Welcome to Pure So You Think You Can Dance

Yippee. Some fun Tweets lately. Here are a selection:

HOTtamaleTRAIN
LOLOL nice shirt Nick. RT @NickLazzarini: http://yfrog.com/4i2epqdj /via @SYTYCDISM – OMG, I wish I could pack that for Australia! 4 minutes ago

JManrara
Woke up, had coffee w/ Tyce, going over my lines for class now, then lunch w/ Katie Shean & Courtney Galiano, & then 5Alive reunion! Yay! about 1 hours ago

Bearkaz
http://twitpic.com/14y5wn – I decided Evan would look sweet with a mustache and…BOOSH! about 1 hours ago

You know this made my day, being a devoted Kasprzak fan. There’s another great pic on Ryan’s page of the three brothers round Christmas time. Here’s the pic Ryan posted:

itsjeaninemason
Hold the phone: 5 ALIVE reunion dinner tonight!! Get pumped! I lahv family! about 2 hours ago

Hopefully, there will be pics to follow tonight’s reunion dinner!

xxsurfjonsurfxx
Still in bed….. Need to go shopping for tonight tho!!!! Yaaay family reunion…. Season 5 family that is!!! =D about 4 hours ago

dmitry_ch
Doing a photoshoot with @Chelsiekayh http://yfrog.com/37zfmuj about 2 hours ago

Here’s the pic:

NAPPYTABS
Monsters of Hip Hop tryin’ to get to 4,000 followers on their facebook! Help us get them there! We know what you can do followers! about 4 hours ago

jakobakarr
So sleepy today! This rehearsal is going to be a tough one to get through. At least I have @Jaimie_Goodwin to provide the giggles. about 4 hours ago

Billy_Bell
Clear talent meeting! @shaynalb about 6 hours ago

But this one may be waaaay better: @Jglove988 so when are you going to tell @jmanrara that we are together and you don tlike her anymore? about 24 hours ago in reply to Jglove988

adammshankman
First thing I saw when I woke up http://yfrog.com/338pdwj about 7 hours ago

Cute pic from Adam – he also Tweets about the Oscars choreography – go check it out.

MollsGrayy
Well just barely going to sleep… Its 5:38 am and I have to be at Millenium by 10am to teach a private lesson!! Then rehearsal all day! Ahh about 8 hours ago

alohakupono
MiA!!!!!!!!!!!! I seriously NeED you in my LiiiiiiiiiiiiiiFE!!!!!!!! I hope you’re doing good and I better see you on THURSDaY for you … about 12 hours ago

A sentiment I’m sure we all second. More Mia is necessary.

PeterSabasino
Getting ready to perform at a Haiti bennefit. I’m excited.. 3:59 PM Feb 19th

Just cause I love Peter…

Exciting news about the Five Alive “reunion” tonight. And the Dmitry/Chelsea photo session. Hope you enjoy.

PureSYTYCD commenter Ben (thanks, dude!) spotted a distinctive SYTYCD alumni and wrote us:

At least ONE SYTYCD dancer in the new video for The Black Eyed Peas’ Double A-Side release, “Imma Be”/”Rock That Body”. Nathan sighting in the second half, wearing one of his hats.

Ben, you’re right! Nathan is clearly visible at 6:26 and at several parts after that. I thought I saw Russell a few times (what do y’all think?). Can anybody identify any of the other dancers, especially the girls? This is a great remix video, very fun and it was cool to see Nathan and other (?) SYTYCD alumni strutting their stuff.

I wonder if the Black Eyed Peas were into using SYTYCD alumni after meeting some of the dancers when they performed on the show.

Thanks again for writing us, Ben. Here’s the video, y’all:

Here’s another Twitter Roundup for your enjoyment!

LaurenGottlieb
Ugh! When JLo calls ur supposed to drop what ur doing &go!!..I just dont know if I can do that this time:/ Sending good vibes hope it works about 1 hour ago

karla_w_a_K
still under construction … http://www.KarlaPunoGarcia.com about 2 hours ago

[She also posts dance class footage]

PaulineMata
New video with @juskalmeB and I! Check it out and let me know what you think! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg5LOAHbvv0 about 3 hours ago

[Choreographed by Brandon Bryant, Ade behind the camera and Melissa in the background. Quite the SYTYCD reunion here. ]

jakobakarr
Packing and getting ready for my long Oscar journey. So excited to perform at the Academy Awards! Excied for @NYCDA Pittsburg first though! about 3 hours ago

adammshankman
Oh lord. They dug up the clips of me dancing on the 1990 #oscars and are posting them on oscars.org I think…young & ridiculous. about 7 hours ago

ChelsieKayH
Everyone go check out the 2010 Sports Illustrated Mag!! i was lucky enough to be selected to be in it 11:19 AM Feb 10th

[The link above was inserted by me and takes you to Chelsie's SI pictures.]

