SYTYCD: 6/27

And now, we move to So You Think You Can Dance to discover the top 20!

There are 35 dancers still in play, and of the 15 that were cut, I knew exactly zero of them, so I’ll just be discussing the ones that made it through, with their dances.

First, we get no-emote Alexa,  George who we never met, but is apparently really strong, Will  who is a giant, and Sasha lite Amber.  They dance to a Tyce routine, fully contemporary with lots of spins and jumps and things, and one throw into George’s arms.  It was a good routine, a theme that will flow through the evening.

Next, we moved onto the ballroom dancers, where we find Nick who cries, and Whitney.  She is followed immediately by Lindsey, who the judges tried to fake out, but we as the audience were not fooled, these two have been featured heavily on the run-up, and are both fantastic.  They perform a Jason Gilkinson latin routine, which only looks a little weird with three.  It is super intense, and very fun.

Then, we found the classically trained dancers, Eliana, Daniel, and Chehon, who, again, are all fabulous.  Eliana had a pointy skirt that actually injured her partners, and the routine was fabulous again.  I think the dancers have less nerves than normal, plus they are in their own style, so each routine has been phenomenal.

We then moved onto Jazz, where we met Tiffany and Audrey, and got reacquainted with Janelle the belly dancer.  Janelle actually got sick prior to the performance, and so didn’t in the live show actually perform.  The other two danced in a Sonja Teyha  routine that was great again, some more.

A season of SYTYCD wouldn’t be complete without an abundance of contemporary dancers, so we meet Matthew, Darian, and Janea for the first time.  We also see Amelia the silent film wannabe with random fodder #12, and see Amelia get in as the last girl.  We get a Stacey Tookey routine that is super enjoyable.  I am really feeling like a broken record on these, but I really can’t even describe them, they need to be watched to be understood, I think.

Finally, we find our final boys, all with very specialized styles.  Cole is the martial arts fusion guy that wasn’t totally full of himself.  Brandon is one of two steppers that made it to the top 35, but the only one to make it through.  Finally, we have Cyrus, an animator/locker that really doesn’t have the skills to be here, but is so freaking amazing at what he does that he couldn’t be left behind.  They do a baseball inspired routine by Christopher Scott that incorporates all of their styles in, and was really really good.

We then moved onto the Top Ten girls, and their Travis Wahl routine featuring a large grey door was ethereal and beautiful, if a tad bit hard to see due to the spotlight inexplicably shining straight into the camera for some reason.

Next were the Top Ten boys, dancing with Sonja.  Though they aren’t as technically proficient as the girls, their physicality and fearlessness more than made up for it with the fight-inspired moves.

Lastly, we had a Mia Michaels routine featuring the entire top twenty with an industrial routine that looked fantastic, again.  With such a huge group, it was hard to spot any standouts, though Amelia’s pale legs were easy to spot.

Next week is no new show, so we’ll find our first eliminations starting on the 11^th!

SYTYCD: 6/20

Ahh, Vegas week.  We went from 181 dancers to 35 dancers in the course of an hour, so not a whole lot of people got a big chunk of time devoted to them, though there was two narratives running through the show:  Alexa can’t emote, and holy hell, Cyrus.  We had eight rounds to go through, and I have notes for most of them.

Solos

There were a ton of dancers that went flying through this round, though there were a couple of spotlights:  the exorcist guy, who was just as awesome as in his audition, and the belly dancer girl, who used a gigantic gold cape thing.

Hip Hop

This round caught a lot of the pop and lockers, which is surprising, including two of the three dragon house guys(Cyrus was the only one to make it through).  It also claimed the old mom dancer, and praying mantis guy.

Broadway

No notable cuts here, though we do hear of Alexa failing at emoting, and Teddy, who I think I’m supposed to know, but actually have no clue, is leaving FOREVER.  I think(hope) this means he won’t be auditioning for SYTYCD again, cause I have no need for whiners, thanks.

Jazz

Shafik is unhappy int his round, complaining about all sorts of different things, but all it amounts to is he can’t do the routine, gets cut, and finally bleeped all the way out the door.  His partner, Danielle of the many bacons, tried to keep his spirits up, but wasn’t able to in the end.  “Sexy girl” Rachel gets cut, but begs for her (dancing) life, and is granted a dance for your life solo at the end of the round, along with Silent movie Amelia.  Danielle actually comes back to help another dancer, and manages to get kicked in the head for her effort, and has to go to the hospital, cutting into the next round rehearsal. 

Oh, “Sexy Girl” Rachel gets cut for being all sex no substance, but Amelia makes it through.

