What a show, the group dances were all absolutely amazing. Plus Misty Copeland finishes up her last week as a guest judge.
****SPOILER ALERT**** West coast stop reading now.
I was surprised to see Zack and Tanisha in the bottom 6…they should not have been there. If you are voting continue to vote for your favorites every week and don’t assume they are safe.
Top 3
Bridget and Emilio: I loved everything about this dance. I think they both proved themselves this week and hopefully will be safe next week. Emilio was far out of his element and he did a great job and pointed his feet.
Tanisha and Rudy: Just a very cool and sexy hip hop from Dave Scott. That outfit was hot and yes my attention went straight to Tanisha.
Carley and Surge: I’m really loving Surge as a partner and he is growing. Carly was fantastic from the turns to the back bend.
Middle 2
Valerie and Ricky: Love the energy that Bollywood brings to the stage. Both of them kept up with the pace but I do agree Valerie could have been a little sharper in the movements.
Jacque and Zack: Love this dance but something just did sit right. Zack was fantastic but I wish Jacque would let go of the “pretty” dancing.
Bottom 3
Brooklyn and Casey: I love the Choreography but those costumes were horrible. I would have rather seen the really baggy pants look. They both did do a good job at dancing it.
Emily and Teddy: All things considered I think Emily played it safe and then the slip at the beginning, she recovered well but it may have thrown her off as well. I love Teddy as a performer and glad he pulled of those lifts.
Jessica and Marcquet: Beautiful dance but that really all I can say about it.
I honestly thought after those group dances I thought there might be a possibility that they’d save them all and then do a double elimination next week. Well I was half right, there is a double elimination next week and we say goodbye to Marcquet and Brooklyn. So who’s in trouble…Jessica, Emily, Valerie(maybe), Casey, Surge, and Teddy. What are your thoughts?
Dance is one of my biggest passions. I grew up dancing at Augusta West Dance Studio (the same studio that Kathryn McCormick). I have a BFA in theatre/dance from Valdosta State University. Tap is my favorite style of dance.
Last night starts with day two of the Los Angeles auditions. Christina Applegate is back on the judging panel. Again LA didn’t dissapoint, another great day of auditions.
There were some great Ballroom dancers.
Surge and Alla: I liked the chemistry between to and enjoyed watching them dance. Now as for the status of their relationship…not so sure about.
Armen and Marlene: I loved these two as well. Marlene really caught my eye of the pair and I think she could go far on the show.
There were a few other great couples that were shown in the montage.
Casey: Finally we get to see another great contemporary guy.
J4: Seriously this kid is too cute…his reaction to meeting Twitch was great.
Jourdan: Love the mixture of pointe and contemporary.
Johnny Waacks: He was actually better than I thought he would be and glad he was able to male it through the choreography round. The only thing I suggest is this style gets a new name…the judges were having a little too much fun with it.
Philadelphia is the next stop in the auditions. Join the judges this time is ballerina Misty Copeland (day 1) and Broadway star and tony winner Billy Porter (day 2).
Bridget: Beautiful dancer and I know her dad would’ve been proud.
Another montage of male dancers.
Amir: She isn’t the typical ballerina. I did enjoy her style.
Landon: Glad Jenna kept her promise to be his partner. He kept up with her and didn’t let her steal the focus. He gets a ticket to the next round. Also we find out Jenna will be an all star this season.
Shafeek: Glad he decided to come back and he has a better attitude. Agreed with the judges he shouldn’t hold back in his solo.
Stanley: Such a strong dancer. He will go far in this competition.
James: aka Banks. I did enjoy the slow krumping. Hope he comes back next year.
The final stop of the first round of auditions is in Atlanta.
Dance is one of my biggest passions. I grew up dancing at Augusta West Dance Studio (the same studio that Kathryn McCormick). I have a BFA in theatre/dance from Valdosta State University. Tap is my favorite style of dance.
Beginning tonight, SYTYCD has a new method for handling votes for the dancers on the show. They’ve announced what they’re calling a SuperVote. A SuperVote is where you “cast multiple votes online at one time.”
