Welcome to Pure So You Think You Can Dance

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

I really don’t think there’s much argument that Joshua Allen was a great dancer and was very deserving of the prize of America’s Greatest Dancer. However, after the success of my top 4 SYTYCD poll, I thought it would be fun to put a couple polls up to see how readers of this site would vote for their FAVORITE dancer and then for the BEST dancer.

Here’s the poll for your FAVORITE So You Think You Can Dance season 4 dancer.

Here’s the poll for the BEST So You Think You Can Dance season 4 dancer.

Always sad to see any of the dancers leave at this point, but I am happy to say that I predicted that Mark and Chelsie would go home. More on that in a different post, this post is for the music from the top 6 SYTYCD elimination show. As always here’s my link to all the So You Think You Can Dance music.

Group dance: “The Rose” sung by Bette Midler (Choereographer: Mandy Moore)

Guest dancer(s): Lil’ Demon danced to the song “Planet Rock” sung by Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force

Musical guest: “Just Dance”-Lady GaGa

- Original Music Video

Courtney Galiano danced a solo to the song “Almost Lover” - A Fine Frenzy

- Original Music Video
Mark Kanemura danced a solo to the song “Wind It Up (Original Neptunes Mix)” - Gwen Stefani

Katee Shean danced a solo to the song “Beautiful Disaster” - Jon McLaughlin

- Original Music Video
Joshua Allen danced a solo to the song “I Can Make You Dance” - Zapp

Chelsie Hightower danced a solo to the song “The Girl’s Gone Wild” - Travis Tritt

- Original Music Video
Stephen “Twitch” Boss danced a solo to the song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” - Bobby McFerrin

- Original Music Video

Eliminated:

Chelsie Hightower’s Elimination Music was “Come Home” by OneRepublic

Mark Kanemura’s elimination music was “All I Can See” by Brendon James

I think this has to be the closest top 6 that has ever happened on SYTYCD. The biggest problem for me is that I don’t have a clear favorite like I did in season 2 and I totally loved Heidi even if I knew she wouldn’t win. It was still exciting because I was cheering for someone. Even last year was interesting for me, because I really didn’t like Danny Tidwell and so I was rooting for whoever would take him down. Thank you Sabra for doing that for me. This year is much harder since I love them all.

All of that said, here’s my take on the SYTYCD Top 6. Please leave your thoughts on them in the comments.

Chelsie Hightower - She reminds me a lot of Heidi, but I must admit that personally she kind of freaks me out that almost every male dancer has said that she acts more like a boy. I like my girls to act like girls. Of course, you never notice it on the dance floor, but I would have been happier if they left that out. She also isn’t nearly as humble as Heidi was at learning new dances and listening to the judges. I think she has a pretty reasonable chance of winning. Not to mention Chelise Hightower, the mormon, should do really well with the mormon vote. Seemed to work for Benji Schwimmer. However, I personally don’t think it will be enough for Chelsie to win SYTYCD.

Courtney Galiano - Courtney has to be the nicest most innocent looking girl that has ever appeared on SYTYCD. I really hate when she’s getting camera close up and does her pouty face. Goes a little bit too far for me. I like the sincerity that she is really afraid of getting sent home, but it just seems way to overblown for me. Her solos haven’t really been anything special to me, but her couples dances have almost all blown me away. Courtney has one of the best looks they’ve had on SYTYCD

Joshua Allen - For some reason Joshua Allen shot straight to the top of my list of favorite dancers near the beginning of this season. I have a feeling it’s his sincere love for dancing and humility in trying to learn new dances. Whatever it is, I think America has seen the same thing. I just hope that Mary and Nigel’s kiss of death tonight won’t cause a surprise and make it so Joshua supporters stop voting for him. Doesn’t he also have a little bit of Donyelle in him? Has any other guy been as big as him?

Katee Shean - The judges have honestly described Katee almost dead on. She really does have a unique quality that is beautiful to watch no matter what dance she’s doing. Amazing to see how far she’s come. It would have been fun to see if her friend could have done the same, but maybe we’ll find out next year. Katee’s had some really tough routines that she’s killed. My only question is whether she’s popular enough with America. I just hope she makes the top 4 so we get to see her dance some more.

Mark Kanemura - I don’t mind throwing Mark a bit of Hawaiian pride since I lived there for a couple years. He’s absolutely unique in his style. The problem I have with Mark is that I can’t remember one thing he’s done that has blown me away. I can’t remember anything bad either, but if he wants to win it all he’s got to WOW us. I can’t remember him ever Wowing me.

