Here’s a video of Adam Shankman talking about the upcoming number he’s choreographing for the Academy Awards. According to SYTYCism, Jakob Karr will be performing in that number, and those auditioning included SYTYCD alums Billy Bell, Travis Wall, Katee Shean, Russell Ferguson, Jaimie Goodwin, Legacy Perez, Ellenore Scott, and Kathryn McCormick.
BILL T. JONES ON BILL MOYERS JOURNAL
If you missed it on PBS, you can watch Bill T. Jones as he talks about his Fondly Do We Hope … Fervently Do We Pray, celebrating Abraham Lincoln, on the Bill Moyers Journal here. Do watch — it’s fascinating.
YAY! RUSSELL FERGUSON WINS SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE!
Yes! I knew it would come down to Russell Ferguson and Jakob Karr. I loved Jakob, but how absolutely fabulous that a krumper — the first to appear on the show — has won. I’m so happy for Russell! I was so worried, though, that he was going hurt himself worse (he hurt his leg during an encore performance on the show) with all that jumping around when he was announced the champ! And how sweet that he not only thanked God, but pointed his finger up to the sky like that 🙂 What did he say, “God!” and pointed. Like a kind of high-five! Oh, I love him.
I still think Jakob is one of the best contemporary dancers ever to be on the show and he has a huge future in modern ballet, perhaps with a company like Complexions. I’ll definitely be looking for him out in the concert dance world after the SYTYCD tour is over.
I’m so ludicrously weird though. I’d honestly started to worry at the end that if Jakob won last night, well then two male contemporary dancers likely wouldn’t win in a row, and so Billy Bell’s chances for next season might be jeopardized. I know I know: Billy’s only made the top 100 at this point and I need to not get so far ahead of myself 🙂
Anyway, here’s Russell’s solo that first made me fall for him:
SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE SEASON SIX FINALE: WHY NOT HAVE ALL DANCERS DOING SAME ROUTINES?
So, my favorite dance of the night, not surprisingly, was the Dwight Rhoden / Desmond Richardson-choreographed contemporary routine for Jakob and Kathryn. It was very Dwight Rhoden — with the passionate intensity, the movements that are so real-life: her jumping on his back and clawing at him; him falling to the ground and pounding the floor in desperation. But the choreography was very athletic and required a lot of intense concentration, particularly for Jakob who had all those jumps — and he really wanted to nail each with perfect lines — which could have taken away from the drama required to fully pull the piece off, but really didn’t.
Photo taken from rickey.org, who already has the vids posted.
Love the audience’s standing ovation, and how all the judges were so overwhelmed they could hardly speak. And love how Adam went on and on about the importance of live dance and how it needs to be supported, and Nigel telling Jakob that he absolutely must go to work for a company, perhaps one like Complexions. And so we didn’t get to see Desmond perform; we still saw him and Dwight stand up and cheer the dancers from the aud 🙂
Anyway, I really really really hope the show encourages more people to attend live dance performances.
My second favorite of the night was the very last piece, the Tabitha and Napoleon hip hop / krump for Russell and Kathryn.
I thought they nailed it, and that was one of the best hip hops I think I’ve seen on the show — a lot of bravado posturing and hard, driving, pounding footwork, yet still sweet and humorous in places. And they had such chemistry together, I thought. She looked at him like she had so much respect and admiration for him when she started kind of touching his feet in the air as he made his way around on those flips. She really looked like she was dancing with him, whereas I thought when she and Jakob danced together it seemed they were each trying to do their own athletic feats as well as possible, like they weren’t really emotionally connecting with each other as strongly.
Yeah, Nigel and Adam are right about Kathryn — she’s really excelled at everything, particularly toward the end of this season. I can see her winning.
Again, see Rickey for their hip hop video.
I have to say, regarding Jakob, I don’t remember seeing him dance much, if any at all, hip hop or Latin ballroom throughout the season? Did he? He’s a miraculous contemporary dancer, and it’s a given he’ll excel at contemporary-like dances, like jazz, theater, and standard ballroom. But he didn’t seem to be given much of a chance to demonstrate range, the same as Kathryn.
