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AdeChike joins the cast of the Broadway musical Fela!

According to an interview with Fox News New York, AdeChike Torbert has joined the cast of Fela!

If you remember from Season 7, Adechike was a fluid contemporary dancer that created a little bit of controversy during his time at Las Vegas Callbacks. Performing a comedic tap routine for his opening solo before wowing the judges with his contemporary routine.

From Brooklyn, given a Nigerian name with origins from Jamaica, he will fit right at home with the cast.

According to the show’s website:

FELA! is based on the life of Fela Kuti, who created Afrobeat—a blend of jazz, funk and African rhythm and harmonies—and mixed these sensual eclectic rhythms with simple but powerful lyrics that openly assailed Nigeria’s corrupt and oppressive dictatorships.

AdeChike is also on their cast page:

ADÉ CHIKÉ TORBERT (Ensemble) was born in Brooklyn, NY and began studying dance at the age of eight. He graduated from LaGuardia High School and studied at The Boston Conservatory and the Alvin Ailey School. He recently competed on FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance Season 7 where he became a top four finalist. Adé Chiké is extremely excited to be a part of FELA!

July 16, 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... =)

Awesome Duet from the Naughty Ballerina, Melissa Sandvig

I could probably post something every day related to past SYTYCD dancers new projects. If I wasn’t so busy with my day job I would. If someone out there is interested in posting on here, I’d love to hear from you.

With that said, I happened upon this video of Melissa Sandvig, more commonly known as the naughty ballerina, doing a duet called Heavenly. It really is an absolutely heavenly dance. I couldn’t stop watching. They have some of the most amazing movements I’ve seen in a long time. In fact, it reminded me of why I fell in love with SYTYCD in the first place. I’m sure you’ll enjoy. I also love that Melissa is still dancing.

March 21, 2012 I Written By

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

Funny Jeanine Mason Video – Boyfriend Spray

Comediva, a comedy site and content studio that makes funny videos for women, created a new original video, Boyfriend Spray, starring Jeanine Mason from So You Think You Can Dance. It is a parody ad about a perfume that makes you smell “unavailable.”

I know that Jeanine has been studying film in school. It’s cool to see her doing a bit of acting. Sadly no dancing in this video, but she’s still fun to see. Enjoy!

February 13, 2012 I Written By

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

SYTYCD Season 8 Finale Part 1 Music

Who knows what tonight’s going to bring? I can’t wait to find out!!

Melanie and Marko danced a Doreana Sanchez disco to: Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love (12″ Version)” – I Feel Love (12

Sasha and All-Star Mark danced a Sonya Tayeh jazz to: Deadmau5’s “Raise Your Weapon” – Raise Your Weapon - 4x4=12 (Deluxe Version)

Tadd and All-Star Joshua danced a Lil C hip hop to: Ace Hood’s “Hustle Hard” – Hustle Hard - Blood Sweat & Tears (Deluxe Edition)

Melanie and All-Star Robert danced a Stacey Tookey contemporary to: Sinead O’Connor’s “Sacrifice” – not on iTunes yet.

Sasha and Marko danced a Spencer Liff Broadway to: Ella Fitzgerald’s “Whatever Lola Wants” – Whatever Lola Wants - Ella Sings Broadway

Melanie danced her solo to: Peter Bradley Adams’s “Song for Viola” – Song for Viola - Leavetaking

Marko danced his solo to: Joshua Radin’s “The Fear You Won’t Fall” – The Fear You Won't Fall - Unclear Sky - EP

Sasha and Tadd danced a Mark Ballas cha cha to: Basement Jaxx’s “Raindrops” – Raindrops - Scars (Bonus Track Version)

Marko and All-Star LoFro danced a Tessandra Chavez contemporary to: Me’Shell Ndegéocello’s “Shirk” – Shirk - The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams

Tadd danced his solo to: Jessie J’s “Mamma Knows Best” – Mamma Knows Best - Who You Are

Sasha danced her solo to: Rachael Yamagata’s “Be Be Your Love” – Be Be Your Love - Happenstance (Deluxe Version)

Melanie and Sasha danced a Stacey Tookey contemporary to: Ahn Trio’s “Heart Asks Pleasure First” – Heart Asks Pleasure First - Ahn Trio: Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac

Marko and Tadd danced a Chuck Maldonado gumboot stepping routine to: Outkast’s “B.O.B.” – B.O.B. - Stankonia

August 10, 2011 I Written By

Mollee Gray Music Video – You Don’t Know Anything

I have to admit that I haven’t kept up on a lot of the past dancers as well as many, but tonight on Twitter I saw that Mollee Gray released a new music video with Mollee singing (and a little dancing). It’s called “You Don’t Know Anything” I did a search for it on iTunes and couldn’t find it, but I do have the music video which I’ll embed below:

I liked the song and the video was pretty well done. Shauna Noland was also in the music video, but was the only SYTYCD alumni that I could find in the list of dancers. I especially like the last sequence of the video where Mollee joins the dancers. It had some really intereing choreography.

