Saturday, August 18, 2007

Pasha And Lauren Interview

We're still catching with interviews of Pasha and Lauren, eliminated in Monday night's results show.




Backstage Interviews

This week's Reality Remix report features G G Pants interviewing Sissyduckling, Cat, Mary, Danny, Neil, Paula Abdul, and Nigel. He even hands the tiara over to Sabra.


Pre-finale interviews with Neil and Sabra.


Thanks Gen!



Shane Picked Lacey


The Redlands Daily Facts quotes Shane, Mary, and Nigel in this wrapup on Lacey:

"I thought it was going to be between Danny and Lacey," said choreographer Shane Sparks. "I really picked Lacey to win. She is one of the best female dancers I have ever seen. She's so versatile, and every time I picked a couple to work with, I was praying it was her. I love what she brought to the show."

"I said in the last couple of weeks I would have been happy with any of the top 4," said judge Mary Murphy. "I thought Lacey had a really good chance. I think she was a frontrunner from the beginning and every time she danced with a partner she was flawless."

"Lacey's brilliant!" said judge and executive producer Nigel Lythgoe. "She could have won tonight."


LINK




Allison in Revolution

Season 2 finalist Allison Holker is set to appear on stage in New York in a show called Revolution.

Source



Danny In-Depth


Submitted by a reader, HamptonRoads.com has a more in-depth piece on Danny Tidwell:

"Danny's made his mark in the ballet world. Now he's made an even bigger mark," said Vicky Cooke.

Cooke was the first person who noticed Tidwell's intensity about dancing. He was 8; she was a teacher at an after-school program in Norfolk, funded by a grant for at-risk youths.

"I remember walking up the stairs of the studio and seeing this little bit of a kid in a straddle, trying to reach his fingers to his toes. The studio closed, so I called Denise and told her about him, and she agreed we'd teach him for free."


LINK



The Winner Is Named





Video Montages

Hiphop highlights


Audition highlights


Season review


Uploaded by missyoumagician

Around The Web


Yahoo's Buzz Session gives us a video recap of Wednesday's performance show, and interviews Sabra after the finale. We get to check in with several dancers and choreographers.

LINK


Korbi Ghosh goes to the wrap party.

LINK


Emily at Eclaire Fare recaps, and speaks for all of us when she says:

...let’s pretend like the “Cat and Nigel dancing” fiasco never happened. What a total waste of valuable time that was.


MORE


Lacey posts to he Myspace blog:
wow! you guys i have no words for you...other than thank you! its been a real pleasure dancing for yall and cant wait to do more for you guys on tour! i wanted to say thanks for all the endless support and love...and know this is not the end...i love you guys so much!


LINK


Despite early claims from Boise, Idaho, Utah is proud of Sabra and several other contestants. What's with all the dancers from Utah?

LINK




Friday, August 17, 2007

Danny Goodbye Video

Youtube user ATCorporate (Andrew) put together a farewell video for Danny, since there wasn't one on the show.




Interview with Sabra


Gina Scarpa interviews America's Favorite Dancer for BuddyTV:

Is there anything you wanted to say to your fans because the show ended so quickly you didn’t even get to respond to the fact that you won.

I know, I felt so bad because even the studio audience…I just wished I could’ve thanked them all but I just remember thinking I wanted to hug everybody around me, and that was the Top 20, I love them. But it would be so great if I could meet everybody, obviously that’s millions of people. That’s so crazy, but it would be great to be able to meet everybody and say thank you because they just gave that to me. I’m so grateful


We also learn there may be some new material created for the tour.

LINK

Gina also recaps the entire season.

LINK



High School Musical 2

Watch for season 2 favorites Allison Holker and Jaymz Tuaileva in High School Musical 2, tonight at 8pm on the Disney Channel.



Around The Web

We have so much good stuff coming in, it may take the weekend to get through it all.

Kim Cosmopolitan at A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago strings together a random list of interesting thoughts. For example:

Was there any doubt in anyone's mind from the instant Nigel started talking about "choreographers using their dancers' strengths" that this was the lead-in to the hummingbird dance? You may recall that I was irate when Hok was cut prior to the top ten -- the main thrust of my pissed-off-edness being "you idiots, now you can't have the hummingbird dance on the tour!" But of course Nigel is an enterprising soul, and thus we now have the disclosure that hm, perhaps those alternates will do a little dancing on tour. So we'll get the hummingbird, and perhaps also that lovely Danny Astaire / Anya Rogers routine as well.