At first when I saw Ryan and Kathryn open the show with Jason Gilkison’s samba I mistook Ryan for Jakob and thought, whoa, he can really do those body rolls, he has such movement in his torso (unusual for someone trained intensively in ballet). Then when I realized it was Ryan I was pretty disappointed. We already know Ryan can do Latin — why didn’t they give Jakob the samba? Then, I thought how interesting it would be to have each couple perform the same exact routines. Then you could really compare. Hey, seriously, why don’t they do that? Because at a certain point, it seems like you can’t help but judge the choreography more than the dancing.
None of the other routines really blew me away tonight. The Travis Wall contemporary for Ashleigh and Ryan was lovely, but it lacked a certain power, as did her Foxtrot with Jakob. Oh I did like the Sonya Tayeh lyrical jazz for Ashleigh and Russell.
I just love Russell. He has such charisma, such an endearing dancer persona that peeks through with everything he does. Such a sweet guy. And he introduced me to a new style of dance for me, made me aware of the power and brilliance of krumping. I’m rooting for him or Jakob. Or, now, Kathryn.
COMPLEXIONS RETURNS TO SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE FOR SEASON SIX FINALE
Oh cool — Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, founders of Complexions Contemporary Ballet, are returning to So You Think You Can Dance for this Tuesday’s finale. They’re to choreograph a piece for one set of finalists (press release doesn’t say who). Exciting! Press release doesn’t say Desmond will dance, like last time, but who knows!?
Well, if not, here’s a vid of him in Episodes (which, coincidentally, Alvin Ailey is also performing this season at City Center, and which members of that company performed earlier this season on this show).
Photo above by Heidi Schumann, from NY Times.
PALOMA'S TURN ON SYTYCD
For people who missed it this past Wednesday, here is our Paloma Herrera on So You Think You Can Dance:
From what I can tell through Google, it looks like nearly all responses from the gen pub have been positive 😀
Some people mentioned they’d have preferred a pdd (since SYTYCD is about partnering, after all) — something more like this:
Dancers above are our studly Jose Manuel Carreno and the Royal’s lovely Tamara Rojo.
I miss Jose; he hardly danced with ABT this past Met season…
MIA MICHAELS' NEW SHOW(S)!
There’s an interview with Mia Michaels in the Wall Street Journal about why she left SYTYCD. In it she reveals that she has not one but potentially three new shows in the works:
“Are the rumors that you might get your own show true?
These rumors are very true. I can’t go into details about it, but there are three separate shows we’re working on, and all three of them are very different. One is a choreography show, one is a doc-reality show of a stage show that will be touring the states and the third one was inspired by a Web site called ‘Mia Michaels, Please Choreograph My Life.'”
Wow. Read the rest of the interview here.
DWTS SEASON NINE WINNER
Okay, okay I know it was Donny Osmond, but in my mind it was Kelly Osbourne! Or Mya. I thought Mya was by far the best dancer on the show this season, but Kelly was the most improved and that’s what this show should ultimately be about, imo. And there was something so relatable about Kelly; even though her father is a hugely famous pop star, she was still so human, and somehow so normal. Which is where she got her fan base, I’m sure. And of course Louis is my favorite dancer on the show, so there’s that for me.
I thought Donny was fine though, and I’m glad someone over 50 won that ball. I do wonder what the demographic was like this season — whether it was different from the rest? Good lord, has Marie lost weight since she was on the show or what?!
Anyway, how cool was it that Paloma Herrera (above image from here) was on SYTYCD tonight? I loved her — loved the beautiful tip-toes en pointe. Unfortunately my upstairs neighbor, Godzilla, was making such a heinous racket (the girl / beast has ruined just about every holiday for me for the past two years) that I didn’t get the full effect, and didn’t hear her announcement or her reception, but I wonder how well that classical Don Quixote solo fared with this audience? I guess we’ll see.
I admit I didn’t see last night’s show (I was out at NYCB and taped DWTS; can only record one thing on my recorder), but intend to watch vids if they’re up on YouTube yet. I’d love to see how Victor and Karen fared as a partnership. I mean, obviously those two were kicked off tonight but that doesn’t mean they did badly, just that the audience for whatever reason doesn’t care much for them and perhaps the judges felt like for political reasons they had to go with the audience a bit. I mean, how many weeks can you keep the same dancer on when the audience isn’t voting for them? And how much is that going to hurt ticket sales to the live shows if you actually advance them into the top ten?
Anyway, I liked Karen and thought she brought her own thing to the show and I’m sorry to see her go, and I’m really sorry to see Victor go since he was one of my favorite males. Oh well. I guess I’ll watch for Jakob and Russell from here on out.
