Apologies + SYTYCD Top 20 Reveal

First of all, so, so sorry for the complete lack of posts... Oh my good god, life has been insane and I decided to stop recapping the audition episodes because honestly, they're not terribly fun to write and only seven or eight of the people they give promos to during the auditions actually make it through to either the Green Mile or the Top 20 itself... But from now on in I promise to recap every episode!

Before I dive into the reveal, this season looks absolutely amazing just from this episode, and I'm not just saying that to say it every year. I know I'm going to get a ton of hate, but I thought Season 9 was a bit of a dud... Needless to say I wasn't as hopeful this time last year as I am now. My favourite season so far has been Season 7, and none have made it up to the bar set by that season in my opinion (perhaps because of Billy Bell, let's be honest here), but 10 looks fantastic so far. Nigel and the rest of the producers probably really decided to pull up their socks for this season if they're looking for a renewal when FOX doles them out for next summer.

OKAY ACTUALLY RECAPPING NOW. First genre to be revealed is Hip-Hop, which, to no one's surprise, included Fik-Shun, who has grown a fan base already and is probably the most adorable person on the show. They told him he needed to work on his technique a bit, but really, personality is what really gets you through on this show. The judges also included Phillip Chbeeb's roommate Emilio Dosal, who I pretty much fell head over heels for in the first few minutes of his audition, but because of an undisclosed "injury", he had to pull out (*sobbing*) - more on that and the repercussions later. Third (or I guess, kind of second) to join the Hip-Hoppers is FEMALE HIP-HOPPER Mariah Spears, who the producers never spent much time on but apparently shot through everything. This is especially exciting because the only Hip-Hop girl that has really made an impression in the past five years or so is Comfort. The routine they're given is a Luther Brown routine (wasn't a fan of Luther's during his SYTYCD Canada days, and unfortunately I'm still not) that seems the same old, same old to me. Same sensuality and leather pants that seem to be in all of Luther's routines. Mariah can really kill the sensual-gritty thing, but unfortunately Fik-Shun just couldn't pull it off without pulling an adorable ear-splitting smile every once in a while. I have to admit, they danced it well.

Next we're given the first round of contemporary dancers, which are at a surprisingly and refreshingly lower number this year. First to join is Makenzie Dustman, who was actually one of my favourite auditions this season. The producers hadn't spent much Vegas time on her, but she stood out to the judges from the beginning as well, apparently. Jasmine Harper is the next one through. Okay, I have a bit of a problem with what story they're pulling for Jasmine H. She dated Cyrus, cool. I can only imagine the cross-dating that goes on behind the scenes on this show, and honestly, I just really don't care (except for Allison and tWitch. Always except Allison and tWitch). They better not try to fabricate some sort of on-screen romantic thing between Cyrus and Jasmine H. because I will actually punch my television. This just has no place on the show. I can't remember exactly what round it was, but I remember for one round in Vegas she danced a pretty emotional routine and admitted it to being about Cyrus. I can only imagine Cyrus' reaction while he watched the Vegas round. Oh, good god. I know she's trying to make a name for herself but at this point everyone only knows her as Cyrus' ex, which is a shame because I think she's extremely talented.

Rant over. Two contemporary guys, Tucker Knox and Nico Greetham, get through next. Nico has an ENORMOUS fan base already, probably partly because he's extremely good-looking, but he's also extraordinarily talented and I expect him to go super far. The first four contemporaries get a Stacey Tookey routine, which, although I adore Stacey to the moon and back, just was nothing new. It was stunning, of course, but it just looked really similar to a ton of contemp routines on this show before. Regardless, all four danced it very well.

OH MY GOD TAP. My favourite thing about this season is probably the huge dose of tap we've gotten after an immense dry spell. Alexis Juliano and Curtis Holland both made it through the top 20 immediately, and after Hip-Hopper Emilio dropped out, Aaron Turner was apparently 21st in line and nabbed the last spot. The group routine they do is choreographed by a newcomer choreographer, Anthony Moriegerato, to a song by Jason Mraz. There were so many things I loved about this, but putting a tap routine to the scatting genius that is Jason Mraz was absolutely brilliant. The three were amazingly synchronized, and we'll see how far they get in the competition. So far, Aaron seems to be pulling the biggest fan base and has the most likable personality. But again, time will tell.

Okay, break just to acknowledge how happy I am to have Adam Shankman back on the panel. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH ADAM. We needed you back.

Next are the animators. I think it's so so cool that Cyrus has pioneered this genre in the show, and although I have no idea for certain, it's probably opened up a brand-new demographic beyond the chassé/jeté crowd (and hey, I'm part of the chassé/jeté crowd, and I absolutely love the animators) that the producers have enjoyed. Plus, it's neat that they've been able to give Chris Scott this new niche to play with. Anyways, the judges give both Jade Zuberi and BluPrint a spot in the competition, and the Chris Scott group routine they get given is nothing short of amazing. I just really hope they don't play up some Jade vs. BluPrint angle that seems pretty non-existent to me, to be honest.