Viewers can vote via any of these destinations: www.fox.com/dance, the FOX NOW app (data and message ratesmay apply for app download and use) and Facebook. To SuperVote, fans canallocate votes for one finalist or multiple finalists, for a total of 20 votes(across all online voting destinations), and in a unique interactiveexperience, they can adjust their vote selections as performances happen during the show. When the voting window officially opens, fans can submit their final votes – all at once.
It’s also interesting that they’re requiring a Facebook account to be able to vote as well. I wonder how many fake Facebook accounts will be created tonight. Yes, the voting is still restricted to the US.
At the end of each performance show, the toll-free and text message systems will be open for at least two hours per time zone and SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE viewers will be able to vote for their favorite finalist(s) via the toll-free telephone numbers (855 GO HIM 01, 02 and 855 GO HER 01, 02, etc.) Additionally,wireless customers can use their cell phones to vote by texting the name of the dancer as shown on-screen to the short code 83676 to vote for the finalist of their choice.
What do you think of these changes to the voting system? I think the SuperVote is pretty cool. It basically makes what people were doing with their 20 votes much easier. So, not much change there other than a much better voting experience. I expect many other shows will follow something similar.
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... =)
This past weekend I went to see the Season 9 tour in Columbia, South Carolina and as the show did not disappoint. Much like Season 8 the dances seemed to flow effortlessly from dance to dance with a short welcome to the show from Eliana and Chehon. I hadn’t planned on writing about the show but thanks to Will and a moment of accidental hilarity, I need to share the story, but I’ll get to that a little later. First I just want to share few thoughts about the show.
I can’t say I really remember too much about the season and normally before the show I usually refresh my memory by watching a few videos on YouTube, but without the internet at my apartment I couldn’t do that this time around. So for me there wasn’t too much I was missing except maybe a few more duet numbers with Cyrus. I will say this it is fun to see the animation art from in person. I found myself especially in the group numbers watching Matthew, Cole, Whitney, Eliana, and Chehon, all for different reasons of course. Speaking of group numbers I loved them all and my favorite was the Cha Cha/Disco fusion that closed the first half of the show. During the Broadway portion of the show there was a certain prop on the stage I was excited to see, the pole. “When You’re Good to Mama” was a favorite of mine this season and I was excited that they turned it into a fun group number for all of the girls to perform. Truthfully Eliana’s moves at the end were just amazing.
This season we got to see many of Mia Michael’s works recreated, and I’m not really sure why but I didn’t expect to see them in the tour show but thankfully I was wrong. Hometown Glory, the Bench, Addiction, and Coupe Island Blues (the butt dance) were the chosen ones. I loved watching Cole get so into the character (for every dance he did) he’s kind of scary when he gets so serious. Coupe Island Blues…oh I so wish I had filmed it but it probably would have been too shaky from me laughing so hard. Somewhere in the beginning Will had an interesting wardrobe malfunction, his pants came undone and well it became fun to watch him trying to deal with it because there was no time for him to refasten them. I’ll say this he did an amazing job keeping them up and the audience only got a small peek at the underwear which had us giggling the entire time, I don’t know how Amelia kept and straight face. Also with Will being the person he is couldn’t help but acknowledge it on stage during the dance, I could barely hear what he said but it was something like I loosing my pants.
Closing out the show started out with the East Coast hip hop that was originally done by Whitney and Twitch. I would have thought Cyrus would have taken Twitch’s place but it was George (surprisingly good) but Cyrus did join them about halfway through the dance. By the time they got to the “waiting on the bus part” the rest of the cast joined them on the stage and went into the finale of the show which did include some Gangnam Style moves.
Overall I had a great time at the show even if they have downsized the size of the venues. Here is the link to my http://www.youtube.com/user/dancestar516 YouTube page and see some of the video I have taken from this season and a few other seasons as well. Also continue to check back the uploading process is a little slow.
Also I always get the tour program which comes with a fun Q&A so if there is enough request for it I will type them up for which dancers you want from the top 10 (Matthew and Amelia don’t have one.)
Dance is one of my biggest passions. I grew up dancing at Augusta West Dance Studio (the same studio that Kathryn McCormick). I have a BFA in theatre/dance from Valdosta State University. Tap is my favorite style of dance.
