LA Callbacks and SYTYCD Season 11 Top 20 Reveal!

So, the big callbacks show. The drama, the tears, the blown-up stories. It's all in good fun, and this year, it was super sped up to smoosh what should be 4 hours of material into 2. If anyone thinks I missed four episodes before this one, I haven't, I watched them, I just don't recap the audition shows because they are BRUTAL to recap. However, I promise my perpetual laziness will not impact shows from here on out. All recaps will be out by either Wednesday night or Thursday morning.

As with any season ever, there's contestants that get huge hype and airtime and those who come and go without ever seeing their face or their name on the show itself. Early favourites going into tonight include Phillip Chbeeb's crewmember Jaja Vankova, jazz darling Jessica Richens, contemporary-beauty-with-a-sob-story Megan Marco, and Next-Travis-Wall Ricky Ubeda.

First dramatic cue of the night - hip hop dancer Stephen's girlfriend goes into labour. Um, dunno, but if I had to choose between seeing my first born ACTUALLY BEING BORN and a competition where you have a 20 out of 157 chance of making it on the show, I'd go with the labour.

First round (not including the first solo round) - Hip Hop, Choreography by Chris Scott
Nice to see Jasmine Harper again as Chris's helper. Megan Marco gets cut, for some reason Marie Poppins gets to stick around, and Jessica Richens gets to dance for her life. In other news, ballroom dancer Marcquet Hill is mistaken for a hip hop dancer by his contemporary dancer partner. "I thought he was hip hooop!" Also, was it just me or was there an underlying it's-because-he's-black joke in there somewhere? Um, I'd be ditching her for the next round, Marcquet. You're obviously a rising star.

Jessica Richens' Solo - to some Michael Bublé song. She may not have great chemistry with her partner, but she is a wonderful solo act. Missed some cues in the music, but her feet and her turns were gorgeous. Through.

Second round - Jazz, Choreography by Sonya Tayeh
Jaja Vankova and Marie Poppins have early troubles. Johnny Waacker and my early SYTYCD Season 11 love Rudy Abreu slide through. "Early father" Stephen and Marie Poppins end up getting cut. Sonya shouted some threats, but at the end of the day, it's all good, because everyone knows Sonya Tayeh is a goddess of everything.

Jaja Vankova's Solo - powerful, krumpy, I don't know what else to say??? Through.

Third Round - Ballroom, Choreography by Dmitry Chaplin and Anya Garnis
Tappers go through. Rudy knocked it OUT OF THE PARK. Someone's tooth gets knocked out of their head. Emilio Dosal is back! Remember Aaron Turner? Season 10's 21st choice? He made the show because Emilio Dosal had to get nose surgery, and, as we all know, Aaron ends up making it to the finale. Crazier things have happened. Anyways, Jaja and Emilio pair up for the ballroom round and have some insane chemistry. Phillip Chbeeb, whatever you're doing to churn out these dancers from i.am.me, you're doing it right. Rudy's ballroom-dancing best friend Nick Garcia was given just a fraction of his deserved screentime and it was beautiful.

Fourth Round - Contemporary, Choreography by Travis Wall
Makenzie Dustman!!! Her presence in this round reminded me of all my pent-up Season 10 anger about her lack of love from voters. Whatever... The ginger ballroom guy who auditioned with Jenna Johnson makes it through. Rudy Abreu, Ricky Ubeda and Jessica Richens all pass through with flying colours.

Bridget Whitman's Solo - pretty basic contemporary movement, but pretty. The story about her father is very sad, but she needs to quit talking about it so much - it's getting very old very fast. It becomes a problem in Callbacks when contestants get so little time - all her screentime is dedicated to her father's story. Through.

Fifth Round - Group Round!
And so the drama reaches its climax! The first group - "One Love" - although pretty on the surface, there was one ballroom girl and she was the star of the show. They're asked to decide who will leave. What? They play a montage of bad groups. Everyone is awful, according to the editors. Johnny Waacks's group is the best routine - a gorgeous mix of contemporary and his waacking. Then they showed a montage of good groups and a beautiful split jump from my Rudy Abreu.

