Pasha And Jessi's Stiff Jazz performance. We loved the music, Tyce Diorio's choreography, and Pasha's surprising performance. He actually out danced Jessi.
Danny and Anya, You And Me, by Life House. We'll be very surprised if this doesn't turn out to be the most successful partnership from this season. Anya brings professionalism, grace, and maturity to match Danny's incredible technique. Of course, we reserve the right to change our minds when that pesky hip-hop number comes up in their rotation, but we wouldn't bet against them pulling it off smashingly, either.
Dominic and Sabra, I'll Stand By You. B-boy Dominic is this season's Ivan, surprising everyone with his outstanding performance in the contemporary/lyrical genre. Often overlooked is Sabra's pitch-perfect performance. I can't imagine any choreographer could have asked for more. She must be the most under-rated dancer on the show.
Shauna's solo. Shauna really did dance as if her life depended on it.
Cedric's solo. Sorry Cedric haters, we love Jimmy and feel like we were cheated out of some great dance with his early elimination, but Cedric's solo performance WAS amazing.
Jimmy Arguello expresses understandable frustration about being eliminated from the top 18 in this interview with BuddyTV:
Q: The judges pretty much admitted that you had been better than Cedric in the competition, is it frustrating to have to deal with the unfairness of being eliminated instead of him?
A: Yes it most definitely is unfair. It's hard to hear that because the last couple of the seasons on the show they always, they’re always behind all the all-around dancers, they were always sticking up for the all-around dancers the first and second season and for some reason this season they’re looking for uniqueness, but to tell you the truth everybody is unique, that’s why they had me on the show. Everybody there is unique every, everybody has their own sense of style and I just think that it was kind of unfair for what they decided, it really was. I'm just so scared for Shauna, I really am scared because he's gonna put her in the bottom 3. He is really gonna put her in the bottom 3 and I just don't think that's fair, it's just hard but I mean he's great at what he does, but this competition is about all around, you gotta pick up choreography because then you're gonna be putting yourself and putting your partner in danger. So it was just really tough for me to be myself going home. It was just really, really hard. I was just really surprised, I really was.
Faina Savich, on being partnered with Cedric Gardner:
Q: For the last two weeks, how difficult was it being partnered with Cedric who didn't have any really formal experience?
A: Honestly, I was very excited when I was paired up with him because in Vegas I saw him and he just totally blew my mind, seriously, because they showed his audition and just the way he moves I’ve never seen anything like it and really he would just amaze me and when I got paired up with him I knew it would be difficult because he doesn't have formal training and I knew that we would have difficult days just to learn from each other, but I was excited, I was really excited to learn from him because to do that, I was excited to know how he does it, you know.
We don't hear Dominic Sandoval called D'Trix after his contemporary performance with partner Sabra Johnson on the season 3 top 18 show. His hometown paper, the Roseville Press-Tribune talked to him recently.
Sandoval said although he never had any prior formal training in styles other than break dancing, the show's training in Southern California has been terrific.
"The choreographers are really awesome," he said. "They really push you and train you hard because they are getting judged, too. They are just amazing at what they do."
That brings to mind a point I've been meaning to mention. All the talk of Dominic being a tough, swaggering b-boy during the auditions...HE'S FROM ROSEVILLE, PEOPLE! I've never been there, but how tough can a city named Roseville be? Oh yeah, and he shaves his toes.
For those of us who came to the party late and missed season 1, here's a Mia Michaels choreographed gem. Blake McGrath and Destini Rogers perform Donny Hathaway's A Song For You.
Thanks to this article at QueerSighted for bringing it to our attention.
Drew Pisarra makes an interesting point, unfortunate but true:
But last night’s guest appearance by Daddy Yankee underscored just how rare it is for a dancer to get to be front and center. Delivering an uninspired rendition of his song “Impacto,” the bling-laden reggaeton star was backed by a dozen or so dancers forced to execute crappy choreography for a camera that barely kept them in the frame. This, friends, is your future if you make a career of dance.
RealityWanted.net has an interview with eliminated dancers Jimmy Arguello and Faina Savich:
RC: Do you have any words for your partners who are still on the show? Jimmy: Oh my gosh! I was blessed to be partnered with her(Shauna). I had such a great time with her, I really wish her the best. I want her to keep her head up & keep doing what she does. Faina: I would say that Cedric is really, really unique. Working with him & being with him for these 2 weeks, I would advise him to try different things & learn from anyone. He really has the talent, as the judges say.
As Nigel said, somebody's got to be in the bottom three. Was Hok's samba worse than Jimmy's hip-hop? You betcha. But Hok is very likable, and this, I must keep reminding my annoyed self, is a competition for America's favorite dancer, not America's best dancer.