To be honest, I didn’t know that Mollee had started a singing career. Turns out Lacey Schwimmer was singing in Las Vegas this weekend as well. I wonder how many other past SYTYCD dancers are singing as well. We should make a list.

August 7, 2011 I Written By

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

SYTYCD Season 8 Top 6 Performance Music

Oh my! I can’t believe we’re this close to the end of Season 8. I can’t wait to see what great routines the show has in store for us tonight.

Melanie danced a Nappytabs hip hop with Twitch to: Nicki Minaj ft. Lil Wayne’s “Roman’s Revenge” – Roman's Revenge (feat. Lil Wayne) - Roman's Revenge (feat. Lil Wayne) - Single

Sasha danced a Tyce Diorio contemporary with Kent to: Me’shell Ndegéocello’s “Fool of Me” – Fool of Me - Bitter

Marko danced a Dmitry Chaplin paso doble with Janette to: Antonia Gomez’s “Zorongo” – Zorongo (Traditional) - 2 On 1: Fabulous Flamenco! / La Gitarra Flamenca

Rickey danced his solo to: Justin Nozuka’s “After Tonight” – After Tonight - Holly

Tadd danced a Sonya Tayeh jazz (?) with Ellenore to: Beirut’s “The Gulag Orkestar” – The Gulag Orkestar - Gulag Orkestar

Caitlynn danced her solo to: Katie Thompson’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It” – What's Love Got to Do With It - KT LIVE

Rickey danced a Dee Caspary contemporary with Jaimie to: Trent Dabbs’s “Inside These Lines” – Inside These Lines - Your Side Now

Tadd danced his solo to: Yolanda Be Cool & Dcup’s “We Speak No Americano” – We No Speak Americano - We No Speak Americano - Single

Sasha danced her solo to: Lady Gaga’s “Teeth” – Teeth - The Fame Monster (Deluxe Version)

Caitlynn danced a Dmitry Chaplin samba with Pasha to: Kat DeLuna’s “Drop It Low” – Drop It Low - Drop It Low - Single

Marko danced his solo to: James Morrison’s “Wonderful World” – Wonderful World - Undiscovered

Melanie danced her solo to: Freestylers ft Belle Humble’s “Cracks” – Cracks (Flux Pavilion Remix) [feat. Belle Humble] - UKF Dubstep 2010

Sasha and Rickey danced a Kumari Suraj waacking routine to: Beyonce’s “Schoolin’ Life” – can’t find this on iTunes yet. I’ll keep looking.

Melanie and Tadd danced a Spencer Liff Broadway routine to: Shirley Bassey’s “(Where Do I Begin) Love Story” – (Where Do I Begin) Love Story - Shirley Bassey: Greatest Hits

Caitlynn and Marko danced a Sonya Tayeh jazz routine to: Florence + the Machine’s “Heavy in Your Arms” – Heavy In Your Arms - Lungs (Deluxe Edition)

August 3, 2011 I Written By

SYTYCD Season 8 Top 8 Performance Music

Hi everybody! I will be at a meeting tonight and might miss the beginning of tonight’s episode, so I need your help. If you’ll let me know the music in the comments, I’ll make sure it gets put into a pretty list with links as soon as I possibly can. We have such a great community here and I love knowing I can count on y’all for help whenever I’m running late! Thanks!

Sasha danced a Jonathan Roberts quickstep with Pasha to: Terry Snyder’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz” – Puttin' On the Ritz - Ultra-Lounge: Space-Capades, Vol. 3

Caitlynn danced a Marty Kudelka hip hop with Ivan to: Mario’s “Let Me Love You” – Let Me Love You - Turning Point

Jordan danced a Tyce Diorio jazz with Ade to: Tina Turner’s “Nutbush City Limit” – Nutbush City Limits - All the Best - The Hits

Melanie danced a Mandy Moore contemporary with Neil to: Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” – Total Eclipse of the Heart - Faster Than the Speed of Night

Rickey danced a Jason Gilkison  jive with Anya to: Celine Dion’s “River Deep, Mountain High” – River Deep, Mountain High - Falling Into You

Jess danced a Nappytabs hip hop with Lauren G. to: Rihanna’s “Take A Bow” – Take a Bow - Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded

Tadd danced a Mandy Moore jazz with Lauren F. to: Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” – Another One Bites the Dust - Queen: Greatest Hits

Marko danced a Sonya Tayeh contemporary with Allison to: Jeff Buckley’s “I Know It’s Over” – I Know It's Over - So Real: Songs from Jeff Buckley

Caitlynn and Tadd danced a Jonathan Roberts foxtrot to: Ella Fitzgerald’s “Top Hat, White Tie and Tails” – Top Hat, White Tie, and Tails (1958) - Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook

Marko and Rickey danced a Nappytabs hip hop to: Diddy ft. Black Rob and Mark Curry’s “Bad Boy for Life” – Bad Boy for Life - The Saga Continues...

