Parade Magazine Introduces World of Dance Season 3 Contestants!!

This is a nice article which introduces 15 of the 54 acts that will be competing on the upcoming season. I’ve put a short excerpt below, but click the link to read the whole article in Parade. Most of us will recognize this first group – every season they’ve had people competing on the show.

Dancetown Divas

Hometown: Miami, FL
Members: 15
Ages: 12-15
Style: Ballroom
Division: Junior Team
Bio: The Dancetown Divas, put together by choreographer Manny Castro, originate from the same Miami dance studio as World of Dance alumni Miami All-Stars and D’Angelo & Amanda from Season 1 and Jonas & Ruby and The Untouchables from Season 2. Individually, these girls have accomplished a lot, and they’re looking to prove that they belong on the big stage.

Derion & Madison

Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Members: 2
Ages: 23-28
Style: Contemporary
Division: Upper
Bio: This duo of extremely athletic dancers are known for doing the unexpected in their self-choreographed dance routines. They met while touring with Diavolo and instantly became fast friends, describing themselves as “twins separated at birth.” Their unique style, technique and ability to pull off the impossible, all while making it look easy, makes them a force to be reckoned with.

January 31, 2019 I Written By

I'm a nerd and proud of it. Two degrees in geology also means I love BEER. :-) I'm also a Derek lover - proud of that too. So don't scream at those of us on this site and call us a bunch of "biased Derek-lovers" - it's just ME. :-) It may sound like I hate DWTS at times, but really, I'm just a snarky nitpicker from way back. And I'm cynical and jaded too. But I do love DWTS. :-)

World of Dance Season 2! WEEK 4 Live Blog!!

Heidi’s currently eating gumbo in New Orleans, so you guys get me (Court) tonight.  Bear with me as I blog, I’m used to being able to move a bit slow and just focus on the music on first viewing – so I might be a bit behind the live broadcast.  And I reserve the right to change my mind upon a 2nd viewing of these acts – there’s already been acts that I wasn’t wild about at first, but warmed up to later (Desi Hoppers) and acts I like initially but didn’t stand up to the test of time (Hilty & Bosch).

Pre-show thoughts: I’m excited to see Jonas & Ruby, who are apparently in this qualifier.  In a lot of ways, I think Ruby’s star shines a bit brighter than big brother D’Angelo’s anymore – sometimes, I think being a younger sibling that lives in the shadow of a popular older sibling can motivate kids to really push hard. I’m less enthused that Eva Igo is back – aside from my aforementioned disdain for flaily contemporary, I’m going to be pretty bored if she makes the finals again, unless she’s really taken this past year as an opportunity to grow and expand her repertoire.

First up is Jonas & Ruby.  Yasssssss 🙂

Jonas looks so much like my ex. And his name is nearly identical.

My god Ruby is such a little firecracker.   And Jonas has really come into his own.  Both of them have GREAT feet.

I kinda see what Derek is talking about with the costumes – especially the cloth on Ruby’s costume.  Kept waiting for Jonas to rip & off and do something big with it and…nothing. Chekov’s gun of dancing – don’t show me an extraneous skirt at the beginning of the dance if you aren’t going to use it by the end.

They get 85, 87, & 82 (Ne-Yo, J-Lo, Derek) for an average of 84.7 and we’ll see them in the duels.  Derek of course mentions “a ballroom couple we had last year that came out strong in the qualifier but kinda fell flat in the duels” and of course he’s referring to D’Angelo & Amanda, which Ruby points out.  Luckily, at this point, I think she’s so used to being compared to him that she shakes it off and promises to come back stronger. And I think they likely will fare better than her brother & Amanda 😉

Next up is Bradas – a hip-hop crew from New Zealand. “Brada” is kiwi slang for “brother”.  Hopefully they’re more organized than the crew from last week from the Netherlands…Ragged?

Holy crap these guys are good – so many moving parts to this routine.  They’re flipping, they’re sliding, and they’ve got this cool bank robber narrative going. They were everything that crew from last week wanted to be, but fell short on. Contender alert!

They get 85, 92, 86 for average of 87.7 and they’re headed to the duels.  I could see them getting pitted against The Ruggeds (they’ll probably spin it as an international battle) and just SLAYING.

Now we’ve got Lucas Marinetto, who is a 14-year-old tap dancer from New Orleans. (I think…I don’t know how Heidi does this, so many details to remember!) Lucas’ dad apparently didn’t always approve off his dancing, which created a rift between them that looks like it only recently healed.  Awwww.