Earlier today, Noelle sent this Tweet:

NoelleMarsh
Choreography by ME AND ARIANA DEBOSE! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM3jX4fAhIw about 1 hour ago

Check out the video below. I loooved seeing this routine, especially because Ariana left too early, in my opinion. She was one of my favorites. Seeing her Noelle together, not only dancing but choreographing a group of dancers, is very exciting. Hmmm… how long do you think it’ll take before SYTYCD will have them on choreographing the dancers? That would rock!

Check out a solo performance Jakob just Tweeted about!

Jakob performing solo

Here’s a Tweet from Ashleigh DiLello:

To help answer all ur questions about SYTYCD Season 6 Tour: We’ve been told there will be one- we just don’t know what, when, or where yet. about 8 hours ago

Hmmm. I wonder if this is all part of some campaign to get all of us rabid about the tour…

Everyone knows that Channing was my favorite on SYTYCD (partially due to my love of Blondes I think). So, of course, I totally LOVED these videos of Channing doing Hip Hop (Thanks to SYTYCDism).

This one is just beautiful of Channing:

Here is one of her and Ivan Kourmaev from SYTYCD season 2.

It’s amazing that Channing was kind of “branded” a contemporary dancer when she does Hip Hop this well. I wonder what kind of dancer Channing would consider herself. Yep, I just became even more of a Channing fan! We’re going to have to work harder next season to find these little nuggets of information before the top 20.

This was hard! There were a lot of routines that were equally good in my mind, so I had to work hard to limit myself to a Top 10. I gave myself 5 extra routines for group numbers that rocked – we had a lot of amazing group work this season, especially when you factor in the Meet the Top 20 episode. I did not consider “fairness” or equal distribution here. So I think you’ll see a lot of the same dancers, which didn’t surprise me, personally.

Paired Routines

1. “Machine Gun” Ellenore/Legacy Travis Wall

2. “Tore My Heart” Ellenore/Jakob Sonya Tayeh

3. “At This Moment” Kathryn/Jakob Desmond Richardson and Dwight Rhoden

4. “Little Green Bag” Pauline/Peter Wade & Amanda Robson

5. “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead” Ellenore/Ryan Travis Wall

6. “2 Steps Away” Kathryn/Legacy Stacey Tookey

7. “Frog Dance” Noelle/Russell Sean Cheesman

8. “Put Your Hands on Me” Kathryn/Ryan Jason Gilkison

9. “Violentango” Ellenore/Ryan Miriam and Leonardo

10. “Put Your Hands On me” Kathryn/Ryan Jason Gilkison

Honorable Mentions (alllllmooooosssst): Kathryn/Legacy’s paso doble, Noelle/Russell’s “A Case of You” contemporary, Noelle/Ryan “Give It To Me Right” hip hop, Mollee/Jakob’s “Ordinary Day” waltz, Ellenore/Jakob “Gotcha” Broadway, Ashleigh/Jakob “Whatcha Say” hip hop, Ariana/Peter’s “Black and Gold” hip hop, Bianca/Victor’s “Wasted Time” contemporary, Ellenore/Russell paso doble, Kathryn/Russell hip hop (both finale).

Group Routines

1. Top 20 “Comanche” Wade & Amanda Robson

2. Top 12 “What’s a Girl to Do” Nappytabs

3. Top 14 “Aha!” Wade & Amanda Robson

4. Top 16 “Warrior” Dave Scott

5. Ariana, Channing, Jakob and Nathan “Cryin’” contemporary Tyce Diorio

These were my standouts, the routines I’d expect on a tour (with the exception of those who didn’t make the Top 10). What were yours?

Here’s Season 6 in review. Y’all brought up a lot of this stuff in recent comments (Mrs. D’s comment in particular), which gave me the idea to do a review of the season, what we liked and didn’t like. If you disagree with me (or agree), feel free to put your two cents in, as it’s all subjective and I’d love to know what you think!

