Welcome to Pure So You Think You Can Dance

I just got news that beloved Katee Shean has launched a makeup line with a company called Cliche Cosmetics. I’ve been told “She designed every detail of the two compacts included in the line. There’s one for stage and one for everyday.” Interesting move by Katee Shean. Since I’m a man, I’ll be interested to hear what the female readers think of this line. Oh yes, that means I should probably give some away. Good idea, watch for a contest for free Katee Shean makeup very soon. Or you can buy them on the Cliche Cosmetics website right now.

Turns out that Courtney Galiano and Chelsie Hightower will also be launching lines on July 20th and August 3rd respectively.

Also, check out some pictures from the photo shoot that Katee Shean did for Cliche Cosmetics.

This video is really dark, but seeing Chelsie Hightower sing just made me laugh. I think Katee Shean is the girl on the far side from Chelsie also. Not sure about the girl in the middle. Anyway, this gave me a good laugh, but it doesn’t seem that Chelsie will be following in Julianne’s footsteps with a singing career on top of her dancing career. Enjoy!

I’ve now read in two different reliable sources that So You Think You Can Dance is going to have a second season in 2009. Season 6 of So You Think You Can Dance has been given a Fall time slot on Fox. It looks like the idea is for So You Think You Can Dance to bridge the Fall gap between So You Think You Can Dance and American Idol.

The other interesting part of this is that So You Think You Can Dance would then be going up against ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. This would be really interesting since many of the stars from past seasons of So You Think You Can Dance have made the bridge to being professional dancers on Dancing with the Stars (see Lacey Schwimmer, Chelsie Hightower and Dmitry Chaplin).

I couldn’t be more excited about this change. One report I read said that Fox is still waiting to see how well So You Think You Can Dance will do this summer before making it final. I guess we’ll see, but either way it’s fun to think that we’ll have a second season of So You Think You Can Dance so quickly. Summer just isn’t enough SYTYCD for me. I found where Nigel Lythgoe confirmed that Fox has announced Season 6 of So You Think You Can Dance on Fox in September. BEAUTIFUL!!

Well, after tonight’s performance on Dancing with the Stars, it looks like Chelsie Hightower will be going home. It’s possible that by some miracle, they’re able to get enough votes, but it’s not looking very good.

In honor of So You Think You Can Dance Alumni, Chelsie Hightower, I thought I might as well do a post dedicated to Chelsie.

First, here’s a pretty cool tribute video to Chelsie and Mark:

Next, check out the most popular dance from last season’s So You Think You Can Dance to a Leona Lewis song called Bleeding Love. The video is really something special to watch.

Then, I would be remiss if I didn’t add in the video of Chelsie Hightower giving cowboy Ty Murray a spray on tan for his Salsa.

UPDATE: Lacey and Steve-O were sent home on Dancing with the Stars.

I’m certain that a lot of fans of So You Think You Can Dance have been following the past So You Think You Can Dance cast to see how they’re doing on Dancing with the Stars. I meant to give more regular updates, but just didn’t find the time.

As you probably already know, Dmitry and Holly were voted off the show a couple weeks ago. I know I was a little bit surprised, although looking back it kind of makes sense that Holly doesn’t have the most passionate following. Men who like Playboy aren’t exactly the target market for Dancing with the Stars and are definitely not the kind of people that pick up the phone and vote. Regardless I’d still really like to see Dmitry back for another season on the show.

This week Chelsie and Lacey are both in the bottom 2. That really doesn’t bode well for either of them. I personally think that it might just be time for Steve-O to go home. Although, he probably does have a few more fans than Ty so it could be a close one. Either way, it’s pretty much a forgone conclusion that both Chelsie and Lacey have lame duck partners and they’re lucky to still be on the show at all.

I’m sure that Chelsie and Lacey are fighting as hard as they can to stay on the show since the farther they make it on the show, the more they get paid. At least if they get paid similar to Shawn Johnson on Dancing with the Stars. Plus, maybe there’s just a little bit of pride for being the last So You Can Dance alumnus still on Dancing with the Stars.

Since I’ve always focused on the music from So You Think You Can Dance, I should also link you to a list of all the Dancing with the Stars 2009 music. They’re still not on par with So You Think You Can Dance, but they have done 100 times better this year than in past years.

I’ve previously talked about the new SYTYCD 5 dances that we can hope to see on So You Think You Can Dance 2009. I also have suggested some new SYTYCD 5 music that they could consider using on So You Think You Can Dance 2009.

The question now is who could be the new judges on So You Think You Can Dance 5.

I wish I could say that Mary Murphy was going to be gone and replaced by someone else. However, I’ve read that her and Nigel will be back for another season.