DWTS & SYTYCD PRETTY PREDICTABLE THIS WEEK, IN MANY WAYS
Wow, I’m so happy Kelly Osbourne and Karen Hauer are staying, on DWTS and SYTYCD respectively, after this week.
Re DWTS: I was really blown away by Kelly and Louis’s Quickstep Monday night and I have to take back what I said last week about her self-esteem not seeming to improve much. She danced that Quickstep with so much intelligence and sophistication and a real inner confidence. She was like a pro. I still think Mya is technically the best, but I’m rooting for Kelly!
I’m not at all surprised Joanna Krupa was booted. I think she tried hard but, as I’ve said before, I thought she didn’t have good enough dancer form and discipline in her body. Interestingly, as I was preparing to record the show, I happened upon the Ellen Degeneres show and saw her and Derrek on, where it was revealed that she’s in Playboy this month. And of course Monday night Hugh Hefner was on DWTS giving his esteemed opinion on why she should win. Anyway, when Ellen asked, Krupa denied using the Playboy cover to try to gain more votes, but I’m not so sure I believe it — even if it’s more the show’s producers who are behind such a stunt and not Krupa herself. So it backfired, unsurprisingly — I don’t think consumers of mags like that and this show come from the same demographic exactly.
Re SYTYCD: I really like Karen and think she’s so versatile and has such immense performance quality in her dancing. So I’m glad the judges decided to keep her this week and let Channing go. I kind of knew when both dancers ended up in the bottom three, the judges would do that. Karen’s different; she adds something unique. Channing’s like a slightly less compelling version of Mollee, who, with Nathan, surprisingly ended up in the bottom three as well. Well, maybe it’s not that surprising though, after what Nigel said about Nathan last week — I think his cutting him down and telling him his head was too big and he was only staying on because of his female teeny-bopper fans made all of the non-teeny-bopper watchers weigh in with their votes.
At any rate, this week Nigel told Nathan he was glad he seems to have listened to him and learned his lesson because he is truly one of the best dancers ever to be on the show. I was like “HUH???” Has he forgotten about Danny Tidwell, and don’t they keep saying Jakob’s by far the best this season? I mean, come on — what’s Nigel trying to do? Nathan is fine — he’s not a jerk and he’s not the best dancer this show has ever seen; he’s just a decent dancer and a regular contestant — stop trying to create drama.
Anyway, I do really like Russell too and he and Noelle’s Foxtrot was I think overall my favorite dance last night. That was so enjoyable. They both just floated over the floor, seemed to have perfect ballroom technique though he’s a krumper and she a contemporary dancer, and they gave it even more umph than regular ballroomers do. Excellent excellent job. I like Russell so much, I’ll even be happy if he wins over Jakob — so long as Jakob is in the finals 🙂
I also thought Victor came to life for the first time this season last night. I didn’t much care for Tyce’s kooky birds breaking out of their cage routine but I thought Victor really made the most of the movement, hitting every line right on and making very bizarrely intriguing shapes with his body.
I think overall my favorite moment of the show was when Tony Meredith asked Legacy if he knew what Paso Doble was and Legacy said dramatically and humorously, “No! I know that it’s pronounced Paso Doble (and of course he said that with a perfect Spanish accent), but other than that I know nothing!” For some reason that comment just really cracked me up; I couldn’t stop laughing. I thought the routine was okay but I really didn’t think he and Kathryn looked like professional ballroom dancers the way Russell and Noelle did. Still, I like Legacy’s personality — well, I like both of them personality-wise, and want them to go far.
I loved Jakob and Ashleigh’s hip hop and thought they completely nailed it and it was one of the best hip hops I’ve ever seen on the show. The contemporary and ballroom dancer — that shows you just how remarkable they both are.
I liked but didn’t love the other two routines. I did like Ryan in Travis Wall’s contemporary but I just didn’t feel the passion there, unlike the judges. The judges were going on and on about him, saying he was the best Latin dancer ever to dance contemporary and I felt like saying, “Hey, you all said that about Janette last season!”
