Some Interesting Notes from My SYTYCD 2012 Las Vegas Week Taping Experience

As many of you know, I was lucky enough to attend the first day of the SYTYCD 2012 Las Vegas week tapings. It was an amazing experience for someone who writes about SYTYCD and also loves SYTYCD. Since I have a number of reality TV blogs, I’ve been to quite a few tapings. In case you missed it, I also was able to do a bunch of SYTYCD video interviews at SYTYCD Vegas Week as well.

Disclaimer: I don’t find any of the items in this post to be real spoilers for the show. I don’t talk about who’s eliminated or anything like that. However, some people might consider some of the comments as spoilers. So, read at your own discretion. You’ve been warned.

I was really happy to see that the SYTYCD taping was quite authentic. Sure, they had a few retapings of dancers running up the aisles, but for the most part they didn’t try and contrive something that didn’t happen. It was pure dancing and they moved along really quickly. They also did a number of other seminars/talks that won’t appear on camera, but were designed to help the dancers understand the dance industry. It was a great example, that Nigel and company really do care about the dancers that participate on the show.

The SYTYCD Las Vegas week judges are: Lil C, Adam Shankman, Debbie Allen, Tyce Diorio, Mary Murphy, and Nigel Lythgoe. It was quite the crew. One funny thing about the judges is that a number of them changed into slippers when they were sitting at the judges table. I don’t blame them. That would be a long time sitting there in uncomfortable shoes that no one will see.

The big news that they announced while I was there and that was also mentioned in Mary Murphy’s interview was that they were only doing a Top 18 instead of a Top 20. Of course, since then they could have certainly changed their minds and gone back to a SYTYCD top 20. Considering Marianya’s SYTYCD Olympic schedule change post they have enough weeks for a SYTYCD top 20, so maybe they have changed their minds. Or maybe they just have something else up their sleeve for the extra week that Marianya didn’t know about when she created her post. It will be fun to see what they do.

For those keeping track at home, there were 86 girls and 86 boys that made it go SYTYCD Vegas week. I believe Nigel said that they didn’t require that there be the same number of boys as girls, but that it was nice that it worked out that way. 172 dancers all in one place was awesome. Although, you can imagine how many of them land on the cutting room floor. It’s unfortunate since so many of them are such good dancers.

A few other quick hits and quotes:
-Adam Shankman running (or trying to run) when he was introduced was hilarious. I hope it makes the show.
-Tyce offered some really sound feedback, “Have a likeability and you can do ball change, and we still like you.”
-”We’ve basically seen it all.” A great comment by Adam Shankman to remember.

Some other must see solos were from the blonde ballroom girl, the belly dancer, and the excorcist did his thing nicely as well. Although, of those three if they don’t show the belly dancer’s first solo I’ll be shocked. It was absolutely phenomenal.

After the first round of solos, 42 people were already cut from the competition. It goes fast for many. Although, that still left 130 dancers. So many that they had to divide them into two groups to learn the choreography. Speaking of which, the first choreography was Hip Hop by Comfort and Twitch.

A quick word about the choreography. The TV show does a terrible job capturing how quickly all of these dancers pick up the choreography. I was utterly amazed at how every single person was picking up the choreography that Comfort and Twitch put out there. Sure, some have a little more style or skill with that choreography, but all of the dancers I saw picked it up so well. It was astounding to watch live.

There you have it. A sneak peak into the first day of SYTYCD 2012 Las Vegas week. I think Marianya’s going to follow this post up with some spoilers she found on the internet. I know nothing about those and didn’t help in that post at all. So, take it for what it’s worth.