Welcome to Pure So You Think You Can Dance

Nigel recently talked in an interview about his new show which is a sort of dance olympics:

Nigel describes his new dance show as basically a dance Olympics with dancers from all over the world and judges from all over the world also. Judges would only get to score those dancers that weren’t from their country. Sounds like it could be really interesting or really lame depending on how well the show is produced.

In a separate place, Nigel Lythgoe talks about Dancing with the Stars and fat dancers. I like that Nigel is happy to share the dancers between the various shows. Makes a lot of sense to me and I’m glad he sees that these dancers need work. It does make me wonder what kinds of contracts people on these shows sign to participate.

I was also very interesting in Nigel mentioning that Dancing with the Stars was possibly interested in having Chelsie Hightower on the show. She’s a great dancer. Quite the tom boy as you might recall, but she’d be pretty entertaining on the show. I’d be interested to see how versatile she is just as I was interested to see how versatile Lacey was when she made the switch.

Nigel is also pretty open about the idea of fat dancers. He doesn’t address specifically if Lacey Schwimmer is a fat dancer or not, but he does say there are a number of fat dancers that shouldn’t be dancing. I appreciate his comments there. It’s just not pleasant to watch. People are welcome and encouraged to dance if they are overweight, but don’t make the rest of us watch it. It’s just not pretty.

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 believe that this quite possibly could be the most popular and most technical dance ever performed on So You Think You Can Dance. Benji and Heidi are just so refined, so technical and so precise in this dance. It’s like they’ve been doing it since they were kids. Oh that’s right, they have been.

Enjoy the Black Mambo sung by Angel and the Mambokats by Benji Schwimmer and Heidi Groskreutz

Disclaimer: I have a huge Heidi fan, so anything I say will certainly be biased when it comes to Heidi.

Courtney Galiano and Gev Manoukian dance to Lost by Anouk I’m putting this performance as one of the best from last season and somehow got lost in the show. Watching it again I enjoyed it even more than the first time I saw it.

Warning: Mary Murphy scream at 5:53.

Anya Garnis & Pasha Kovalev should be a familiar name for all you So You Think You Can Dance fans. I can still see Nigel’s googley eyes when he talked about Anya and Pasha’s audition being the sexiest audition he’d ever seen. I can’t really argue with Nigel’s assessment either.

Well, Anya and Pasha must be doing pretty well, because they danced tonight on Dancing with the Stars as special guests during Jessica Simpson’s performance of Come On Over (Original Music Video)

Here’s the video of Anya Garnis and Pasha Kovalev’s performance on Dancing with the Stars

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 am very excited that Wade Robson won an Emmy for OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHY. The Hummingbird and Flower routine is one of my favorite routines of all the SYTYCD seasons.

So You Think You Can Dance Routine: Hokuto “Hok” Konishi and Jaimie Goodwin (from season 3-week 3)
Hummingbird and Flower / ‘The Chairman’s Waltz’ -FOX - 19 TV Ltd and Dick Clark Productions
Wade Robson, Choreographer

Mary Murphy has long been acclaimed the Queen of Scream. While the dancers certainly love to hear her scream since that means she liked their performance, many of the shows fans have often complained about her screaming. So, let’s hear your opinions on the infamous Mary Murphy.

Also, feel free to rant, complain and/or compliment Mary Murphy in the comments.

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 promise that this blog won’t become the Elisa Toffoli blog. In fact, I’m considering starting a blog just for Elisa. However, I think it’s really fun to highlight the influence that music from So You Think You Can Dance has had on people’s lives. People don’t just enjoy the music, but absolutely fall passionately in love with the variety of music on So You Think You Can Dance. Elisa Toffoli’s music is a perfect example.

Below is the story of John Bialoglow and how Elisa Toffoli’s music seems to have changed his life.

MY ELISA STORY Part 1 by John Bialoglow

I happened to find this website accidentally and am happy to have a chance to talk about one of my favorite subjects, the amazing Elisa Toffoli.

Like others here in the U.S. my first exposure to Elisa’s music was the very first dance routine of the “final 20″ of season 3, the contemporary dance routine choreographed by Mia Michaels’ and performed by Lacey Schwimmer and some guy (sorry, guy). It was awesome. Everything about it–the choreography and the performance made even more special by this amazing song sung with this compellingly beautiful and delicate voice. I have to be honest, when the competition started I was not a Lacey fan. Even though I loved Benji I thought they were hyping her and she was riding her brother’s coattails (sorry). So even though I was compelled to find out who did that amazing song (thank-you Youtube), after I heard it again my anti-Lacey biased spilled over and I said to myself, “You know, I think this Elisa is not as good as she is in this song. I think she just got lucky. I think this amazing song fell into her lap and she just happen to get lucky and nail it in the studio.”
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