We’re back in Vegas tonight, where the original group of 152 dancers has been whittled down to 77. In just two days!
The judges aren’t messing around this time. The remaining contestants will learn a jazz routine by Laurieann Gibson, who bursts onto our screen screaming “ five, six…. and EEEAAAAIIIIGHT!!!” She is not wearing her signature giant headphones tonight, and this accessory oversight has apparently made her grumpy, because she spends the next hour hollering at the contestants. You know that little saying “there is no such thing as a stupid question?” Laurieann wholeheartedly disagrees. When one contestant dares to ask her what their opening position should be—something I would think the dancers would need to know—she replies with “I know you can’t believe you got here, but there are people waiting in the wings! ACT LIKE THAT! The AUDACITY of you to ask me such a RIDICULOUS question!!! NOW DANCE!” Y’all, that is so going to be my standard response whenever anyone asks me a question for the next six months, through and including the NOW DANCE part. I’m sure that will go over well at work. During one rant, ballroom superstar Iveta notes, “It’s like I’m back in Russia!”
More screaming and scared dancers, and now it’s audition time. The husband and wife team of Karen and Matthew are split up for this round. Karen is safe, but Matthew totally botches his audition. Nigel says he wanted more fire from him as a Latin dancer, and he’s out. I don’t think lack of fire was his problem, I think it was not performing the dance AT ALL. Anyway, jazz is not going well. At one point, Nigel stops an entire group and yells at all of them, telling them to do it again, and do it better. Iveta and the same sex ballroom dancer William get cut this round. Is anyone I know even left?Oh, I suppose so. Our last group contains early favorites Molly Gray (High School Musical) Billy Bell (brilliant dancer, broken nose), and krumper Russell who is a god. During their audition, Adam notes to Debbie, who appears to be bored and picking at her fingernails, that Molly and Billy look like children (they so do!), but they are so good. Nigel notes to Molly that she has to start dancing like a woman, and not like a little girl—that’s why they have 18 year olds on the show; not 16. What the heck does that mean? Is she supposed to start working a pole? He asks Russell what other training he’s had. Russell says he just takes whatever comes at him; he just dances. Nigel clarifies “so you’ve had no formal training whatsoever”, and Russell says no. Adam interjects that doesn’t seem possible, and I totally agree with that. I call BS. Russell seems a little shaken by this inquisition, but Nigel tells him “You’re doing SO well; keep up the good work”, and Adam concurs. All of the dancers in this round are safe.
But oh, dramarama! Molly has injured her foot. She tries to shake it off, and tells Cat that she doesn’t want the judges to know. But the pain grows worse, and we cut to commercial as she’s being toted off to the hospital.
Later that night, Cat tells the dancers that they are being broken up into groups, and they have all night to choreograph a dance. Oh man. I HATE this part of the audition. It’s rarely good; it’s all drama…ugh. Fortunately, we are spared most of that! We’re only subjected to a very small amount of drama before we go straight to seeing what the dancers produced. What the heck. Are they going to follow up on the Molly thing?
Anyway. First up are Russell and four contemporary dancers. They’ve randomly selected a Broadway routine. Footage of the previous night shows that they were done choreographing and rehearsing in about an hour. Nice! Tyce ooohs and aaahs the entire time that they perform, so you know they are probably safe. And they are! Montage of groups; at one point, Debbie calls something “dreadful, and uncomfortable to watch” and yes, it was as harsh then as it sounds now.
The last group of the to perform contains Molly, and we finally learn what happened the night before. Molly was carted off to the hospital, and her group left to fend for themselves. After deliberating about how to proceed, the group decides to choreograph without Molly, and plan a chair based dance for her should she return. Really, since they had no idea if she was coming back, and they knew she was injured, this seems smart. Mollie comes back two hours into rehearsal with a report that she has a really bad sprain. They try to accommodate her ankle in the dance, and of course she hates that, and worries that the judges will hate it. Maybe? They perform, and it seems to be a dance about…a girl who has a sprained ankle? Given the situation, I think it’s fine. Mia disagrees with me, and declares, “As a whole package, I just thought it was stupid; I thought it was dumb.” Nigel says he felt like they hid behind their characters. But they are all through anyway.