Errr, oops – he’s from Leesburg, VA.  My bad. And he’s incredibly charismatic and dancing his ass off.  Great musicality.  He might be a bit better than Kyle from last season, even.

J-Lo is right – he really is a showman.  Poor kid seems so reserved & shy when he’s just talking, but he comes ALIVE onstage.

He gets 82, 84, & 82, for an average of 82.7.  Ne-Yo says “You’re going to the duels, you know what a duel is, right? SOMEBODY IS TRYING TO TAKE YOUR MONEY!” Lucas: “So just like school, then.” I like this kid 😉

Next up is contemporary group Expressenz from my hometown of Indianapolis. They train with weights on their legs.  HARD CORE.

Those were quite possibly the most synchronized turning sections I’ve ever seen.  It was like watching 8 clones dancing, that in-sync.

I can see what Ne-Yo & Derek are saying – the routine did feel a bit “studio recital-y”, but I agree with J-Lo that there is still room for those feel-good, pretty dances in this competition.

84, 90, 87 – they’re headed through.  I hope their choreographer can pull out something edgy – I have a gut feeling we’ll see them pitted against the Fabulous Sisters.

Now we’ve got Poreotics, who won ABDC several years ago.  And some of them stop dancing and got “real jobs”, but saw Jabbawockeez dancing last season so they decided to get the band back together again to try out.

They are doing their usual robotics, and it’s humorous and very animated – then they threw in a vogueing and waacking section and I fell in love.

Derek & Ne-Yo are kinda going in a bit hard on them –  I actually found the whole thing was pretty inventive and detailed, but Derek & Ne-Yo seemed a tad bored by it.  Luckily J-Lo is on my side with this one and loved it.

87, 90, 87 – Derek & Ne-Yo kind of sharing a brain tonight. I could see Poreotics ending up in a 3-way duel with Elektro Botz & Dragon House (another group of animators that we haven’t seen yet).

I see that they’ve saved Eva Igo for last…*sigh* *shaking head*

She’s wearing a shredded dress perfect for angsty contemporary, and doing a bunch of flexibility tricks backstage.  I’m not optimistic.

She’s flipping.  She’s pulling her leg over her head.  She’s flailing.  There she goes pulling her leg up again.  Angsty face.  Angsty face. Another acrobatic trick. Sorry….really not feeling this.  It’s nothing new or different.

But the judges are gushing and I have a feeling we may see the first perfect 100 average of WOD.  God I hope they aren’t setting this up to be “Eva’s season”.

96, 95, 94 – average of 95.  She isn’t able to best Karen y Ricardo’s score, but it’s close. Ugh.

Oh boy – they’re billing next week as “a very special episode”.  Dare I ask…?

June 19, 2018 I Written By

Medical device sales by day, reality TV blogger by night. Makeup artist, baker, hair model, and wannabe DIY-er when time permits, and a potty-mouth 24/7. Read more of me at puredwts.com, and follow me on Twitter & Instagram: @putuincespence

World of Dance, By the Numbers – Week 7

Before we get started on the Cuts, let me point out to the still whining Jabbawockeez fans that the ratings didn’t crater in the least as you were predicting. They’re holding pretty steady and are, in fact, damn good ratings for a summer show. Guess you all don’t have the impact that you thought. I should point out that many of you whining on twitter whined about it so far after the fact that it was clear you didn’t watch the show as it aired or even within the following 24-48 hours. Why does this matter? Well, it means YOU DON’T COUNT in the ratings, dearies. If you can’t be bothered to watch the show for your favorite as it airs or shortly thereafter, you are not a significant part of the audience because you don’t impact the ratings. Sorry. 🙂

Anyway, welcome to the Cuts. The first week that the judges actually got it wrong at least once. It was bound to happen. We lost my beloved Lab and we have TWO contemporary dancers at the top of the junior division. This is a crime, IMO. Eva is great…so is Diana…but man. Come on. Eva at least changed up her routine. But young girls doing contemporary doesn’t move me. It doesn’t excite me. And RARELY is it compelling anymore – they all tend toward the same ticks and moves.

Diana is the first out of the gate of the Junior Division and does a perfectly nice dance, but it feels like I’ve seen it before – and her score (92) is ridiculously high and is the kiss of death.  I think it was Courtney (and others) who said that maybe the other divisions are too heavy in Hip Hop and I say that’s probably what they were trying to avoid….but I say so what if it is heavy in hip hop?? The Lab are amazing. Part of me wonders if the judges are just too susceptible to the youngsters being all heart wrenching. Read more..