This video does a spotlight on Laura, and then shifts its focus to Sarah and Patrick. I like that they focused on Laura a little bit, since she was cut from the tour. She is a sweet girl. It was also nice for Sarah and Patrick to have a bit done on them, since they weren’t selected for the duet piece. Toward the end, Sarah talks about how she was happy for David and Joni, and I felt like that showed how close all these people were. It would have been easy to be bitter about it, but I didn’t get that impression at all from Sarah.
This was such an emotional clip! It’s truly amazing how much a life can be changed in only a month. I loved watching these dancers reflect on their experiences and how it has affected their future. The dancers in this company are good people, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know them over the past month. I’m disappointed that the SYTYCD tour won’t be coming anywhere near where I live.
Katie Clark is a journalism student at Brigham Young University in her senior year. She is originally from Littleton, Colorado, and hopes to move back there after graduation. Reality television is her favorite to watch, and has enjoyed writing about America's Got Talent and A Chance to Dance. She is a stay-at-home-mom who enjoys writing (especially blogs), cooking and sewing (while spending far too much time on Pinterest finding inspiration) and being outside with her husband and son.
One of the talent finders for “A Chance to Dance.”
Co-member of the Ballet Boyz.
World-renowned dancer.
So what’s the story behind Billy?
Well, he was born in 1969 in Cambridge, England. And as one might guess, his full name is William. He started dancing when he was six, and from the age 11 until he was 16, Billy attended the Royal Ballet School, which really helped to create his future in dancing. And at the young age of 18, he joined the Royal Ballet.
After becoming the principal of the Royal Ballet back in 1994, he decided to take another route. That was with Michael Nunn, and their dance troupe, Ballet Boyz, was created. However, over the years, Billy has been involved in numerous performances, beyond his with with the Ballet Boyz. His resume is extremely impressive, both with dance and choreography.
Some of his most memorable performances include in a Royal Ballet production at the Royal Opera House in Covent Graden on November 1, 1989 in “Rubies,” “Other Dances,” “Piano,” and “Requiem.” With the Royal Ballet, he also was in other performances such as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Push Comes to Shove, Romeo and Juliet, and Mr. Worldly Wise. As most everyone who is reading this knows, he has also been on So You Think You Can Dance alongside fellow Ballet Boy, Michael Nunn.
I found an awesome interview with Billy that was done by The Independent in February of 2011 that contained some interesting little tidbits about him. While you can read the whole interview at the link above, here are some of my favorite things I learned:
If I could change one thing about myself . . . I might be a little more blunt. I have a tendency to try and fix problems rather than having a more direct approach.
I drive . . . a Kawasaki motorbike
My greatest regret . . . I wish that when I was younger, I’d gone and danced in other countries rather than spending so long in the UK. With dancing, you don’t need to be able to speak another language.
The last time I cried . . . Reading a children’s book about a boy and an elephant. It’s a Michael Morpurgo book. The boy’s dad is killed in Afghanistan and his mum is killed in the tsunami, and the elephant saves him.
My life in six words . . . Jam-packed, crazy, varied, challenging, rewarding.
Another thing I found interesting was, when asked what he felt like he was really good at, he said he doesn’t feel like he is really good at anything. For someone that has such an accomplished career, that’s a pretty bold statement to make. Obviously, he is good at a lot of things, but it sounds like he is a humble man.
When he isn’t traveling or performing, Billy lives in Kingston, Surrey. His wife’s name is Rebecca, and they have three sons. Be sure to keep watching A Chance to Dance to get to know him even better!
Katie Clark is a journalism student at Brigham Young University in her senior year. She is originally from Littleton, Colorado, and hopes to move back there after graduation. Reality television is her favorite to watch, and has enjoyed writing about America's Got Talent and A Chance to Dance. She is a stay-at-home-mom who enjoys writing (especially blogs), cooking and sewing (while spending far too much time on Pinterest finding inspiration) and being outside with her husband and son.
