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NEW SYTYCD Pages Added! Trivia, Facts and More

Over the past few weeks I have been working hard at creating a few pages that would help compare and contrast all the dancers from the past seasons to what is going on in the current season. These pages would be continuously updated over the course of the season as well as during the off season as more information comes in… Since a lot of this is back tracking through all the past seasons there’s a lot of information to filter through.

If you look at the column in the far right under “PURESYTYCD” you will find the following additional pages for references:
SYTYCD “All Star” Choreographers
Before the “All Stars” came into being, past contestants of So You Think You Can Dance have been asked to come back and choreograph routines for a pair of dancers. Here you can find who has been asked to come back to choreograph a piece for the dancers on the show

SYTYCD “All Star” Dancers
When the “All Star” Dancers were first announced in Season 7 there was rampant speculation as to who would be chosen as the “All Star” Dancers. What was originally a pool of ten dancers grew to move due to availability for the show in Season 8. Here you could find out who was brought back as an “All Star” and when they were on the show as an “All Star” Dancer

Audition Cities
This is a table of all the cities that So You Think You Can Dance has visited before “Vegas Callbacks” (originally called “Hollywood Weekend” in Season One). This table is broken down by season.

SYTYCD Crossover with Dancing with the Stars
Several ballroom dancers that have been on SYTYCD have crossed over to the other major television dancing show: Dancing with the Stars. How those dancers have fared on the other major dance show are found here along with whom they were partnered with.

SYTYCD Top 10 Dance Style Breakdown
A common question for SYTYCD is what dance styles have been represented in the Top 10. Well now you can find out. Here are all the dance styles broken down by season for the Top 10 (5 guys and 5 girls) as well as Top 4. Since Season 6 was a Top 11, I kept it as a Top 11. A table that show a breakdown of the dance styles throughout all seasons is also here.

SYTYCD Top 20 Dance Style Breakdown
Similar to the above, this is a Top 20 breakdown of all the dance styles that have been represented on So You Think You Can Dance. Here are all the dance styles that are broken down by season for those that have made it on the show (10 guys and 10 girls). Again, since Season 6 was a Top 11, I had to include that too. A table that show a breakdown of the dance styles throughout all seasons is found at the top of the pages. Also of note: Season 1 had a Top 16 as opposed to being a Top 20.

SYTYCD Top 20 Show Trivia
This is probably the most involved information page… included is the following:
– Top 20 dancers that have auditioned in previous seasons
– Top 20 dancers that have gone through the choreography round in their audition city
– Top 20 dancers that have had to “dance for your life” during Vegas Callbacks
– additional notes that affected the dancers

What to expect down the road:
– Pages dedicated to the choreographers on the show broken down by dance style and a final accumulation page of all the choreographers and how many have come through the show
– Pages dedicated to the Top 20 Show Trivia including age breakdown, who was in the bottom, etc
– Pages dedicated to the season by season breakdown of the dance styles attempted

If you have any information (and please provide verification) that could help make the above pages even better feel free to comment or just Contact Us at PureSYTYCD.com!

June 18, 2012 I Written By

My life can be summed up in the following two quotes: 1) "I am married to engineering and am its faithful wife by day, but at night my wanderlust takes hold and the arts becomes my jealous paramour." and... 2) "Engineering is my safety net. Writing is my passion. Acting is my escape when the other two become too much." So where does dancing fit in? Pretty much anywhere at this point... =)

SYTYCDancers Kherington Payne and Jordan Casanova in Cabaret

As I was trolling through my RSS feed, it was recently announced via Playbill that two So You Think You Can Dance alumni will be featured in Napa Valley Broadway Playhouse‘s production of Cabaret.

