they edit the dance numbers!).

I was watching clips of the kids in dance competitions on youtube and Amanda (who was in the contemporary duet with Elizabeth and Breanna) was a winner of Paula Abdul's dance competition show, Live to Dance. Here's her and her partner's audition: http://www.youtube.c...?v=1PlPT0ZjJUY.

This probably validates the fact that the kids were all picked through a casting process, but she seems adorable and very very talented.

[noodlymom]

So I caught up on all the episodes of this show last night. First, the kids are very talented. However, I agree that Robin's choreo was awful. Grinding and swinging an arm around? yech.

When the blonde who is always crying (Elizabeth???) won the technique challenge I was all DUH, she is clearly the oldest and should have the best technique. How can Asia compete honestly? The best 6 year old dancer on the planet should never be even close to as good as a 13 year old, even one who doesn't dance 20+ hours a week. Speaking of Ms. Boo Hoo with the extensions- my goodness could she cry more over nothing? I think she was crying in her first interview. She may have a nervous breakdown by the end of this, she is just not fit for real competition. BTW, go on and on about how pretty you are and then talk about being humble. Yeah, the audience might buy that. *eyeroll*

On a shallow note, there are some beautiful children on here! Asia, Tua...just stunning. That has to be a huge benefit on a show like this.

I did feel badly for the girl who fell on her front walkover. First, front walkovers are way harder than back walkovers. Second, are acro tricks becoming that common in dance? It seems like since Dance Moms premiered I see a huge rise in acro tricks. My daughter doesn't dance competitively but takes an acro class because she loves it, so I don't know if this is common in competition now or what.

[Absolom]

I have a tiny bit of behind the scenes knowledge. Robin isn't really a choreographer or at least not even a halfway decent one. Most of the things where she's listed as a choreographer someone else was actually doing it. In this case she may well have done it since it's really a tiny show and she's probably not being paid enough to hire her usual ghost choreographer.

Abby loves the tricks. A lot of her choreography seems to be walk, trick, pose, spin, repeat, repeat, repeat, with a few extra tricks thrown in randomly. Abby appears on the show to think that no child is a true competition dancer without all the standard tricks.

[TomGirl]

There's something just a little scary about Jordyn. She's even more Maddie than Maddie, if you know what I mean.

Hadley seems like a nice kid, but her mother is something else.

Elizabeth is also probably a nice girl, but is getting a pretty bad edit.

I still bet on my original three - Brianna, Amanda and Madison.

[berwoman]

I know why Elizabeth's mother is getting divorced... those eyebrows scared her husband away!

[GrrlPower]

Did Elizabeth just roll out those fake White girl tears and give the "it's so hard being pretty" speech? Seriously?

There's something just a little scary about Jordyn. She's even more Maddie than Maddie, if you know what I mean.

Somehow, watching Jordyn do a routine in a costume that both seem to be made for Maddie made me see similarities in the girls' personalities, but I disagree that Jordyn is scary like Maddie. Maddie dances for approval from others whereas Jordyn seems to dance for herself. I loved that Jordyn left the stage after bad critiques and did a TH saying she loved her dance and that it felt right. Maddie would have torn herself apart based on what the judges said. I was kind of meh about Jordyn, but after that TH (and how she took her mother's blame game in stride) really made me love Jordyn. They both have crazy stage moms, but I'm not scared for Jordyn the same way that I'm scared for Maddie simply because Jordyn seems more confident in who she is and isn't looking for approval (which can be very dangerous for females).

I thought the idea of "boy points" were bs until I heard the comments for Zack's performance. Yes, he has beautiful extensions, but the performance aspect was just not there. Hell, his technique should have been perfect since he took 2-3 counts for prep work before each of his turns and extensions. The girls are getting ripped apart for subjective things like "not looking scary enough", but he gets away with not performing? Not just gets away with it, he gets glowing comments - the judges were drooling over him. I don't get it.

Edited by GrrlPower, Oct 17, 2012 @ 5:52 PM.

[Absolom]

This show doesn't appear to be a ratings winner.

Last night: 894,000 viewers with a 0.4 rating.

I think those scary eyebrows are from a very bad botox job.

Edited by Absolom, Oct 17, 2012 @ 6:00 PM.