Time Stamps
0:00 – Introduction
1:27 – General thoughts about the bottom 4 and voting
4:12 – Bottom 2 Girls routines: Audrey & Witney
7:35 – Bottom 2 Guys routines: George & Chehon
10:57 – Other routines: Tiffany, Cole, Lindsay, Will, Cyrus, and Eliana
22:45 – Wrap-up
Episode Length: 23:42
As we move into the final set of live shows, the voting for this season continues to confuse us as Witney once again ended up in the bottom 2 girls. In particular, we’re unable to understand why she is not connecting with the audience (we think she’s fantastic!), but Tiffany, who’s been off the radar for us and seems to be an easy choice to send home, continues to avoid the bottom. We discuss the possible reasons for this, as well as what may have caused Audrey, George, and Chehon to also land in the bottom 4. Beyond the eliminations, we were extremely excited to see the return of all-star Jakob Karr, our favorite dancer to ever be on the show. We also discuss Cyrus and the way choreographers have been handling him this season, which brings up the question we asked at the end of season 8: should the show aim to choreograph/judge the dancers according to a universal standard, or should each dancer be considered individually according to his/her skill level? We should also mention that we loved the Eliana/Alex routine by Stacey Tookey, which demonstrated that with a proper partner Eliana is capable of amazing things!
Let us know what you think after listening to the podcast! You can leave us a comment here or on our blog, Reflections on Pop Entertainment. You can also follow us on Twitter and tweet with us. You can also visit our Facebook page, like us, and leave a comment there! We love feedback and will respond either with a comment or in our next published show.
Over the past few years my fiancée Meghan slowly brought me into the world of television, turning me into a full-fledged fan of both scripted and reality shows. So You Think You Can Dance turned into one of my favorite reality shows as it is a competition that takes itself seriously, providing the audience with artistic choreography and talented dancers. It's certainly not something I ever expected to get emotionally invested in, but here I am!
Meghan and I are very analytic when it comes to the things we enjoy. We constantly discussed and analyzed shows with each other and after doing this for a couple years, we decided that we should turn these discussions into a podcast. We created Reflections on Pop Entertainment, a podcast that provides commentary and analysis of popular entertainment as found in visual mediums, particularly television and film. So You Think You Can Dance Season 8 is the first television series we're covering with weekly podcasts and has allowed us to find our voice as well as actively contribute to the fan community. We hope that you'll enjoy our installments as they are posted to Pure So You Think You Can Dance!
The Top 14 week of So You Think You Can Dance celebrated Mia Michaels and her iconic routines from the show. Each of the dancers were called on to recreate some of her most beloved routines. Our feelings, along with many fans, were mixed on this approach. Should these routines be performed again, or are they only meant for the original dancers? Can an alternate, yet equally valid interpretation of the routines be presented? We discuss these questions, along with our thoughts on the somewhat shocking elimination of Amelia in this podcast!
We found it very useful to compare the original performances against the new ones. In the time stamps above we’ve linked to blog posts that have both routines embedded for easy viewing.
Let us know what you think after listening to the podcast! You can leave us a comment here or on our blog, Reflections on Pop Entertainment. You can also follow us on Twitter and tweet with us. You can also visit our Facebook page, like us, and leave a comment there! We love feedback and will respond either with a comment or in our next published show.
Over the past few years my fiancée Meghan slowly brought me into the world of television, turning me into a full-fledged fan of both scripted and reality shows. So You Think You Can Dance turned into one of my favorite reality shows as it is a competition that takes itself seriously, providing the audience with artistic choreography and talented dancers. It's certainly not something I ever expected to get emotionally invested in, but here I am!
Meghan and I are very analytic when it comes to the things we enjoy. We constantly discussed and analyzed shows with each other and after doing this for a couple years, we decided that we should turn these discussions into a podcast. We created Reflections on Pop Entertainment, a podcast that provides commentary and analysis of popular entertainment as found in visual mediums, particularly television and film. So You Think You Can Dance Season 8 is the first television series we're covering with weekly podcasts and has allowed us to find our voice as well as actively contribute to the fan community. We hope that you'll enjoy our installments as they are posted to Pure So You Think You Can Dance!
Nigel Lythgoe, executive producer and judge on SYTYCD, decided he wanted to create a company of 12 talented dancers from around the country and have them premiere at the Dizzy Feet Foundation gala in New York City. Easy, right? Maybe not — he wanted it done in 28 days. So he contacted the creators of the Ballet Boyz Dance Company, Billy Trevitt and Michael Nunn, to go to different cities to visit dance studios and then hold an open audition in hopes of finding talented, classically trained, dancers to make the final cut.