Second contemporary group. Carlos Garland makes it through, who, out of the 3 contemp guys, seems the least strong, but we'll see how far he gets. Hayley Erbert, and, to absolutely zero surprise, so does Malece Miller, who has able to make a name, image and fanbase for herself within weeks. The second group routine was choreographed by Mia Michaels, and to be honest I much preferred this contemporary one. The story wasn't my favourite ever, but how many storylines can you think up with two girls and a guy? Plus, one of the dancers could have easily become the third wheel or the awkward third one but it never happened. So kudos to Mia for that one. Another bonus for Season 10 - the Mia Michaels comeback.

Next are the ballroom dancers. I know next to nothing about ballroom dance, to be honest, but all four this year - Brittany Cherry, Jenna Johnson, Paul Karmiryan, and Alan Bersten - all seem very strong. The routine seemed like more of the same to me, but hey, what do I know? Prediction; Jenna will last the longest of the four. She seems the most versatile. Paul's already won the Armenian version of SYTYCD, which hopefully he won't drive home for too long on the show because voters will get sick of it and want to give other people a chance.

Last, but not least, is the Jazz group, which only counts two dancers this year; Amy Yakima and Jasmine Mason. Amy Yakima has probably had the most airtime of anybody, and has seemed to blow through everything easily and effortlessly. It's almost tipping to the point of unfairness how much airtime she's been getting, when someone like Mariah Spears has gotten next to none, but hey, there's always somebody. In any case, I do agree that she is gorgeous and talented and I predict that she will go super super far. I absolutely adore Jasmine M., too, and I hope that she'll also last at least until the top 10.

Finally, we get a top 10 guys routine and top 10 girls routine, and a full cast top 20 routine. Chris Scott blows everyone out of the water, again. His sand routine was hands-down the best routine of the night, because it was gorgeous, creative, and highlighted every single style without doing it blatantly. The top 10 girls routine was choreographed by Ray Leeper to "Let's Have a Kiki". When I saw the song title I instantly groaned because I've hated it ever since the Glee version of it with Sarah Jessica Parker's character and Rachel and Kurt. So I couldn't really look past the annoying song, to be honest. The top 20 routine was also another amazing Sonya Tayeh routine, which, if it wasn't for Chris Scott, would take top honours for the night in my book.

So I leave you with the sand routine.

SYTYCD Episode 10x02 LA Auditions Part 2

Not sure why they cut up the LA Auditions into two parts and inserted them at random throughout the other auditions... In any case, we have Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy and Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family, which by the way was hilarious last night) as judges again.

First is 26-year-old "Slick" from Brooklyn, NY. His style is "flexing"... His entire audition was an attraction-repulsion deal for me, because I couldn't stand looking but I couldn't look away... Which appears to be half the idea of "flexing". It's basically any move that can make you wince, with some fast footwork added in. It's pretty impressive, especially since he's dislocating his shoulder every twenty seconds or so, but it got kind of repetitive for me because he would just keep popping the one shoulder again and again. Choreography.

Next is Alex Kessinger, 18, from Riverdale, CA.

She was raised by her foster mom, who also happens to be her aunt, since a very young age. Her mom also trained her. We get a whole promo package for her, and she seems like a pretty heavy player for this competition. She was something like "Miss Teen Dance America," and she's only 18. She reminded me of a Lauren Froderman (Season 7)-type- very athletic and acrobatic but also incredibly technically trained. The judges send her straight to Vegas.

The judges seemed unfairly harsh on 23-year-old Sebastian Serra, from Orlando, FL. As soon as he said he's been dancing with the Orlando Ballet for three years, everyone pretty much knew he'd be amazing. (If you're interested in his ballet career, here's his company link; http://orlandoballet.org/sebastian-serra/). He's originally from Puerto Rico. In any case, his solo was incredible and technically perfect, but no one seemed as impressed as they should have been. They send him to Vegas anyways.

Next are Latin Ballroom dancers Mariia Lebedeva and Misha Smagin (it was super stressful trying to write down their names), from New York City, NY. Very tight performance, and they've obviously been dancing together for a while. They particularly praised Mariia, and to be honest, Misha seemed kind of ticked off whenever they complemented her more. Vegas.

We get a plethora of "strange" dancers- a contemporary hoop dancer, which I thought was actually quite creative, a chicken dancer (to which Nigel shouted "What the cluck is going on here?" Brilliant joke, Nigel) on pointe, and a male pointe dancer. They either didn't show or I can't remember what happened to either of these three, but I thought at least the hoop dancer was capable enough to at least be sent to choreography. The man pointe dancer guy seemed to be banking pretty heavily on the "wow factor" that he was on pointe, because from the thirty seconds we saw of his solo, it wasn't too pretty- and it's because men aren't supposed to dance on pointe....