Now we’re back with the dreaded Mia round. We see footage of her yelling at the dancers last year, shouting such gems as "You know me, I’m a cutter, and I will cut you” while scary music plays in the background. But instead of hollering, Mia starts out by telling everyone not to be scared, and next thing we know we’re going all Namaste. I give this fifteen minutes, tops, before the yellin starts. Oh but I’m wrong! There’s a lot of hugging going on. What the heck?!
They perform the Mia routine. First up is Kevin from Boston, who made it to the last day of Vegas last season before getting cut. The judges coo over him during the audition; afterward, Tyce calls him brilliant. Russell, Billy Bell, and Molly all do well. Last up is Legacy the hip-hop dancer, who barely made it through last week. He gets all emotional during the rehearsal. And now he’s crying after performing, saying that this dance changed something inside of him, and that his movement meant something to him. OOoh, way to go Legacy! Mia has got to LOVE that! And she does; he survives this round. Wow, this guy turns on the waterworks. I’m one big ball of hormones and I don’t even cry this much! But apparently the tears are contagious, because EVERYONE is crying after this round—crying on the phone to their momma, crying all over each other…what the heck is going on? I gots to take me a Mia Michaels master class so I can experience this for myself.
We’re back for the final round of choreography, which will be a Tyce Broadway piece. We meet Pauline again, who also made it through to the final day in Vegas last year. She’s performing with someone who I’m going to bet right now is Joey Dowling’s sister; there is no way she’s not. But Pauline falls during the final leap, and her ankle is crazy swollen.
As she rests, we see the other girls perform. Oh Ellenore! She’s soooo good. Ashley, of another husband and wife pair, makes it through with the judges telling her that she’s grown the most out of all the dancers.
Pauline is back from the hospital with news of a sprain. She's rocking the crutches, and has been told not to dance on it for two days. Unlike Molly, she appears to be interested in heeding the advice of the doctors.
Boys round. Ryan of Ryan and Ashley is through too, and not just because he has crazy washboard abs. They judges love love love all of the contestants…until they get to Dominic. Dominic gets cut, and proceeds to break down like nobody has broken down before. We are talking collapse to the floor in heaving sobs type of hysterics. Nigel looks appalled, and yells at him for breaking down like that.
We close the night with the final solos. Billy Bell is first, and good lord, he’s amazing. Adam starts sobbing during his solo, and Tyce repeatedly whoos. So even though they aren’t getting critiqued, um…you kind of know. Montage, it’s amazing, judges are crying and throwing things, they are so happy. This season is just going to own last one. I can’t wait! Now I have to ponder my top 20 predictions.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Your Cha-Cha Stinks! So You Think You Can Dance 6_7
This. Is. Vegas week! The 152 contestants roll out of SUVs, whooping and yelling “Vegas, Baby!” How trite. It makes me miss Vitolio, who wasn’t shy about letting us all know that this is a “diarrhea moment”. Vitolio kept it real! Nigel’s hair is much shorter and hipper. Lookin’ good, Nigel!
Each contestant performs a solo to remind the judges that A. They are great dancers and deserve to be here or B. Mary was still drunk during the New Orleans auditions, and she let anyone who could walk in a straight line through. First up is that Nathan guy from the season five auditions —he was too young to participate that season, but Nigel gave him a ticket to Vegas for season six. Cat tries to build the “can he still cut it” suspense, but about four counts into the music he puts that question to rest by busting out some octuple pirouette. The rest of the dance is a bit odd—he spends about eight counts just twirling his finger in a circle. But the judges seem to get it, and he’s safe.
BTW I didn’t recap the auditions (I have a decent excuse!), but one of my favorite moments was Mary’s list of things not to do, which included that God awful “Reach to nowhere” move. THANK YOU! They should have bouncers in the wings to throw out any contestant who dares incorporate The Reach. I would be happy to volunteer my services.
Ellenore (whose name my spell check keeps trying to correct to Eeyore) does a cute and funny routine that manages to show off her personality and excellent classic training. Debbie Allen proclaims her love multiple times, Tyce wants her in the top 20, and the judges give her a standing ovation. She is so through to the top 20. Calling it now.