The first person to top my list of judges on So You Think You Can Dance 2009 is Kenny Ortega. Not only is he the mastermind behind the choreography on High School musical, but he really knows what he is talking about. He has a great way of describing what people are doing well and not doing so well.

I’d love to see Luther Brown make an appearance on So You Think You Can Dance US. I don’t want him there every week, but I enjoyed his feedback on So You Think You Can Dance Canada.

I’d also love to see almost any of the judges from So You Think You Can Dance Australia. Those judges were raw and interesting. Much more so than the SYTYCD US judges.

I don’t want to see any of the supposed “judges” who were on Superstars of Dance. They were a joke and shouldn’t be on television again.

I’d love to have Benji Schwimmer back as a judge, but I hear he might be on So You Think You Can Dance Canada as a full time judge. Dmitry, Chelsie, and Lacey are busing on Dancing with the Stars. How about bringing the too quickly discarded Allison Holker as a judge? That would be really neat.

I just hope that SYTYCD US isn’t submitted to the lame and rather arrogant Blake McGrath as a judge. His choreography is cool, but not as a judge.

Oh yeah, I still think that So You Think You Can Dance should bring in a fan of the show to be a guest judge on one of the shows. Possibly someone who knows the show and has followed it quite extensively. Someone who knows how to write about the show and share impressions of the show. I might know someone who runs a blog called Pure So You Think You Can Dance that would be willing to do it *wink* *wink*

Who would you like to see as new judges on So You Think You Can Dance?

Most people already know that Lacey Schwimmer was on last season’s Dancing with the Stars. In fact, Lacey Schwimmer did really well last year making it to the final 3 with star Lance Bass as her partner. Lacey did an excellent job full of edgy routines and her signature semi-rebellious style.

This year, Lacey Schwimmer will be back again on Dancing with the Stars and this season she’ll be paired with Steve-O. Yes, it is indeed that Steve-O. This should be really interesting to see. I’m sure the producers of the show saw the irony of the “bad girl” being paired with Steve-O. This should be interesting to see what Steve-O is like on the prim and proper ballroom dance floor.

This season of Dancing with the Stars also announced Chelise Hightower and Dmitry Chaplin joining the show as professional dancers. They’ll both be part of a main storyline of couples since they’re dancing with married couple Ty Murray and Jewel respectively. This should be interesting for Chelsie and Dmitry. Of course, who wouldn’t want to watch Dmitry Chaplin dancing beside Jewel? Sounds like a match made in heaven. Plus, I think we’re certain to see more of shirtless Dmitry as well.

Check out my introduction of Chelsie and Dmitry to Dancing with the Stars fans. It’s kind of fun to see the cross over between the 2 shows. Like I heard Nigel say, “these kids have got to work.”

Nigel recently talked in an interview about his new show which is a sort of dance olympics:

Nigel describes his new dance show as basically a dance Olympics with dancers from all over the world and judges from all over the world also. Judges would only get to score those dancers that weren’t from their country. Sounds like it could be really interesting or really lame depending on how well the show is produced.

In a separate place, Nigel Lythgoe talks about Dancing with the Stars and fat dancers. I like that Nigel is happy to share the dancers between the various shows. Makes a lot of sense to me and I’m glad he sees that these dancers need work. It does make me wonder what kinds of contracts people on these shows sign to participate.

I was also very interesting in Nigel mentioning that Dancing with the Stars was possibly interested in having Chelsie Hightower on the show. She’s a great dancer. Quite the tom boy as you might recall, but she’d be pretty entertaining on the show. I’d be interested to see how versatile she is just as I was interested to see how versatile Lacey was when she made the switch.

Nigel is also pretty open about the idea of fat dancers. He doesn’t address specifically if Lacey Schwimmer is a fat dancer or not, but he does say there are a number of fat dancers that shouldn’t be dancing. I appreciate his comments there. It’s just not pleasant to watch. People are welcome and encouraged to dance if they are overweight, but don’t make the rest of us watch it. It’s just not pretty.

A big thanks to Selly from Dance Outlook for sending us the following writeup about the So You Think You Can Dance Tour visit to Kansas City. If you have been to a different city and have pictures, videos or want to write about your experience, then let us know. About one more month left for the So You Think You Can Dance tour and there are still tickets available for future tour stops.

Without further ado, here’s Selly’s experience and pictures from the So You Think You Can Dance Kansas City tour stop:
On Wednesday night, I attended the 2008 SYTYCD Tour at Sprint Center in Kansas City. I had amazing seats (thanks to presale) in the 5th row. I actually enjoyed the show more than I expected to. This has been my least favorite season, but I had a lot of fun seeing all of the dances live. I didn’t take notes, so this isn’t going to be a formal review by any means, but just some general notes/comments.