As I’ve said before, it’s so difficult to send dancers home this early because many of them have not really had the opportunity to show America what they’re truly capable of. But the rules are the rules.
The trouble this season is that all the couples are so good, judges are beside themselves trying to come up with even the most benign criticisms. It will get a whole lot more difficult – and unfair, as the show goes on.
To me, everyone's solos were wonderful, and based on them, no one deserves to go home. While the judges deliberate, we are "treated" to a performance by some guy I've never heard of, Daddy Yankee, I think they said his name was, and I don't like it at all.
The LA Times CalendarLive.com on couple chemistry:
...Hok Konishi and Jaimie Goodwin, are excellent dancers but just don't seem like either one is getting very much from the other. Jessi Peralta and Pasha Kovalev seem to be a hot couple in the making, with their believable flirty yet sexy jazz dance from Wednesday night. Maybe the couple that most exemplifies the ideal relationship on the show is Sabra Johnson and Dominic Sandoval: There doesn't seem to be any indication that the two would even have any basis for a romantic relationship, but together on the dance floor they just scream cuteness, sassiness and enthusiasm. They seem to be having fun out there with each other. Sort of like Apolo Anton Ohno and Julianne Hough on "Dancing With the Stars" — and we all know where that got them. (They won.)
The reason Jessi and Pasha ended up in the bottom three this week is simple, the choreography was too weird and not good enough. The dancing was clearly there, and that’s why the judges may have been disappointed. But the general audience is watching for what they enjoy, and that was just strange. The other two couples were not a surprise at all. Shauna, Jimmy, Faina and Cedric all deserved to be where they were.
I'm amazed that the same people produce American Idol and Dance, because whereas Idol turns in one excruciatingly bloated results show after another, Thursday's Dance episode just sped by with ample tension and energy, as well as lots and lots of gettin' down. It doesn't hurt that Cat Deeley, clad in a fetching lemon custard dress, is everything I want in a non-Phil Keoghan/Jeff Probst reality TV host -- she's enthusiastic, playful and silly. It also didn't hurt the suspense that Thursdays results were so very odd.
A reader submitted this story (thanks!) about Jessi Peralta from Florida Today:
...Peralta's willingness to incorporate new steps has paid off in her professional endeavors in Los Angeles. At Holly Rocks, she focused on modern and jazz dance and was able to quickly absorb hip-hop after she moved out West.
Such versatility on the dance floor has helped her beat the competition on "So You Think You Can Dance," which requires dancers to tackle different styles each week.
Who was good? Jessi and Pasha's bird-pecking, feathered, out-there contemporary routine, just because it was unlike anything we'd seen before, and yes, as Mia said, ''quirkiest, most ridiculous, amazing.'' Sabra and Dominic's contemporary piece (more birds here), where Sabra proved she is Aileyesque and D was totally committed. (He admitted he'd shaved his toes ''because it was a jungle down there.'') Anya and Danny's beautiful Viennese (now I want to call it Vietnamese, Cat) waltz, where Danny's grace and technical ability was on full display. (I smell hip-hop coming their way.) I would have included Sara and Jesús, who are my favorite underrated couple, in this section, but the song they had to do the paso to (Queen's ''We Will Rock You'') just killed it for me. It's a shame because Jesús had lovely Spanish dance lines throughout (rounded arms, chest forward and pelvis tucked) and Sara, as someone with no dance training, held her own, in heels no less.
Britain's Got Talent winner and international phenomenon Paul Potts signed a million pound contract and appears this morning on the Today Show in the US.
It's becoming quite apparent that this is going to be a tough race. The competition is just entering the second week and there really isn't anyone that sticks out as being noticeably below the rest of the group. Depending on the styles drawn each week, every team in the competition has the potential to have the best performance of the night. It should make some difficult decisions for both the voters and the judges.
Opening Thoughts: Shauna’s looking a lot less frumpy. Lacey copies her brother with a slide move. I think Cedric has an excess of joint fluid. Neil twirls like a second-rate Travis. Danny twirls like a first-rate Travis. Mia’s judging, so no kickass contemporary routines this week I guess. Hopefully, she’ll do some good bitchy judging. Well, Mia’s either delusional or lying because she claims that the best 3 male dancers were the bottom last week. Cedric and Dominic are nowhere near the best dancers here. Mary blames America. Nigel blames “dance snobs”, while looking at Mary.
Fangasm says it was another GREAT night on SYTYCD.
