Welcome to Pure So You Think You Can Dance

Some interesting things were posted on Twitter today, so I thought I’d round up a few of the tidbits for you. Here we go.

Billy_Bell
I might have got my first rejection from an auditon today… yay! haha about 2 hours ago

adammshankman
PS: the dancers fr oscars were picked today. A lot of familiar sytycders will b there, and unbelievable new talent. Going to be SICK. about 2 hours ago

[Here's a piece from SYTYCDism that says more about which dancers. Travis, Kayla, Kathryn and Russell!]

LaurenGottlieb
I need your help. Im looking for new music to choreograph to! Let me know if you got something you think is my style http://is.gd/7zXTf about 6 hours ago

itsjeaninemason
True love!! @alohakupono and I! http://twitpic.com/112v3f about 7 hours ago

Here’s Kupono’s response, from later in the day:

alohakupono
Awwwwwwww, I MiSs my DUMPLiNG @itsjeaninemason and I LoooooooVE that I’m playing w/your hair in the PHOtO… CLASSiC US ; ) about 6 hours ago

And here’s the picture she Tweeted:

This is another great video about the future plans of the Five Alive kids. They talked about this some in John’s videos, too.

Here’s a great video about Season 5’s “G Lounge” that Kupono hooked up for Five Alive so they could kick back on tour. They talked about this in John’s videos, as well.

Here’s another great video of the Season 5 Top 10 talking about their fans and how wonderful they are. Waiting in cold weather for hours? Um, guilty. And while my mom didn’t exactly cry, she was very excited to meet Ade. Kinda hated Kayla’s tidbit, but I love the story that Caitlin and Kupono tell about Jeanine’s teddy bear Spanky.

When we’re talking about them, they’re usually talking, too. About the show, us, themselves also. ;”)

Nigel (dizzyfeet):

11 hrs ago: Thanks for all your wonderful support. I’m glad so many realize that we are a professional competition and need to maintain credible results

12 hrs ago: I should not have told the audience to “shut up” tonight. Unfortunately their mindless catawauling got the better of me on that ocassion. [sic]

22 hrs ago: Two more dancers will be leaving us tonight. I don’t want any complaints from people who didn’t vote. I’m hearing you re. the new set.

23 hrs ago: The results are very interesting. I’m disappointed with one couple in the bottom 3 but not surprised. See if you agree on tonight’s show.

Nov 10th 10:16 a.m. : Season 5 tour in LA last night. The improvements in these dancers have made this show one of my favorites. Their comedy timing is excellent

Nov 4th 4:34 p.m.: @blakemcgrath we’d love that!

Oct. 25th 1:29 p.m. : I’m happy the judges decide, besides we know best at this moment. A couple of weeks more will help the public become better informed.

Adam (adammshankman):

11 hrs ago: Dance I’d who I am. That’s what Peter said. That’s how I feel. He’ll b fine [sic]

11 hrs ago: FYI: if Pauline and Peter move to LA they will work. They will work a lot. They are wonderful.

11 hrs ago: I held Pauline and Peter in my arms while they cried. It was horrible and we love them. It’s a competition show. It’s wt they sigh up 4.

11 hrs ago: No elimination on sytycd will be universally embraced. U hv no idea how hard it is to cut our kids. We lv thm. r job is to cut. Pls undrstn

Nov 9th 11:47 a.m: Sorry: the gala won’t be televised! One of a kind event! Get tix asap

Nov 9th 11:38 a.m.: Update: dizzyfeet gala on nov 29, dwts cast, sytycd season 5, Mary Murphy and demetri, qwest, the leads of step up (cont)

Nov 6th 2:36 p.m.: Dizzyfeet number coming together. Awesome

Nov 6th 2:12 a.m.: Great line up for dizzyfeet gala: sytycd dancers, dwts cast, step up dancers… So cool. I’m psyched

Oct 27th 9:58 a.m.: Watch sytycd tonight. First competition show. Very emotional already.

Travis (travISova):

14 mins ago: Getting my hairs cut!!! Then rehearsal with my couple

14 hrs ago: so excited about the couple i have this week on sytycd……like so excited!!

Peter (PeterSabasino):

Nov 11 12:15 a.m.: OMG….so tired from rehearsals…..But loving every minute of it. This cast is amazing

Nov 10 9:17 a.m.: Last night was amazing. 5 Alive was dope, Now Season sick is Hungrier than ever. We’re all gon Kill it…Love you guys! MWWWAH!

Billy (Billy_Bell):

1 hr ago: At the doctor getting another ultrasound… Hope I’m not pregnant!

