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Academy Week 3: Jazz & All-Star Duets

Tonight is the finale rounds of the Academy before the live shows begin. First up is Jazz with Sonya, and she always brings something challenging and unique to the table. You can see that all of the street dancers are struggling to pick up the choreography but Kevin seemed to get really frustrated with himself. Sonya gave him a bit of tough love, and said if you give up you might as well say goodbye to being on the show. Thankfully, in the end he pulled through and I thought did well. Lex also had a bit of close call because he wasn’t connecting as well as everyone thought. Team Robert suffered an injury while learning the jazz choreography. Taylor and Jennifer were dancing a little to close to each other, and when they did the roll on the floor Taylor hit Jennifer in the head with her foot. Medics were called in to look at the gash on Jennifer’s eyebrow, which didn’t look good. After she was bandaged up she joined her team back on stage and told Robert that she wouldn’t be able to continue with competition. The laceration on her eyebrow needed stitches and the medics said that injury could get worse if she did continue with the show. I think Jennifer made the right decision in the end and she’ll have a great story to tell about her scar.

Now each of the are down to their final two dancers and there is only one more round they have to get though before the all-stars pick who they want as their partner. Each all-star choreographed a routine to perform with each of their team members to see who they have the best connection with. After they dance with each team member, they meet back up with the remaining all-stars to get feed back. Gaby and Jenna teams stood out to me the most. Gaby choose to stick with a tap routine even though it only played to the strength of Evan. Thankfully Lex can tap and was able to keep up with Gaby. Jenna on the other had to create two different routines, ballroom for Kiki and one that would fit more to Kevin’s style. Kevin seemed to get the best reactions from the rest of the all-stars. Jenna has a tough decision to make…they all do.

My Top 10 Predictions.

Gaby: It’s a tough call but I think Lex will just barely edge out Evan.
Paul: Sydney, she seemed to have the better connection with Paul.
Allison: Logan…I happened to stumble across an article from Playbill (July 12, 2017) that Zachary has joined cast of Cats on Broadway, starting on July 17, why I’m thinking she chose Logan.
Cyrus: Kaylee…should be interesting
Jasmine: Robert Green
Marko: Koine…another close call
Comfort: Mark
FikShun: Dassy
Jenna: I honestly don’t know what she will do.
Robert: Taylor

July 31, 2017 I Written By

Dance is one of my biggest passions. I grew up dancing at Augusta West Dance Studio (the same studio that Kathryn McCormick). I have a BFA in theatre/dance from Valdosta State University. Tap is my favorite style of dance.

Academy Episode 2: Contemporary, Ballroom, and Groups

Information overload in this weeks episode…it’s hard to keep track of names and who is on which all-stars team. Definitely seeing the difference between the one and two-hour episodes. Even watching the episode twice I wasn’t able to keep up with everything. So I figured I would just go with my thoughts about tonight’s contemporary, ballroom, group rounds.

Day two started off with a difficult contemporary combo from Travis Wall. I really enjoyed that Travis allowed the dancers to free style the start of the routine. Allowing them to interpret the music into their own form of movement. Also not pairing them up I think gave the dancers more of an opportunity to take Travis’s choreography and make it their own. Just like the hip hop round the contestants have an hour to learn the dance. However, each group will learn their fate right after they dance. Robert finally has someone on his team and he might have gotten a little dramatic to ensure that Taylor would be on his team. If you noticed that contestants that were chosen to be on a team in last weeks episode still had to participate in rest of the rounds, I’m assuming to let them keep proving themselves to the all-stars that chose them. By the end of the first round of day two 14 more dancers were cut.

Next up ballroom with Dmitry and Jenya. Happy we got to see the Cha Cha demonstrated so we know what the choreography is supposed to look like. Also by this point each all-star only has one more space left on their teams. The reactions of the all-stars were feature a little bit more this round and it’s nice to see them enjoying themselves before they have to make a hard decision. I noticed that they began to struggle deciding what they want to do, Paul changing his mind of what he was going to do to save Vacily was a great example of this. The teams are full at the end of this round.

Day two of the academy is over or so they think. Cat breaks the news that it is time for the group round, in which the dancers would work through the night to create a routine and perform it the next morning and one person would be cut from each team. Okay so group night was when I wish was a separate episode or a two-hour one. I missed the intensity of what this round usually is…granted I never really enjoyed the drama that the group round can bring but it did make the group routines a little more impressive. Overall, Paul’s team might have had the worst group dance of the night and they seemed to have the most drama. Jenna made an interesting move by saving Kevin from elimination, she obviously connected with him on some level not to be able to let him go. In making this save, Jenna had to cut two of her dancers from her team. After group rounds each all-star has 3 team member left.

Next week is the final episode of the Academy before the live show start and the all-stars still have to cut two more dancers from their team. First up in Jazz with Sonya, followed by the all-stars dancing with each of their final two dancers (well that’s what it looked like to me). Ending with the green mile in which we will find out our top 10 dancers. I have a few guesses of who might be in the top 10 so I’m curious to see if I have any correct.

July 24, 2017 I Written By

Dance is one of my biggest passions. I grew up dancing at Augusta West Dance Studio (the same studio that Kathryn McCormick). I have a BFA in theatre/dance from Valdosta State University. Tap is my favorite style of dance.

Academy Episode One: Solos & Hip Hop

Tonight we were treated to a great opening number choreographed by Mandy Moore. I actually loved that they did this, it made the introduction to the Academy more exciting. Anyone else notice that part of the choreography was use in the initial audition rounds. Tonight’s episode was jammed packed full of information and I know I didn’t get all the names for the teams but I’ll hopefully fill them in next week.

