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So You Think You Can Dance 5/27/10: New York & Miami Auditions
May 27, 2010 08:40 PM by Nancy Floyd
So You Think You Can Dance kicks off season seven with a two-hour premiere tonight on FOX! The search for America’s Favorite Dancer starts with auditions in New York City and Miami. Keep reading for more details on the good, the bad, and the freaky fantastic performances thus far…
Tonight’s season premiere of So You Think You Can Dance kicks off with auditions in New York City. The dancers will be performing for Nigel Lythgoe, Adam Shankman, and Mia Michaels in hopes of securing a ticket to Vegas for the semi-finals. As always, each dancer will take the stage, perform their piece, and face one of three outcomes: 1. immediate ticket to Vegas for callbacks, 2. immediately sent packing, or 3. the chance to learn choreography to appear before the judges one more time before a final decision is made.
The first brave soul facing the judges is Sarah, a “plus-sized” dancer, if you consider size 6 to be plus-sized (which apparently in the dance world, it is). Her lyrical routine to My Girl wins rave reviews from the judges and gets her a quick ticket to Vegas. Next up, it’s time for some ballroom. Partners (and former Broadway stars), Giselle and Henry, take the stage. They come out strong with a sexy Latin dance that includes a lot of hip gyrating, body grinding, and if I’m not mistaken, a few stolen moves from the African Anteater Ritual from Can’t Buy Me Love. Apparently, Giselle and Henry’s hips don’t lie…and instead send them straight to Vegas.
No So You Think You Can Dance audition show would be complete without a few delusional dancers. Enter the 1-2-3 Party Troupe, three street dancers from the Bronx who sport spandex shorts, neon green t-shirts, and knee high sports socks to perform 80′s Jazzercise routines. Their troupe leader, Mike (aka “Lazer”) explains that their showmanship is based on creating “dance for the people.” Apparently, his target audience consists of people from 1985. When it seems evident that the judges have no intention to send Lazer through to Vegas (based on the fact that he didn’t actually dance at all), he tries to convince them with the impressive argument that he knows how to do a handstand. Well, hot dang! Why didn’t he mention that earlier!?
Mike/Lazer set the bar for craziness relatively high and inspired the editors to put together a nice little montage of bizarre, freaky, and downright terrible dancers. Following the slew of horrible hopefuls is eccentric contemporary dancer, Teddy, who made it through to Vegas last year but failed to make the top 20. His unique performance moves the judges to tears and, not surprisingly, earns him a ticket to Vegas once again.
Now let’s take a look at the random jobs that aspiring dancers work. Scott Vogel earns his paycheck as a biohazard remediation specialist. Don’t know what that is? Yeah, I didn’t either. Neither did Cat Deeley. But Scott explained it well: he cleans up blood and bodily fluids at homicide and crime scenes. Sounds glamourous! Why would he ever want to give that up for a boring old job in show business? After Scott’s pathetic attempt at country line dancing, it looks like he shouldn’t be quitting his day job anytime soon.
The last dancer during the first day of auditions is Chris doing iso-locking. That’s isolations mixed with locking for all you dance style newbies. Despite the fact that his outfit makes him look like the love child of ‘Where’s Waldo’ and ‘The Cat in the Hat,’ Chris actually does some freaky cool popping and locking and impresses the judges. They send him through to the choreography round to see if he’s more than a one-trick pony. So You Think You Can Dance alums, Courtney Galiano (season 4) and Jason Glover (season 5) teach the 30+ dancers a contemporary routine. Unfortunately, Chris doesn’t make it through the choreography round and is sent home.
It’s time for day two of auditions in New York City (or the Bronx to be exact). The first dancer to take the stage is cross-dressing horror filmmaker, Jamie. He comes out dressed as a she and donning an entire fruit bowl on his head. Despite the fact that he “dances” (and I use that term loosely) to the song, You Don’t Have to Take Your Clothes Off, he does a striptease which involves some strategically placed broccoli bunches. No ticket for Vegas but the judges appreciate being entertained by Jamie.
After a video montage of lots of dancers falling down, it’s time for “street runner,” Wadi. Street running basically involves sprinting, jumping, and doing crazy backflips off of buildings/benches/trees/mailboxes/newspaper stands. After seeing Wadi in action on the streets, it’s no surprise that he kills his breakdancing performance. The judges send him through to the choreography round without a hesitation. Let’s hope he can do something beyond backflips.