July 24, 2017 I Written By

I'm a nerd and proud of it. Two degrees in geology also means I love BEER. :-) I'm also a Derek lover - proud of that too. So don't scream at those of us on this site and call us a bunch of "biased Derek-lovers" - it's just ME. :-) It may sound like I hate DWTS at times, but really, I'm just a snarky nitpicker from way back. And I'm cynical and jaded too. But I do love DWTS. :-)

World of Dance, By the Numbers – Week 6

Can I just say that I am SO sick and tired of the whining from the Jabbawockeez fans?? Look, I was a fan. I am a fan. But to claim they were cheated out of a win, or it was a “mistake” or that the show is “over” because they lost?? Get real. GROW UP! They are not the only great dancers in the competition. And they just weren’t bringing it – not for me, not for lots of people.  And, as you will see from the numbers below, they were NOT on track to win the show. Not even close. Neither is Ian Eastwood, who I much preferred. But I skip ahead…

Below is a table showing all of the dancers/teams who made it past the qualifiers and their qualifying scores. To recap, the highest scoring dancers from each category pick first who to duel against. Then the next highest and so on. Read more..

July 17, 2017 I Written By

I'm a nerd and proud of it. Two degrees in geology also means I love BEER. :-) I'm also a Derek lover - proud of that too. So don't scream at those of us on this site and call us a bunch of "biased Derek-lovers" - it's just ME. :-) It may sound like I hate DWTS at times, but really, I'm just a snarky nitpicker from way back. And I'm cynical and jaded too. But I do love DWTS. :-)

Pure World of Dance Season 1, Week 6 (Duels) – Power Rankings

So in what’s seemingly becoming a pattern – I apologize for the extreme tardiness of these rankings 😛 At least this time, I have a legitimate excuse – we were experiencing some pretty hefty technical difficulties this week, which have only recently gotten remedied. Thank god for bosses who know how to fix this stuff…thanks John!

This round of the power rankings is brought to you by this face, my favorite gif of the moment 😛 :

So this week wrapped up the duel round, and I gotta say – why the hell have they turned the last episode of each round into such a slapdash, gotta-fit-it-all-in-despite-taking-our-time-the-first-two-episodes pace? We’ve only got 4 episodes of this show left in the season, and there’s acts that we still know next to nothing about and have only seen tiny glimpses of, and the pacing of each of these third episodes of a round just leaves my head spinning.  Really hoping this was just a result of this being the rookie season of this show, and everything next season will be a lot better thought-out and more organized.

Another thing I’m hoping not to see next season? A bunch of previously-established acts with super-rabid fanbases that have a sense of entitlement about their faves. I’ve said it before, but I get the impression that certain acts may have been invited to do the show for the simple purpose of bringing along their previously-existing fanbases and hopefully boosting ratings for the show – I get that.  But at the same time, watching Jabbawockeez fans have an absolute MELTDOWN on Twitter and Ne-Yo (naively) trying to reason with them just gives me apoplexy. Oofdah. So let’s just leave it at “I get it, you needed to get viewers for the show.  Well now that you’ve got them and are guaranteed another season, maybe try turning your attention to fresh, new, undiscovered acts?”

So fifteen acts remain – five in each of the three divisions, and apparently that’s gonna get cut down by half in the next round…how? No idea 😛 But at this point, I think Kinjaz are the most likely to win the team division, now that Jabba is gone; The Lab, Diana Pombo, and Eva Igo will probably be duking it out for the junior division; and I’m not so sure now that Les Twins is gonna coast through and win the upper division spot in the finals – their appeal seems to be fading in the eyes of at least two judges, and I’m seeing more and more fans complaining online about how “overrated” they are. I’m not sure that it’s necessarily in the best interests of the show for these guys to win…but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.  I’m thinking Mihacevich Sisters, Immabeast, Pasion, Chapkis, Super Cr3W, and Swing Latino are probably goners in this next round – I just don’t think they can hang. The rest is up in the air. Read more..

July 15, 2017 I Written By

Medical device sales by day, reality TV blogger by night. Makeup artist, baker, hair model, and wannabe DIY-er when time permits, and a potty-mouth 24/7. Read more of me at puredwts.com, and follow me on Twitter & Instagram: @putuincespence

‘World Of Dance’ Season 1, Week Six – The Performance Videos

We’re posting the performance videos for World Of Dance Week Six courtesy of @Idolxfactor1 and WOD Official You Tube as soon as we can in the space below! Keep checking back….

ETA: Below are more of the performances. Sorry for the delay! We had some site issues last night.

The videos above work internationally! Below are you tubes from the official site…. Read more..