The production is scheduled to open on June 22nd through July 1st

Since her time on SYTYCD: Kherington Payne was seen in the reinvention of the movie Fame, released in 2009 as Alice Ellerton. She is no stranger to the musical theatre stage, for she played Potiphar’s wife in Napa Valley Broadway Playhouse’s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Jordan Casanova, who was just on the show last season was more recently seen as one of the dancers on NBC’s the Voice during Tony Lucca’s interpretation of Hit Me Baby One More Time.

May 11, 2012 I Written By

My life can be summed up in the following two quotes: 1) "I am married to engineering and am its faithful wife by day, but at night my wanderlust takes hold and the arts becomes my jealous paramour." and... 2) "Engineering is my safety net. Writing is my passion. Acting is my escape when the other two become too much." So where does dancing fit in? Pretty much anywhere at this point... =)

Alex Wong – Crave Music Video – Exclusive First Look

Alex Wong (SYTYCD, Season 7) has a music video for his song “Crave” coming soon! Watch this exclusive sneak peek about the making of the video and the choreography. Lauren Gottlieb (SYTYCD, Season 3) is the video’s director and choreographer, and Legacy (SYTYCD, Season 6) is the video’s associate director and co-choreographer. Video Below 🙂

February 23, 2012 I Written By

www.youtube.com/danceon

SYTYCD Veterans in Newsies the Musical on Broadway

Newsies the Musical is heading to Broadway, and veterans from the FOX competition series SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE (SYTYCD) are taking over! Watch Thayne Jasperson, Evan Kasprzak and Jess LeProtto talk about their road to Broadway in Newsies (Alex Wong is also in the show), which opens on March 15, 2012 for a limited run. Video Below 🙂

I Written By

www.youtube.com/danceon

Top 10 Results Thoughts and Discussion

Here are my live thoughts on tonight’s Top 10/All-Star results episode. I hope you’ll join the discussion, too!

The Top 10 group Broadway routine was cool in some parts, but felt kinda loose and empty in some places. I’m not familiar with the choreographer’s work, so I don’t know if this is typical of his style. Anybody? Was it just me or was there a lot of little wobbles and out of unison moments? Was that Clarice off the the right in the back and really off in the beginning? I really liked the Chorus Line-esque gold hats and unison bits at the end, though.

I’m bummed that they’re still cutting 1 guy and 1 girl and Amanda is confused that the judges are still apparently in control of the fates of the Bottom 4 (got that wrong in the Power Rankings, yesterday).

Here’s a spoiler space as I start to talk about the results…

Read more..

July 21, 2011 I Written By

Introducing Your Season 8 All-Stars

Tonight’s Top 10 episode is going to rock, not least of which because it’s the first time we’ll see the Top 10 dance with the All-Stars.

First, we have Melody Lacayanga, the Season 1 runner-up. I chose her disco with SYTYCD Canada judge/choreographer Blake McGrath because I don’t normally go for disco and this Doriana Sanchez disco was fun. I didn’t watch Season 1, but looking back over the season, it seems like Melody’s partners tended to get eliminated a lot. I hope this doesn’t happen to her Season 8 partners!

Allison Holker from Season 2 was an All-Star last season and had some phenomenal routines. I’m going to resist my urge to find videos from last season and instead give you something from her original season. Here is her Alex da Silva Argentine tango with her original partner Ivan Koumaev.

Pasha Kovalev was also an All-Star from last season and I am NOT going to show you the phenomenal tango he did with winner Lauren Froderman. No, I am NOT. I’m going to stick with first seasons and show you him “out of his element,” dancing Mandy Moore jazz with Sara von Gillem.

Yet another All-Star from last season, Twitch Boss was originally the runner-up from Season 4. Chelsie Hightower, who was also from Season 4, was scooped up by DWTS along with Lacey Schwimmer, danced this fun Nappytabs hip hop with Twitch during their season.

Comfort Fedoke, also from Season 4 and also an All-Star last season, also danced with Twitch. Instead of showing you that video, I’m going to show you dancing with Mark Kanemura, Chelsie’s partner for most of the season, in another awesome Nappytabs hip hop.