Kherington needs to close her mouth. Instead of smiling at inappropriate times like she did on the show, most of her facial expressions are approximately :O This was actually one of the first things I noticed during the show.

After the requisite video montage of Nigel’s Top 5 “memorable” (aka bad) auditions, the dancers came out and performed Shane Sparks’s Elevator group number.

The dancers were introduced and did mini-solos. They then re-introduced themselves live. Katee then said that she would not be performing at all that night due to injury. I knew she had hurt her back, but I still had hope for at least the Will/Katee Complexions Pas De Deux or at least No Air.

Twitchington performed first with their “We’re Escaped Convicts” hip hop by Napoleon and Tabitha. Among other dances, they did a “world tour” of dance styles from around the world featuring Thayne and Chelsie’s Cha Cha, Josh and Twitch’s Trepak which Gev introduced in Russian (and a dress), Courtney and Mark’s Viennese Waltz (once again, Gev wore a dress), and the group Bollywood number.

Some of the highlights of the night for me were Bleeding Love, Five Guys Named Moe, The Garden, The Dance, Twitchington’s “Bed” contemporary (which I have rose petals from in my purse), Money Money, and pretty much anything involving Chelsea H., Courtney, or Mark.

Despite the odd facial expression, I was actually really impressed by Kherington. Because all of the dances involving Katee except for group numbers were cut, some “emergency backup dances” were added in addition to the ones on the normal set list. These included Courtney and Josh’s Frankenstein hip hop (which I have no recollection of ever seeing before), Courtney and Gev’s Rumba, Jessica and Will’s “Shirt” contemporary, Marksie’s Kiss Kiss jazz and Twitchington’s Too Darn Hot Broadway.

I think there were a coupe other Courtney dances added, too. Because Katee did not perform, Jessica King did her solo which I was not at all impressed with. I know there’s a lot I haven’t talked about, but it’s really hard to remember everything. However, if you have any specific questions, it would probably make it a lot easier for me to come up with an answer than to post every single little detail that I can dredge up.

At one of the merchandise stands, I bought a tour t-shirt (just the regular one, not anything dancer-specific), leggings, and a program, all of which were ridiculously overpriced, but super cute. People were going crazy with grabbing fake money, rose petals, and confetti when they swept the stage off. I managed to grab some rose petals and ended up with a random lost bobby pin from the stage in an attempt to get confetti.

I took a lot of pictures before intermission, when my camera
conveniently died, but I’m fairly sure my camera is broken. They all
turned out massively blurry and most of them had weird lines across
them. I tried to pick out some of the better ones though.

Stay on your toes,

Selly from Dance Outlook

Along the same lines as my previous SYTYCD Finale posts, here’s all the judges favorite videos from the final results show.

Nigel Lythgoe’s Pick
Katee Shean and Joshua Allen danced Bollywood to the song “Dhoom Taana” from Om Shanti Om choreographed by Nakul Dev Mahajan

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale – Joshua & Katee

Mary Murphy’s pick
Katee Shean and Stephen “Twitch” Boss danced Contemporary to the song “Mercy”—Duffy choreographed by Mia Michaels

– Original Music Video
Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale – Katee & Twitch

Top 5 Male dancers group dance to the song “Five Guys Named Moe” from Five Guys Named Moe (Broadway; Choreographer: Nigel Lythgoe)

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale – The Top 5 Guys

Adam Shankman’s Pick
Courtney Galiano and Mark Kanemura danced Jazz to the song “The Garden”—Mirah choreographed by Sonya Tayeh

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale – Courtney & Mark

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale – Katee & Will

Lil C’s Pick
Chelsie Hightower and Mark Kanemura danced Hip-Hop to the song “Bleeding Love”—Leona Lewis choreographed by Napoleon D’umo and Tabitha D’umo

– Original Music Video
Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale – Chelsie & Mark

Adam Shankman’s pick
Comfort Fedoke and Stephen “Twitch” Boss danced Hip-hop to the song “Forever”—Chris Brown choreographed by Dave Scott

– Original Music Video
Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale – Comfort & Twitch

Mary Murphy’s Pick
Courtney Galiano and Gev Manoukian danced Rumba to the song “Wishing on a Star”—Rose Royce choreographed by Tony Meredith and Melanie LaPatin

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale – Courtney & Gev

Nygel Lythgoe’s pick
Katee Shean and Joshua Allen danced Hip-hop to the song “No Air”—Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown choreographed by Napoleon D’umo and Tabitha D’umo

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale – Katee & Joshua

Debbie Allen’s pick
Kherington Payne and Stephen “Twitch” Boss danced Viennese waltz to the song “A New Day Has Come”—Celine Dion choreographed by Jean-Marc Genereux

– Original Music Video