Season 9 Premiere of So You Think You Can Dance

Here we are! The Season 9 Premiere of So You Think You Can Dance. After a few seasons of the evolution of the show:
– Season 5: moving the So You Think You Can Dance stage to the Kodak Theatre
– Season 6: first (and only) Fall season of So You Think You Can Dance at the Kodak Theatre
– Season 7: reduction of the Top 20 to an Top 11 and introduction of the All-Stars
– Season 8: bringing back of the Top 20 and bringing in the All-Stars for the Top 10
As for Season 9 there is the elimination of the “Results Show” and the re-arranging of the “Performance Show” to include an elimination.

What is also “new” this season is the inclusion that as opposed to having just one winner of the season, there will be two winners: one male dancer and one female dancer. The reason I say “new” in quotes is simply because the producers of So You Think You Can Dance have given a cash award to not only the top male dancer in a season, but also to the top female dancer back in Season 4 where Joshua Allen won the season, but Katee Shean was the top female dancer and was given a cash award as well.

But enough of that… tonight (Thursday) brings us to the first auditions from Dallas and New York for a two-hour event. Then starting next week, the show will move to the regular spot of Wednesday nights with auditions continuing in Los Angeles (Wednesday, May 30), Atlanta (Wednesday, June 6) and Salt Lake City (Wednesday, June 13) all two-hour episodes.

The dancers that caught the judges’ interest during the individual city auditions will be brought back for the Las Vegas callback which would air on Wednesday, June 20. For the celebration of the 200th episode of So You Think You Can Dance, Season 9 will introduce the Top 20 finalists who will perform in their own specialties so that America can get to know more about them and their individual talents.

After a one-week break (due to the July 4th holiday) America would get a chance to watch the Top 20 finalists for the first time as they are paired up to perform together. After America votes in their choices for their favorite dances and the most at-risk couples will be asked to perform solo routines the following week. If a couple is split apart, the individual dancers will form a new couple.

Then taking on the changes from Season 7 and 8, once the Top 20 has been wittled down to a Top 10, the finalists will be paired up with a So You Think You Can Dance All-Star dancer from a variety of styles: ballroom, ballet, hip-hop, contemporary, jazz.

For those of you that got lost in all the writing above… here is a quick breakdown of what is going to happen in the summer:
– Thursday, May 24 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT): Dallas and New York Auditions
– Wednesday, May 30 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT): Los Angeles Auditions
– Wednesday, June 6 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT): Atlanta Auditions
– Wednesday, June 13 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT): Salt Lake City Auditions
– Wednesday, June 20 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT): Las Vegas Callbacks
– Wednesday, June 27 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT): Top 20 Revealed/Meet the Top 20 Performances (200th Episode)
– Wednesday, July 4: Preemption
– Wednesday, July 11 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT): First Performance Show
– Wednesday, July 18 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT): Performance and First Results Show