I have to say I really got upset about the judges’ remarks to Karen last night — at least Nigel’s (and Mary always says whatever he says; it’s like she’s afraid to disagree with him; Adam not so much so, though he does defer). Nigel’s said each week that she’s the sexiest dancer ever on the show — the sultriest, the most sensual, the most sexual — how many ways are there to say it? And she just kind of smiles at him, not flirtatiously but like she’s a woman who knows herself too well to let his words pierce her. So he puts her into this box — she’s the official “sex goddess” — and then this week he tells her that when she’s given a routine where she’s supposed to play “cute” — when she can’t be his said “sex goddess” — then her dancing doesn’t do anything for him. I love her expression when he said that — another wholly self-contained smile. But he really made me so mad for that. It wasn’t like she did the wrong thing — it wasn’t like she did a cutely girlish character like a sexed-up vixen. She performed the character right. I’m glad Adam stood up for her and said he liked it when she could show other sides of herself — which she did, and she did so well.
I saw Billy Bell in line yesterday morning at Starbucks. I didn’t speak to him (I’m shy) but wanted then to tell him how wonderful I thought he was and how much I want to see him on the show next season. But after last night, I wanted to tell him to finish Juilliard and try to get a good job with a great ballet company instead. Now, I don’t know. I feel a bit better about the show after tonight, after they didn’t dismiss Karen and gave as their reason for not dismissing her that she was a great performer and a quality dancer and not that she made Nigel hot.
Ugh, these shows. I mean, what is dance? It kind of breaks my heart that these shows tend to make it more about selling women’s bodies than about creating art.
ALVIN AILEY ON SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE TONIGHT!
Tonight three dancers from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will be on SYTYCD! My favorite modern dance company 😀 Linda Celeste Sims, Clifton Brown, and Constance Stamatiou (above, left to right, in photos by Andrew Eccles) will perform excerpts from Ulysses Dove’s Episodes, which, if I remember correctly, I found very intense and rather haunting.
(Linda Celeste Sims and Matthew Rushing in Episodes, photo by Paul Kolnik)
If you’re in New York, it’s almost time for Alvin Ailey season here. They open at City Center December 2nd. The season lasts for a month and this year they’re celebrating Judith Jamison’s 20th anniversary as artistic director (last year they celebrated the company’s 50th anniversary).
I so love it when great dancers are on TV!
SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE: NO ONE CAN TOUCH JAKOB KARR, IMO
There’s some real talent on the show this season — mainly, imo, Jakob Karr (above) and Russell Ferguson (who I blogged about before). I also think Karen Hauer is a true performer who can do just about any kind of dance, and will thus go far.
I was sad to hear Karen announce tonight that she and Matt are getting divorced. They taught at my former studio and I always thought they were a sweet and very in-love couple.
I liked Karen and Kevin’s disco routine, but I again thought Karen sold it; I could hardly watch Kevin! It was a rather Latin-y disco, which shows how much Karen made it her own, and did so very well.
But my favorites of the night were Jakob and Ashleigh’s jazz and Russell and Noelle’s Afro-jazz. More Afro-jazz on this show please please! I thought both did amazingly with that latter routine, although they weren’t quite as good as those dancers in Fela! on Broadway (review coming soon!), who just really really floored me and made me so want to learn African. I have never ever seen people move like that before! But Russell and Noelle’s routine was African combined with jazz and so should have been a little jazzier, less pure African.
Still, though, to me, no one can really touch Jakob. I mean, he always has these stunning leaps in every routine, but it’s not only that, it’s just his whole form is such perfection. They way he’d round his shoulders and kind of hunch over that cane tonight was so creepy — but it was so creepy because it was so real because his whole form transmogrified when he made that shape, you know what I mean?
I agree with the judges that Mollee and Nathan’s salsa wasn’t all there. It looked clumsy at times; it looked like they struggled partnering each other, though I think she in particular would have done fine on her own.
I also agree with Nigel and Mary that Ryan and Ellenore’s hip hop wasn’t so swift. They tried too, but to me they just didn’t make the swagger believable, and they were really out of sync on the side-by-side work. They were also both lacking in precision I think.
I agree with the judges as well on Pauline and Peter’s Quickstep, though I loved the sailor smitten with Hula dancer story! Go J.T. and Tomas! So happy they’re choreographing for this show now. (I also know them — or at least J.T. — from my old studio.) I do think both dancers were good on their own, and sold it quite well, but the technique wasn’t there at all — the shaping in closed handhold was all wrong, the runs and running jetes were sloppy and not in sync. But still, it was fun and they acted it well and sold the story.