Jordan and Jess danced a Jason Gilkison rhumba to: Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain” – Set Fire to the Rain - 21

Melanie and Sasha danced a Sonya Tayeh jazz to: District 78’s “Game On” – Game On - Game On - Single

July 27, 2011 I Written By

Announcing the Winners of the Master Dance Classes Hosted by Cliche Cosmetics

It was extremely hard to pick the winners of the master dance classes hosted by Cliche Cosmetics. I’m glad John had the majority decision, as senior administrator. 🙂

The dancers who won will be able to study with Katee Shean (S4), Melissa Sandvig (S5), Randi Evans (S5), Victor Smalley (S6) and Noelle Marsh (S6) in either Fort Lauderdale, New York City or Los Angeles.

With no further ado, let’s introduce you to the winners.

Fort Lauderdale’s class will be attended by Kat

New York’s class will be attended by Asia

Los Angeles’s class will be attended by Christine

Thank you to everyone who sent in their stories and who continues to dance. We can’t wait to hear how the classes go – congrats Kat, Asia and Christine!

July 15, 2010 I Written By

SYTYCD Season 7 Top 7 Performance Thoughts/Power Ranking

Well, this is the first week where predicting tomorrow’s result is easy…but typing it is difficult. Coming to terms with it is difficult.

Top Two

Kent – He had a great night. He really delivered energy and personality (and skillz!) next to Neil. I don’t think he outdanced Neil as Nigel claimed, but he definitely kept up. And he did what I thought was impossible and developed some real chemistry with Adechike in a great male-male contemporary. He’s maturing, but still keeping his personality, which is the right combination with this show. The cheers are so loud while he dances that I don’t know how he hears the music. He’s safe.

Lauren – She gets a lot of flak, but since my only sorta formal dance training is in belly dance, I have to say that the stuff she did in that Tahitian dance is HARD! You have to have incredible core control to do all of the thigh/knee stuff she was doing (she was doing shimmies while crouching, with her legs at different angles! Normally, you take a pretty solid stance when shimming, that would’ve put a lot of strain on her stomach and back, but it was all really smooth.) Not to mention she kept the tail on her costume bumping and that is seriously hard to sustain. The really impressive part is that no part of her body or face was telegraphing how hard she was working to do that. As impressive as I found all of that (I barely looked at Mark and that’s SAYING something), the real winner of the night was her Mandy Moore jazz with Billy. These two should dance together for the rest of their lives. I totally saw what Cat said about Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney. It was so effervescent and fluid and just fun. Loooooved it. Lauren can be really annoying in her interviews, but she continues to impress me with her dancing.

Middle Two

Billy – He’s been getting a lot of flak lately, too, after being a huge early fan favorite. He gained something back tonight he’s been missing for a while. He was so relaxed. He seemed to be enjoying himself – just plain enjoying himself and that brought back the Billy that I love. He had jive with Anya and was a strong, matched partner to her. They had great chemistry, which hasn’t been his strong suit lately. But, of course, the second of his routines, with Lauren, was just incredible, as I mentioned above.

Robert – I think every single one of his fans are going to take nothing for granted and VOTE like crazy to keep him out of the Bottom 3. He’s been there too often. There’s a good chance he’ll be there again, but I think he’ll be saved by Ashley going home due to her injury. As for his routines – I really liked the Travis Wall contemporary, but I think that the judges/producers tried to hard to make an “Emmy moment” out of it because it was about Travis’s mother’s illness and it was so heartfelt. That almost ruined it for me. It was very reminiscent of Tyce’s breast cancer peace, in my opinion. Especially the opening walk of the two characters. I absolutely adored the walk at the end and the symbolism behind it, but while I think it was well-danced by Allison and Robert, I think Travis has deserved an Emmy more with other routines. I’m glad he shared something so personal with us, but I resented being told to feel about it. I felt the same way with Tyce’s breast cancer piece, actually, and liked it more when I saw it on SYTYCD UK with less fanfare. His disco with Kathryn was a lot of fun. It had it’s problem spots but when you consider they probably only had a day or so to practice together, very good.

