And here we are! Season 10 opens with auditions in Los Angeles, which is traditionally known on the show for hosting a very high calibre of dancers... We get some promo opening stuff with all the dancers lined up on the sidewalks, get introduced to Nigel Lythgoe (producer), Mary Murphy (permanent judge and resident ballroom expert) and guest judge Jesse Tyler Ferguson (from Modern Family). Personally, Jesse is my favourite guest judge ever, so I was really excited to see him again. We get a little plug for Jesse's Tie the Knot Campaign, which can be seen here; http://tietheknot.org/
Alrighty, first off is Las Vegas native "Fik-Shun", who resembles Dragon House in his popping-robotics style. He was incredible and very entertaining, and promptly sent to Vegas without further ado.
Next we get 19-year-old pixie-like Malece Miller from Salt Lake City, Utah, who talked about LOSING HER HOUSE because they were so financially strapped growing up. However, her mum cleaned people's houses and things to keep paying for her dance classes, which was super heart-warming, and her mum was adorable. Malece's transitions were a little choppy, which was picked up on by all three judges, but she pulled off some pretty incredible jumps and flips. In any case, they sent her to Vegas.
Here's where I got skeptical- Armenian So You Think You Can Dance winner Paul Karmiryan shows up. He danced a very strong latin ballroom routine and reminded Nigel of Benji Schwimmer, but is this even allowed? Shouldn't there be some sort of rules that make it so that if you become a finalist on one version of SYTYCD, you can't audition for ANOTHER ONE? This seems like they're walking a conflict-of-interest tightrope to me, but I suppose they're pretty separate entities even if they share the same name. Whatevs. I did my research on this guy, anyways, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO8CzsjOlHQ), and apparently he's trained in Hip Hop, Ballet, Jazz, etc., so it'll be interesting to see how far he'll get. Oh, and he got sent to Vegas.
Next is 20-year-old LA Native Elijah Laurant who had some sort of promo where he talked about making the stage his theatre or something. In any case, he had really, really beautiful, fluid movement and stroked (stroke? strike? what's the past tense of "strike"?) amazingly unique positions throughout his routine. Nigel particularly couldn't stop raving, and he was quickly given the golden ticket. Side note- did anyone else notice last season's mustachioed surf boarder-tap dancer in the audience during Elijah's performance? They didn't give him another promo so I'll keep an eye out for him in Vegas.
We get showed numerous little clips of dancers getting sent to choreography, and I got reminded about how much Mary Murphy's screaming really gets to me. She had some sort of back-and-forth yelling competition with a that stomp-y yell-y guy who got sent to choreography, and I was even happier with Jesse when he asked for a Tylenol.
Next is 20-year-old Taylor Ward from Claremont, CA, who grew up playing softball and actually got a scholarship for it but gave it up to start dancing. Unfortunately, in the holding/warm-up room she dislocated her knee on a pirouette. (Am I the only one here who thinks they added some sound effects here to make us all cringe more?) Anyways, she pops her knee back in, wraps it up, dances beautifully, gets sent to choreography, then to Vegas, and then so another day ends for Taylor Ward. Pretty amazing.
We have another B-Boy who I didn't catch the name of, who was apparently ranked #1 (in what? the world? LA? on his street?) in 2010-2011. He was one of the best B-Boys I've seen audition on the show, and he gets sent to choreography. Tadd, Cyrus, Brandon, and Ade are all in the audience and grant him standing ovations.
Next is some sleazy-looking rapper guy, who gets a promo for his skanky music video of stick-thin girls car-washing and apparently doing "stereotypical music video things". Whatever. In any case it's 27-year-old "Armen Way" from Glendale, CA, and gets sent to Vegas.
Finally, we have the three Chapman brothers who explain that their dad was a popper and they were pretty heavy players in the Hip Hop scene growing up. Unfortunately, after their dad died they stopped dancing and started "going the wrong way". Now they inspire at-risk youth to dance instead of turning to the streets, or something to that effect. Personally, I thought that they were pretty amazing, but they get sent home. Nigel offers the show's help for their project, so expect to see more of them when we get to the finals and the Top 20.
We get literally two minutes for choreography. I couldn't even really tell what genre they were given for this choreo- jazz? Marko Germar and Sasha Mallory both teach them the steps, and within an hour they present. The only person we've followed into choreo who also gets into Vegas is Taylor Ward (knee girl).
That's a wrap for tonight- tomorrow night they visit Detroit, with tWitch as the guest judge. Insanity insues.
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