SOOOOOO extremely happy to see Neil Patrick Harris as the guest judge. I adore him and I’m not surprised he’s a fan of the show or of Cat Deely. She cracked me up when she said, “You’re not popular at all,” after all the cheering for Neil and then told Nigel the audience didn’t have any energy left for him. Lol.
My live thoughts follow, so I guess I’ll put in a spoiler space here…
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?
As promised, here are some interviews that I did a few weeks ago of Lauren Gottlieb, Kent Boyd, Will Wingfield, Kupono, and Comfort Fedoke where I talk about what they’re up to and a few questions about SYTYCD 2011. The environment wasn’t the best for an interview with all the ambient noise, but luckily it got better as we went along. Either way, it’s fun to hear updates from some of our our SYTYCD favorites. I also didn’t add an intro or anything. So, we just hop into each SYTYCD interview. I hope you enjoy!
I should have probably cut off the beginning of this video with Lauren Gottlieb where her and I are just chatting. Although, the first part is too good when I talk about why I didn’t participate in the dance Lauren Gottlieb taught at the expo (scroll through the first minute if you don’t want to hear us chatting). I also don’t explain well why I hadn’t interviewed her before even though I’ve been doing this blog since season 2. Trust me. After meeting Lauren G in person, I’ll never pass up the opportunity to meet her again. I’m now definitely one of her biggest fans. She was so fantastic, warm and kind. Of all the people I met at the reality TV conference, she definitely had the most star quality. She was incredible. You’ll see when you watch the video.
P.S. I definitely would like some dance lessons from Lauren.
P.S.S. I had to kind of cut the interview off too, because the NY Times was waiting to interview her. That’s why you see the guy in the back sometimes. Good stuff!
This interview with Will and Kupono was rough from all the noise. Will had just gone and said hi to Sinbad and taken some pictures. Yes, that Sinbad. Turns out that Sinbad knew Will by name. Not sure how they know each other, but it’s cool to see that Sinbad knows the SYTYCD dancers. Now for the interviews. Wait for the end for the SYTYCD 2011 contestant spoiler (the SYTYCD 2011 Las Vegas week was the same weekend as I filmed this). Plus, check out Kupono working 2 different shoes and why he had on 2 different shoes.
I start off quick with Kent asking about the previous video I posted where I asked Kent about any romance with LoFro. He also talks about his future in dancing, what it was like to come in second place and possibly acting.
The following is the interview with SYTYCD All Star Comfort Fedoke. Hear more about Comfort’s plans for the future and possible work with Disney (cause she still looks like a child).
It was a lot of fun doing these interviews. I’ll have to do them again soon. Sorry I didn’t get Lauren Froderman’s interview. She was over signing autographs at the table before I could get her on camera. Next time!
While we count down the hours until the premiere of So You Think You Can Dance 2011, I figured I’d post the final videos from my time with past members of SYTYCD at the Reality Rocks Expo. In this post I’ll post all the dancing the SYTYCD dancers did at the expo and then tomorrow I’ll post the interviews with the dancers that I did. I think you’ll really enjoy the SYTYCD interviews as a great preparation for the SYTYCD Season 8 premiere tomorrow night.
Now on to the SYTYCD dancing videos:
This was just a quick video that I caught of Kent Boyd doing an impromptu lift of Lauren Froderman (not his girlfriend):
Now a bunch of videos of Lauren Gottlieb teaching the audience and the other SYTYCD all stars a dance routine. The first video is Lauren Gottlieb teaching the dance and the SYTYCD panel performing it. Then, The other 2 catches some video of the audience dancing as well. The final video is the audience members on stage with the past SYTYCD contestants. Pretty cool experience for sure.
SYTYCD Video 2
SYTYCD Video 3
P.S. In case you’re wondering why you didn’t see me dancing. Wait until you see the video interview I did with Lauren and you’ll get the answer. I can’t wait for TOMORROW!! The So You Think You Can Dance 2011 Premiere is almost here!
Ok, so it’s a little ways off from the SYTYCD auditions, but I have the video and if I don’t post it now I’ll forget. Plus, it’s fun to get some insight on what the past SYTYCD peeps thought about their audition process since we’re about to see the auditions for SYTYCD Season 8. So, enjoy!
Time for another Reality Rocks SYTYCD Panel video. They opened up for questions and I had to ask Kent Boyd and Lauren Froderman about their possible romance rumors at the So You Think You Can Dance panel. Sorry for the shaking camera. It’s hard to hold the mic and keep the video still at the same time. Next time I’ll bring the tripod. I love Lauren Gottlieb’s comment when Kent’s talking as well.
I also kept in the worst question someone could possibly ask to a SYTYCD panel. You should have seen the SYTYCD PR people’s eyes when he asked it. One of them did the cut thing across their neck to end the question and answer period. It was hilarious. What was he thinking when he asked that?
I told you that I had a ton of videos from SYTYCD at the Reality Rocks Expo. I think I have about a half dozen or so more. We’re nearing the end of the panel and then we’ll show them teaching a routine with audience participation. Then, some one on one interviews as well. Just watching them gets me excited for SYTYCD 2011.
These 2 videos are the SYTYCD panel discussing some of their least favorite SYTYCD routines. I liked how honest they were about not liking some of the routines. On the show, they always act like they loved the routine. I guess that makes sense when the choreographer is right there. Enjoy the SYTYCD honesty!
I thought it was done, so this video is in 2 parts:
I love this question, but Will’s right that no one knows it for certain. I do love that their honest about the challenge of some of the music, choreography, etc. Kent also talks about how it’s not reasonable for him and Lauren to “get married” in their bollywood routine. Not to mention, Lauren Froderman gets outed by Kent Boyd saying she didn’t like a specific routine. Enjoy!
SYTYCD Dancers, Lauren Gottlieb, Chelsea Traille, Comfort Fedoke, Lauren Froderman, Will Wingfield, Kupono, Kent Boyd, at Reality Rocks Expo in LA talk about how hard it is to do other dance genres on So You Think You Can Dance. I guess a few of them weren’t enjoying the other styles as much as they make it seem on the show.
I’m back with a video I recorded at the Reality Rocks Expo in LA. This was part of the SYTYCD Panel at the expo and provided some interesting answers to how SYTYCD has made dance more accessible.
The guy who was helping me at this event was surprised that middle america might not know about Krump. He grew up in LA, so I guess he’d known about it forever. I definitely didn’t know about Krump until I first saw it on SYTYCD. So, I guess I was part of the middle america that’s referred to in the video.
More videos on their way. I’ll try and post one a day until I run out of the videos. A nice way to get ready for th new season of SYTYCD.