Jeer:

This season felt more rushed that any other that I can think of. Between baseball, the Presidential address, so many audition episodes and an early end to the season because of Christmas coming up, I feel like this year’s Top 20 got shafted on actual dancing time. But not just the dancers – the choreographers got fewer chances to wow us. And the audience lost out, as well.

Cheer:

I loved that I didn’t have to wait till the summer for a new season. While America’s Favorite Dancer gets a shorter reign if they continue on the two seasons a year model, we had a shorter wait, which was really nice. After Season 5, I just don’t know how I would have contained my SYTYCD longing. Are the producers hoping to follow a Survivor/Dancing with the Stars model with the two seasons a year thing? If so, they should be just as smart about scheduling and not hesitate to move the finale to a separate night (like Survivor’s Sunday finale yesterday).

Jeer:

The new stage, or at least the screen behind it. It seems like we’ve transitioned from utter hatred toward the new stage, which always threatens to swallow up the dancers, to an acceptance that we’ll probably never get our intimate little stage back. Many readers have begun to say that the screen and imprudent use of it, is actually the bigger issue.

Cheer:

The group numbers were able to utilize this enormous space in really pleasing ways. It’s nice to think that SYTYCD can now command (and fill) a larger audience space. Maybe it’ll end up being a wonderful challenge to the choreographers (as well as the production crew, especially camera folk) to recapture that intimate feeling.

Jeer:

It was awful having three static judges (Nigel, Mary and Adam). No new blood! Adam seemed to be the only one who had something to say, most reliably at least. And when the three additional judges (Debbie, Lil C and Tyce) came in for the finale, it felt like an eternity since I’d seen them and that they were given favorites to pick rather than choosing from their hearts. Maybe that’s not true, and I’m sure they still kept up with the season, but their involvement didn’t have the same feeling because they never rotated in and out during the season.

Cheer:

Adam Shankman is a wonderful addition to the judging panel. I didn’t mind him being a constant, I only minded that there was no new blood. You almost always knew what Nigel and Mary were going to say, so he was a breath of fresh air (especially at the beginning of the season). Adam is funny and honest (he called out choreographers for bad routines!) and you get the impression that he’ll actually hire the dancers he likes (i.e. when Noelle got cut, I was okay because I felt Adam wanted to work with her), so he’s a valuable part of the panel.

Jeer:

Shane Sparks and Alex DaSilva’s arrests (both for sexual crimes related to their dance students) are not only damaging to the choreographer’s careers, but also haunt the dance community at large and threaten to harm SYTYCD’s image.

Cheer:

The Dizzy Feet Foundation and gala do wonderful things for the dance community, SYTYCD and for us, as it unites our favorite shows, dancers, choreographers, crews in a really positive mission. It raises awareness and gives our favorites work! We can help, too!

Jeer:

How many injuries did we have this season? Mia Michaels was rushed to the hospital at the beginning of the season. Then, Billy Bell had to drop out due to illness. Noelle was injured in the first competition show while Ellenore and Ashleigh were both hurt during the Top 8 week and Russell was injured in the finale. Did I forget anyone??

Cheer:

Despite the overly-produced and rushed feel of the season, despite all the injuries, we had a wonderful Top 20 this season. As John pointed out, they had a great mix of styles and backgrounds. We saw some consistent excellence (Jakob and Ellenore, namely) and some great growth arcs (arguably, everybody, but notably Kathryn and Russell, in my opinion). We had some “characters” to get behind this season, in Legacy and the DiLellos in particular.

Jeer:

America’s SYTYCD lost Mia Michaels this season and her absence was certainly felt. Our loss was apparently SYTYCD Canada’s gain, so while it’s good that she’s working within the SYTYCD family, there’s a great big gaping hole where she was in our shows.

Cheer:

Mia’s absence gave way to a ton of “new” choreographers this season. New to us, at least. Like Sean Cheesman, Jason Gilkison, Spencer Liff and a routine from Desmond Richardson and Dwight Rhoden. We had more Wade Robson, more Stacey Tookey, more Mandy Moore and more Travis Wall routines, which seriously rocked. More Sonya routines, many of which blew our minds, like the “Tore My Heart” routine with Ellenore and Jakob.  Hopefully, we’ll get to see special Mia routines, maybe one or two a season, in the future. I don’t want SYTYCD America to be completely devoid of Mia Michaels, but I’m glad we had so many standout choreographers, new and recurring, this season.

