Wednesday, September 9, 2009

SYTYCD: Beginning the Redemption

So You Think You Can Dance: "Auditions #1"

I didn't think I was ready for SYTYCD to come back already (it's only been off for a few weeks after all, and we've grown accustomed to waiting months and months for it to come back), but all day today I kept thinking, "Yea! So You Think You Can Dance is on tonight!" so I guess I am ready. With the extremely brief hiatus, I can almost block Season 5 out completely (I had a few problems with it...12 problems, specifically) and just treat this season as what rightfully should have been on my television this summer. That said, due to my view that Season 5 was generally lackluster (due in large part to saving talent and choreography for the fall launch), my expectations for Season 6 are astronomical, so if it's not absolutely awesome, I'm in for a letdown.

Since whose auditions were shown to us and whose were not became an issue in Season 5 (for me at least), I will try to document for future reference the names of everyone who is featured in the audition episodes this season.

Why doesn't the theme song include footage of dancers from the last season anymore?

Los Angeles:
  • It's Shankers!
  • Cat sounds very hoarse. She was working too many hours this summer. (Actually, the voice over barely sounds like Cat at all.)
  • Anya and Pasha!!!!!!!
  • If nothing else, we've sure got a lot of good leapers this season. Every montage shows another person rocking a beautiful split.
  • Cole Clemens, sans music. Oh geez, he's making his own sound effects ("Shatter, shatter, shatter!"). I have no tolerance for this. This is not So You Think You Can Do Performance Art.
  • Nigel: "Kinds of off-, off-Broadway."
    Shankers: "Like in Cleveland, off-Broadway."
  • Mollee Gray looks familiar. Please tell me it's not because I recognize her from High School Musical, because that's pretty embarrassing for me.
  • Mollee's dancing to Postal Service, so she's already got my vote.
  • Shankers says Mollee is "sooooo this show." (Just like Jason, apparently.)
  • David Hovhannisyan could use some more clothes, but he's a good dancer.
  • Amanda Kirby did some nice pirouettes.
  • Brandon Dumlao is dressed like a b-boy but dances like a contemporary dancer.
  • Bianca Revels is back for like the fourth year in a row! She sure is a glutton for punishment. I really believed her last season when she said she wasn't coming back. (Perhaps she changed her mind because the producers promised her a spot in the Top 20 in the spiffier Season 6?)
  • Oh no, now Ryan Kasprzak is talking instead of dancing to music too! This is not a trend I wish to see continue. Dancers are dancers, not poets.
  • Shankers does not agree with me and says that was the best audition ever on this show. Hmm, yeah, ok, Shankers, whatever...
  • Nigel says Ryan's "grown in himself" whatever that means.
  • Hey, it's the other Kasprzak brother!
  • Now we get to watch some tap "trading" with Ryan and Bianca. I love both of these two dancers, but I think this tap trading is somewhat lost on me.
  • Ha ha, that was one of the best fake-outs on SYTYCD history! I really didn't think Nigel knew that the dance move was called "wings" and then I really thought he didn't understand what Bianca told him. He's pretty good at playing dumb.
  • Christopher Aguilar wants to produce a movie. Yet he's trying out for a reality television show. I don't really understand the logic here, but whatever. I think Chris' audition is only marginally more silly that what Tyce brings to the table every week.
  • It's Pasha!!! Wait, where'd he go? Show more Pasha!

On to day two...
  • Amber Williams. Her mother is paralyzed from the waist down. Amber was an extremely cute child. Amber is a good pirouetter. She's got some weird little contraptions on the balls of her feet to help her turn, I guess; I don't think I've ever noticed other dancers wearing those. Mary says that Amber is very light on her feet.
  • Alexie Agdeppa has the little foot things on too. And she's got a very nice musicality.
  • Paula van Oppen: Did she almost make the Top 20 in Season 5 or was that another short-haired girl who looks very much like her? (The one who was in Silky's performance group in Vegas when a bunch of the group members ended up in a big fight?) Her audition here was very nice.
  • Christina Santana is doing salsa with some hip hop pop and locking. I like the salsa, but I'm not sold on this pop and locking--it's doesn't look like it's up to hip hop standards to me. Those were some nice pop stirs though. Well, if she does belly dancing, she will have Nigel's vote. Ugh.
  • Phillip Attmore: Oh no, he's another tapper! I don't know if we have room for three tappers in the Top 20. (Frankly, I'm kind of sick of tap already.)
  • Philip has been Ryan's roommate when they were on tour in Fosse. He says that Ryan has a happy face on his butt. This guy has a nice personality. And he's a good tapper.
  • I guess SYTYCD is trying to single-handedly bring tapping back this fall.
  • It's a little disingenuous for the judges to proclaim this "the year of the tapper" as if they didn't have the option of putting Ryan and Bianca in the Top 20 in Season 5 (and in Season 4 in Bianca's case).

Gotta say, sitting through coverage of the auditions is a lot easier when they are broken into one-hour chunks instead of two-hour chunks.

Next week: Phoenix

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