Here goes "One Love"'s decision of who to kick off the show. They all get up on stage and and cry and say they can't kick anyone off. This temporary show of loyalty apparently got to a small place in Nigel's heart and they all get sent through.

Sixth Round - Last Solos

Ricky Ubeda - Genius solo. Up there with Melanie Moore's Cracks and Billy Bell's Fly. Plus, he scored bonus points by using David J. Roch's Skin and Bones, used by Travis Wall to choreograph Melanie and Marko in one of my favourite contemporary pieces on the show of all time. Ricky's solo was not only stunning, but SMART. He would totally purposely lose control of his arms and legs and then go into an attitude or a triple pirouette without a second thought to show his insane control. Controlled, creative, genius. See the full glory here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDVGZGlClkk

Top 20 Reveal

First dancer to get the news is Ricky Ubeda. If he didn't make top 20 there would've been riots. Also to make through is Jessica Richens and a couple others that got no screentime. Emilio Dosal is through with a little bit of mean talk from Adam Shankman. Jaja Vankova doesn't - I guess two people from i.am.me is too much - and it would suck bigtime for Emilio not to make it after making it once already. Johnny Waacks gets cut and leaves in his skirt. From the little sneak-peek package before a commercial break I could tell they would pull a ratchet "Well, there's only one spot left and two of you!" for Nick Garcia and Rudy Abreu.

Jenna Johnson's ginger ballroom friend, whose name I learned is Landon, doesn't make it through. I really liked him and thought he could have continued. Oh well. Justine Lutz, who was my favourite solo in the auditions, unfortunately doesn't make it through either. There's not only one spot left between Nick and Rudy, so I guess I was wrong with that one. Nick moves through first. Like five ballroom people make it through at once.

It doesn't come down between Nick and Rudy, but Rudy and Silky. Rudy gets the spot.

COMPLETE TOP TWENTY
Ricky Ubeda

Jessica Richens

Jacque LeWarne

Teddy Coffey

Stanley Glover

Carly Blaney

Emilio Dosal

Bridget Whitman

Valerie Rockey

Zach Everhart, Jr.

Jourdan Epstein

Casey Askew

Emily James

Nick Garcia

Tanisha Belnap

Serge Onik

Malene Ostegaard

Marcquet Hill

Brooklyn Fullmer

Rudy Abreu

There we have it folks - I may be back later this week to analyse this top 20 further, but for now it's pretty obvious this season will be very interesting. Twitter is in complete riot over Jaja Vankova. At the end of the day, there's only a handful of the top 20 that got lots of airtime, so time to start looking these people up...

Let Season 11 begin! I love this time of year.

Everything at Once - The frantic tornado that is Season 11

That "Everything at Once" song they played when they were trying to advertise some new Windows tablet (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB2MBop0cLo) always comes to mind when thinking about upcoming Season 11.

It's important to drive the point home that ratings are basically the one and only priority for the producers this season. FOX will consider renewing shows while SYTYCD is still running, which means that having a large viewership for the first few episodes is crucial to the future of the show. In fewer words - watch the show. Tell your friends to watch the show. Turn on every TV in your house.

Here's some enormous changes coming this season;

1. THE CREWS

Everyone's flipping out about this but it's really not a huge deal. All they're doing is showcasing two "crew" groups during the audition episodes, and then you vote via Twitter which one you want in the finale (so they're not technically in the competition). For the crews, it's exposure, for the show, it's bringing in a larger viewership. Win-win.

2. THE BIEBS

As a Canadian, it makes me want to slit my wrists because of the reputation this guy has given us. Them bringing in the Biebs is an obvious last-ditch effort to get the ratings up. Justin Bieber's whole shtick this year is to, along with his main choreographer, introduce (???) the crews. Surely our beloved Cat Deeley can introduce these crews in a far more charismatic fashion? Whatever - although I can't imagine their plan of upping the ratings will work in their desired demographic. The tweens are the ones watching SYTYCD already, who is basically who would turn on the show once they heard Bieber was making an appearance. In order for the show to make a huge comeback like it needs, and enter in the "Mean Girls" clique of talent-search Reality TV (X Factor, the Voice, America's Got Talent), it needs to up its credibility with the 18-49 demographic. I guess we'll see how it goes.