July 11, 2017 I Written By

Just a music and dancing fan here ....and a lover of life, nature, animals, and spending as much time as possible camping all over in our travel trailer. Favorite Quote at the moment: "Sing like no one is listening. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching, and live like it's heaven on earth." ~ William Purkey. Follow me at: Voguerista Twitter & Voguerista Soundcloud. To view my photography site, see Lisa Kay Photography.

World of Dance, By the Numbers – Week 5

No World of Dance this week due to the Fourth of July – Happy Independence Day everyone!! Despite there not being a show this week I figured I would post this now and give people time to think about it.

Another incredible week last week on World of Dance. Still a great show. But I have to make a comment on some complaints I’ve seen on social media.

Complaint number 1: “Derek, shut up, confidence is all part of Les Twins style, it’s part of battling, yadda yadda yadda” combined with some version of “you don’t know what you’re talking about” or “you’re just racist”.

Heidi’s answer: Oh grow up. When the “confidence” is against an opponent of a similar style and who was as successful in the first round as you were (like, say FIK-SHUN – you scared, Les Twins??)…and it occurs ONLY during the dance, then you might have a point. But I don’t think there is any question that the self-proclaimed “best dancers in the world” chose a dude at the bottom of the leader board doing a style they have little respect for and absolutely nothing in common with INSTEAD of a guy who’s style is very similar to theirs and who was also close to the top of the leader board. Les Twins had first pick and they went to the bottom of the leader board and proceeded to be arrogant as hell which was a complete turn off.  Even Ne-Yo questioned their choice – it’s an obvious question to ask, especially combined with the “confidence” that Les Twins was showing (that WAS off putting).  How do “confident” men pick a tapper at the bottom of the leaderboard? What were they afraid of?? The confident “best dancers in the world” would have picked Fik-shun. But they didn’t, which begs the questions. Read more..

July 4, 2017 I Written By

I'm a nerd and proud of it. Two degrees in geology also means I love BEER. :-) I'm also a Derek lover - proud of that too. So don't scream at those of us on this site and call us a bunch of "biased Derek-lovers" - it's just ME. :-) It may sound like I hate DWTS at times, but really, I'm just a snarky nitpicker from way back. And I'm cynical and jaded too. But I do love DWTS. :-)

Pure World of Dance Season 1 Contestant Profile: Miami All-Stars

Division: Team
Genre: Ballroom
From: Miami, FL

I feel like the Miami All-Stars were in a relatively unique situation on WOD this season – from what I can gather from one of the team members’ Instagram posts, they actually hadn’t been performing together for awhile when WOD was announced, and it seems they may only have reunited in order to try out for WOD. Reunited, you say? Well, back in 2011, they auditioned for America’s Got Talent (SYTYCD and Derek Hough fans, keep your eyes peeled towards the right side of the screen at the :35 mark to catch a glimpse of a pre-SYTYCD Rudy Abreu, who was a member at the time):

If the guy talking looks familiar, that’s Manny Castro – father of D’Angelo from D’Angelo & Amanda. Not sure if he is still choreographing/coaching the group or not (he wasn’t mentioned with regards to MAS when they did their qualifier performance), but the MAS are from his studio.  The judges loved them on AGT, and they advanced straight to the live shows without having to qualify in Vegas.  They made it through the top 48…those pink costumes look familiar?

And then also advanced through the semifinals (those outfits look kind of familiar, too)…

And ended up finishing that season in the top 10…

Court’s thoughts: I had really high hopes for them, given how much I loved them on AGT – but after seeing their qualifier performance, I’m wondering if WOD was really the right stage for them, both literally and figuratively-speaking. I’m thinking part of their appeal on AGT was their ability to fill up a HUGE stage with an action-packed routine – something that they kinda had to reign in for WOD, and I’d say with mixed results. Their duel performance was a huge improvement, and had they not been up against Swing Latino, I think they could have eked out another round on WOD. I’m not sure we’ll see them back next season – the members seem to be pretty tied up with other projects – but I am curious to see if Manny brings one of his studio’s other groups, The Untouchables or Dancetown Chaos, to try out…

Social media:

Miami All-Stars Facebook
Miami All-Stars Twitter
DancetownUSA Instagram (their home studio)

June 27, 2017 I Written By

Medical device sales by day, reality TV blogger by night. Makeup artist, baker, hair model, and wannabe DIY-er when time permits, and a potty-mouth 24/7. Read more of me at puredwts.com, and follow me on Twitter & Instagram: @putuincespence

World of Dance, By the Numbers – Week 4

I have to say, I really like the duels concept. I also appreciate that the high scoring duelers get to pick their competition in their category. And that means that for this upcoming week, Les Twins – the high scorers in the upper division – picked Kyle Van Newkirk who is the LOW scorer. That seems….unsporting, to say the least.