I disagree with the judges about Kathryn and Legacy’s Broadway though. Well, the judges liked him — and so did I — I thought he nailed it, especially for a b-boy. The choreographer did use his strengths with the handstands and back flips. I thought she was good too, though in terms of the movement — the way she circled her pelvis at him, trying to get his attention. I thought she acted it fine — she was cute as opposed to angry and demanding, but I think she made it her own thing. She is rather sweet-faced and that’s what she used to try to grab his attention.
I agree though with the judges about Victor and Channing’s contemporary, and I can’t even put my finger on why it didn’t blow me away emotionally like I feel it should have. It was a story about a couple arguing, struggling, and ultimately breaking away from each other. They danced it well, they danced it with passion and intensity, and yet it didn’t make me feel all that much. Maybe it is just because they’re a new partnership this week. I have to say, I think Victor is an excellent dancer. I can tell that from his solos. His solos touch me the way Jakob’s dancing does. But for some reason he doesn’t seem to be able to take that with him to the duets … though it looks like he’s trying hard to.
WAS THAT THE MOST BORING DANCING WITH THE STARS QUARTERFINAL OR WHAT?
Sorry I’ve been so out of it again with blogging, you guys — I can’t believe how many little errors there are in my book to correct… So stressful!
Anyway, I managed to watch DWTS last night. Thing is, I’m really so not into it; even if I wasn’t busy with my book, I’m so not into blogging about the show this season. I think Mya is overall the best contestant on the show right now, and so she probably deserves to win. But she just doesn’t do that much for me. I liked both her Quickstep and 70s Samba last night — I thought her Quickstep was actually pretty basic and technique-focused so I’m not sure why Len didn’t like it, and the Samba was fun — a lot of people dance Samba to disco music since it’s so hard to find good authentic Samba music around here.
I think overall I like Aaron the most though, even though he’s not as good as Mya. Still, he’s getting less and less fun, for some reason, as the season goes on. His over-the-top-ness is not enough to compel me to watch the show anymore. I liked but didn’t love his 90s Latin routine last night — wait, was it Jive? I don’t even remember? But I was annoyed with Karina that she didn’t let him do his fun boy-band moves. Why did she cut him off like that — I think it would have been hilarious. And what is with everyone getting sick? (Both Karina and Aaron had the flu at various points this week apparently…)
I thought all the Standard routines were pretty bland last night. I thought Donny’s Viennese Waltz was the best, mainly because Kym was so beautifully fluid. But during the Latin round, his 80s Paso wasn’t all that interesting. The costumes and music (I used to love Spin Me ‘Round) were far more fun and flashy than the actual dancing.
And I feel the same way about Kelly as I do Aaron. I liked watching her learn and grow early on but now it seems she’s stagnating and it’s not that interesting anymore. I thought her 60s Jive was cute and I love that Louis, unlike Karina, let her put her own Monkees-esque moves in.
I feel like Joanna really dances like a paper doll. She has no grounding, no weight, no strength or firmness in her body. You need that for ballroom, even for the Standard dances. You need that for any kind of dance. You need that to do fouettes and pirouettes in ballet. Not that I don’t dance exactly like that — that was always my problem: I looked emaciated and completely substanceless. I used to think it was just about being thin, but it’s not. There are very thin dancers who are very rooted and have a great deal of strength in their bodies. She’s a really really pretty paper doll, but a paper doll nonetheless and I can’t for the life of me understand why the judges fawn over her so.
I know, as Katrina had commented earlier, that seasons may collide, but I still so want Yankees to be on the show. Come on, A-Rod can dance with Smirnoff and Derek with … Lacey maybe. The World Series was the most exciting thing to happen since Roberto Bolle (look look, new pic from Weber book!) came to town. I’ve been a bit bored and depressed since it ended… 🙁
One more thing about the Yankees: they had a little dance segment at the City Hall celebration — did anyone watch it? The dancers were teenaged schoolgirls, apparently, from Staten Island, called the LA Dancers — something like that. They were okay, but you know… Why don’t they have a real dancer, like Ashley Bouder? I think she’d be perfect — she’s cute and extremely athletic and would be very attractive to the average baseball fan. And she’s a NYCBallet dancer… Come on! Next year…
Photo of Bouder by Gene Schiavone, taken from Bailarinas; photos of A-Rod and Jeter taken from here and here respectively.
