So You Think You Can Dance: Milwaukee Auditions
Well, this was the final night of auditions and I was really pleased. Not because I haven’t been enjoying the dances, but because I appreciate that So You Think You Can Dance is keeping things moving along. By the end of tomorrow night’s two-hour episode, we’ll know who our Top 20 is and by next week we’ll be ready to start voting for our favorites. Things are moving along so quickly. This is a huge improvement over American Idol’s lengthy audition episodes before we finally get to their voting block.
All said, there were some pretty amazing talents in every style this year throughout the audition rounds, and there were so many dancers we haven’t seen yet. At the end of the audition rounds, I’ll give SYTYCD an “A” grade on giving us a good balance of the excellent and not-so-excellent. I didn’t have time to get bored with these audition rounds and I’m more than ready to start seeing these guys pair up and show us the goods, so to speak.
So how do you fill two hours with only one city to cover? You add some more auditions from the other cities, of course.
Napoleon and Tabitha are a married hip-hop choreography team, and they both joined Nigel and Mary on the judging panel in Milwaukee. There were so many routines that we’d be here all night if I covered them all, so I’m going to skip the ones that just didn’t impact me much one way or the other. Feel free to spotlight anything important you think I may have missed in the comments section.
THE BEST OF THE REST
- Michael Kim (DC) blew me away two years ago with his hard popping hip-hop technique and I was absolutely thrilled to see him make his way back, and for the show to find some time to showcase his abilities again. Hopefully, he can do better this time in Vegas.
- Best friends and roommates Katee Shean and Natalie Reid (LA) train together and auditioned together. Katee had beautiful motion across the floor; a perfect blend of power and softness. Natalie Reid followed, and brought something entirely different. She hit her stops aggressively as if she were dancing hip-hop, and yet it was a slow contemporary routine. I don’t think I’ve seen any movements quite like that and look forward to more from her in Vegas.
- Salsa partners Janette Manrara and Romulo Villaverde (DC) gave an absolutely stunning and incredibly complicated salsa routine. Janette is beautiful and strong, and Romulo just threw her around like a rag doll, with her looking graceful and perfectly in control throughout. It was absolutely stunning. The stunts and tricks they did were unlike anything I’ve seen on the show in this style. But Janette was much stronger throughout. In the end she went to Vegas while Romulo just went back home to cheer her on.
MILWAUKEE
Bianca Revels was the first tapper tonight. Unfortunately, she didn’t blow me away nearly as much as she did the judges. As someone with ten years of tap on my resume when I was a younger man, I believe that you need to be doing something dynamic with your arms, face and body to win over an audience with tap. It’s such a “small” style, it’s hard to sell to an audience. Nevertheless, she went straight through to Vegas so we’ll see what more she learned in music school. Lizz Plott, however, brought the energy I was talking about to make tap interesting for the viewer as well as amazing footwork. For tap to connect as entertainment, it really needs to be a whole body performance. Lizz put her everything into it in a way that Bianca just didn’t.
They didn’t have teachers like Susie Garcia when I was in high school. And in today’s world, I’ll actually be surprised if she doesn’t get into trouble back at her school for her outfit and sultry Latin performance here. There was nothing horrible about what she did, but I know how school systems can be and there was lots of cleavage on display there, along with midriff and a shaking rump. She wasn’t an amazing performer but eked her way into choreography and ultimately to Vegas. So maybe she won’t care if she gets in trouble back home.
Hip-hop dancer Yesenia Gomez was impressive last year for moving and rocking the stage even with her plus-size figure. She made it to Vegas then, but faltered. Making it to Vegas turned her life around; she’s dropped fifty pounds and learned to love who she was. Unfortunately, a bum knee knocked her out of her rhythm and cut her routine short and Nigel wasn’t able to let her go on with an injury of that nature. He urged her, though, to keep on keeping on and come back next year. Her good friend Philip Courter brought a very unique Egyptian style to his routine with some amazing handwork, and some other oddities. But the judges saw enough in him to send him straight on to Vegas, so she’ll represent through him.
WOW!
Who would have thought at first glance, that the beefy Evan Kasprzak would come out and do a straight-up traditional jazz routine complete with hatwork. I’ll admit I wasn’t on board at the beginning, though he was clearly having fun with it. But from the moment he threw the hat up and began his final turns I fell in love with his technical ability. This guy is strong and talented and showed enough right there to impress me. He underperformed to his abilities, so I have a feeling he’s just itching to blow us away in other styles.