Round One: The dancers must impress the panel of All Stars with their solo or duet(ballroom). If they get the majority of the vote, they will move on to the next round. I always enjoy watching the All Stars reaction to the all-stars. There were several that did impress and I wasn’t surprised either. Kristina and Vasily for me stood out. They danced so beautifully, but we didn’t see them much throughout the rest of the episode. However, I did spot them at the end of the episode when they were previewing the rest of the Academy. 71 dancers moved on the next round.

Round Two: Hip Hop with NappyTabs, who are everywhere these days. The contestants have an hour to learn the routine and then have to perform it for the All Stars. So it’s either sink or swim, and from what I saw there was everything from amazing to awful. I do wish the show will show the viewing audience what the dance actually looks like. After all the dancers have performed one of three outcomes will happen. 1) Picked to be on an All Stars’s team 2) Move on to the next round or 3) Sent home. If more than one All Star want them on their team the contestant gets to choose whose team he or she wants to be on.

Kevin Davis Jr: A Krumper that had five All Stars wanting him on his team. Allison, FikShun, Cyrus, Jasmine, and Comfort all explained why they wanted him on their team. In the end he wanted to choose the person who he would benefit the most from, so he picked Allison.

Dassy Lee: Not surprised she had both of the Hip Hop boys wanting her on their team. Dassy chose FikShun over Cyrus. I’m thinking FikShun has an edge over Cyrus since he has won the show and mentored last years winner.

Logan Hernandez: Robert, Allison, and Jenna were all wanting him. Jenna even made a bold statement of the night by saying he would be her partner on the show. She basically said he would be in the top 10 if he chose her. Logan chose Allison…chances are he might not have believed Jenna.

Robert seemed to have a tough time convincing someone to be on his team. After tonight’s episode he is the only All Star that doesn’t have anyone on his team yet.

At the end of tonight 13 of the 40 spots were filled, and next week the dancers face contemporary with Travis and ballroom with Dmitry. I am going to try to get a who is on each All Star’s team up.

 

July 17, 2017 I Written By

Dance is one of my biggest passions. I grew up dancing at Augusta West Dance Studio (the same studio that Kathryn McCormick). I have a BFA in theatre/dance from Valdosta State University. Tap is my favorite style of dance.

New York Auditions: Part 2

I case you didn’t notice last weeks episode was a repeat, I’m guessing due to the fourth of July the network didn’t want to air a new episode. So tonight we get to see the rest of the auditions in New York, and it also concludes the initial auditions before the Academy. There was plenty of talent tonight from the amazing to the not so great (which always makes me wonder if they watch the show).

Magda & Kiki: They have an interesting dynamic but they a just dance partners, and Magda does all the talking. What I liked about their audition is that it wasn’t too over the top with the tricks, and I was a little surprised they didn’t do any lifts. It was just a straight forward cha-cha that got them their ticket to the Academy.

Claudia & George, Jaryd Farcon, and Allen Genkin…just a few more ballroom dancers to make it straight to the Academy

Zachary Downer: He auditioned for season 12 and made it to the green mile. Can’t say I rememberer him but it is very clear after watch him dance again why he made it as far as he did. Love the infusion of the african movement with the contemporary.

Ramita Ravi: I have to admit I was excited to watch her dance the moment she sat down to talk to Cat. I do enjoy watch the Bollywood style of dancing. I was somewhat surprised the judges didn’t send her to the academy right away. I think that they just wanted to see more of what she can do. Thankfully she made it through the choreography round.

Peter Mangione: I must have missed the part when he said he had only be dancing for six months, but when he mispronounced Ballet, I pretty much knew this would be a not so good audition.

Arielle Disciascio: I was on the fence about Arielle, yes she is a fantastic dancer with precision and control. However, I wanted to see her let go and really just dance from the heart. So like Nigel I wanted to see her do the choreography.

Some more familiar faces of past seasons are back to try again and the are all hip hop dancers. Chris Andrews, Chase “CTut” Lindsey (the finger tutting) and Jason Kidd. One last familiar face for tonight was Romainson Romain, provided the most moving audition of the night, the judges knew he had a lot weighing him down and I loved that they lifted him up. He also didn’t do too bad in the choreography round and he made it to the academy.

Marc “Full out” Royale: Um dancing professionally for two years…yeah I don’t think so but I see why he goes by full-out.

Claire Rathbun: I love how ballet dancers especially those that do pointe make it look so easy and effortless. I also love how she wants to prove that you can have a big personality and still do ballet. Based on her personality I wonder how well she will do in the hip hop genre.

Lex Ishimoto: He took a big risk by doing an improve for his audition, but man did it pay off. It was the best audition of the night. Plus at the time of his audition he was performing with Travis Wall’s (and Nick, Teddy, & Kyle) company Shaping Sound. I can’t wait to see what All Star get him on their team. It’s a bold prediction from me but Lex will be in the top 10.

So 100 dancers total for the LA and New York Auditions made to the academy. They will be tested by Travis Wall, Sonya Tayeh, Dmitry Chaplin, and NappyTabs. Looking forward to next week.

July 10, 2017 I Written By

Dance is one of my biggest passions. I grew up dancing at Augusta West Dance Studio (the same studio that Kathryn McCormick). I have a BFA in theatre/dance from Valdosta State University. Tap is my favorite style of dance.