Nov 9 3:44 p.m.: @PaulineMata perfection buy me some clothes while you’re out today;)

Nov 9 1:42 p.m.: @Paulinemata yell at @jakobakarr for not tweeting ever how is he supposed to function as a season 6er and not tweet?!?! haha

Nov 8 11:33 p.m.: @Jglove988 you arnt so bad yourself. I hope I see you and @jmanrara soon! I miss you guys! And I love you too @paulinemata

Jeanine (itsjeaninemason):

14 hrs ago: At the Clippers game!! random but I’ve apparently been in a basketball mood lately. So proud of my hubby @jakobakarr!!

Nov 10 3:01 a.m.: LA show was amazing!!! Oh and how can I forget! my butt decided to make a guest appearance during paso..I mooned 7,000 people, yippe!

Nov 8 5:15 p.m.: Heading to a taping of SYTYCD season 6!! Can’t wait to see all the crew and scream for the amazing talenttttt ahhhhh

Nov 8 1:11 p.m.: Had the best night on the G-Lounge party bus!! And was married to my one true love @alohakupono…choo-choo! Just got to Lala land

Nov 7 4:19 p.m.: Doing some press in Utah and then hanging out with the girls…I’m going to miss these smelly locker rooms

Kupono (alohakupono):

Nov 8 4:18 a.m.: PARtY BUS is AMAAAZiNG!!!! DeCORAtED the GuRLS BUS and transformed it into the LoVE2LiVE-LiVE2GiVE G-LoUNGE!!! I got a FoG MACHiNE ; )

Nov 6 11:12 p.m.: New FAVORiTE GaME is “NiNJA DeSTRUCTiON” minus the part where RANDi’S LiL’ SiS split my LiP!!!! YES… I was BEATeN UP by a GiRL : (

Nov 6 7:41 p.m.: RANDi’S HoUSE KiCkS ASs!!!! We’re sitting around a FiREPiT in her BACkYARD w/PiZZA and later we’re having a GoLFCART RACe!!! SO EXCiTeD!!!

Nappytabs (NAPPYTABS):

2 hrs ago: On our way to SYTYCD rehearsal!

16 hrs ago: Break is over! Workin on SYTYCD choreo now. This a FULL day of rehearsal & choreo!

20 hrs ago: Hey, forgot to give a shout out to all the SYTYCD tour dancers. Nice job, loved the show! Sorry we didn’t get back to see you, had rehearsal

Jakob (jakobakarr):

11 hrs ago: quality time with @channingcooke. love

Nov 10 2:18 a.m.: AMAZING night. 5 Alive tour show was incredible. So inspiring!

Nov 4 1:02 p.m.: Tweeting priveledges restored! Soaking up the sun with Ellenore and Pauline. Love

Noelle (iamnolz):

Nov 9 11:17 p.m.: wow! LIFE CHANGING! =D

Nov 9 5:15 p.m.: shopping with @channingcooke @paulinemata and Ryan and Ashley!

Nov 9 2:47 p.m.: @Billy_Bell I love you and MISS YOUUUU!!!!! =)

Nov 2 11:31 a.m.: I fell but I got back up =)… that is what’s important!

Man, I could go on forever with this! I’m sure I missed some fun/important/exciting Tweets, so lemme know!

If you are going to the tour hang out after the show because the dancers come out to meet the fans. I recommend a spot next to a young fan…they stop longer for the little ones. I was actually able to ask some questions…I’m guessing not too many people in Atlanta wanted to wait out in the cold. I was standing next to a first grader who had four favorites and she told each one of them too. Her favorites were Phillip, Kayla, Brandon and Jeanine. Each one of them gave her a hug and took a picture with her but it was Brandon who surprised me. I couldn’t hear what she said to him but he decided that he wanted to have a picture of the two of them so he pulled out his phone and got one, such a cute moment.

While Brandon was around me someone asked him if he thought Mia’s comments to him during Vegas week were real or were they just said for the show. He said he really didn’t know because it is in their contracts that they cannot talk to the judges about any critiques that are given. He said they have to wait a few months after the show is over before they can talk about it. Also the ladies next to me asked everyone what it was like to be on Ellen…for the most part they all enjoyed it.

I did get to talk to a few of them myself. I asked Kupono if he thought he might go into maybe starting his on clothing/costume line. He said that he might somewhere down the line, it something that he is interested in. In the program he said that he is designing everyone’s Halloween costumes. Caitlin was next I asked about her sister, if she auditioned for season 6. She said yeah but she was cut during Vegas week. I asked mainly because I didn’t see her or I just missed her or something. When Melissa and Ade came by I had to tell them what the breast cancer piece meant to me. Ade really is a sweet guy; I wish I could have had a longer conversation with him. I commented on the difference of seeing that particular dance live. He agreed by saying he had been hearing that a lot. He seemed somewhat surprised by this but then he said that they (producers) will show what they want to show.