Kourtni Lind has a very strange name, but did what is known as “leaving it all on the stage” in her performance. To a beautiful spoken word musical piece she just moved with such passion and grace, she absolutely stole the night for me. As simple as it was, I loved the toe points to the shoes dropping line in the piece. It’s such a juxtaposition to see a typically giggly eighteen year old come up to talk to the judges after the emotional maturity she gave in her performance. I could watch her dance for hours.
SEROUSLY?
The award for the most fun, and yet completely ridiculous routine of the night goes to James Davis for his crowd pleasingly awful “whatever the hell that was” dance. He actually had one or two real moves in there but it was a complete and total mess. Fun, but absurd. At least he was rocking an equally absurd outfit to go with it.
Ashley Henry really wanted to be on the hot tamale train, and came out booty-shaking to try and earn her ticket. But that was the only trick in her bag, and I guess the train’s baggage section was full. Man, I am ashamed and proud of that pun at the same time. Based solely on her absolutely delightful and fun personality, she did find a ticket to choreography but her ride ended there.
In a surreal and strange performance, Hao Hou did a tribal dance that he managed to perform very sloppily. He was wearing speedo style trunks underneath a tribal skirt, which he was apparently a little self-conscious about, as he awkwardly covered his crotch at a few points throughout his number, which Tabitha pointed out. As a dancer, you can’t really be self-conscious about your body or it will force you to hold back in your performances. Hou doesn’t really need to worry about that, though as he was terrible regardless.
THE GRAND FINALE
For a really fun close to the audition rounds, we got a special mystery contestant. My early guess was dead on with former runner-up Travis Wall, who also choreographed all those “choreography round” routines this year. He gave an outrageous and hilarious audition as a blonde bombshell in a tiny red dress. I don’t know if I should be proud or disturbed that I recognized his dancing technique through that costume so quickly.
NEXT:Tomorrow night, Kristin will take us through to the Top 20. How many of tonight’s contestants have what it takes to make it?
So You Think You Can Dance: Charleston and Washington, D.C. auditions
(S04E03) Last night we joined Cat, Nigel, Mary, and Tyce in Charleston, South Carolina for more auditions. I, for one, am getting sick of the two-hour audition shows already. We talked about this last week and I have to point it out again: maybe if they showed more dancing, these audition shows would be better.
Cat assured us at the beginning of the program that Charleston would not disappoint as SYTYCD went there in season two. Who did they find in South Carolina? Natalie, Dimitri, finalist Heidi and none other than Travis Woll, season two’s runner-up. In the second hour, Mary and Nigel headed to D.C. where they were joined by Dan.
Find out what happened in both cities after the jump.
I don’t have too many dancers in my first section. Like I said, I’m getting sick of the auditions. I think my excitement from the premiere last week has waned a bit. Feel free to leave your favorite / least favorite dancers in the comments.
And I must address something Jason said after Wednesday night. Of course, because he’s my tag team SYTYCD partner, I want to disagree with him about Mary. It would be a healthy debate and I encourage you readers to chime in. But, I think what he said about the screaming judge was spot on. She is a personality that grows on you. And, if they keep the screaming and laughing to a minimum in the final edit of each episode, I may end up liking Mary Murphy. Moreover, she is indeed a fair critic. But I don’t think I’ve found a judge who isn’t on this show. It’s the main reason I prefer SYTYCD to Idol.
Most Interesting / Entertaining of the Night:
Let’s start with the end of the show. I am so happy that Anthony, the Juliard ribbon dancer from season one, came back for more abuse. This time he wore camos (an attempt at being more masculine, presumably) and did a piece he called “dynamic” and “in your face.” It was neither. As Nigel put it, Anthony just doesn’t have that spark. He is a tremendous technical dancer, but he just doesn’t have enough personality. Still, the judges put him through to choreography. In the end, he didn’t make it to Vegas. Anthony acted professionally and graciously in front of the judges, thanking them for the opportunity. However, he wept on Cat’s shoulder and cursed about his shoes shortly afterwards. He continued his antics all the way down the block, barefoot the whole time.