My personal favourite of the night is Millie Dosal, 22 from Houston, TX, and most notably, friend and roommate of Phillip Chbeeb (Season 5).
Usually, I get annoyed whenever someone tries to name-drop on this show, but when Millie said he was in Phillip's crew, I got excited, and rightly so. His routine was entertaining, energetic and unique. I thought it was unfair when he only got sent to choreography- maybe the judges wanted to make sure he could make a name of his own first? Not sure.

Finally is 18-year-old Makenzie Dustman, who's still a senior in high school. She grew up in show biz with her parents in a vocal jazz group. Her contemporary routine was amazingly beautiful and she showed a surprising amount of maturity and emotional depth. She seems to already be growing a fan base, which is rare but not unheard of, and I'm expecting her to go far. Again, I hope she's unique enough to stand out from the other contemporary girls and can hold her own in other styles.

Choreography round. Dunno why Marko and Sasha are there every time, but they must have been travelling with them or something. Flexy guy doesn't make it, but Millie does with flying colours. I was particularly watching him and I'm excited because he can actually do other stuff too.

The Austin auditions from this episode will be posted tomorrow- this episode was incredibly long and I can easily write another full post for the Austin portion because there was so much packed into this episode.

SYTYCD Episode 10x01B Detroit Auditions

Super late post... Sorry...

Anyways, technically the second episode was filmed in Detroit, but FOX is calling this "Episode 01B" because it's the second part in a two-part premiere. Whatever. In any case, they've never held auditions in Detroit before. Judges in Detroit; Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy, and tWitch (Boss).

First is 21-year-old Jade Zuberi from Dearborn Heights, MI. It's basically love at first sight for tWitch. Nigel exlaims multiple times "I never want it to end!" and then ends it... Jade reminded me of a sort of less-emotional but just as talented "excorcist" from season 9 (Hampton Williams, I think?). tWitch hails it as one of the best auditions he's ever seen. Vegas.

Next is Amy Yakima, contemporary dancer, 19, from Northville, MI. Apparently she made her dad take "dad's jazz" at her studio, which is about an interesting a concept as I've ever heard. Nigel can't pass up this ratings gold, and gets her dad up on stage and boogieing around. Whatever, people lap it up. In any case, once Amy actually performs, she is amazingly talented, and gets a standing ovation. She seems technically perfect, probably comparable to someone like Kayla Radomski (Season 5) in terms of level of technique.  I hope she's got enough uniqueness to be able to stand out from the hundreds of other contemporary girls, and I think she does. Vegas.

22-year-old Mo Williams, from Chicago, IL, has an annoying ab-off with tWitch... Let's be honest, no one's abs hold a candle to tWitch's. This guy's a contemporary dancer and pretty good, but Nigel seems to smell his sass from a mile away and wants to send him to choreography but the other two judges send him to Vegas.

Next is 27-year-old Sysko Green, from Detroit, MI. His style is supposedly "uniquely Detroit"- it's called the "Jit", and apparently comes from the 20s' "Jitterbug". Basically it's a lot of insane footwork. Nigel asks him if he can do other types of dance and he responds "hip roll". Mary gets up on stage, which is a debatable course of action, and turns out to be incredibly awkward as he basically rolls his hips in her face. Anyways, the crowd goes wild. Choreography.

tWitch gets up and dances a bit... Obviously fantastic and flaunting obviously better abs that Mo or whoever it was. Just saying.

26-year-old Garrett Frye, from Bowling Green, OH, gets his "sort of Hip Hop" on. Not much to say- he was entertaining and obviously enjoyed himself, but clearly not up to par and the judges quickly send him packing, although they seemed to enjoy it too.

First round choreo- only person we've followed into choreo is Sysko Green. Marko Germar and Sasha Mallory (Season 8) show them the steps again and within the hour they present. Sysko decides it's a good idea to start freestyling when his partner has no idea what the heck he's doing. Nigel gets so pissed that he stops the music right then and there and sends him home.

The first audition we're shown for Day 2 in Detroit is tapper (OMG) Tyrone Cobham, Jr., 18 from Toledo, OH. He was personally my favorite of the night. He gets a standing ovation, but Nigel has to be a bum and point out how much applause he got for his easiest step. Whateves. Anyways, he's a fantastic tapper and you can expect to see him go far in Vegas because even if he's not great in the other styles, they'll want to help push him through. Tappers are so few and far between on this show and I really hope he makes it.

Someone's grandma gets up and does gangnam style. If I see that dance once more I will honestly just lose it. However, in fairness to them, this was filmed when gangnam style was still remotely popular with people.

Next is a group of male strippers from Detroit, MI- Smilez (23), Prince Charming (20), and three others who according to the show aren't worth mentioning. Well, all's well that ends well because they're the only two who get invited to choreography.

2nd choreography round with Marko and Sasha again. Only Prince Charming gets sent through. If he drops his stripper shtick and proves he can dance emotionally too, I think he'll actually do  good.

That's all for Detroit- the LA part 2 audition recap will be up tomorrow.

SYTYCD Episode Recap 10x01 - LA Auditions

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.