Twitch - Good old Twitch. Happy to see him making it this far after all the past failed attempts. America loves and underdog story for the most part, but I honestly don’t see Twitch as a pure underdog. He appeared in Hairspray and choreographed in Asia for a while. All of this said, he’s still fantastic to watch dance his solo. Either him or Joshua are my favorite solos of this bunch. Too bad I don’t think Twitch is going to be able to garner enough votes to win it all. Have no fear, I’m sure he’ll be brought back next year to do some choreography.

What does this all mean? My prediction is a no brainer for the guys. Mark Kanemura is getting sent home. The girls is much harder. I really can’t choose. So, I’ll just go out on a limb and say that Chelsie Hightower is going home (I won’t be surprised if I’m wrong). I mostly guess that, because I’d LOVE to see Katee and Courtney do a dance together in the SYTYCD finale. That makes my predicted top 4:
Courtney Gailano
Katee Shean
Twitch
Joshua Allen

Am I right or wrong?

Some absolutely brilliant couples music for the top 6 on So You Think You Can Dance. The music on So You Think You Can Dance has been better than ever. Take a look at all the So You Think You Can Dance music. Soon I’m hoping to post a list of the most popular music from this season of So You Think You Can Dance so watch for that soon.

Here’s the music for the top 6:

Courtney Galiano and Mark Kanemura danced a Viennese Waltz to the song “The Time of My Life”—David Cook choreographed by Jason Gilkison

Courtney Galiano and Mark Kanemura danced a Jazz to the song “The Garden”—Mirah choreographed by Sonya Tayeh

- Another version? (since I’m told the first one isn’t the one that played on the show)
Katee Shean and Joshua Allen danced a Contemporary to the song “All by Myself”—Celine Dion choreographed by Tyce Diorio

Katee Shean and Joshua Allen danced a Paso Doble to the song “Filet” from Le Rêve choreographed by Jason Gilkison

Chelsie Hightower and Stephen “Twitch” Boss danced a Mambo to the song “Ahora Me Toca a Mi”—Victor Manuelle choreographed by Tony Meredith and Melanie LaPatin

Chelsie Hightower and Stephen “Twitch” Boss danced a Hip-hop to the song “Control”—The Vitamin String Quartet choreographed by Napoleon D’umo and Tabitha D’umo

Lots of good solo music for those interested in doing their own solos. The hard part is deciding which solo is the best. Plus, you can also check for all the previous SYTYCD music.

Chelsie Hightower danced a solo to the song “When I Grow Up”—Pussycat Dolls

- Original music video
Stephen “Twitch” Boss danced a solo to the song “Midas Touch”—Midnight Star

Katee Shean danced a solo to the song “Can’t Stop”—Maroon 5

Joshua Allen danced a solo to the song “Like That”—Memphis Bleek

Courtney Galiano danced a solo to the song “Rock Your Soul”—Elisa

Mark Kanemura danced a solo to the song “Bum Like You”—Robyn

The following is all the music for the elimination dances and other group dances on SYTYCD top 8. It’s amazing to me how this elimination was the opposite of last week. I was fine with both people getting sent home. Last week I didn’t want to see either person leave.

Here you can find all of the previous SYTYCD music.

Top 8 hip-hop Group dance: “Universal Mind Control” sung by Common

Guest dancer(s): Los Angeles Ballet Pas de deux; (The Man I Love from the ballet Who Cares?)

Musical guest: “Baby” sung by LL Cool J featuring The-Dream debut this new single on So You Think You Can Dance

- Original Music Video

Solos:

Comfort Fedoke: “Like This” sung by Mims

William Wingfield: “Closer” sung by Goapele

Courtney Galiano: “Passion” sung by Kreesha Turner

Stephen “Twitch” Boss: “Hollywood Swinging” sung by Kool and the Gang

Eliminated:

Comfort Fedoke: “Come Home” sung by OneRepublic

William Wingfield: “Love Remains the Same” sung by Gavin Rossdale

- Original Music Video

The following is all the music for the solo dances on SYTYCD. Here you can find all of the previous SYTYCD music or the couples music for SYTYCD.

Comfort Fedoke danced a solo to the song “I Got This Down” sung by Simian Mobile Disco

William Wingfield danced a solo to the song “Get Up Offa That Thing” sung by James Brown

Katee Shean danced a solo to the song “Taking Chances” sung by Celine Dion

Mark Kanemura danced a solo to the song “Creator” sung by Santogold ft. Switch and Freq Nasty

Chelsie Hightower danced a solo to the song “Damaged” sung by Danity Kane

- Original music video
Joshua Allen danced a solo to the song “Shawty Get Loose” sung by Lil’ Mama ft. T-Pain and Chris Brown

- Original music video
Courtney Galiano danced a solo to the song “Where I Stood” sung by Missy Higgins

- Original music video
Stephen “Twitch” Boss danced a solo to the song “Go To Work” sung by Kay L