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LoFro on Cover of Dance Spirit Magazine

LoFro on Cover of Dance Spirit Magazine

Check that out!! Check out more pictures of the cover here. This is part of the winnings for SYTYCD right? Honestly, I admit that I get lost on what exactly the winner of SYTYCD gets and what they get just because winning has made them popular and so people want them to do stuff.

Either way, that’s a pretty hot picture of LoFro. In fact, that group of 4 SYTYCD alums is pretty hot too. I can’t wait for the SYTYCD tour to finally make it to Las Vegas.

Props to Dennis for sending me the link.

October 11, 2010 I Written By

Just call me Charlie...but where are my angels?

The Rest of the Russell Ferguson Story

I’m sure that people won’t like me talking about this, but when has this ever stopped me before? First, I should make it clear that when I write posts like this I’m mostly disappointed with the producers of SYTYCD and not Russell. However, one of the problems with writing a blog and being so involved in a show like SYTYCD is that you find out all the background story that the producers have chosen not to tell you. A part of me LOVES to know “the rest of the story” and the other part of me feels betrayed by the producers of the show. Either way, it is what it is and I still LOVE watching the dancers on SYTYCD. I think this is likely to never change.

With that preface, I was disappointed to read about all the formal dance training that Russell Ferguson had before going on SYTYCD. Here’s a short section of an interview Russell did with People.com where he talks about the dance training he had before the show:

You’ve often been referred to as a “street dance” diamond in the ruff but you’ve had some dance education, right?
I’ve been doing hip-hop all my life. So, I figured if I was going to take on any big dance projects later in life, I would have to learn other things to be well-rounded in the dance field. I did four years at Boston Arts and I did a good year at The University of the Arts, so I got a good amount of training in.

The judges portrayal of you as this unpolished stone. Was that accurate?
They know I had some form of training. But the thing is, a lot of people that do train, like that is what they do, that is their dance style, that’s their lifestyle. And me, I really did just come from the streets.

5 years of formal training? That’s a little more than just coming from the street. As I think back on some of the comments the judges made about Russell, you can tell that they knew about this information and were trying to maintain the persona that Russell was a “street dancer” without outright lieing. For example, I remember Nigel saying something like, “You’re basically an untrained dancer.” Then, he went on to compare him to Legacy when Nigel said, “You’re like Legacy, but you point your toes.” The interesting part is that I think Legacy actually is an untrained dancer. Russell is not.

Of course, when Russell won I think we all realized where he’d come from was the street. I absolutely adore that he won the show. I also loved how raw and real his reaction was when he won. I know some people didn’t like it too much, but to me it was beautiful. I’m not sure why he took his shirt off, but he was living in a moment that he probably thought he’d never experience. I don’t know all his background, but I bet Russell really does have a story to tell about where he came from and how he made it to an arts college and now as winner of SYTYCD. You could see the story in his face and in the face of his family.

This won’t be the first or the last time the producers don’t tell the whole story about dancers. I remember the outrage about this short post I did about Twitch dancing in Hairspray. No one had an issue that Twitch was in Hairspray. It was that the show acted like he hadn’t done anything like it before. To be honest, I’m amazed that the producers told us that Mollee was the principal dancer on all 3 High School Musicals. I guess they probably figured most people would find that one out anyway.

I don’t think any of this diminishes the quality of the dancing and the entertainment value that their dancing brings to me when I watch the show. All of that is amazing and it’s great that Russell can go out and do a Krump routine and follow it up with some ballroom. Is it just too much for me to wish that the producers didn’t produce the show so much. Probably.

December 18, 2009 I Written By

Just call me Charlie...but where are my angels?

Vote for the So You Think You Can Dance Season 6 Winner

Once again I’m going to piggyback the poll created by SYTYCDism since it seems wrong to duplicate efforts. It will be much more informative if we all vote on the same poll. So, it’s time to vote for who will be the winner of So You Think You Can Dance Season 6.

December 16, 2009 I Written By

Just call me Charlie...but where are my angels?

Winner of So You Think You Can Dance Season 6 Jakob Karr

I think it’s quite clear that Jakob Karr will be the winner of So You Think You Can Dance season 6. I honestly don’t even think it’s close. I’ll be utterly shocked if he doesn’t win. Jakob is following in the long line of contemporary guys starting with Travis, then Danny, Will, and Brandon. They were all incredibly technicians and could nail the technical aspects of dancing. However, all of them on that list fell a little short in the humility and/or performance part of dancing, except for Jakob. Jakob has a wonderful appeal to him. Only Travis came close to him in that department. I’ve also been really impressed with Jakob’s engaged, but humble attitude throughout the show. I think America really responds to it and will vote him the winner of SYTYCD.

I’m amazed I’m saying this, because for some reason Jakob was near the bottom of my list of dancers at the beginning. I just could never really get into his performances. Maybe I like a little bit of rawness and imperfection in my dancers. Maybe I’m like Nigel and I like my male dancers to be more masculine (I’m sure that will make some mad, but it’s how I feel). I don’t know, I just wasn’t into him at all. I’m still not a HUGE fan of Jakob like most people, but he’s kind of grown on me. I’ll even be happy if he wins SYTYCD.

My personal biases aside, I’m willing to predict right now that Jakob Karr will be the winner of So You Think You Can Dance season 6.

December 8, 2009 I Written By

Just call me Charlie...but where are my angels?

Jeanine Mason – Winner of So You Think You Can Dance Season 5

Congratulations to Jeanine Mason, winner of So You Think You Can Dance Season 5 and America’s Favorite Dancer. All I can say is that it was very well deserved. Her performance yesterday knocked it out of the park for me.

I’m really happy to say that the readers of Pure SYTYCD did a great job “predicting” Jeanine to be the winner of So You Think You Can Dance Season 5 in both yesterday’s SYTYCD 5 Poll and even predicted Jeanine Mason to be the So You Think You Can Dance winner back on June 17th. I think that second one might have been a little bit of luck, but obviously readers of this blog saw Jeanine’s stardom early on. In fact, somehow I even ranked Jeanine at the top of my So You Think You Can Dance Top 20 power rankings. Probably a little bit of luck there as well, but I had to at least take a moment to brag about the readers of Pure SYTYCD!! Woot!!

Also, fans of Jeanine Mason will like the videos I posted of Jeanine Mason before SYTYCD here and here.

I’ll save the rest of the minutiae related to the So You Think You Can Dance finale for another post tomorrow and I encourage everyone to share those thoughts in the SYTYCD finale discussion thread. Otherwise, let’s celebrate Jeanine and her beautiful dancing in this thread!!

Congrats Jeanine!! I’m really looking forward to seeing you on the So You Think You Can Dance tour!!

UPDATE: Also read this story about Jeanine Mason’s medical issues before SYTYCD. Amazing that the show never brought it up, but I think this makes me appreciate Jeanine even more.

August 6, 2009 I Written By

Just call me Charlie...but where are my angels?

Joshua Allen Wins So You Think You Can Dance Season 4

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.

August 8, 2008 I Written By

Just call me Charlie...but where are my angels?