While waiting for some of the dancers to make it down to where I was…some of us were talking to a guy that travels with them on tour. That is how I found out Janette was sick and if fact most of them were getting over being sick. He has worked on the American Idol tours and the SYTYCD tour since season 3. He said that all the dancers that he has met have been great with the fans will try to sign everything that they can. This is where he said there was only one dancer that had a diva type attitude. Of course he couldn’t tell us, but he did give us a hint and we took a guess. All of us guess correctly on the first try…hmm I would like to see who you guys think he was talking about. So leave a guess on the comments below and I post the answer later in the week. (John I already told you who it was so you can’t say anything)

…AKA the season five tour of SYTYCD. This made the fourth tour I’ve attended and naturally I already had an idea of what to expect. This season didn’t disappoint. Due to circumstances beyond my control I barely made it in time to see the opening of the show…thank goodness they started fifteen minutes late. Then it was the start to a night full of dance starting with disco. What I didn’t know is that Janette was sick, but I wouldn’t have known until someone mentioned it later that night. That was followed by Phillip and Jeanine’s hip hop to “Mad”. I almost wish the first two numbers were switched. Then came the butt dance…I love this dance. It’s cute and quirky and a sure to be another Mia classic.

When it came time for the Bollywood dance, this is where the on going joke about Jeanine and Phillip’s Russian routine. I have to admit whoever came up with this idea was brilliant. I know Emilie mentioned that at one point that Phillip and Jeanine were in disguise. Earlier in the night the prop guys brought out a chair for Evan and Melissa Broadway routine wearing top hats and tux jackets. I myself have done a Russian folk dance before so I felt their pain when the judges didn’t care for it on the show…I found myself wanting to see them dance that number. So they are so determine to do this dance and the audience is with them Jeanine actually shushed us so they wouldn’t get caught. Then the twist came, everyone joined them on stage to dance with them and well if you read Emilie’s post you know what happens next. I love the new parts to the dance. This wasn’t the only skit that had me laughing. Like Melissa telling a scary story to intro the Zombie hip hop and getting interrupted a lot by the guys being “scared”. Plus there is Kupono’s DVD advertisement and him picking on Randi about the one time she wore a wig on the show.

This time around they didn’t do as many group numbers compared to the past seasons. Calle Ocho took the show to intermission. They have the whole set up water and all. Though I thought the whole water thing looked better on television. One kicked of the second half of the show. This one brings back memories for me…yes I have been in “A Chorus Line” not a major role but Mia’s version was so much better. They closed the show with one of my favorite group numbers, Tyce’s Brand New Day. I had a feeling they would either open or close the show with this number. Also this was the first year that the tour didn’t end with and number to “You Can’t Stop the Beat” from Hairspray. Though up until now the past three seasons have had a connection to Hairspray, for season two it was Benji and Donyelle. Season 3 was when the movie hit theatres and Adam Shankman choreographed a routine for the dancers. Well as for season 4 Twitch was in the movie…you can spot him and the end of the movie.

Now on to the solos…Cat does intro the dancers plus they show footage of their journey on the show. When Phillip hit the stage I had to get that one on video. He also received the first standing ovation of the night and quite possibly the biggest one too. This really isn’t all that surprising to me, since he has been around since season two. Jeanine’s solo was great too she had the rose and all but it fell apart on stage while she was dancing. Brandon also got a standing ovation for his solo too…spoiler alert it the same as his original audition…okay there are quite a few repeats of solos.

I was happy to know that many of my favorites had made it into the show. I’ll post a link to my pictures that I took…I tried to get a few from each routine but when you cant use a flash some didn’t work out. I also have video of the Zombie hip hop…I actually like many of Kayla’s numbers. It was Brandon and Kayla that had the most dances in the show. It’s hard to pick an absolute favorite but there is one or two that were better live. Evan and Melissa’s Broadway was one of those…it’s fun and light hearted, not to mention Janette started rambling on in Spanish while introducing the number. Also the breast cancer piece is better live…it still didn’t make me want to cry but to see Melissa and Ade dance with so much heart was definitely a great thing to see. Okay I really could go on and on but then this post would be really long. So check out all my pictures and video and get and see what other dances made the tour. I recommend buying a program it has a Q&A with the top ten. So those who haven’t been to the tour yet, you are in for a great night of dancing. For those of you that haven’t been to one yet, you are missing out. Enjoy the links below for video and pictures from the show.

http://www.youtube.com/dancestar516

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dancestar516/sets/72157622648404156/

Finally – you get your part two! As I am traveling, my usual schedule is a bit off. So bringing you part two required a visit to the Sprint store where the guy who sold me my phone was cool about getting the photos off and helping me put them on my laptop. And heeeeeeeeerrrrrrree we go. TOUR SPOILERS AHEAD!!