Sabra and Dominic / Contemporary: This choregraphy was meant to resemble a creature and a bird. I guess it’s bird night on SYTYCD. The performance made me say wow. I totally had to eat my words regarding Dominic. Mia said that Dom is truly what the competition is about. Mary said she absolutely loved it and said that Sabra was beautiful. Nigel said that they delivered.
Jaimie/Hok - This is where I'm sometimes glad about my ignorance regarding ballroom dance styles because I thoroughly enjoyed this performance. So even though the couple wasn't technically proficient, what I saw was great energy, personality, partnering, rhythm and natural showmanship. Sure, I noticed that it didn't have the traditional close holds, but I never felt this show was really about appealing to anything established.
Neil and Lauren 888-836-7601 Pasha and Jessi 888-836-7602 Hok and Jaimie 888-836-7603 D'Trix and Sabra 888-836-7604 Cedric and Faina 888-836-7605 Kameron and Lacey 888-836-7606 Danny and Anya 888-836-7607 Jimmy and Shauna 888-836-7608 Jesus and Sara 888-836-7609
TVGuide gives us 10 reasons So You Think You Can Dance is hotter than ever.
8) SYTYCD outdances Dancing with the Stars. Yeah, we said it. Contestants on this show are serious about their craft. So much so that they’ve been working toward this dream since they were wee ones. And the job’s only getting harder. They train with choreographers up to 12 hours a week for the show, and then they practice privately on top of that. “It’s grueling,” Murphy says. “The emotional exhaustion of all of this is very difficult.”
Jesus Solorio is profiled in this story from the Paso Robles Press.
“I am beyond excited I am ecstatic for him,” said Class Act Dance instructor June Greenwalt. “There was a gift in him that was rare, it was just a matter of bringing it out in the right time and in the right place.”
When San Francisco newspapers comment on "the descent into degeneracy that seems to be overtaking American popular culture", one takes note. Cinnamon Stillwell, writing for SFGate, points to performances by Benji Schwimmer, Dominic Sandoval, and Faina Savich, amongst others, to make her point.
Coincidentally, we get separate articles this morning on the team of Jessi Peralta and Pasha Kovalev.
Jessi Peralta was hospitalized Saturday suffering from severe dehydration. The Orlando Sentinel reports that she's fine now. There is no mention of how much rehearsal time with her partner was lost, or how it might affect their performance this week. LINK
NorthJersey.com has a Q&A with Pasha Kovalev.
Q. What inspired you to audition?
My dance partner [Garnis] saw on the TV that auditions were going to happen and asked me if I wanted to participate. At the time, I was recovering from illness. I had real serious health issues at that point, so I said that I don't know if I will get strong enough.
Another reader submits an article (thanks!) on Neil Haskell from the Buffalo News.
“He always stayed grounded, and he always knew what he wanted,” says Battaglia. “He comes around and helps out — all the kids in his family are the same; they’re really wonderful kids. His parents did a great job raising them.”
Click here to register for Monsters Orlando either using our new Online registration or by fax/mail (download forms available to print here).
Multi City Discounts are available for any dancers who have attended a Monsters of HipHop in 2006-2007, please enter code "MCD" in the discount code area when registering online.
MONSTERS OF HIPHOP ORLANDO FINALE
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
1) What time does the workshop start?
Monsters Orlando starts at 12pm on Friday July 20th & runs for 3 days
until Sunday July 22nd.
2) When is Club Stylz?
Club Stylz Showcase Performance & Freestyle Battle will be held on Saturday evening July 21st at 8pm, with groups competing for the $1000 Best in Showcase Prize as well as our $500 Prize to the Top Sr. Individual Freestyle Battler.
Dancers attending the workshop are admitted for free with their wristbands. Observers & parents are welcome, a $5 ticket is required with all proceeds benefiting the American Cancer Society.
3) Can our studio or dance team still participate in the
Showcase Performance Competition?
Currently we have only a few spots open for the competition (groups must be 6 or more) - please contact us today for more details, call us at 410-313-8199 or email info@monstersofhiphop.com & let us know if you'd like to compete.
4) Who's Performing?
For our Tour Finale in Orlando, we are pleased to announce Monsters of HipHop Choreographer's Lisette Bustamante & Chonique Sneed will be performing their brand new music during Club Stylz.
More details coming soon...hear them at their MySpace Music Pages,
The Rocky Mountain News talked to Sara von Gillern:
Question: Do you think your hip-hop background might limit your ability to perform other dance styles?
Answer: Actually, it's funny - although they've been calling me the B-girl, it's the most recent dance style I've picked up. I've been dancing in modern, jazz and tap since I was a little kid. One thing I haven't done is partnering, so the ballroom styles are something I'm a little more nervous about. But all the guys in the competition are amazing.