3. THE WAY IT ALWAYS SHOULD HAVE BEEN

FINALLY my prayers have been answered and there will again be one winner this year. I know I'm such a primadonna about this issue but I think it's SO important to have a focused format again. Even Cat Deeley's been quoted as saying that she found it awkward to have two people winning (she said something along the lines of "It's awkward because it's like "you win! and you win too!"") So thank JESUS, America's Favourite dancer will truly win this year.


I think that's about it - tune in tomorrow at 8 (check your local listings!) on FOX/CTV for the Philly and Chicago auditions. I'll have the recap up as soon as possible.

Comments, questions about SYTYCD? Anything you'd like to see this year? Email me at sytycdfansblog@gmail.com 
I'll have your comment published on the blog with some commentary xx

SYTYCD Season 11 - What do you hope to see?

It finally feels a little bit like spring up here in the great white north, which has really made me realize how deep I'm into my SYTYCD withdrawals. Now that auditions have all wrapped up, it's time for the editing, the bookings - getting the whole tent propped up for May, which is actually not that far away. Since FOX hasn't updated their website since January 2nd, no official news yet as to any premiere date, season structure, etc. etc. etc.

I follow quite a few SYTYCD alum on twitter and instagram and stuff and it's nice to see some older alums progress in their dancing and careers. Just today Robert Roldan posted a picture on his twitter of the dancers on the set of Glee - which included Ryan Ramirez, and I saw a picture with Neil Haskell as well. Being able to see Shaping Sound Company would be a dream come true too - now including Travis Wall, Nick Lazzarini, Jaimie Goodwin, Alexa Anderson, Channing Cooke, Noelle Marsh - love to see and continue to support their careers.

Let's talk ratings for a little bit - in the States last season, SYTYCD averaged a 1.6 rating in the 18-49 age demographic (or about 4.5 million people...). In a word - yikees (in comparison, Sean Lowe's season on The Bachelor had a finale that pulled in almost 11 million people. What a world, huh? The misogynistic hunger games of dating pulls in more than twice as many people as a show about dancing and the arts. Hey, I'm not bashing the Bachelor, because damn, at the end of the day, do they have a recipe for ratings gold or what?) Where was I? If the ratings don't turn up this summer, it's probably the last season. Then again, I'm usually über pessimistic about renewing of seasons - I actually legitimately thought FOX would drop SYTYCD after Season 9.

After that nice thought, let's get excited about Season 11, shall we? Send me in your top hopes for Season 11 - if you were Executive Producer, who would you commission for more choreographies? All-Stars? Guest judges? I want to see them all - sytycdfansblog@gmail.com

Till later, loves xx

SYTYCD Season 11 - What will happen? What should happen?

Welcome back. I can't promise very many posts between now and the premiere (Mid-May), partly because my life is insane and partly because there's only so much that will be "different" between this season and the last few that will be worth writing about.

I realize I should have included my disclaimer in my first post of the season. Given I did not, I included it at the bottom of this post. I tried to make it sound as professional as possible.

Anyways, here's a tweet from Nigel that still has me scratching my head a lil bit;

AH, what? Nigel's twitter feeds harbours tons of gems like Mr. Lythgoe himself sitting on Santa's knee or commenting that he looks especially young in a picture with a 12-year-old girl.  And no Nigel, American Idol will not continue to be the greatest show. Weird tweets aside, this is an enormous revelation for the upcoming season and decidedly confusing. 

Now, then, are the producers expecting to have two streams? A solo competition and a crew competition? How many winners are they expected to crown this year? Are voters expected to vote for both competitions? And, perhaps most importantly, how the hell will they have all these cylinders firing if they only have one night of scheduled programming this year? Is the crew thing only for a week for a "battle round" or is it season-long? Who is James? Who is chadypopo32? Why is he getting texts from "James"? 