On the premiere tonight, Billy and Michael landed in Salt Lake City and were picked up by their host, Allison Holker, from season 2 of the SYTYCD, and were welcome by wonderful Utah traffic (which I know far too well) on the way to different dance studios in the surrounding area. At the first one, two girls automatically were given passes to the next stage because they impressed Billy and Michael so much, and everyone else was invited to attend the open audition the next day. They visited a few more studios before calling it a day.
But enough of the re-capping. If you’re reading this, you must have watched the show. So now I’ll just give my thoughts.
The show started off strong. We got right into the audition/scouting stage, which I liked. Most of these dancers were serious about what they were doing, and there weren’t any “spoof” auditions that we often see on dancing and singing shows. It also become obvious very early on that Billy and Michael meant business. I mean, someone left without saying anything, and you could tell it bothered them. I loved the speech they gave at that point — I would have been scared to even attempt to leave! They also didn’t waste time cutting people, which was unfortunate for those that didn’t have much a of a chance to show what they had, but it kept the show moving.
Here is a video from tonight’s episode that has Billy “showing how it’s done”:
Billy and Michael had three fears going into the open audition:
Nobody would show up
Those that showed up wouldn’t be any good
How could they know if someone was really as talented as they appeared after one day
There was definitely a huge turnout of a variety of people — a dance student at BYU, an organic gardner, and a guy in his mid-thirties.
Jaecey, more commonly referred to as the hoola hoop girl, stood out to me right away because of her less-dance like attire, and, of course, her hoola hoops. Unfortunately, turning the first part of the audition, she stood out…but not really in a good way. I commented right away that I felt like she didn’t seem to be picking it up very well, and my thoughts were quickly voiced by Billy and Michael. I definitely agreed with that cut.
I did wonder why they kept around A.J. He definitely had a very cocky persona from the beginning, and he just didn’t seem to be that talented. He blamed it on the nerves, but I think he just wasn’t really wanting to listen. I was relieved when he was cut in the end, especially after he made the comment about saving the girls in his trio toward the end.
The group pieces were pretty cool. I think my favorite was Jen and Jessica, who performed second. They seemed very connected and fluid, and it was a beautiful piece to watch. Another stand out performance was Sarah and Eldon, who went first. I think these two could make it to the end. Here’s the clip of their performance:
In the end, I agreed with most of their choices. I noticed that they focused Sarah quite a bit throughout the entire episode. She had several interviews throughout the episode, and it seemed like Billy and Michael singled her out quite a bit. I wonder if that’s a hint at the future — will she make the final cut? She was a bit emotional, so if she can keep that under control, I think she has a good chance.
They are leaving Salt Lake with 11 dancers, however, only two of those were men. Hopefully D.C. and Austin will prove to have more talented male performers. I didn’t catch all the names of those moving on, but among those 11 are Sarah, Jen, Jessica, Sydney, Joni, Megan, Chase, Eldon, and Savannah. In the individual pieces earlier on in the episode, I really liked Joni’s performance. Beyond her, Sarah, Jen, Jessica, and Eldon stuck out to me.
Don’t forget to tune in every Friday until September 28th to see more auditions and who makes the final 12. Plus, if you don’t have Ovation TV, remember that you can stream A Chance to Dance online. This is a competition like none other I’ve seen before. I’m excited for the upcoming episodes and to follow the journey of these dancers, and to see who makes it to the final performance. I love that there is more than one winner, and this is giving dancers an opportunity they may not have otherwise had. Just so you want to come back next week, here’s episode 2’s promo:
Katie Clark is a journalism student at Brigham Young University in her senior year. She is originally from Littleton, Colorado, and hopes to move back there after graduation. Reality television is her favorite to watch, and has enjoyed writing about America's Got Talent and A Chance to Dance. She is a stay-at-home-mom who enjoys writing (especially blogs), cooking and sewing (while spending far too much time on Pinterest finding inspiration) and being outside with her husband and son.