We are trying to put the final touches on the Bad Dance website and I want you guys to help out.
We are looking for VERY COOL bad dance PICTURES to use on the front page banner of the site. So send your BAD DANCE PICS to info@baddance.com
We will use the best one for the official banner. The rest will live on the image page on the site.
Please! Only use the images that you own the rights to. So don't send pictures that someone owns. In the subject header or in the body of the email say "Baddance.com has permission to use the image attached"
Lastly, let me know your name, myspace page address and where you are from.
Thanks you guys. Continue to send in your Baddance videos! THEY ARE GREAT!!
I have a couple surprise BAD DANCE VIDEOS that you will all LOVE. TRUST ME ;)
A reader spotted this story and submitted it to us. Thanks! The Sun-Sentinel talks to Kameron Bink. The reader points out though, that Kameron has actually turned 21 since making the top 20, and that the prize money is incorrectly listed as $100,000. It's up to $250,000 this year.
Dick Clark Productions, producers of So You Think You Can Dance, was purchased today by Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder. Does this mean any changes for the show? BuddyTV has the story.
We haven't been happy with the commenting system here at Blogging So You Think You Can Dance, so we're trying something new, as you see below. Let us know what you think. Give us your, well, comments.
Neurox Media Network, the company behind Idolforums is looking for volunteers to generate content for them for a new site with "research into the different dancers on the show. Things like what they've been up to, media clips of their performances, etc."
That sounds like a great concept to us for, y'know, maybe a blog or something.
There's a video going moderately viral of 4 of our favorite choreographers dancing together at a showcase, Shane Sparks, Mia Michaels, Wade Robson, and Brian Friedman. Our friends at Give Me My Remote has it here. Blogging So You Think You Can Dance readers saw it back on June 2nd.
An analysis of what went wrong for the recently dismissed Ashlee Langas:
Ashlee also failed at the third rule, being unique. She looks similar to Jessi Peralta, and is among a huge herd of contemporary dancers. Ashlee may have been the “heavenly one” to Mia, but to the rest of us, she wasn’t really on the radar. She also had no unique dance moves that we saw.
MORE Pop-up/junk ad alert, but the article is worthwile.
Don't worry, we aren't becoming an opera blog. The buzz surrounding the Paul Potts story has been amazing.
Ray Connolly at the Daily Mail:
TV executives everywhere should take note. You don’t need to spend vast fortunes by encouraging confrontation between caged weirdos to make entertainment. What you really need is heart. And no one has more heart than the dedicated amateur.
The Times Online reports a trip to the dentist is next for Potts:
Potts, who has also landed a record deal with Simon Cowell, the TV show judge, said of fixing his teeth: "I'm not sure about veneers but I do want to get the crown repaired. It would be nice to be able to smile naturally. I feel very self conscious about it at the moment. But whatever I do I'm not going to change who I am."
Ricky Palomino has a MySpace page dedicated to his CD, Amateurly Honest, with samples and a music video. You can purchase the CD through the site, though it appears to be sold out at the moment.
Blogging So You Think You Can Dance welcomes our first contributing blogger, Lord Cirque.
Shauna Noland and Unity Dance Ensemble by LordCirque
"Shauna is one of the most brilliant dancers that I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Her limits are endless and she astounds me time after time. She truly enjoys dance and has so much power in her movement. Her work ethic and kindness are genuine and inspiring."
~ Tessandra Chavez when asked about Shauna Noland's talent and abilities as a dancer.
I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Shauna Noland had made the Top 20 on Season 3 of So You Think You Can Dance. I was even more surprised when I learned that she is now a member of a growing Jazz and Hip Hop company in Southern California that I’ve admired and followed extensively since I first saw them perform in the summer of 2004.
About two years ago, a friend of mine pointed her out to me as someone worth watching on the Hall of Fame site when she performed her solo to Hyperballad by Bjork. I was immediately hooked and knew she was one to watch.
A year later, I was once again even more impressed by her when she performed her new solo, State of Emergency at the same competition.
Earlier this year, Shauna met Tessandra Chavez while she was teaching on the LA Elite Convention circuit. Tessandra is instructor at the world famous EDGE, Debbie Reynolds, and Debbie Allen in Los Angeles, as well as the founder and artistic director of Unity Dance Ensemble, a company based in San Diego and Los Angeles. The San Diego company was founded in 1994, with their first show in 1997. In 2005, Tessie, as she is more commonly known, moved to LA and began Unity LA. Unity San Diego is more based in Contemporary and Lyrical choreography while Unity LA is based more in Hip Hop, but both companies perform all styles, often combining them within the same piece. Tessie’s choreography has won numerous awards, including a Silver Leo for her original work “Trance” at the 2004 World Jazz Dance Congress and an Honorable Mention for “Crazy” at the 2005 World Jazz Dance Congress. Tessie’s work is known for requiring a high level of technique, as well as a passion for dance, and a lot of power, strength, and endurance.