So, my video is crap. Sorry about that. I was pretty close to the stage, but we weren’t allowed to use flashes and there was a drunk girl perpetually standing up at the cool moments and ruining the shot. And most of the pictures taken with my cell phone didn’t work out – too dark. But, I did manage to get a few shots of me with some of the dancers, so I’ll put those at the end of this post. That slice of cheek next to a few of them? Yeah, that’s me cropped out. It was a looooong day.

Where should I begin to tell you about the show? Maybe I should start by saying that I lost my voice from screaming so much. And my mom got blisters from clapping so much. We waited after the show for two hours in the cold to see the dancers (all but Janette) and it was totally worth it. Amanda’s already commented on some of her experiences in the comments of Part One.

First, they had recordings of Cat Deely introducing the dancers and some of the videos, and that was pretty cool. We kinda got to feel like she was with us a bit. Next, there was a new opening number to some sort of remix of the “Can Can” song from Moulin Rouge. Probably something like this one . That was really high-energy and got us all in the mood.

It was a bit campy in a good way. There were usually one or two dancers introducing each of the up-coming acts and they each wore different SYTYCD shirts. As Christine hinted at with her spoiler in the comments of my earlier post (which I totally didn’t get till last night, by the way), Kupono did a hysterical infomercial for the workout DVDs was was so incredibly silly and campy. Jeanine and Randi were really funny with him on stage for that. One of my favorite jokes of the night turned out to be a cool new routine. MAJOR SPOILER HERE.

Throughout the show, there was a running joke about Jeanine and Phillip’s Russian folk dance. Several times, they came out in their Russian costumes and started dancing the routine with the other dancers chastizing them for it and them pretending to be ashamed of themselves. Once, they even pretended to be the prop guys bringing in the surgical table for the Bob Fosse routine and got “caught.” It was pretty funny as running gags go, but I did wonder if they’d actually perform the routine. And then they started to do it, in the second half and the *rest of the dancers* came out in matching Russian folk costumes and did a little bit of the dance with them. And then it turned into a remix of the Russian folk with really hard-hitting, high-energy music. The guys stripped off the shirts and the girls peeled off a layer of their skirts, making them shorter and suddenly there were enormous jumps and lots of floor work (think the Russian routine with Twitch and Josh). It was amazing – a great payoff to the running joke. It was one of my favorite moments of the night and illustrates something I really like about SYTYCD. When something doesn’t work, they don’t hesitate to make fun of themselves and…make it better. Take a “failed routine” and make it something that works. That’s amazing.

Probably another of the highlights was Phillip’s solo. It was longer than *everyone* else’s, including Jeanine and Brandon and he got a standing ovation from the audience. His face was priceless, as it always is. Brandon got people out of the seats with his solo, but I have to say that Phillip did it first and did it best.

There were dozens of wonderful moments throughout the night, but those are just some of my standouts.

Then, waiting in the cold. And wouldn’t you know it, every single dancer who’d met me in the afternoon remembered me! How cool is that? I was pretty starstruck over Evan, though I tried to be cool. After all, I’m 15 years older than the 12 year old girl who was standing next to me – who almost fainted she was so excited to meet Jeanine. She was flustered and giggling and then apologized to Jeanine, who said (classy lady), “Are you kidding me?” in this tone that clearly said, “you’re why I do this.” It was late and all of the dancers were so warm and took their time. Many of them climbed onto the barricade and leaned over to take pictures with their fans who were a bit farther back. They did everything they could to get to us, which was nice.

Just past me, Evan was really sweet to a 5 year old whose birthday was in 20 minutes, according to her mom (it was late). And he was definitely nice to me – we took a picture of our wrist tattoos (his is “brother” in Greek of course and mine is “I’ll see you later” in Russian, which contains some of the Greek alphabet and looks similar).

Ade is my mom’s favorite and she insisted on waiting for him (which I was happy to do). When he came by, she said, “I heard you gave my daughter two hugs earlier this afternoon” and he laughed and hugged her. And then me again.

I had to retrieve my mom’s coat for her and ran to and from the parking lot, so I was really breathless when I got back. Randi had just moved on, but she came back and took a picture with me, giggling with me.