Bottom Three

Ashley – is in the EXACT same place Alex was last week. The same place Jessica King was in a few years ago. If her injury is what I’ve heard it is… she’s almost 100% going home tonight. Which makes me very, very sad because she quickly became my favorite once the performance shows started.

Adechike – Okay, so Chike hasn’t been getting much love from me. I’ve acknowledged that he’s a great dancer, but I feel that he doesn’t connect to his partners. His salsa with Anya was horrific – even though there were tiny patches that were pretty incredible. However, I *finally* saw what everyone else sees in him when he danced contemporary with Kent. He had chemistry with Kent!! I loooved this Dee Caspary routine. I thought Chike was so comfortable with Kent in the interview and that really played out in their performance. It was the first time I thought he got everything right. However… I think it’s too little too late. It’s only one solid performance in a night with two performances and after a pretty lackluster season. I think there’s gonna be some Chike backlash this week after all the gossip and controversy. I think he’ll be safe though, since Ashley’s almost certainly going home.

Jose – If Ashley weren’t surely going home, I’d bee 98% certain that this was Jose’s week to leave us. He was flat and unimpressive in his Broadway and he disappointed in his own style next to All-Star Dominic. I found the routine entertaining (the breaking), but it wasn’t everything it was built up to be. Just as Jose is not everything he’s been built up to be. Even the judges had to admit, after his Broadway, that he needs training and polish. He needs to layer dance on top of his gymnastics and tricking.

Some last thoughts before I go –

-I looove that Cat is speaking up more about her opinions. Her comments re: Billy and Lauren reminding her of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland was spot on. 🙂

-I kinda liked the disco tonight and there were lots of crazy hard things in there. But…isn’t there at least one single other disco choreographer in the entire world? I’m very tired of Doreana Sanchez’s choreography. And here’s why – I think the style is already so limited that to have just one choreographer makes it very, very boring. It’s basically all the same routine!! And if there aren’t any other choreographers for disco, maybe that’s a hint that the style is played out. Dry. Done.

-We had a lot of male-male numbers tonight (what with Ashley out and Lauren being the last girl in the race, likely) and they were doozies! Loved Kent and Neil’s baseball routine! As well as Kent and Adechike’s contemporary. The Jose/Dom “battle” was aiiiright. Until they made Dom bow to Jose and I was just.not.cool.with.that. S’okay. We all saw who left with the sword. 🙂

-I think it took changing all the rules for the producers and all of us to realize what we love best about the show. I’m glad we’ve had this mix-up because it’s shown us that bringing back All-Stars and same-gender routines really do work. But it’s also shown us that we really like seeing the contestants grow together in partnerships and that the producers need to be careful not to overproduce = manipulate us. If they can even help it at this point.

– I’m *very* sad I didn’t get to see Ashley dance this week and that she’ll probably be leaving.

-It was a good week for dance, even if Alex wasn’t there. I think a lot of the dancers realized they could actually win and kicked it up a notch this week. It’s a weird season. All the rules changed and now all bets are off.

July 14, 2010 I Written By

Win Tickets to Master Classes Hosted by Cliche Cosmetics

Cliche Cosmetics is hosting the Summer Dance Series, dance classes taught by SYTYCD alum – Katee Shean (S4), Melissa Sandvig (S5), Randi Evans (S5), Victor Smalley (S6) and Noelle Marsh (S6) –  and they’ve offered us free tickets for our readers!

Here’s the deal. The master classes are designed for intermediate to advanced dancers and will be hosted during August in Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale and New York. At least three members of the faculty will teach in each city. Check out all the details here.

We have one ticket per city to give away. So, if you want them, write in the comments below and tell us why we should give the ticket to you. If you win the ticket, you commit to guest-blogging your experiences for PureSYTYCD – and we want pictures!!! Tell us which city’s class you’d like a ticket for. Get our attention with creativity, inspiration and…compliments and bribes always help, too. 🙂 Tell us how much the class will mean to you. Or tell us what a great guest blog you’ll write. Get our attention and you can win a free ticket to a SYTYCD master class in one of these cities!

Katee Shean, SYTYCD 4 second runner up Melissa Sandvig, SYTYCD 5 Top 6 Randi Evans, SYTYCD 5 Top 10 Victor Smalley, SYTYCD 6 Top 20 Noelle Marsh, SYTYCD 6, Top 20

[7.6. Update and disclaimer: I never mentioned our deadline. We need all of your mini-essays by the 15th so we can make our decision before the first class – and already it’s going to be a hard one. I must disclaim – neither Cliche Cosmetics nor PureSYTYCD can pay any travel or associated expenses. We’re combining our efforts to bring you the opportunity to take the class for free, but make sure you’re in the position to get to the class and stay in whichever city you select.]

July 1, 2010 I Written By