Brandon Bryant was the runner-up of Season 5. I so want to show you his Wade Robson jazz with Janette, but Margaret showed that video in her All-Star post (same reason I didn’t show Pasha & Sara’s West Coast Swing). So instead, I’ll show you their Dave Scott hip hop, where they were both “out of their comfort zones.”

As an All-Star last season, Kathryn McCormick danced so much with Robert that I could just give you one video for both of them. However, let me show you Kathryn in her Season 6 glory (she came in 3rd), especially since her season didn’t get their own tour. So here she is, with runner-up Jakob Carr in a contemporary routine choreographed by Desmond Richardson and Dwight Rhoden.

Season 7’s Robert Roldan (3rd in his season) has already danced once in Season 8, with Caitlynn Lawson, so he was already an All-Star as far as I was concerned. Because the All-Stars started at Top 20 last season, most of his dances are with Kathryn or another All-Star. I wanted to show you his Dee Caspary contemporary with winner Lauren Froderman, but it wouldn’t embed. Instead, I’ll show you their Dmitri Chaplin (Season 2 and DWTS) samba because it’s fun and they were both out of their element.

Chelsie’s only going to be an All-Star for tonight’s episode and it sounds like they may switch up the All-Stars from week to week. It’ll be interesting to see who else they bring on board and all of the great routines that result. Also, I haven’t ever seen it confirmed, but Allison and Twitch may be dating and it’ll be interesting to see them together as All-Stars again. Also, I’m dying to see our Georgia peaches, Kathryn and Season 8’s Melanie Moore dance together. You know what else I’d love to see? I’d love to see a current contestant dancing with an All-Star and choreographed by another SYTYCD alumni. That would be awesome. 🙂

Are they any Season 8 contestant/All-Star pairings you’re dying to see?

July 20, 2011 I Written By

SYTYCD’s Twitch and GLEE’s Harry Shum Jr. in Dance/Geek Heaven

This is MAJOR awesomesauce. My inner dance fiend and the geek in me are united in this sweet find.

Twitch from SYTYCD and Harry Shum Jr. from Glee (also a dancer) teamed up in this ultra-short mini-movie directed by Ross Ching and produced by Don Le and George Wang. You MUST check it out – bet you can’t guess who wins the light saber duel.

January 12, 2011 I Written By

Alex Gets a Standing O at Radio City Music Hall

I totally stole this from Rickey (thanks, Rickey!!!!), but I just knew y’all would love to see it.

Alex came on stage after they played a video of the “Outta Your Mind” performance and gave everybody an update about his Achilles tendon and you can just feel the love from the audience (turn down your volume as soon as it starts playing).

How must that feel as a dancer, to get THAT reaction and to be so beloved! Can’t wait to see Alex dance again and can’t wait for SEASON 8!

October 7, 2010 I Written By

SYTYCD 2010 Tour – New Orleans

Hi y’all.

So, my mom and I attended the 2010 SYTYCD Tour in New Orleans last night. This is our second year – last year, we saw the show in Duluth, with Amanda. This year, you’ll get write-ups on two different cities from us.

If you haven’t bought your tickets to the SYTYCD tour, there are still SYTYCD tour tickets available on Ticketmaster but many shows are selling out so go buy them now.

There will be some tour spoilers below, so stop reading if knowing ahead of time will bother you. 🙂

SPOILER…

First of all, we were the first date on the tour and each show is always a little different, so I don’t know what they’ll change up.

We were on the side of the stage, so the girls started shrieking whenever they caught even a glimpse of the dancers peeking out from the curtain. They kept calling Kent’s name, so I was pretty sure that he hasn’t lost any fans since the finale. 🙂

The opening was pretty stellar, all intense music and spastic lights, but honestly, I was just so glad to see all those dancers again that I think I would’ve enjoyed them reading a phone book on stage. They flashed the names of the dancers on the big center screen and then lifted to reveal the dancers standing in a line.