Shauna eventually became Tessie's assistant and a company member of Unity LA, where she has been working with choreographers Craig Holloman, David Ross, and Jaffar Smith, as well as Tessandra.
If fact, when Shauna auditioned for So You Think You Can Dance, she auditioned using a solo choreographed by Tessandra Chavez and was told by Shane Sparks “You’re a very powerful dancer and I could watch you all day.”
Included are some videos from Unity’s show “Red Carpet” and the junior companies show, Unity 2. Both were held in 2006.
“One Man’s Karma” choreography by Tessandra Chavez
Contemporary/Lyrical
“Vampires” choreography by Tessandra Chavez
Contemporary
“Only You” Concept by Sara Sepich. Choreography by Tessandra Chavez, Cecili Chadwick, Sheryl Diaz, Kristina Euperio, Sara Sepich, and Anjelica "Jeli" Wilson.
Contempoary
“Spread” by Craig Holloman
Hip Hop
If you are interested in seeing Unity Dance Ensemble perform live, they will be performing in San Diego, CA July 20th-July 22nd.
So You Think You Can Dance choreographer/judge Shane Sparks is offering dance mixes from the show at his MySpace page.
Apparently, Shane isn't down with those of us who spell it "shawty". Does spelling properly count against your street cred?
MySpace blogger Doug rants about Ricky's elimination and comes up with an interesting proposal:
I do realize that the judges get involved in the elimination for the first few weeks of the competition to try to "be fair" to the competitors. As they've said on the show, America has no idea what every member of the Top 20 can do yet, so they allow America to vote and then try to insert some "reason" into the process by eliminating one of the bottom 3 vote-getters. Their point being: "America doesn't know what a good dancer is or how good each of these dancers are in their respective genres, so we judges have to make the final decision for them." The easiest way around it so the judges NEVER have to be involved once public voting starts? Have the first night of performances after the Top 20 are chosen be solos in their respective dance styles so the audience can SEE their strengths. Have a second night of performances where they do what they already do (draw a style out of a hat and perform with a randomly chosen partner). THEN allow the public to vote. If the public is aware of what each dancer's strengths are and THEN sees them do something randomly chosen, they've been educated. They've been given the tools to make a better judgement. And then, the judges/producers can't manipulate.
Ricky's dismissal inspires thoughts of gendered normativity and Althusser's essay on ideology in another blogger:
So, to get back to So You Think…?, the same sort of ideological reproduction is happening when we see uneven height in ballroom dance and have that deep twitch, that deeply seated sense that Ricky being shorter than Ashlee isn’t quite right. It doesn’t work. We have that sense without any education whatsoever in dance. We just feel it. Now, learning about dance forms might give us another language for that sense - and one that, in part I’d argue, is purely about an aesthetic form (partly politicized too, of course) - but the immediate feeling “that doesn’t look right” is really something different. If we reject that feeling later, well, it is still rejecting it “later.” Because ideology is so familiar to us, we don’t see ideology itself, but rather have a fairly uniform set of immediate responses to what we see and hear. Becoming aware of how intimate we are with ideology is the first step - the biggest one, really - to imagining different sorts of relation to the world.
BuddyTV reports that So You Think You Can Dance finalist Sabra Johnson has confirmed she is not from Boise Id.
The confusion regarding Johnson’s residential history was caused by an article posted on the Fox network’s KTRV website. Part of the article read: “On (So You Think You Can Dance), Sabra Johnson is said to be from Utah. The fact is Utah is where she learned to dance, but her family moved to Boise a few years ago and now she's well on her way to proving a small town girl can perform along side the best in the country.”
Jimmy Arguello fights to get the truth out.
Alysa at RealityTVCalendar writes about why she loves So You Think You Can Dance:
If you have never seen it and believe that it's just another run-of-the-mill "reality" dance show, you are mistaken.
It's funny, heartwarming and most of all, very beautiful and artistic.
The Arizona Republic talks to 2 Az. natives, Season 3 finalist Lauren Gottlieb, and recently eliminated Ricky Palomino.
Dancing is only one of Palomino's skills. He left Phoenix five years ago for New York to focus on a music career. So far, he has released two indie albums under the moniker Marcelino Palomino.