MORE


John at Theory My Culture talks about Sabra, the foxes routine, and how Danny deals with the world of Nigel & Co.:
For me, the highlight of the final show (if not the season) was Danny’s aside, just as he and Neil were practicing the “macho” routine Mia Michaels had designed, that Nigel “loves masculine dancing.” It was a hilarious and appropriate crack. Danny and Neil are tall, fabulously, strong and acrobatic dancers, yet they’ve been told over and over - sometimes explicitly, sometimes implicitly - that they need to be more manly. I mean, seriously, how many times do we have to hear Neil being reminded his partner is sexy? They’ve been told this because their strength and athleticism have that softness and tenderness one expects from dance, but that isn’t quite digestible as a “proper” masculinity. Dance is a strange field in which to have anxiety about sexuality. Let’s be real here. I appreciated all my theorizing coming together in one joke facing the camera. Thanks, Danny!


MORE


Daemon's TV has all the clips and iTunes links, and let's not forget Lauren's interview from Monday's results show.



Bryan And Brandon


EW's Adam B Vary recaps his last show for the year. After critiqueing Cat's wardrobe, he goes on:

Fortunately, though, the spotlight was directed so often at so many far more deserving subjects that the dress ultimately served only as a counterpoint to the dancers' supreme class and breathtaking talent. And not just the top 20, either. It brought me no end of pleasure to see clogger Brandon Norris and robot pop-locker Brian Gaynor from the Atlanta auditions take to the stage and be celebrated so unabashedly. (Though I do think Brandon needs to take a few more hip-hop lessons before he thrusts out his inner-Beyonce again.)


MORE


Message From Benji

Season 2 winner Benji Schwimmer has posted to his Myspace blog:



CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Congratulations to Miss Sabra on her win on "So You Think You Can Dance". She's gonna have an amazing career!!! She's a beautiful dancer and is going to have the most amazing lifechanging experience of her career this year! Best of luck to her and all the other top 20!!!

On a side note...Lacey:

"I am beyond proud of you for the amazing run you've had on this show. In my humble opinion you are the epitomy of what this competition is all about. You deserve more than just a TV show...and I know thru your newly found pathway in life and dedication...you will achieve it! You're priceless!!! If I wasn't your brother you still would've had my vote. I'm just glad you didn't compete in season2 cuz i would've been in trouble!!! hahaha You're the best! I love you dearly! You rocked harder than a magicist!!! I have never seen a more consistant competitor on the show in any of the 3 seasons. You have so many people who adore you. G G pants loves Sissyduckling! You're a winner in my eyes...no matter what!"

To all the rest of the cast: Enjoy the tour!!! you guys are great!!!

To all those who have voted for all contestants...especially Lacey: Your votes did not go in vain! To see my sister on stage in the finale of SYTYCD...brought more emotion and happiness to me than the time I too was on there a year ago. Thank you all for supporting miss Lacey. Tonight we had the staff party and everyone was messing aroudnon the dance floor having fun. Wonderful night!!! A sincere thank you once again!!!

new pictures up and a new website up soon...bonus dvds are shipped!!!

gotta catch a plane to new mexico to film a movie!


LOVE TO YOU ALL!!!!

Benji


Congratulations on the movie, Benji, and thanks for a very gracious message. We probably could have done without the G G Pants/Sissyduckling thing, but you will always be a favorite dancer of ours. We're looking forward to the unveiling of GoBenji.com.



Backstage Report

TVGuide's Deborah Starr Seibel takes us backstage at the finale:

Benji Schwimmer, who moonlights as a correspondent for Fox Reality TV, had just wrapped his interview with So You Think You Can Dance's new champion, Sabra Johnson. He lowers his microphone and puts his arms around her, talking quietly into her ear. Dazed and confused from her big win and all the backstage hubbub surrounding her, Sabra nods and closes her eyes, listening to words of wisdom from someone who's been there.

"He just said to keep having fun and be grateful for it," says Sabra moments later. "This puts me exactly where I need to be - almost ahead of the game. I haven't had the chance to work with a lot of choreographers. Now I can pay the rent. Now I can pay for dance classes. Now I don't have to work three jobs just to try to do that. It's more than I could've asked for."