I have to say, seeing Jason again may have been the best of all. I was trying to juggle all of the things in my hands so I could give the camera to my mom and he was hugging on me the whole time and he said, “Hey, I just want to hug you.” Lol. Big flirt. I told him not to get into too much trouble in Miami. Somehow, I don’t think he’ll manage that.

It was a great night, as Amanda said.

Here are some more pictures for you, as promised.

As promised, I went by the Arena where the Atlanta tour date will be tonight, in order to interview the dancers. Amusingly, when the press were led out to the secured area near the tour buses (it was a gorgeous day, so the interviews were going to be outside), our first view was of Randi and Kupono sunbathing on a blanket – “in their underwear” as one of the folks with me said in a shocked voice. Rascally dancers.

Apparently, they haven’t seen a lot of the sun lately since they usually travel between cities during the night and mostly go into the venues. They have a few days off, as they told me, where they explore the city. Melissa chuckled when I asked her for tour gossip and said, “Maybe we partied at the beginning, but now we’re like, party for 45 minutes and then out.”

I got to meet Jeanine briefly, but she had two telephone interviews during the press session, so she was off to the side doing that. Brandon came out briefly and lay on the blanket, talking to Kupono. He, Kupono and Randi weren’t actually technically available for press access. They’d opted out because they didn’t feel well or just wanted a break. Though, Kupono invited me to sit on the blanket with them when we first went out, so I asked him Christine’s question and he said that his studio back in his Hawaii really did it for him, that was “home” to him. He was going to let me take a picture of him, but one of the handlers told me not to, so I moved on to the official interviews.

First, I met Evan, Jason and Phillip or as I actually called them when our interview was over, “my boys.” Here’s a picture, first of Evan and Jason and then of the three of them (Phillip arrived a minute or two later).

Jason and Evan

I asked them a few questions about the tour. Evan said he really enjoyed exploring Boston cause he’d never been there, but that he loved the performance in Detroit. Jason said that he was hoping his hometown would be his favorite performance. Phillip really liked Toronto.

Then, my boys moved on to talk to the local Fox affiliate folks and I chatted for a few minutes with Melissa and Ade. Melissa and I shook hands, but Ade gave me a hug, which made me giggle. I told him he did seem like that type from the show and he said, “Yeah, that’s just how I am.” They were really relaxed and comfortable with each other, which made it a lot of fun to talk to them. Mostly, I just felt like we were hanging out, they were just so chill. Melissa said she really enjoyed the Milwaukee show because she had a lot of support in the audience and Ade favored Manchester because it was the first show and there was a lot of energy from the audience because of that.

Here’s a picture of them. And then a second where they’re jokingly recreating one of their favorite movements, the joke being they don’t actually have any chemistry, (“that is real,” Melissa said).

As I was leaving, Kupono called the others over to the blanket to show them something in a magazine and they were all clustered together to look. It really does seem like they’ve banded together on tour, which is great to see. I really enjoyed meeting them. Now, I have to go see the show!!

If you haven’t bought tickets to the SYTYCD tour yet, they’re only about half way through the tour and SYTYCD tour tickets are still available.

Some surprising news coming out of the SYTYCD world today. If you all haven’t heard, Mia Michaels took to her Twitter yesterday to announce that she’s leaving our beloved show after 5 years. The reaction has been intense. Many people feel that the show won’t be the same without Mia, which is definitely true. Over the seasons, her pieces have been among the most memorable ones ever performed. Just think about these…

-Ashlé and Melody’s Message in a Bottle dance

-Travis and Heidi’s Bench dance

-season 2 group routine to “Hide and Seek”

-Lacey and Kameron’s week 1 contemporary

-her tribute to her father danced by Lacey and Neil

-Danny and Neil’s Dance of the Princes

-Chelsie and Mark’s “what would Tim Burton’s wedding look like?”

-Kherington and Twitch’s dance on the bed

-Katee and Joshua’s Hometown Glory dance

-Twitch and Katee’s Door dance

-Evan and Randi’s Butt dance

-Kupono and Kayla’s Addiction dance

these are a selection of Mia’s best dances, but there are obviously more. It’s pretty obvious this show has meant a lot to Mia, she’s an Emmy winner because of SYTYCD.

For an opposing opinion, check out this article from Entertainment Weekly online, the writer makes some good points about there being plenty of great choreographers that can fill the void left by Mia.

what do you guys think?! is the hole Mia leaves too big to be filled by people like Travis, Benji, and Sonya? And what have been your favorite Mia Michaels pieces over the 5 seasons of SYTYCD?