Welcome to Pure So You Think You Can Dance

Last season, Kherington Payne was my favorite dancer. So, you can imagine my joy to find out that Kherington Payne had a major part in Fame. Turns out that Jason Williams from SYTYCD season 2 is also on the show. Check out the trailer which includes some really nice images of Kherington Payne, but honestly includes a lot of really talented people. I’m excited to see Fame this Fall.

Nigel Lythgoe was on FOX 5 Atlanta talking about auditions for SYTYCD season 6 (which premieres this fall). So You Think You Can Dance auditions are going on in Atlanta right NOW with Nigel, Mary Murphy and Lil C. In this video, Nigel says there is a lot of good hip hop and street dancing in Atlanta. He also gives us some where are they now updates on past contestants on So You Think You Can Dance Joshua, Twitch, Kherington, Neil and more. Anchor Suchita Vadlamani also asked about Nigel’s Tweet where he referred to one of the current SYTYCD season’s audition moments as “brokeback ballroom.”

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.

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 just got word that the fourth episode of So You Think You Can Dance Canada isn’t going to be on until Wednesday October 1st.

I decided since we have to wait a week to see the next episode, I might as well do a little flashback on the last season of So You Think You Can Dance US.

Here’s the video of my favorite dancer from the last season: Kherington Payne. She just has a wonderful personality that is so lovable. Plus, Nigel’s comments about Dominique watching her dance were hilarious (probably because he’s right).

I decided that during the off season of So You Think You Can Dance I’d do some flashbacks to some of my favorite dances throughout all the So You Think You Can Dance seasons.

The following is a video of Twitch and Kherington Payne’s Viennese Waltz. When I think about this season of So You Think You Can Dance, this has to be the most memorable dance of the whole season for me. Jean Marc Genereux did an amazing job with the wonderful song: A New Day Has Come by Celine Dion

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.

What a show!! Both of my favorites get sent home. Sucks for me. I guess that’s why I’m posting this music a little later than usual. If I’m late just check the music from past SYTYCD episodes.

Group dances:
All dancers: “JBJ” from Jhoom Barabar Jhoom by Shankar Mahadevan, Sunidhi Chauhan & Zubin (Bollywood; Choreographer: Nakul Dev Mahajan)

Female dancers: “Ave Maria”—Celine Dion (Contemporary; Choreographer: Mia Michaels)

Male dancers: “Five Guys Named Moe” from Five Guys Named Moe (Broadway; Choreographer: Nigel Lythgoe)

Solos:
Comfort Fedoke: “Egypt, Egypt”—Egyptian Lover

Mark Kanemura: “Black Betty”—Ram Jam

Kherington Payne: “Myphilosophy”—Inner

Gev Manoukian: “Feeling Good”—Michael Bublé

Eliminated:
Kherington Payne
Gev Manoukian

Elimination songs:
Kherington Payne: “Forever You May Run”—Gavin Rossdale

Gev Manoukian: “It Ends Tonight”—All-American Rejects

After dealing with Jessica being out and Comfort back in, there was 2 hours of incredible dancing on SYTYCD. The 2 hour show also means tons of great SYTYCD music. Here’s the full list of songs from the top 10 show.

Courtney Galiano and Joshua Allen danced Hip-Hop to the song Skippin’—Mario choreographed by Dave Scott

Courtney Galiano and Joshua Allen danced Rumba to the song Hero—Enrique Iglesias choreographed by Jean-Marc Genereux

Kherington Payne and Mark Kanemura danced Country/Western Two-step to the song Kick Back—Ty England choreographed by Ronnie DeBenedetta and Brandi Jobais

Kherington Payne and Mark Kanemura danced Jazz to the song Canned Heat—Jamiroquai choreographed by Tyce Diorio

Comfort Fedoke and Stephen “Twitch” Boss danced Smooth Waltz to the song Open Arms—Journey choreographed by Hunter Johnson

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

– Original Music Video
Katee Shean and William Wingfield danced Broadway to the song Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat from Guys and Dolls choreographed by Tyce Diorio

Katee Shean and William Wingfield danced Pas de deux to the song Imagine—David Archuleta choreographed by Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson

Chelsie Hightower and Gev Manoukian danced Contemporary to the song These Arms of Mine—Otis Redding choreographed by Sonya Tayeh

Chelsie Hightower and Gev Manoukian danced Jive to the song The House is Rockin’—Brian Setzer choreographed by Jean-Marc Genereux

Music from the Top 10 SYTYCD Solo Performances
Chelsie Hightower danced a solo to the song “Pon de Replay” sung by Rihanna

Gev Manoukian danced a solo to the song “Hello Goodbye (Uncool)” sung by Lupe Fiasco ft. Unkle

Courtney Galiano danced a solo to the song “I Want You to Need Me” sung by Celine Dion

Mark Kanemura danced a solo to the song “Bohemian Rhapsody” sung by Queen

Comfort Fedoke danced a solo to the song “Need a Boss” sung by Shareefa ft. Ludacris

Stephen “Twitch” Boss danced a solo to the song “I Question Mark” sung by Wade Robson

Katee Shean danced a solo to the song “This Woman’s Work” (MTV Unplugged) sung by Maxwell

William Wingfield danced a solo to the song “Dance With My Father” sung by Luther Vandross

Kherington Payne danced a solo to the song “Breakin’ Dishes” sung by Rihanna

Joshua Allen danced a solo to the song “Jam” sung by Michael Jackson

Today, Rocky and myself were chatting about tonight’s SYTYCD top 10 show. I thought it might be of interest to our readers. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts in the comments. Also, let me know if you think a SYTYCD chat on this blog would be cool too.

Rocky says:
I’m with you! I can’t wait till the sytycd comes on tonight….but I’m not looking forward to Thursdays anymore.
John says:
why not?
John says:
it will make you cry?
John says:
2 hours tonight…should be good
Rocky says:
I think what I will feel most is annoyed For the next few weeks elimination will be strictly fanbase without regards to quality of performance on Wednesday. Every season good dancers go home because weaker ones still have pity votes.
Rocky says:
Kherington may well go home tonight and that will make me sad.
John says:
nope…she can’t go home…i won’t let her
John says:
everyone said that twitch was carrying her, but I think that she might have been carrying twitch, although since they were in the bottom 3 it’s hard to say either was carrying the other
John says:
tonight should be exciting, because it’s the night where they get new partners
Rocky says:
I know, that makes it exciting to see what everyone can do with new partners. I’ve read that overall it will be a good show. They are doing a group Bollywood routine Thursday night, I can’t wait. I love it.
John says:
sweet…i loved the previous Bollywood number. Bollywood can be really cool if done right or really bad if done wrong. Like most dances really
Rocky says:
Very true, but for this show, I’m sure they will make it good! The dancers will be doing another routine on Thursday, as well. One with just the females, and one with just the males. Mia choreographed the one for the girls so it will be interesting, for sure.
John says:
Well, I’m biased and will certainly love almost any dance with all females. Mia can do some really cool stuff, but some of her stuff is just weird. I definitely haven’t drunk the Mia koolaid. She’s very talented, but not God.
Rocky says:
I agree, she’s not the world’s greatest choreographer but I love weird and quirky so most of her routines are great to me.
John says:
I’m really looking forward to the show…nothing like a beautiful Wednesday night of SYTYCD
Rocky says:
Agreed. Lots of dancing tonight. Two dances per couple and a solo each.