MORE



It's Sabra! kthxbye

Brett Love at TVSquad writes his final recap of the season (sniff). Thanks for the shout out to the blog.

I also wasn't really impressed with Nicole's musical number. It wasn't a disaster or anything, but I would have happily traded those few minutes to have some extra time at the end of the show. Because... the one place that I thought they really missed was the fallout of the big announcement. The lead-up to it was very good, and I really had no idea which way it would go. Then all of a sudden, here's your winner, roll credits, time for the local news. An announcement right before the last commercial break, coming back to get reactions of the winner and the other dancers, would have been really fun.


MORE

As our friend Teresa said in comments:
I found that to be very anti-climactic. =/ It was like, "America's favorite dancer is Sabra kthxbye. *roll credits*" I'm glad for her, though. :D


I do think we should have been given a few minutes to celebrate with our winner and all the dancers.



Thanks Lacey!






Thanks Neil!







Thanks Danny!



This one's for Loralyn.


My favorite.


THE Solo




Thursday, August 16, 2007

Top 20 Finale Group Performance





America's Favorite Dancer

Congratulations Sabra!












No Live Blog Tonight

I'm afraid I've had too exhausting a week to live-blog the two hour finale, but please feel free to get your comment on, after the jump.

CLICK TO CONTINUE





First elimination: Lacey

Second elimination: Neil

America's Favorite Dancer is... SABRA!!!!!!!!!


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Sara Von Gillern & Lauren Gottlieb from So You Think You Can Dance plus a very
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Recent Additions

We continue to add good stuff to the side bar.

Moving Still is the site for Movmnt Magazine's excellent book of dance photography. Full disclosure: the people at Movmnt Magazine were kind enough to send me sample copies of the magazine and book. They're all full of excellent quality writing and dance photography.


DanceBreak - Showcasing the next generation of great Broadway Choreographers


Scene Interactive - Talent representation at a higher level. I love their production values, clean visual style, and respect for the artists. There's a lot of talent to check out, including probably a future SYTYCDer or two. They have a great blog, too.



We're Not Going Anywhere

The season ends tonight, but you can't get rid of us that easy. Blogging So You Think You Can Dance will be here covering your favorite dancers and other assorted SYTYCDers. We'll be working with our blogging buddy Ducky to cover the tour(take pics/videos and send 'em to us, please!). We'll be doing a Video Of The Day, sometimes show-related, sometimes just great dance.

Thanks for all your support this year!



Poll Results

This poll pretty much speaks for itself. Results after the jump.

CLICK TO CONTINUE


1384 voters cast 1636 votes.

Danny
584 (44%)
Sabra
493 (37%)
Neil
320 (24%)
Lacey
239 (18%)

There are no guarantees, but our polls have been pretty accurate over the last few weeks.

Thanks for voting!


A Few More

Gray at Fame Or Famine fantasizes about what the judges should have said to Lacey & Sabra after their Wade/Fox routine:

Mary Murphy: "I’m a ballroom dance expert! And as such, everything I say has to have an exclamation point! After it! But it’s to convey excitement - and if there’s one thing about ballroom dance that excites me, it’s connection. Ballroom dance is about establishing and celebrating a relationship between the performers, and letting the audience in voyeuristically on that connection. But there are all kinds of connection, and while we aren’t quite mature enough as an American culture to allow you two to explore a romantic dance with each other, the way you established and told the entire story of parenting - ranging from the tired efforts of a mother to feed her child, the foxling’s curiousity and playfulness, and finally even the support and sorrow involved in setting one’s young off into the world to take their own steps - you both managed to convey all of that, using stylized movements that I’d recognize as somewhat reminiscent of butoh if I wasn’t so busy getting ready to EAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! Sorry, that one got away from me, but then again, outside of this alternate Fame or Famine reality your beautiful dance, the comfortable way you combined talents to tell a story, got run over like a hot tamale in the express lane of the tunneled vision."


MORE



Beckylooo runs off at the fingers and gives us some great dance videos:
Danny and Lacey – Waltz: Sigh. How lovely was this? But if I had a million dollars to throw around, I'd offer it to Jean Marc to pick a different song. Talk about disconnect. I don't wanna listen to a whiny, spoiled, thief while looking at such languid deliciousness. The last lift was a mite awkward (their "I'm so sleepy" moment) but whatever. Silk and Hyacinths this was.