After a few snippets of amazing contemporary dancers, it’s time for Edward, a 20-year old who auditioned for season six of So You Think You Can Dance and has since earned a professional dancing job that gave his dad the first opportunity to see him dance ever. His ballet/contemporary routine is slightly shaky, although all I can really focus on are his ginormous thigh muscles, made even more prevalent by the spandex boy shorts he’s wearing. The judges send him through to the choreography round for now.
The final dancer for day two of the NYC auditions is Megan, a legitimately plus-sized dancer who has been dancing for 15 years. Despite her size, Megan’s always dreamed of being a professional dancer and has been inspired by thicker dancers like Mia Michaels. The judges seem genuinely surprised by her beautiful and moving performance that brings Adam Shankman and Mia Michaels to tears. Adam praises Megan for breaking stereotypes; Mia relates to Megan’s passion and overcoming spirit; and leave it to Nigel Lythgoe to tell her the chances of her becoming a professional dancer are slim. The judges agree to send her through to the choreography round where she unfortunately gets eliminated, along with street runner/breaker Wadi. Ballet/contemporary dancer, Edward, makes it through to Vegas though after nailing the choreography.
Now that the auditions in New York City are completed, let’s head down to Miami, shall we? Joining Nigel Lythgoe to judge the South Beach auditions are ballroom expert Jason Gilkison and choreographer Sonja Tayeh. The first person to grace the stage in Miami is German ballroom dancer, Michael, joined by a partner. I immediately love Michael because he is man enough to admit that he started dancing after watching Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing. His routine is well-done (and complete with a low-cut sequins sheer top…for him, not her) and he makes it to Vegas.
Next up is Tyrell, a contemporary dancer from the hood who looks like he could be Twitch’s long-lost little brother. After all the background info they’ve given us on Tyrell (including a glimpse at the rough part of town where he lives and a tearful interview with his dad), they better let this guy through. Fortunately his performance is amazing and he’s headed to Vegas!
Nineteen-year old Henry Rivera is the next to appear before the judges. He can’t put a complete sentence together for the cameras without breaking into a fit of giggles, but once he’s onstage, he pulls it together for a strong and moving contemporary performance. After throwing out words like “brilliant” and “inspirational,” the judges send Henry to Vegas.
Daria is the next young lady to audition to a risque, sexy number…with her dad. Yeah, her dad. Awk-ward! The judges agree with my assessment (as they should) and turn Daria down. Following Daria’s uncomfortable family routine is 27-year old wife and mother, Ami. In addition to having quite possibly the most adorable son (who does the Robot), Ami is gorgeous and a great dancer to boot. The judges give her the chance to try her hand at the choreography. After performing for a second time, Ami is sent through to Vegas.
Day two of the Miami auditions kicks off with sassy 21-year old Candace. She’s part of a Spice Girls-meets-Pussycat Dolls girl group called the Velvet Angels and wants to show her sexy, unique side. The crazy amount of cleavage Candace is showing certainly takes care of the sexy side of things. Not surprisingly, Nigel Lythgoe (the old perv) loves her performance. The judges would like to see more from Candace so they give her a chance to try out the choreography.
Rose Neptune is next to audition, attempting a salsa routine. There are a million things wrong with this performance, it’s hard to know where to begin. From the bright yellow halter top to the beefy partner (wearing a gold chain) to the poor attempts at lifts, the routine was cringe-inducing and painful to watch. There will be no Vegas in Rose’s future.
Sadly, Rose was only the beginning of the terrible dancers. As the footage rolls highlighting one awful dancer after another, it also inspires the first cheesy So You Think You Can Dance spoof skit of the season. A mock CSI intro called ‘CSytycdI: Miami’ in which the judges are supposed to be dance forensics specialists. I don’t even know what that means. I am, however, grateful when it ends.
As the Miami auditions wind down, there’s still time for Jose Ruiz, a 21-year old breakdancer who was inspired to audition by watching Legacy on last season. The judges are impressed with Jose’s performance and want to see more. He’s off to join sexy-sassy Candace for choreography. Candace somehow manages to wear even less clothes to the choreography round which doesn’t bode well for her. She is sent home after her performance. Jose still has a lot of work to do but the judges liked him enough to send him to the callbacks in Vegas.
Tune into So You Think You Can Dance next Wednseday at 8pm EST on FOX for auditions in Los Angeles and Chicago.
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Topics: FOX Reality TV Shows, So You Think You Can Dance |
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