Jeer:

This season had some really awful costumes…

Cheer:

And some really amazing music. But these two things are pretty typical of all seasons, I suppose.

Jeer:

No mention of a Season 6 tour! Not even on the finale show! What are they thinking? There had better be a tour, or I will seriously cry foul. I’m keeping my feelers out, y’all, and using my contacts, to see if/when the tour will be.

Cheer:

I’m glad they mentioned auditions for Season 7 because it sounds like it’ll be another summer season. So that means that we’ll either have two seasons a year, or we’ll go back to our beloved summer format (probably the former). SYTYCD keeps motoring on, which is good news. And again, we don’t have to wait several months till fall, sounds like.

Jeer:

Hell no to the Top 6! I hope Fox and SYTYCD realize they can never do this to us again. This was the worst idea ever and I suspect the results might have been significantly different, if we’d had a normal Top 4 finale. Not cool.

Cheer:

The Meet the Top 20 episode was the biggest stroke of genius and the best of all the new ideas and concepts we dealt with this season. I hope they *always* do this from now on. It was sublime to see all of the Top 20 dancing within their styles without fear of elimination. Some of the best dancing of the entire season happened in this very first episode, as evidenced by how many of the judges’ favorites in the finale show were from this very episode.

I think that’s all I’ve got. I’ve run out of steam. But I’m sure I’ve forgotten something you hated or loved, so let me know what you think.

I’m sure that people won’t like me talking about this, but when has this ever stopped me before? First, I should make it clear that when I write posts like this I’m mostly disappointed with the producers of SYTYCD and not Russell. However, one of the problems with writing a blog and being so involved in a show like SYTYCD is that you find out all the background story that the producers have chosen not to tell you. A part of me LOVES to know “the rest of the story” and the other part of me feels betrayed by the producers of the show. Either way, it is what it is and I still LOVE watching the dancers on SYTYCD. I think this is likely to never change.

With that preface, I was disappointed to read about all the formal dance training that Russell Ferguson had before going on SYTYCD. Here’s a short section of an interview Russell did with People.com where he talks about the dance training he had before the show:

You’ve often been referred to as a “street dance” diamond in the ruff but you’ve had some dance education, right?
I’ve been doing hip-hop all my life. So, I figured if I was going to take on any big dance projects later in life, I would have to learn other things to be well-rounded in the dance field. I did four years at Boston Arts and I did a good year at The University of the Arts, so I got a good amount of training in.

The judges portrayal of you as this unpolished stone. Was that accurate?
They know I had some form of training. But the thing is, a lot of people that do train, like that is what they do, that is their dance style, that’s their lifestyle. And me, I really did just come from the streets.

5 years of formal training? That’s a little more than just coming from the street. As I think back on some of the comments the judges made about Russell, you can tell that they knew about this information and were trying to maintain the persona that Russell was a “street dancer” without outright lieing. For example, I remember Nigel saying something like, “You’re basically an untrained dancer.” Then, he went on to compare him to Legacy when Nigel said, “You’re like Legacy, but you point your toes.” The interesting part is that I think Legacy actually is an untrained dancer. Russell is not.

Of course, when Russell won I think we all realized where he’d come from was the street. I absolutely adore that he won the show. I also loved how raw and real his reaction was when he won. I know some people didn’t like it too much, but to me it was beautiful. I’m not sure why he took his shirt off, but he was living in a moment that he probably thought he’d never experience. I don’t know all his background, but I bet Russell really does have a story to tell about where he came from and how he made it to an arts college and now as winner of SYTYCD. You could see the story in his face and in the face of his family.

This won’t be the first or the last time the producers don’t tell the whole story about dancers. I remember the outrage about this short post I did about Twitch dancing in Hairspray. No one had an issue that Twitch was in Hairspray. It was that the show acted like he hadn’t done anything like it before. To be honest, I’m amazed that the producers told us that Mollee was the principal dancer on all 3 High School Musicals. I guess they probably figured most people would find that one out anyway.

I don’t think any of this diminishes the quality of the dancing and the entertainment value that their dancing brings to me when I watch the show. All of that is amazing and it’s great that Russell can go out and do a Krump routine and follow it up with some ballroom. Is it just too much for me to wish that the producers didn’t produce the show so much. Probably.