Originally Posted by Lili27:
“Dimitry Chaplin won a few Emmy awards for his innovative choreography on SYTYCD. However, Len likes traditional and is is not very pleased with Dimitry or any other pro who veers from the traditional. Len also came down hard on Lacey the first season because she was not doing traditional ballroom.
I like Len on DWTS and I am wondering how he will judge next week with the nontraditional ballroom dances coming up.
I am of two minds about the traditional vs. the more innovative. Traditional is beautiful and it highlights the dancing skill of the celebrity in a simple but elegant way. More innovative theatrical choreography appeals to emotion and excitement of the dance. I guess it comes down to personal taste and which one you prefer.
I do get annoyed with DWTS when the pros do a dance that I don't recognize as that dance. But sometimes when they take risks it has a dazzling result. Examples would be the tango that Julianne and Apolo did and the jive that Derek and Lil Kim did. They were both not well received by Len but were stand-out dances for the public and the other judges.”
Those are good points.
What I like to see, though, on a show like SCD, is choreography that's creative within traditional constraints. I think that's an interesting challenge, and I like to see what the dancers (pro and celeb) can do with it.
Also, if the constraints are loosened too much, there's a danger that the dace will have lots of unrelated flashy elements rather than forming a coherent whole. I think that's what happened here. Len called it a hodge-podge, and I think he was right.
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I read somewhere in the main SCD forum that Len was much more critical on DWTS than on SCD, that he was the "negative" judge, rather like Craig in SCD. The implication seemed to be that Len was inconsistent, which would cast doubt on what he says on both shows.
However, I think maybe it's the difference in the shows that's causing it, rather than Len changing his stance.
When Mya's VW started, I thought, "hmm, a lot of faffing about. I wonder what Len will say." I thought it would eventually morph into a VW, but it hardly ever did.