SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE WEEK 5, OR POST ALEX, SOB!

 

Photo from Jonathan (which Alex posted on Twitter).

Uh-oh, where’s Ashley? Oh, another injury – a rib problem. So, she’ll be in the bottom three tomorrow night, could suffer same fate as Alex.

First on is Lauren dancing a Tahitian dance with Mark Kanemura. Wow, fun costumes. And music! At first I couldn’t take my eyes off of him, and then I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. It was repetitive movement — knees shaking for the man, hip shaking both side to side and front to back for her. It looked simple but that kind of movement takes precision and concentration to pull off because it is so repetitive and so fast. It’s the type of movement that could look really sloppy if you lose your concentration, you know? Mia says Lauren looked like a “duck in heat.” Hmmm.

Next, Adechike and Anya dance salsa. Wow, some really difficult lifts – I think this is the first overhead one we’ve seen this season, and perhaps even on the show? I mean that was a full-out overhead lift, like you see in classical ballet. And that opening throw and catch with a double twist in the air. It was really exciting to me, but I think the tricks kind of took over and made it difficult for Adechike to concentrate on getting his basic movement right. He was fine and he did all of those crazy tricks right and well, but the hips weren’t all there. It just wasn’t the sexy salsa I’m used to in competitions and in clubs.

Next, Jose and Courtney do a Broadway routine. Well, he did a jump in the air with a multiple turn that was exciting. But that was all to me, unfortunately. He just didn’t have the polish, there was no pizzazz with those jazz hands, the line wasn’t there – his barrel turn was just not a proper barrel turn at all. I mean, he looked like a regular person dancing that. As the judges said, it just showed how little dance training he has.

Now, Robert and Allison do a contemporary routine. Wow, well that’s the first time Allison has really blown me away.

Continue reading “SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE WEEK 5, OR POST ALEX, SOB!”

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE RETURNING 10 CELEBS ANNOUNCED

So You Think You Can Dance has announced its 10 returning star dancers, who’ll partner this coming season’s 10 contestants. They are: Twitch (big smile), Kathryn McCormick, Mark Kanemura (yay), Pasha and Anya (obviously yay), Allison Holker, Lauren Gottlieb, Neil Haskell, Dominic Sandoval, Ade Obayomi, Courtney Galliano, and Comfort Medoke. So obviously no Danny Tidwell. Interesting, there are no final winners, right? And there are several returning star dancers who didn’t make it to the finals.

DANNY TIDWELL UPDATE

 

You guys! I missed So You Think You Can Dance again last night! I thought it was on on Thursdays (wasn’t it on Thursday last week?) and was all set to tape tonight when commenter Jonathan sent me an email asking me what I thought of the second week of auditions. Argh. Trying to find somewhere online to watch re-runs…

Can’t they wait till ballet season is over?! Seriously, it wasn’t on this early last year right? I don’t remember it conflicting with Blackpool, ABT, and NYCB like this.

Anyway, in lieu of a post on this week’s show, I thought I’d just link to this Rickey post (which is where I got the pic above from), which commenter Jonathan sent me. Thank you, Jonathan!

Apparently, Danny Tidwell will be in the Broadway cast of Memphis, which is scheduled to open in the Fall, and will be in Fire Island over the summer for the Fire Island Dance Festival.

It’s always interesting to keep up with the SYTYCD dancers and see what becomes of their careers, if and how the show has helped them. So far we have Danny and Neil Haskell on Broadway, Sabra in a very cool NY-based contemporary ballet company, Chelsie Hightower and Dmitry Chaplin on Dancing With the Stars… I wish Danny would come back to ABT but I know that’s not going to happen. But it’s okay — there are plenty of fabulous dancers there to keep me in a pretty constant state of awe 🙂

For others who missed last night’s show, I find Ballroom Dance Channel does a good job of straight-forward reviews.