My favorite female audition of the night was Courtney, whose grandparents accompanied her to the audition. She joked about her loud Italian family in her interview. Then she took the stage. Gorgeous girl. Gorgeous body. Gorgeous dancing. My favorite male audition was BJ, who came to the auditions with ten bucks and left with…er, just ten bucks, unfortunately. He had such interesting movements starting with a weird foot shuffle in second position plié, followed by a crazy leg vibration and “speed skating” jumps from side to side. Mary exclaimed, “You had some extraordinary moves that I have never seen before.” And she was right.
Best Outfit of the Night:
This one is a tie between Syiddah and Jason (who asked to be called Betty). Syiddah looked like a cross between Rainbow Brite and the lion from The Wizard of Oz (post-primping in the Emerald City). Jason wore ill-fitting puke-pink trousers, a silver and black sequined blouse, and runny make-up.
Best Song of the Night:
No one had really memorable music tonight. However, I liked the music that Brandon used (the guy who lied about his age the first season). It was an orchestral piece and complimented his strong movement. And Jason (Betty) dancing to Paula Abdul was pretty funny.
Best Line of the Night:
I’ve got to give it Nigel on this one. After Jason (Betty) finished his audition, the judge expressed his revulsion: “Not only are you a disgrace to dancing, you’re a disgrace to tranvestites.” Nigel followed with, “You are the reason why so many fathers don’t like their sons dancing.” Ouch.
Going to Vegas:
Sheila, a freshman at the University of Georgia, missed a whole day at school to be at the auditions. Her father wasn’t happy about the skipping class. Looks like he’ll have something to be really angry about; Sheila will be missing even more school when she goes to Vegas.
Jeremiah, the slightly unhinged contemporary dancer, made it too. After he said, “My most negative feature should be that I’m human,” in his interview, I really wanted him to be bad. But he wasn’t, much to my chagrin. So, Jeremiah and his attitude are going to Vegas.
Twins Anthony and Antwain are going to Vegas. Anthony auditioned and was mediocre. Antwain auditioned and was slightly better. They both auditioned and were electric. They made it through the choreography and they’re going to Vegas.
Courtney, my favorite female audition of the night, is going to Sin City too.
Markus, who danced for his departed mother, got a ticket. He did a weird combination of contemporary and hip-hop to Elliot Yamin’s “Wait For You” that he choreographed himself. Nigel complimented his musicality, but questioned his facial expression, saying he looked disappointed with himself.
Megan, who threw her head around too much, got through to Las Vegas. She came to the try-outs with her biggest fan, her aunt.
Brandon (I mentioned him above) got a ticket to the next round. After he finished dancing, Dan said, “I don’t think I know anyone who can do that routine.” The piece did indeed look very difficult, replete with several turn sequences, leaps, and balances. He’s pictured above in an attitude derrière.
And then there’s Claire. You readers were asking about her last week. And you were right. Nigel’s invitation to go straight to Vegas only applied to last season. Since Claire had a baby last year, she missed out and had to start from scratch this year. Her audition was lackluster as she mostly just walked around on relevé and shook her booty, a skinny booty at that. But, after performing Travis’ choreography, the new mom made it through to Vegas.
Jason and I will see you next week! If you want to watch some of Thursday’s auditions, check this blog out.
So You Think You Can Dance: Salt Lake City and Dallas Auditions
(S04E02) To comment on Kristin’s thoughts on So You Think You Can Dance judge Mary Murphy, I think she brings a much needed level of fun and energy to the show. Promoting her to full time judge was one of the smartest moves the show could have made as she has a level of technical know-how when it comes to the classical styles of dance that the other judges just can’t speak to.
And as silly as her screaming can get at times, she’s still a fair critic. I guess I’ll say she’s grown on me as I didn’t care for her before she went full-time. Maybe she’s just one of those personalities you learn to appreciate more over time. For the Utah auditions, long-time show choreographer Mandy Moore joined the judging panel for the first time. The “table routine” from last season that she choreographed was one of last year’s highlights, so her pedigree comes well appreciated. Hairspray choreographer Adam Shankman was the third judge for the Dallas round.