Group

Bacon Danielle, as I said previously, was in the hospital for the first two hours of group rehearsal, and thus had to barge in on a group.  When they performed, the judges didn’t like the performance overall, and cut her and one other guy.  Bit unfair, but she didn’t fight for it, so whatever.  Oh, and Cyrus was in her group, and made it through, though he felt survivor’s guilt just a bit.  Pink streak girl has great group choreography, and they all make it through after calling her a ‘young Mia Michaels,’ which, meh.  Oh, and Alexa fails at emoting, again, some more.

Ballroom

And then the young Mia Michaels, little Miss pink streak herself, get cut, and has a major meltdown, which was pretty much ridiculous.  Though apparently, the cha-cha brings out the emotion in Alexa, cause the choreographer liked ‘her personality,’ which was hilarious to me.  Cyrus was again sent to dance for his life.  Zombie guy finally made an appearance, and was surprisingly amazing at ballroom, so that’s cool.  And Cyrus makes it through on an amazing solo, as per usual.

Contemporary

This was the second to last round, and the judges decided to hold the cuts until the end, to make sure they had a good mix, I suppose.  The people we’ve been watching most of the night, Cyrus, Alexa, Amelia, a couple of ballroom SLC girls, the belly dancer, the Swiss ballet dance, and poor man’s Sasha are through.  Zombie guy is gone, as well as the white krumper girl, which made me sad.

Final Solo

We only see Alexa and Swiss ballet guy Chehon perform(amazeballs), and then get to a couple more cuts.  Adrian Lee is the only one of note, he of the “Mary Murphy came to my house to cut me in season seven” fame.

So we have 35 people left, wanting to fill 20 spots.  Next week, we find our top twenty, and see the first performance of the group.  I am so freaking excited, this is great.

SYTYCD: 6/13

This week we were in Salt Lake City, home of a surprising number of quality dancers.  We’ve got a bunch to get through again this week, so off we go!

Praying Mantis Boy- This guy came to the stage in a green loincloth, with green sparklies all over.  You could tell from his pre-audition tape that he was a good dancer, so I was on pins and needles waiting to see if he did something crazy in his actual audition to get him kicked out.  And he did do something crazy!  His routine was the life cycle of a male praying mantis, but it was AWESOME!  The judges loved him, thought they did ding the choreography a bit.  They sent him to Vegas anyway, though.

Krumper girl-This girl was ridiculous.  This tiny little white girl comes out after a montage of a crapton of ballroom dancers, and tells the judges she’s going to krump.  They nearly fall out of their chairs, laughing on the inside, I’m sure, and then she starts dancing.  As Adam Shankmann said:  “Holy f**k, she’s krumping!”  She hit her beats freaking hard, and apparently had a great stank face.  She got pushed through to choreography, but had additional skills beyond krumping, and was sent to Vegas.

Sexy girl-She did “Burlesque Jazz” and oh, my God did it suck.   She was way too into herself, and the performance was one that really should have been given on a pole.  But the judges liked her, and first sent her to choreography, then to Vegas.

Leroy Martinez-From the moment he walked on stage, you knew he wasn’t going through.  A barrel chested guy is not something the people that watch this show want to see half naked.  He was mostly on to promote is Sacramento-based charity, Peacemakers, of which he acquitted himself nicely.  He then did a hip hop number that was actually pretty great.  He had a couple of flip moves that you really didn’t expect out of a guy that size, and was generally solid on the rest of his moves.  The judges put him through to choreography with the caveat that he probably wouldn’t move on, and then he didn’t, and everyone cried, the end.

There were a couple of people that don’t really warrant a full write up, but made it on.  They include: Whitney the young ballroom girl, Dee Tomasetta the Italian, Lindsey Arnold with the huge family, Poor kid from Minnesota, loads of previous season auditioners, and Adrian with the heart stampled on by Mary.

Next week, VEGAS!  Drama! Ambulances! Pleas of ‘Let me stay, I’m good I swear!,’ and 160+ crushed dreams.  Yay!

SYTYCD: 6/6

This week we were in Atlanta for the whole two hours, and had quite a few dancers to go through, so we’ll jump right in.

Unladylike Audry:  Nigel had some tips on what NOT to say to the producers(Neck farting and elbow licking chief among them), but then she danced, and was great, and was straight on to Vegas.

Karate Boy #2: We had our second Karate Kid of the season, and this one was really trying to lay on the smarm, in hopes of getting people to like him.  Hint:  If you want people to like you, don’t emphasize how much better you are then they are.  He went through after showing off his seven days of ballet training.

Virginia Hiphop guy: This guy is a self taught hip hopper, and it showed in the relative sloppiness of his moves, but the performance was amazing, and he was straight through.

Chicken girl Britany:  She’s from a terribly small town that loves it’s chickens a bit too much.  She wanted out, and after a decent performance was sent to choreography, and subsequently to Vegas.

“Homage” guys from last year: These guys ripped off choreography from youtube in their audition last year, and came back this year to prove they were good dancers anyway.  The judges didn’t trust them, and sent them to choreography.  One of them went to Vegas, the other was cut.