Of course, this is a reality show. Do we really believe that, A) Les Twins are actual competitors and not ringers brought in to bring eyes to the show (like the Jabbawockeez), and B) that the contestants REALLY picked their competition with no outside influence?? Ordinarily, I would give it more of a chance – for one thing, it needs to get as much attention as possible in order to continue to exist. And for another thing this show BENEFITS anyone who appears on it, regardless of how far they go. For that reason, I appreciate it. But we can’t lose sight of the fact that it IS a reality show. So I can’t give Les Twins too hard of a time. Yet. 🙂 Also…the matchup of Les Twins with Kyle seems tailor made to get a ton of PR, which is exactly how they’re promoting it. It seems so…set up. Contrived. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how it goes down. And if Kyle REALLY wins. Despite these questions, I still LOVE the show…the dancing is first rate.

Anyway, let’s look back and the Qualifying scores in each Division:

So, if they go in order, Les Twins had the first pick in that Division and picked the low scorer, Kyle. By the same token, Eva Igo picked Kyntay…but if they really went in order, Eva had last pick and could only pick the last remaining dancer(s) in that Division – Kyntay. She would have had no choice. Swing Latino would have had second pick and they picked the last place team in their division (correction, second to last) – a somewhat logical choice in this instance, but still it seemed like David versus Goliath. It actually ended up being close.

Another duel was a heartbreaker – Keone and Mari versus Quick Style. Again, they likely had no choice. Neither team was in the top five, so they were likely the last two groups standing in that division. But in looking at the tables, I realize that the Upper and Team Divisions currently have odd numbers. It makes me wonder if some of the 45 dancers not shown so far are going to make an appearance in the duels as cannon fodder. Kinda hard to have duels with odd numbers. Based on what we know so far, Pasion has to pick either Luka/Jennalyn or DNA – and whoever is left doesn’t have a dueling partner. Hmmmm…..sure enough, watching the show again reveals that there are indeed people on the roster that we didn’t see in the qualifiers.

I also take back what I said earlier. Eva didn’t have last pick but second to last.

Anyway, let’s look at the Duel scores.

Fik-Shun was high scorer so he picked and went first. Swing Latino was higher than Miami All Stars and they also went first. Then they switched it up and had Kyntay and Keoni/Mari both go first in their duels despite being the lower scorers. Of course, we don’t know if that is the true order…it could have changed in editing.

Basically, I think the right picks were made and the right people went through. Love Quick Style and I’m bummed out that they went against Keone and Mari, who are one of my absolute favorites. That one was too close. Scores I disagree with while agreeing with the winner was Eva versus Kyntay – there was NOT that much of a difference score-wise between them, although I do think Eva won.

Some people improved on their qualifying scores and some didn’t – no idea yet if that is going to mean anything in the long run. I suspect not. Some of the difference between qualifiers and duels were very minor, like Fik-shun versus Nick Daniels. Others were quite massive – Miami All Stars gained 7 whole points while Swing Latino lost a couple points. Unfortunately for Miami All Stars it wasn’t quite enough. Kyntay also gained a few points while Eva lost one – not enough, once again. Keone and Mari gained 6 points also, while Quickstyle lost a couple.

I’m not seeing any patterns here, yet. You?

June 26, 2017 I Written By

I'm a nerd and proud of it. Two degrees in geology also means I love BEER. :-) I'm also a Derek lover - proud of that too. So don't scream at those of us on this site and call us a bunch of "biased Derek-lovers" - it's just ME. :-) It may sound like I hate DWTS at times, but really, I'm just a snarky nitpicker from way back. And I'm cynical and jaded too. But I do love DWTS. :-)

‘World Of Dance’ Season 1, Week Four – The Performance Videos

Below are the performance videos for World Of Dance Week Four courtesy of @Idolxfactor1 and WOD Official You Tube! We’re posting them as soon as we can, so, keep checking back….

You tubes… Read more..

June 20, 2017 I Written By

Just a music and dancing fan here ....and a lover of life, nature, animals, and spending as much time as possible camping all over in our travel trailer. Favorite Quote at the moment: "Sing like no one is listening. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching, and live like it's heaven on earth." ~ William Purkey. Follow me at: Voguerista Twitter & Voguerista Soundcloud. To view my photography site, see Lisa Kay Photography.