MORE


Craig Berman at MSNBC handicaps the final 4 and comments:
"So You Think You Can Dance' is unique among reality shows in that the talent gap among the top competitors is nearly nonexistent. Each of the four finalists has shown they have the skills to make it as professionals dancers, and the judges remind them of that every week.

Picking the most deserving contestant is tricky, since even the judges have a hard time evaluating some routines because of the choreography.

MORE


Benji Fanvid

A tribute to last year's winner, Benji Schwimmer.



Created by EyeHeartCanada

Malaysia's Favorite Dancer

A dancer named Alam won the Malaysian version of So You Think You Can Dance.


Who will we be celebrating tonight?



More Links


Another of our favorite writers this season has been Adam B Vary at EW.com. Awwww, he shows his softer side:

To be fair, Danny had the best night, in part because, of the four finalists, he had by far the best combination of routines in a night when the choreographers mostly failed to showcase the dancers' strengths. We'll get to all that in a bit, but I also have to say that, really, if any one of these dancers takes home the $250K, I'll be totally happy — one of the few times in any TV reality competition show that I'm able to say that. Which is, all of my snarkiness about costumes and choreography throughout this season aside, reason #1932 why I love this show.


MORE



We don't know Scott Patrick Wagner at The VC Reporter, but he's a big Jesus Solorio fan, and "gets" what the show is about:
Unlike the insipid and overblown Dancing with the Stars, SYTYCD features young dancers so talented they take my breath away while they fight for their own by the end of some beautifully choreographed numbers. And while there were astonishing dancers on the first two seasons, this year the talent level is the highest it has ever been. And aren�t we glad about it?

Yes � except when the casualty who gets voted off is our favorite.


No, I don't know what's up with the question marks, but the article is recommended anyway.
MORE



Nate Levy covers all the details in his recaps.

LINK



Our friend Carissa (Momma2Mingbu) hits the high spots:
I loved Lacey & Sabra's partner dance. I was very shocked by the judges' reaction to it. I thought it was beautifully done. They handled the stylized movement wonderfully and made it look natural. They were committed to the characters. The piece had nice levels.....good contrasts between the fast and slow sections and they were well-connected to each other.

MORE


Daemon has done a very good job with his interviews this season. His chat with Pasha is up:
D: How does it feel to be famous all of a sudden?
P: I don’t know I didn’t really experience it yet, because we’re kind of isolated here on the show, you’re going in the morning from the place where we live to the studio and then come back and then go again, so you don’t really see much of that world. Just few glimpses of it, which I had, were kind of shocking, not in a bad way, just friendly because people recognize you and everybody knows your name, and you’re just crossing the street and somebody in a car starts honking and saying “Pasha, I love you on the show, you’re a great dancer,” “Thank you very much”, and then like suddenly you’re the center of attention even at a crossroad of a street. It’s just different, I’m not used to that and I think this thing is short lived because once the show is over and then two more month and people will move on to the next thing in their live and they will forget who was in the top six on this season of “So You Think You Can Dance.” But the greatest thing to me is that I think in this short period of time I had a chance to reach out to people and move them or bring some emotion to their heart and that’s what will stay with them forever and that’s one the things I’m happy about. They’re not gonna remember my name but they’ll remember that feeling, they will carry it with them for a long time, I’m happy with that.


I think we'll remember Pasha's name for quite a while.

MORE




Around The Web

Sorry for the late start this morning. It's hard to imagine we'll see our last show of the season tonight. Remember, it starts at 8pm ET/PT, not the usual 9pm we've become accustomed to on Thursdays.

Each dancer had to learn 4 choreographed pieces and prepare for a solo. I think it showed in a lack of polish on several of the routines. I wish they had longer than 3 days to prepare.



Brett Love at TVSquad is always worth reading.