There were a lot of dancers in these two cities so we’re not going to necessarily touch on all of them or we might be here all day. If I miss someone then you can assume that means they didn’t impress me enough one way or the other. But feel free to chime in with your comments on them or anything else about the new season unfolding before our anxious little eyes. Little Sabra is going down, so to speak. Will we see the new champion tonight?
Highlights & Lowlights of Salt Lake City
Chelsie Hightower opened the show and came packed with a “sob story” about her family’s financial struggles, and the sacrifices they’ve made to help her realize her dreams of dance. She couldn’t even afford a dance partner of her own. But when the music started, she was all seduction on the stage, exuding sensuality just walking across the stage. Her moves were sharp and she hit every movement. Her legwork was stunning, as were her legs themselves.
Ice skater/break-dancer Gev Manoukian didn’t make the show two years ago and spent the intervening time diversifying his abilities with jazz, ballet and contemporary training. What he created then was a strange hybrid of all four styles, with perfect body control throughout. In one routine Gev showed the judges that he is fully capable of virtually anything they could show him; I don’t think anyone has done that yet. He was mesmerizing to watch and one of my early favorites, though the judges needed to see him in choreography before he could go to Vegas.
Others who were good enough to earn their tickets to Vegas:
- Kelli Baker is the daughter of one of the High School Musical choreographers, so expectations were high. She had absolutely beautiful line work in her body; a perfect mix of grace and strength and owned every inch of the stage as she flowed across it.
- Ryann Race was tall and lean, and performed in a style somewhat similar to Cedric Gardner from last season. This strip club DJ was using his dance to work out his feelings for his girlfriend. There was a lot of potential in his movement, but it was more messy in execution than I would have liked. He made it through to the choreography round and then to Vegas.
And the not-so-best of the rest:
- Native American Michael Moore had a background video spotlighting the heritage that his family honors, but he himself rejects. In fact, he went more for street dancing, which he apparently performed entirely flat on his back. He had some legwork but it was sloppy and didn’t work at all. I love his sense of humor and how he made fun of those terrible dancers who say they teach dance.
- Queen of Charisma, Naomie Christensen thought it would be kind of interesting to be on the show. And she was on the show, just not for the reasons she may have thought. I’ll dub her “dancing” style, jogging … with style. We spent way too much time on her.
- Utah’s streets must be too cold and snow-covered for their street dancers to get enough practice in. Richard Castaneda had a slow seizure on the stage, Robert Taylo face planted on the stage, Nicole Downer looked and danced like a mother of four letting off steam in a club, and we saw a whole slew of other horrible dancers, more than we got last night. I appreciated the opportunity to see more dances, but would have liked more of the good ones as well.
Inspiring Story of the Night
Down’s Syndrome was the spotlight handicap of the night. I’m not trying to make light of the condition, but rather the fact that it’s become almost trite for SYTYCD to give air time to varying disabilities to show that you can do anything no matter what cards life has dealt you. I don’t even know if I can criticize them for doing this as it is inspirational to see these performers, but at the same time is it necessary to give us a blind dancer last week and Down’s Syndrome this week? Especially since none of these dancers are good enough to move on. Or maybe I’m just a cold-hearted bastard.
Highlights & Lowlights of Dallas
The music dictated the movements of Brian Davidson. There’s no room for choreography or fear in his world, so he fearlessly made an ass of himself not only on the Dallas stage but in front of all of America. He had way too much attitude and way too much camera time.
Popper Joshua Allen had some of the hardest hits I’ve ever seen on the SYTYCD stage. And his movements were so fast. When he went down and started doing some of his hand and aerial tricks he had me won over. This guy is in complete and total control of his body, owned his music and was amazing to watch. I was pleased to see him survive choreography and go to Vegas.
John Dix and Arielle Coker performed together and John did a good job of making Arielle look good. In fact, she was so beautiful in her partnering that other than being where she needed him to be, he all but disappeared from the stage. When they separated I saw him and wanted him to disappear again as he was awkward and stilted in his movements, but Arielle was magical. Arielle went to Vegas while John went to choreography and then back home, where he seemed perfectly happy.
In Dallas we got a montage of the amazing dancers, and there were some amazing moves on display. But why did we only get a few seconds of who Nigel considered the “best female hip-hop dancer we’ve ever seen on the show.” I could have taken a lot less of Steven Arner to make more room for her and a lot of these amazing dancers.