Montage. Great turns, girls writhing, Nigel looking letch, someone spinning on his head. More montaging that starts out with Debbie swearing, but morphs into pretty much the best stuff I’ve ever seen. The New Orleans bounce guy is back looking better than ever, inspiring all of the judges to bounce along with him, and prompting me to bounce along at home. It’s really contagious, y’all!
Folks get cut; including two of our hard luck story kids: Allison, who is hearing impaired, and that Thomas guy from GA who lived in some drug riddled town or something. I don’t recognize most of the people who got cut this round, except for Caitlyn Kenny’s sister.
The remaining 111 people have an hour to learn a NappyTabs piece. New Orleans bounce looks crazy relieved to hear that hip hop is first. Teddy with the crazy pants during the auditions makes it through. Next up is Ryan (Evan’s brother), and GAH! We’re subjected to his whole story AGAIN!!!!! Holy crap. I really hope he gets cut just so I don’t have to hear this story rehashed every single week. His group performs, and…wow. Looks like this might be my lucky day, because boy is he botching this! He’s a half a count off, and…I’m not sure he’s even doing the same dance as the rest of the dancers. Wow. This is bad! Nigel calls him out for stinkin’ up the joint with his terrible dancing, and says they are giving him one more chance, but he better step it up quickly.
Day two! Louis van Amstel has put together a super fast cha-cha routine. The krumper (sp?) from Boston has the good fortune to get paired with a ballroom superstar, and looks fantastic during his audition. I like the versatile ones! Some guy gets a crazy bloody nose—seriously, I almost fainted from the sight of it (this is why I’m not a doctor, and why I don’t watch horror movies). In general, ballroom looks like it’s going really well, other than the busted beak.
Some people I don’t really remember are asked to dance for their life. The busted nose kid performs and goes through; even without having a chance to really rehearse. Good for him! Ryan is in the last group of the day. Since this is now apparently the Ryan show, we see about eighteen minutes of his rehearsal and performance. I don’t know much about the cha-cha, but I know terrible when I see it…and this is terrible. You know how the Paso Doble is supposed to be all aggressive and mean and macho? That’s exactly how he’s dancing, and it looks really out of place. Maybe he got confused about the style? Anyway, the judges look all kinds of upset. Nigel gives a pretty long explanation that he wasn’t great yesterday, and that he wasn’t great today, and he’s going home. He calls Evan on speaker phone to let him know that he got cut, and waxes poetic about how some things aren’t meant to be, etc, and you can’t take things for granted. I think he’s pretty surprised—I get the feeling that he thought he was a shoo in for this season’s top 20.
Dances for life! First up is John from New Orleans. Nigel complains that “the lights were on, but nobody was home”, and that he needs more personality. Debbie says something like “I just can’t see keeping you when there are so many other better dancers here”, but something about the way she says it makes it sound a lot less harsh than it was. One of my old dance teachers (hi Shirley!) had an absolute gift for this; she would give you feedback, and it wasn’t until you were repeating it to your friends that you realized she basically told you that you were the suckiest suck who ever sucked. Legacy the b-boy is freaking out before his dance for his life. He’s crying all over the place. Man up, Legacy! He does a respectable job of his solo. Nigel says that his cha-cha stinks (that’s what she said!), and he needs to bring his game up. Mia calls him an asshole, because what he does is amazing, but he sucks so much? Okay Mia. He gets all yeses and is through to the next round.
More cuts post ballroom: Teddy gets cut, as does New Orleans, and basically anyone I recognized from the auditions. Bummer!
Next week: more Vegas, more crying, more people leaving in ambulances. (Should that be ambuli? What an awkward plural!) Other than Ellenore, and that High School Musical girl, I really have no favorites thus far. Thoughts?
Each contestant performs a solo to remind the judges that A. They are great dancers and deserve to be here or B. Mary was still drunk during the New Orleans auditions, and she let anyone who could walk in a straight line through. First up is that Nathan guy from the season five auditions —he was too young to participate that season, but Nigel gave him a ticket to Vegas for season six. Cat tries to build the “can he still cut it” suspense, but about four counts into the music he puts that question to rest by busting out some octuple pirouette. The rest of the dance is a bit odd—he spends about eight counts just twirling his finger in a circle. But the judges seem to get it, and he’s safe.
