EEE! I feel bad for not liking Chinen now. :( I'll give him another chance! He is a great dancer. I was re-watching the JE Medley from Kayou Kyoku last year and his spin is just *whirl whirl whirl*

Good luck with your journey!! If you pass through DC let me know!

Awww ♥ I can see how he wouldn't be for everyone, because he can be sort of trolly and stuff, but I really think he has a great balance of not taking the role of ~idol too seriously (eg not thinking he's so sexy or whatever, not getting too absorbed into making himself into the perfect idol, being able to joke about the silly things they're forced to do for the sake of fanservice) but taking his job really seriously (eg working hard in rehearsals and doing everything he can to give the fans a better experience at shows). He's an amazing dancer... he's had jazz dance training since he was four or five and clearly has been putting his all into it. I did classical ballet for most of my life and have a BA in dance, so I really love watching a technically trained dancer in Johnny's!

Thanks! I definitely will. My family lives in Delaware, so I'll actually be pretty near there, but I'm flying into Newark. ^^

Who would you rank as the best dancers in JE? There is a HUGE variety of talent and ability...

I totally agree, and I don't know that my ranking would be the most... fair? Johnny's didn't start getting like any sort of formal dance training until after Arashi debuted, for example, so it's not really fair to them because they didn't get an equal chance to some of the others. I'd say all of Hey! Say! JUMP dances better than Nino, Jun, Aiba, and Sho, for example. I also don't know anyone older than Arashi, NEWS, Kanjani8, or Kat-tun, so my ranking would be totally skewed by that XD; But.

1) Chinen, hands down, no question
2) All of ABC-Z. Tsukada has really amazing acrobatic training, but I think all of them (maybe except Hasshi) are amazing dancers.
3) Ohno-- he has no formal training but I think years of experience have picked up the slack and he clearly has amazing natural talent
4) Senga Kento, from Kis-My-Ft2
5) Matsushima Sou, of Sexy Zone. He also clearly has a lot of formal training and outshines the older members of his group despite their experience with Johnny's type choreography.

By and large, I'm relatively skeptical of what people seem to think is "good" dancing (most of the stuff Arashi does, for example). It's highly enjoyable, but I wouldn't call it "good." What makes me personally happy is when clearly the artists have put a lot of work into actual dance technique so that they can do any routine well, rather than just rehearsing one routine a lot so that they can get good at it. It makes me happy to see groups like Hey! Say! JUMP clearly have some dance training, and it's been clear watching Sexy Zone that their less experienced members have been getting a lot better at dancing through a lot of training and stuff.

Sorry for the long rant haha! I have a lot of feelings about dance. XD;

No, it's interesting!! I have to admit I was thinking about the same thing about singing today when listening to Yamapi. That there are people who have trained and can sing "technically" well but there is also "enjoyable" singing. Sometimes the two line up - and you have an Ohno - but not always.

And what is the voice (or the body) but tool? People have to work towards finding a style that works for their natural-given "tool." Just like you were saying with technique, for singing, I think it's pretty clear that Matsujun has spent time on perfecting his singing technique (and dancing, too?) over the years.

ABC-Z are great!! I'm so excited to have found them!!! But Hasshi is the weakest. His body looks... "heavy" in way the others don't. Not weight-wise, just that you can see the effort.

Ah!! And re: Aiba, I think it's been said before that he has no rhythm and can't "count beats" while the others can. That probably hinders a lot...

Yeah, I agree. I have to say, I actually know nothing about singing and besides what sounds good to me, just like many people don't know much about dancing but what looks good to them. But I'm sure this is true for singing as it is for dancing-- bad dancing can lead to injury and bodily harm, so I really like to know when my boys have good dance training, and besides, as someone who spent years and years to be able to do technically good dancing, it annoys me when someone does one silly poorly-executed turn and everyone flips a shit over how great it is when there are a lot of people who put in the time and effort to do it well.

I've been impressed recently with Jun's singing! He definitely has been a lot better at staying on key. His dancing... um... well, he's trying? XD;

Yeah, Hasshi definitely doesn't have as much training as the others do, and it shows. You can also sometimes tell he's struggling to remember the choreography, or to keep the level of detail the same as the others while moving quickly. But he still gets a lot more training than Arashi or anyone their age did XD;

Ah, yeah, I do remember that. Like the time they had to do A-RA-SHI while blindfolded on Shukudai-kun. XD; I'm really amazed by people who can't count music, but clearly, Aiba has that problem. XD;

I feel your pain!! I get mad when people don't recognize good technique when they hear it and focus on like a nasal tone to the voice or something instead. That's my Yamapi thing. He does some great stuff but I feel like he gets shit on for not having a "good" voice just because he's not singing soaring power ballads. :P

But you have to work with what you're given, you know?

And OMG YES! Bad singing technique can shred your voice. I'm afraid that's really been kicking Golden Bomber's singer recently. When I hear him, I can hear his voice is suffering strain - probably from poor technique.

I think flashy dancing and singing get rewarded as "good" more often than not...

I can totally understand that feeling. XD; I hate when people flip out about the flashy front guys just for doing a few hip rolls when Chinen can whip off like 15 fouette turns.

And yeah, I had heard that bad singing could ruin your voice... that really sucks for the Golden Bomber guy. Hopefully none of our boys have voice problems because of that... though I suppose, on the bright side, Johnny's do lipsync often enough that it's better.

Yes. I totally agree with you. XD;

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Jump is so amazing~ And I'm still not over Keito seeing us XD

I want to go to concerts in Nagano all the time T___T

JUMP is more than amazing. They're... just perfect in every way. Also, I was thinking, Summary 2011 is comparable to Arashi's "How's it Going" tour. Just saying.

I know. T____T; I've been spoilt.

...wow XD Basically, JUMP is really amazing and has their shit together way more than anyone recognizes? XD

Yup :Dv

Btw that icon is so stellar XD