Welcome to Pure So You Think You Can Dance

UPDATE: Check out pictures and video from the Knicks City Dancers tryouts.

The Knicks City Dancers are officially holding open auditions for those wanting to dance for the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Courtney Galiano, former Knicks City Dancer and of course a “So You Think You Can Dance” contestant, will be sitting next to Shane Sparks at the auditions. They will be watching the talent that will fight for a spot on the Knicks City Dancers squad.

Auditions for Sunday, June 28th @ Madison Square Garden! Get more information on the auditions at the Knicks City Dancers website.

It makes a lot of sense for Courtney Galiano to be there as a judge for the Knicks City Dancers. She was one before and is a great dancer. I’m not exactly sure why they have Shane Sparks as a judge. Not that I blame Shane. Sounds like a great job to me.

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.

Mark, Katee, Courtney, Kherington, Josh, and Gev headed on to the Ellen DeGeneres show to celebrate the premiere of So You Think You Can Dance season 5. What a great way to start So You Think You Can Dance 2009. Nice to see a bunch of familiar faces as well:

Man, I fogot how much I loved Kherington. This video didn’t have enough Kherington for me. Not to mention Josh and Katee together. That was beautiful and cute little Courtney was great too. Let’s hope season 5 of So You Think You Can Dance is just as amazing.

I always love when I find some interesting updates about some of my past favorites from So You Think You Can Dance. Courtney Galiano has to have been one of the most gracious dancers to have ever graced the So You Think You Can Dance stage. There was something wonderful about her innocence.

Today, one of Pure So You Think You Can Dance readers pointed me to a post on The Monitor (a blog about Madison Square Garden) that had some great videos about Courtney Galiano.

Check out this video of Courtney talking about being a Knicks City Dancer alumni, New York, Madison Square Garden and So You Think You Can Dance. It also has pictures of Courtney reunited with Gev for a performance at Madison Square Garden.

I have to admit that I feel like a bit sad that I didn’t know that Courtney was previously a Knicks City Dancer. I should have known that, but I didn’t. Oh well, better late than never.

Here’s another nice interview of Courtney Galiano talking about her experience on So You Think You Can Dance.

Anyone else have information on what Courtney Galiano’s working on since being on the show? I’d love to hear an update. Feel free to leave a comment or send me the info on the contact Pure So You Think You Can Dance page.

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

I don’t know how many of you have been following my list of So You Think You Can Dance Music, but one of the interesting artists that’s had their music on multiple seasons of So You Think You Can Dance is Elisa Toffoli.

So far, Elisa Toffoli’s music has been on SYTYCD at least 3 times that I know of:
Lacey Schwimmer and Kameron dancing to Elisa’s song “Dancing” to Mia Michaels choreography. Here’s a video of Lacey Schwimmer and Kameron dancing to “Dancing”:

Some people have called this dance their favorite SYTYCD dance of all time. My favorite part is when Lacey leaps into Kameron’s arms at about the 1:15 mark.

The song Dancing sung by Elisa was also performed by Kelli Baker during the Salt Lake City/Dallas audition show:

Finally, Courtney Galiano danced a Top 6 solo to the song “Rock Your Soul” by Elisa

Well, it turns out that Lacey Schwimmer made an unofficial video for Elisa Toffoli’s song “Rainbow.” Honestly, I would have loved to see Lacey do a Rhumba to this song, but Lacey actually did a pretty credible job as an actor in this video. Enjoy:

Also, watch this blog over the next couple weeks, because I plan on giving away some free Elisa Toffoli CDs. My only hint is that if you want some free Elisa Toffoli CDs and music, then it would be a good idea to start adding thoughtful comments to my blog.

A little bit of So You Think You Can Dance season 4 wrap up. Enjoy the video.

Who’s going to the So You Think You Can Dance Tour?

Here’s the videos from the SYTYCD finale eliminations.

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale – First Elimination

Courtney Galiano was eliminated to the song “It’s Only Life”—Kate Voegele

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale – Second Elimination

Katee Shean was eliminated to the song “From Where You Are”—Lifehouse

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale – Final Elimination

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

Congratulations to Joshua Allen! A well deserved win and I couldn’t be happier. Ever since Joshua made the top 20, there was a certain humility about him that I found very endearing. Looks like America did too.

However, let’s dig a little deeper into why I think Joshua won this year’s So You Think You Can Dance. The fact is that maybe it wasn’t so much what Joshua did, but what others did that led Joshua to the win. For example, I really think that America didn’t like the fact that Twitch was in Hairspray. America loves an underdog and Twitch was the supreme come back kid. Twitch was Rocky coming back for another fight after being knocked down how many years in a row. Unfortunately, I think that his underdog polish was smeared when people found out he’d been in Hairspray.

Katee Shean was a beautiful dancer and certainly a joy to watch. I wonder if she wasn’t too good. I only say that, because she was so good that the judges just absolutely gushed over her. The only question is whether Katee fans just thought Katee had it in the bag and decided not to vote or whether all the gushing over Katee made Twitch and Joshua fans get out and vote even more. Either way, at least Katee went home with $50k. That should ease her pain of being third a little.

Courtney Galiano, well I honestly don’t know why she didn’t do better, but America just didn’t like her as much as the others. My mother absolutely adored her, but unfortunately my mother doesn’t pick up the phone and vote. I guess Courtney needed to target a little bit younger demographic of voters.

Of course, I think Joshua actually was given a gift by the producers of So You Think You Can Dance that pushed him over the top. Joshua was seen as this likable, humble, strong man. As a street dancer he can certainly play the underdog card really well, but yesterday’s episode he hit it out of the park.

During Joshua’s segment he told a true underdog story about a guy (Joshua) who came from humble means, but wanted to dance so much that he’d clean the dance studio in order to pay for lessons. Sounds like something right out of a movie, no? All of America took Joshua under their arms and voted so they could make this great American story have it’s fairy tale ending.