Danny and Neil met up with Mia Michaels for a contemporary piece. I thought the concept was great, and the two of them performed it very well. My only issue with the whole thing was how different the judges reactions were to this, compared to Lacey and Sabra's performance. They took that one to task for not showcasing their abilities, but here was Mia Michaels with Neil and Danny sitting in chairs for half of their performance. Don't get me wrong, I thought the acting of their parts while they were in the chairs, particularly from Neil, was excellent. I just didn't get how they saw the two pieces so differently. Perhaps they were just that impressed with what went on once the chairs were left behind in the second half and they got to some of the bigger moments. Although, did anyone else think that Neil missed the move where he was supposed to jump over Danny's shoulders? It was in the preview package, but on stage he went low and to the side. That's possibly not even a mistake though, and the entire performance was very good. Nigel thought it was great, very masculine, and very strong. Mary loved it, adding that it was very believable and showcased their talents. Dan called the athleticism insane.


MORE


Liza D at Water cooler Convo:
In the solos, no doubt that Danny delivered probably one of the best solos if not THE best solo ever on this show. The speed in which he did his running split jumps at the beginning was jaw-dropping, and that spin that lasted forever ... WOW. Neil may have given his best solo performance. Sabra still hasn't surpassed her first solo. Lacey's was much improved and more well-thought out, although I think I liked her last one better than this. Nice shout-out to her brother in that stage dive, but overall it was the weakest solo of the four.


MORE




There's usually a stripper pole involved when the guys at betting site Bodog Beat watch a dance, but even they were wowed by what they saw last night:
Of the four remaining contestants for the $250,000 grand prize on the Fox reality TV program, one stands out. It's the funny thing about great artwork - even if you know jack about it most of us can recognize when something's good. Danny Tidwell is holler-out-loud good. We couldn't really tell you why except he makes the waltz worth watching and that's got to mean something.


MORE




Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Too Much, Too Good

LSJ columnist Mike Hughes makes some interesting observations. He thinks the guys, especially Danny, had an advantage with tonight's choreography.

LINK

Leee at T!YBE has some bonus screen caps from Monday's results show.

LINK



Group Dance



Mickey World has all the dance clips.

LINK



Voting Numbers

Lacey 888-836-7601

Neil 888-836-7602

Danny 888-836-7603

Sabra 888-836-7604



So You Think You Can Dance - Top 4 Track List

Top 4 Broadway
Mein Herr - Liza Minelli (Cabaret Soundtrack)

Lacey solo
Technologic - Daft Punk

Neil & Sabra HipHop
Whine Up - Kat DeLuna

Lacey & Danny Viennese Waltz
Keep Holding On - Avril Lavigne

Neil solo
Gravity - Shawn McDonald

Lacey & Sabra
Koyal (Songbird) - Nitin Sawhney

Danny solo
We Are The Champions - Gavin DeGraw

Danny & Neil
Are You The One? - The Presets

Sabra solo
Wonderful World - James Morrison

Neil & Lacey Lindy Hop
Bill's Bounce - The Big Elliot Swing Orchestra

Danny & Sabra Cha Cha
Gotta Get Down [La Negra Tiene Tumbao] (Spanish Remix - Celia Cruz



Final Performance Show Comments

Please share your thoughts regarding tonight's final performance show.



Interviews with Lauren and Pasha

TVGuide's Marissa Klein interviews the last 2 to depart:

Lauren:

TVGuide.com: You were also a favorite of the judges all along. What was that like?
Lauren: It was a lot of pressure. In the Las Vegas episode [when the top 20 were selected], they actually tricked me and told me, "You're not going to be on the show because you helped out with the choreographers." And then they said they were going to push me harder than anyone else because they knew I could do it, and they wanted to prove to people that there was no favoritism, which obviously there wasn't. So I knew going into it that they were going to push me.


MORE


Pasha:
TVGuide.com: When Jessi was sick and you had to dance with a substitute partner — what was that like?
Pasha: It was stressful because that whole thing happened like two hours before the show. First of all, not knowing what actually was happening to her and if she was all right or not [was hard]. Doctors try to keep it private, all this patient-doctor confidentiality, so [it was stressful] not knowing what was going on. And, of course, worrying about her being in the hospital and not being able to participate in the show — we were preparing so hard and suddenly I needed to dance with another girl. So that wasn't the best feeling.

TVGuide.com: Who do you think will win?
Pasha: That's a difficult question because everybody at this point deserves to be a winner, and it's up to the American public to decide who they like most. Because at the end, it's not the best-dancer contest, it's the favorite-dancer contest. So who America will connect most to, personality- and looks-wise, that person will win. I think Danny has incredible technique — the best technique on the show — and for me, always looking at it from a professional point of view, I appreciate technical difficulty or ability. So for me, he is the best dancer on the show. But Sabra has the best character on the floor and I enjoyed dancing with her. Watching her dance, she is like a little sunshine, and she shares her feelings so openly. So I think one of them will win.