BTW I didn’t recap the auditions (I have a decent excuse!), but one of my favorite moments was Mary’s list of things not to do, which included that God awful “Reach to nowhere” move. THANK YOU! They should have bouncers in the wings to throw out any contestant who dares incorporate The Reach. I would be happy to volunteer my services.
Ellenore (whose name my spell check keeps trying to correct to Eeyore) does a cute and funny routine that manages to show off her personality and excellent classic training. Debbie Allen proclaims her love multiple times, Tyce wants her in the top 20, and the judges give her a standing ovation. She is so through to the top 20. Calling it now.
Montage. Great turns, girls writhing, Nigel looking letch, someone spinning on his head. More montaging that starts out with Debbie swearing, but morphs into pretty much the best stuff I’ve ever seen. The New Orleans bounce guy is back looking better than ever, inspiring all of the judges to bounce along with him, and prompting me to bounce along at home. It’s really contagious, y’all!
Folks get cut; including two of our hard luck story kids: Allison, who is hearing impaired, and that Thomas guy from GA who lived in some drug riddled town or something. I don’t recognize most of the people who got cut this round, except for Caitlyn Kenny’s sister.
The remaining 111 people have an hour to learn a NappyTabs piece. New Orleans bounce looks crazy relieved to hear that hip hop is first. Teddy with the crazy pants during the auditions makes it through. Next up is Ryan (Evan’s brother), and GAH! We’re subjected to his whole story AGAIN!!!!! Holy crap. I really hope he gets cut just so I don’t have to hear this story rehashed every single week. His group performs, and…wow. Looks like this might be my lucky day, because boy is he botching this! He’s a half a count off, and…I’m not sure he’s even doing the same dance as the rest of the dancers. Wow. This is bad! Nigel calls him out for stinkin’ up the joint with his terrible dancing, and says they are giving him one more chance, but he better step it up quickly.
Day two! Louis van Amstel has put together a super fast cha-cha routine. The krumper (sp?) from Boston has the good fortune to get paired with a ballroom superstar, and looks fantastic during his audition. I like the versatile ones! Some guy gets a crazy bloody nose—seriously, I almost fainted from the sight of it (this is why I’m not a doctor, and why I don’t watch horror movies). In general, ballroom looks like it’s going really well, other than the busted beak.
Some people I don’t really remember are asked to dance for their life. The busted nose kid performs and goes through; even without having a chance to really rehearse. Good for him! Ryan is in the last group of the day. Since this is now apparently the Ryan show, we see about eighteen minutes of his rehearsal and performance. I don’t know much about the cha-cha, but I know terrible when I see it…and this is terrible. You know how the Paso Doble is supposed to be all aggressive and mean and macho? That’s exactly how he’s dancing, and it looks really out of place. Maybe he got confused about the style? Anyway, the judges look all kinds of upset. Nigel gives a pretty long explanation that he wasn’t great yesterday, and that he wasn’t great today, and he’s going home. He calls Evan on speaker phone to let him know that he got cut, and waxes poetic about how some things aren’t meant to be, etc, and you can’t take things for granted. I think he’s pretty surprised—I get the feeling that he thought he was a shoo in for this season’s top 20.
Dances for life! First up is John from New Orleans. Nigel complains that “the lights were on, but nobody was home”, and that he needs more personality. Debbie says something like “I just can’t see keeping you when there are so many other better dancers here”, but something about the way she says it makes it sound a lot less harsh than it was. One of my old dance teachers (hi Shirley!) had an absolute gift for this; she would give you feedback, and it wasn’t until you were repeating it to your friends that you realized she basically told you that you were the suckiest suck who ever sucked. Legacy the b-boy is freaking out before his dance for his life. He’s crying all over the place. Man up, Legacy! He does a respectable job of his solo. Nigel says that his cha-cha stinks (that’s what she said!), and he needs to bring his game up. Mia calls him an asshole, because what he does is amazing, but he sucks so much? Okay Mia. He gets all yeses and is through to the next round.
More cuts post ballroom: Teddy gets cut, as does New Orleans, and basically anyone I recognized from the auditions. Bummer!
Next week: more Vegas, more crying, more people leaving in ambulances. (Should that be ambuli? What an awkward plural!) Other than Ellenore, and that High School Musical girl, I really have no favorites thus far. Thoughts?
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