There were some other performances as well, all who moved on: Boris the piano hip hopper, Joshua who sings/guitars/dances, poor dancer, Tourette’s dancer, dead mom guy, weird dancer/bacon eater Danielle, Andre red locker, Sirus the happy robot, belly dancer girl, the wobbler, girl with cute grandma, athletic guy, Angela the sexy Asian, blond top black guy, and pink streak girl.  And that doesn’t even count the twenty plus that got through on choreography.  Vegas is going to be stuffed.

 

Next week is Salt Lake City, so that should be fun!

So You Think You Can Dance: 5/30

This week saw the show on Wednesday, with another two hour block, this time in LA

There were only a couple of memorable dancers this time, though a whole lot got through.

The Twins: These 32 year old(read:too old to audition) twins got a full pre audition segment, and a bunch of banter with the judges.  I can kind of see what the guy from last week was saying.  They don’t have a lot of time with the people that do qualify, and yet they spend tons of time on people we will never see again.  That would totally rankle me as well.  Anyway, they were fabulous, and annoying, and I was ready for them to be off my screen almost right away, but the producers must have loved them, because see above.

Sam kicked from home: Sam had a sob story of how her mother didn’t appreciate her dancing, and kicked her out of the house six months prior, so now she is living with a friend, and boo-hoo poor little rich girl who obviously wasn’t telling the whole story.  Anyway, she danced into choreography, and on to Vegas.

Megan w/mom: In direct contract, we had Megan and her mom, who apparently divorced the dad for Megan’s dance career?  That doesn’t sound right…but that’s what the show made it sound like.  Another good dancer off to Vegas.

Karate guy: This guy melded martial arts with dance, and the judges lapped it up, saying he was one of the first to really do it right.  He did look pretty freaking awesome, I must admit.  He’s off to Vegas, obvs.

Ring Dancer: He had amazing control of his ring, but no real dance talent to speak of, and so he bowed out during the learn choreography stage, and he and his ring rolled off into the sunset.

Red headed ballet dancer: Another amazingly controlled dancer with tons of emotion during his dance.  He almost threw it all away by going for the whacky to start, but Nigel saw through it, and called him out to do a traditional piece after, and he got sent straight to Vegas.

There were a few others that went on, though they were only glossed over: Tapper, Sasha Lite, and Comtemporary guy#38321, and a few who didn’t really do a lot for me: Alexa, who made it to the green mile last year, and Elianna, the stripper pole dancer, and lastly, Johnny Waacks, who didn’t make it through, but was entertaining for what he was, an arm-spinner guy.

And that was LA!  Next week is Atlanta and Dallas, I think.

So You Think You Can Dance: 5/23

Ahh, another one of my summer favorites has come back.  Once this show hits it’s stride, in the performance stage, it’s practically unbeatable.

But to get there, we have to delve through the audition rounds, first.

One reason I really like this show is that they tend to focus more on people that can actually dance, as opposed to the nutjobs that are either delusional, famewhorey, or both.

We met several people in these two cities that were really impressive, or had good stories.

Dancing mom: If she makes it to the show, she’ll be one of the oldest contestants, at 29, but she has the adorable factor of her 5 and 2 year old to back her up.  The best part of her audition was when Nigel had her kids come up to his seat, and then had them give her her ticket to Vegas.  When the 2 year old daughter got on stage in her little pink tut, she started doing toe points and things, and saying ‘my turn!’  Nigel let her, and it was seriously the most adorable thing ever. 

Jarell Rochelle: It rhymes!  His mother is going blind, so Nigel invites her up to his seat as well, and Jarell proceeds to wow everyone with his story, and is mother.

The Exorcist: No, not from the movie.  Hampton Williams claims he can take a persons soul during his dance, cleanse it, and return it to the person more whole.  I was totally expecting this guy to be terrible, but he was great.  He got Mary crying, and everyone generally lauding over him.  Hopefully he can do well in Vegas week.

Sam Shreffler: And he is why I love this show.  We saw him on the bumpers with his cape, and odd look about him, and we expected terrible things, like the wiggles guy from New York.  But then, he got on stage, and Nigel asked him what he did.  We found out he participates in Autism research. “So you have autism, then?”  Nigel asked.  Sam confirmed with a comment about the spectrum, and how he lies on it somewhere.  Nigel was maybe a bit patronizing, but never condescending, seeming to show an actual interest in what Sam had to say.  When Sam danced, it was…not good.  He danced with energy, and emotion, though, and Nigel told him as much, and told him never to stop dancing, even though they couldn’t put him through to Vegas.  It was a great, feel good segment, almost on par with the dwarf dancer from a season of two ago that was actually good.

There were a total of I think 40 dancers that made it through, so this is just a small sampling, but it was good.  I cannot wait for the meat of the show to kick in.