Others who were good enough to go home and stay there:
- Booty-shaking isn’t dancing. Cassidy Corder thinks it is. It isn’t. But it’s okay because neither was anything else she did. But she wasn’t alone. Brianna Gardner sat on the stage for awhile, Kayleigh Darling almost jumped off of it and if I had to sit and watch some of these auditions, I think I’d have to throw ballet shoes at them. Or maybe tap shoes; contact there would get them to stop.
- Steven Arner did a stupid hip-hop dance with a chair and his hair styled like Mickey Mouse. The judges explained to him how terrible he was and he got belligerent. But it wasn’t all it was hyped up to be.
Snuggle Fabric Softeners had to bring us the “happy dances” of the thirty-eight Dallas contestants who made it through because American Idol is already completely sold out so it’s time to move onto So You Think You Can Dance? Really? Can’t they just dance without somebody getting paid? Did they hire Ryann Race to DJ that bit? Tomorrow we go to Washington, DC and Charleston, SC.
So You Think You Can Dance: LA Auditions (season premiere)
(S04E01) It’s back! *sings terribly* “Oh, I wanna dance with somebody. With somebody who loves me!” I am psyched for So You Think You Can Dance. We kicked off tonight with the L.A. auditions and a two-hour season premiere. There were a lot of Russians, a lot of pelvic thrusts, a lot of repeat dancers, and a lot of Mary Murphy’s infectious/irritating laugh. I can’t decide about that one. Some times I can’t stand her and some times I want to sit next to her at the judges table. What about you?
But enough about Mary, let’s get to the good stuff … the auditions!
Most Interesting/Entertaining of the Night:
I’m not even going to mention Sex. Wait … I just did. Okay, start again.
Let me clarify something before I get to the meat of it. When I say “entertaining,” I’m talking either way here. They could be awesomely bad or just awesomely awesome. Also, I’m only picking a few so feel free to leave your favorites in the comments.
Now, that that’s out of the way. Laura, the visually-impaired dancer, was certainly one of the most interesting auditions of the night. Mia completely broke down after her performances and I have to admit, I was a little misty myself. It was indeed awe-inspiring that she could even dance as well as she could with such an impediment. How does she balance? How does she turn? Unfortunately, the handicap is a real setback for anyone with aspirations of being a professional dancer. First, it’s nearly impossible to follow choreography, especially in a large audition setting. Second, half the experience of watching a dancer is the expression in his or her eyes and his or her eye contact with audience members. But, major props to her. As Mia said, she was inspiring.
On the second day of Los Angeles auditions we met Victor. He wasn’t you’re average breaker. Every year, I watch the breakers and I think I’ve seen it all. And every year, someone comes out with something new, some unique trick that makes me say, “Wow.” Victor had everything: great tricks, great facial expressions, and great musicality. He even walked off stage (on his hands, mind you) and sat in the audience. As Nigel put it, “I don’t know what else we could ask for.”
And then there’s Rijiy who stripped down to just his jazz shoes and tighty-whities (thank God he left those on). Then Rijiy, who later explained his outfit made him a “clean slate” for the show to mold, ran around the stage grabbing his head and revealing his privies. I loved the “Dance” sign over his unmentionables.
Who’s Going to Vegas?
Devon, who’s music was wrong at first (not a very auspicious beginning to the show)
Twitch, who almost got onto the show last year, but Hok made the top 20 instead
Phillip (or as I call him, Mr. Wavey Arms), who auditioned last year and came back with more footwork
William, who auditioned to a spoken word song (Can I call that a song?)
Erica, who was there for a third time and…it was a charm
Leonidas and Alionda, the ballroom dancers who not only dance together, but live together too
Riki & Oska, who came to the auditions despite her being dreadfully sick
Kherrington, the soccer player who stole Dominic’s heart
Robert, who is the most ridiculous popper I have EVER seen (check out a video of him here)
And a bunch more that we saw quickly at the very end of the show…
Best Outfit of the Night: Irina’s red dress and black knee-highs. The outfit was helped further along by her declaring she left her husband in a half million dollar house for her freedom. I feel like she may have left in that dress.
Best Line of the Night: “I have many years of extensive training.” –Sex from Smithtown, NY
Overall, it was a good season premiere. What did you think?