September 20, 2010 | Pure So You Think You Can Dance

SYTYCD 2010 Tour – New Orleans

Hi y’all.

So, my mom and I attended the 2010 SYTYCD Tour in New Orleans last night. This is our second year – last year, we saw the show in Duluth, with Amanda. This year, you’ll get write-ups on two different cities from us.

If you haven’t bought your tickets to the SYTYCD tour, there are still SYTYCD tour tickets available on Ticketmaster but many shows are selling out so go buy them now.

There will be some tour spoilers below, so stop reading if knowing ahead of time will bother you. 🙂

SPOILER…

First of all, we were the first date on the tour and each show is always a little different, so I don’t know what they’ll change up.

We were on the side of the stage, so the girls started shrieking whenever they caught even a glimpse of the dancers peeking out from the curtain. They kept calling Kent’s name, so I was pretty sure that he hasn’t lost any fans since the finale. 🙂

The opening was pretty stellar, all intense music and spastic lights, but honestly, I was just so glad to see all those dancers again that I think I would’ve enjoyed them reading a phone book on stage. They flashed the names of the dancers on the big center screen and then lifted to reveal the dancers standing in a line.

Just to give you an idea scope of the intensity of last night’s opening and the phenomenal New Orleans audience, check this out:

I think one of the most interesting things about the tour was seeing who replaced the original dancers who weren’t dancing. For instance, the first dance was My Chick Bad with Russell stepping in for Twitch and he did a great job with Lauren. When Ade stepped in for Neil in the baseball Broadway routine, I have to admit that as much as I loooove Ade, I missed Neil. Though, I didn’t miss Neil nearly as much as I thought I would when Robert replaced him in the Travis Wall betrayal routine with Kent. Kent and Robert danced the hell out of that and Robert really made it his own. It’s a tough thing to make me forget about Neil, but I was totally absorbed in the routine.

They showed the “Outta Your Mind” on the big screen and I thought it was a good solution. Obviously, they had to have it but they couldn’t just re-cast the two dancers. As they proved when they had Ellen dance the tribute with Twitch.

There always seems to be a running joke, or at least there was last year (Russian folk, anyone?) and this year, it was the rock used in the King Arthur-themed Dominic-Jose piece. Even though I enjoyed it better live, I still object to Dom bowing to Jose. No way Jose dominated, sorry. Dom = dominate. 🙂 Anyway, I won’t tell you how the rock became the running joke – you’ll just have to see for yourself.

The last thing I’ll mention about the performance is that there’s a surprise in the second half involving Lauren and Kent and that infamous prom dance. It’s a really cool surprise and it ended the show. So, look for it when you check out the tour.

Oh, I guess it’s worth mentioning that some of the dancers were naturally a little more natural while introducing the other performances. Kent and Robert, for instance, didn’t really sound different at all from their regular selves, while some of the dancers (who shall remain nameless) were cute but pretty unnatural while speaking on the sidelines. I think it’s an invaluable part of their process – learning public speaking. 🙂

It’s a great show. There are already videos up on YouTube (better than mine) and you can see some great photos taken by someone who clearly had a better seat than me.

And, as we did last year, my mom and I waited to meet all the dancers after the show. And waited. And waited. We waited about two hours. It was not my favorite part, especially because they kept telling us it was going to be 45 minutes and then 45 minutes would pass and then they’d say 45 minutes again. But, while we were waiting, we befriended all the folks in line around us. And I caught these priceless homemade shirts.

Kent take me to Wapokenta

Robert you make Heaven a place on Earth

I want to lay Ade

And meeting the dancers MORE than made up for the two hours’ wait. It was midnight and it was still hot and we were all exhausted. But, they were ALL so grateful we came to see them, that we waited to meet them. They were humble and sweet and so wonderful. They spent time with each and every person, gave hugs and took pictures and signed everything put in front of them. And I got pictures with all of them. Of course, I cropped myself out of them as best I could and they were taken on my cell phone, but check out the pictures below.

Some quick notes of introduction:
-These photos are in the order that I met the dancers.
-Even though he acted like he remembered my mom and me, I’m not sure Ade possibly could, but I love him for faking it. 🙂 He gives the best hugs.
-Kathryn asked me where I was sitting and seemed to recognize me. I told her I was waaaay up on the side, but that I wrote for this site, along with her former studio-mate Amanda. She spent a good amount of time with us and had to help me find her picture in the book for her to sign cause I was so tired. Lol
-Robert is lovely. He also spent a lot of time with us and also with everybody I saw him talking to. That kid is going far.
-I told Ashley how upset I was that she had to withdraw from the competition and she seemed really touched. I think it’s really cool of her to go on tour with her Season 7 peeps rather than go for another season next year, though I’ll miss seeing her on t.v.
-AdeChike is really funny and personable. He had no trouble connecting with everybody in line and seemed to really enjoy all the fans.