Argh. Obviously SYTYCD is trying to re-invent themselves a little bit, perhaps as a dance variety show (stealing a little bit from America's Best Dance Crew, which I'm sure will ruffle a few feathers with alums such as D-Trix Sandoval and Lauren Froderman being so implicated in ABDC). More to come on this issue as soon as FOX releases anything else out to the press. 

What do I want to see on SYTYCD Season 11?

Definitely more of Lindsay Nelko and Anthony Morigerato as choreographers. Cannot ever get enough of Travis Wall. Bring back Paul Karmiryan and Makenzie Dustman as All-Stars. Continue to have Melanie Moore, tWitch Boss, Pasha Kovalev, Allison Holker and Neil Haskell on SYTYCD All-Star payroll. Bring back Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Christina Applegate and Anna Kendrick as guest judges. 

A few (two) more that are pretty much (definitely) wistful thinking; Bring back the two-night format. Only have one winner. 

What do we know so far about SYTYCD Season 11?

Watch for guest judges Jenna Dewan-Tatum (yes, Channing's wife, and has an enormous dance background) and Lil' Buck in auditions. I had to google Lil' Buck and was impressed by his résumé; he choreographed Janelle Monàe's Tightrope video, and performed a piece to a solo cello performance by Yo-Yo Ma. I'm excited to see what these obvious seasoned dance pros bring to the judge's table. 

What do you want to see next season? What do you expect? Shoot me an e-mail at sytycdfansblog@gmail.com and I'll include it in the next post. 

DISCLAIMER
I have no affiliation with FOX Media, So You Think You Can Dance or any other partners or affiliates. This blog and all content includes personal opinion. This website is meant for shared information and entertainment purposes only. 

Here we go again - Season 11 Audition Details and Dates

Hello again and welcome back - it's time to start thinking about Season 11 of So You Think You Can Dance.


First of all, and most importantly - if you are considering auditioning for this season, there are five cities FOX is touring to cull the best of America's dancers. Interestingly, no auditions in New York... but I guess they've covered most of the American regions with the cities they've chosen.

Atlanta, GA
Monday, Jan. 13
Fox Theatre
660 Peachtree St. NE
Atlanta, GA 30308

Philadelphia, PA
Monday, Jan. 20
Merriam Theatre
250 South Broad St.
Philadelphia, PA 19102

New Orleans, LA
Friday, Jan. 31
New Orleans Ernest N. Morial
Convention Center
900 Convention Center Blvd.
New Orleans, LA 70130

Chicago, IL
Thursday, Feb. 27
Oriental Theatre
24 West Randolph St.
Chicago, IL 60601

Los Angeles, CA
Sunday, March 23
Orpheum Theatre
842 Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90014

Seeing as Atlanta's open auditions are only eleven days away, here's to hoping that you've already choreographed your solo if you're thinking about auditioning for Atlanta. Anyways, if you're between the ages of 18 and 30, think you're capable enough to compete, and live in the United States (there's a few loopholes- visit the official website for more deets), audition! You literally have nothing to lose, and they're OPEN AUDITIONS. If they don't think you're for the show, you won't pass. Nothing terrible will happen. And hey, something great could happen.

If you audition and you don't get called back - don't take it personally. You could have twenty years of technical training with the best dancers in the world and not get called back. It's important to remember that it's not only auditioning to compete as dancers, but also to be cast on reality TV. It takes a very unique type of dancer to be an all-around perfect person for this competition. But if you think that's you, bite the bullet and audition. You'll be within the presence of SYTYCD greats, and gain valuable audition experience. Again, you'll have nothing to lose and everything to win.

Keep an eye on my blog for the next couple days - I'll be uploading a post similar to last year's, a "what-to-look-for-in-the-season" type thing. I'll be glossing over choreographers I want to see again and genres I want included, as well as guest judges that I would love to see again. And, of course, as the season revvs up - not for another five months or so, but still - I'll be recapping every episode and posting it ASAP.

Happy New Year, loves!!! And may 2014 be a great year for SYTYCD.