Just to give you an idea scope of the intensity of last night’s opening and the phenomenal New Orleans audience, check this out:

I think one of the most interesting things about the tour was seeing who replaced the original dancers who weren’t dancing. For instance, the first dance was My Chick Bad with Russell stepping in for Twitch and he did a great job with Lauren. When Ade stepped in for Neil in the baseball Broadway routine, I have to admit that as much as I loooove Ade, I missed Neil. Though, I didn’t miss Neil nearly as much as I thought I would when Robert replaced him in the Travis Wall betrayal routine with Kent. Kent and Robert danced the hell out of that and Robert really made it his own. It’s a tough thing to make me forget about Neil, but I was totally absorbed in the routine.

They showed the “Outta Your Mind” on the big screen and I thought it was a good solution. Obviously, they had to have it but they couldn’t just re-cast the two dancers. As they proved when they had Ellen dance the tribute with Twitch.

There always seems to be a running joke, or at least there was last year (Russian folk, anyone?) and this year, it was the rock used in the King Arthur-themed Dominic-Jose piece. Even though I enjoyed it better live, I still object to Dom bowing to Jose. No way Jose dominated, sorry. Dom = dominate. 🙂 Anyway, I won’t tell you how the rock became the running joke – you’ll just have to see for yourself.

The last thing I’ll mention about the performance is that there’s a surprise in the second half involving Lauren and Kent and that infamous prom dance. It’s a really cool surprise and it ended the show. So, look for it when you check out the tour.

Oh, I guess it’s worth mentioning that some of the dancers were naturally a little more natural while introducing the other performances. Kent and Robert, for instance, didn’t really sound different at all from their regular selves, while some of the dancers (who shall remain nameless) were cute but pretty unnatural while speaking on the sidelines. I think it’s an invaluable part of their process – learning public speaking. 🙂

It’s a great show. There are already videos up on YouTube (better than mine) and you can see some great photos taken by someone who clearly had a better seat than me.

And, as we did last year, my mom and I waited to meet all the dancers after the show. And waited. And waited. We waited about two hours. It was not my favorite part, especially because they kept telling us it was going to be 45 minutes and then 45 minutes would pass and then they’d say 45 minutes again. But, while we were waiting, we befriended all the folks in line around us. And I caught these priceless homemade shirts.

Kent take me to Wapokenta

Robert you make Heaven a place on Earth

I want to lay Ade

And meeting the dancers MORE than made up for the two hours’ wait. It was midnight and it was still hot and we were all exhausted. But, they were ALL so grateful we came to see them, that we waited to meet them. They were humble and sweet and so wonderful. They spent time with each and every person, gave hugs and took pictures and signed everything put in front of them. And I got pictures with all of them. Of course, I cropped myself out of them as best I could and they were taken on my cell phone, but check out the pictures below.

Some quick notes of introduction:
-These photos are in the order that I met the dancers.
-Even though he acted like he remembered my mom and me, I’m not sure Ade possibly could, but I love him for faking it. 🙂 He gives the best hugs.
-Kathryn asked me where I was sitting and seemed to recognize me. I told her I was waaaay up on the side, but that I wrote for this site, along with her former studio-mate Amanda. She spent a good amount of time with us and had to help me find her picture in the book for her to sign cause I was so tired. Lol
-Robert is lovely. He also spent a lot of time with us and also with everybody I saw him talking to. That kid is going far.
-I told Ashley how upset I was that she had to withdraw from the competition and she seemed really touched. I think it’s really cool of her to go on tour with her Season 7 peeps rather than go for another season next year, though I’ll miss seeing her on t.v.
-AdeChike is really funny and personable. He had no trouble connecting with everybody in line and seemed to really enjoy all the fans.

Courtney

Billy

Ade

Allison

Kathryn

Lauren

Robert

Jose

Dom

AdeChike

Ashley

Russell

Kent

September 20, 2010 I Written By