MORE



Season One's Jamile McGee

Freestylin'


Dancing with someone identified only as Francesca.




Around The Web

The Redlands Daly Facts surveys local support for hometown girl Lacey.

LINK



The Arizona Republic talked to Lauren Gottlieb about being eliminated secretly:

"It was kind of heartbreaking because I found out last Thursday, but no one knew about it. I had to go through the whole weekend running into people talking about it. There was no way. I wasn't allowed to talk about it," she said.

MORE



Idolwinner.info ranks the top 4 based on search frequency. Why they use Yahoo and not Google is a mystery.

LINK


The LATimes analyzes why the remaining finalists won't win, well, except for one.

LINK



TBO.com claims Neil is the favorite to win:
The smart money is on the baby-faced Neil Haskell, 20, from New York. He's the favorite mainly because teenage girls make up the bulk of the audience for this Fox series, and he's considered the hottie by that group.

MORE


Speaking of Neil, The Buffalo News spoke to him and his family:
The family attended the taping of tonight’s show still not knowing whether Neil was still in. “We were sitting there wondering if he was going to come out,” said Cindy Haskell. When she realized that Neil had made it, “I was a little teary,” she admits. “They gave a little montage, from the beginning. And then they brought out the top four — and he was there!”

“He’s just enjoying the whole experience,” said his sister Wendy.

MORE


The StarPhoenix calls the show "spectacular" and rates the top 4.

LINK


Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Catching Up


Fortunately, I was voted off Jury Island before making the top 12. I don't get to go on the tour of a drug-deal-gone-bad murder case, but I have a bunch of stuff to catch up with.


BuddyTV has the usual interviews with the dearly departed.

Lauren:

Was it strange to do that elimination last week without the studio audience? It was so quiet.

I would have to say it was my least favorite part of the whole season. It was such an awful feeling because you forget that you want to look out into the crowd and people are cheering you on and saying good job. I almost couldn’t talk, I was kind of speechless because I was just looking to the right and I see all my friends, all my close friends and it made the experience a little more personal then being able to look out and thank people for sticking by me for so long. Sitting there watching my good bye package, it was like seven of us in the room, it felt really weird.


MORE


Pasha:
You've danced with a lot of different women on the show. Do you have a favorite partner that you got to work with?

I would say, probably Sara. All the girls were incredible and I find a special connection for each person. I think it's a special part of the dancing especially the partnership dancing. But I think the best was with Sara.


MORE


The LATimes' Jon Caramanica reviews the season and prepares us for the finale:
Even more than its dancers, though, "SYTYCD" fetishizes its choreographers, a rotating bunch who, in the eyes of the show, can do no wrong. There's Mandy Moore (not to be confused with the pop singer Mandy Moore), whose routines have been crisp, energetic and modern, and the sublime Mia Michaels, advocating on behalf of "alien" movements, and sometimes even getting the dancers to achieve them. Hunter Johnson has lent a touch of class to the competition with his waltzes, and Alex Da Silva's Latin routines have been slick.


MORE


Mentioned by one of our many outstanding commenters, Deborah Starr Seibel was backstage at the results show:
So this year, the producers decided to take a kinder, gentler approach. For the first time, the dancers had a whole week off around the Fourth of July. "Even if they weren't feeling fatigued, to have a week off made a huge difference," says Donyelle Jones, also in the audience tonight. "They came back refreshed." The top four this year were also taken to a local spa last Friday for some serious pampering. "They're going to get a little spa, a little massage," said executive producer Nigel Lythgoe. All day Friday? "Oh, no, no, no," said Lythgoe. "They've got to work. They've got 11 or 12 routines to do next week between the last night of competition and the finale." Says Murphy, "I talked to the kids and they're in pretty good shape. We told them in Vegas (before the competition started in earnest), and I think they took it to heart: Get your bodies prepared. And that's exactly what they did. So just maybe we're going to see some of the best dancing out of them in the finale, which we definitely did not have last year because of the injuries. There's no way you can get the best out of somebody when they have a sprained knee or a broken toe."


MORE



Web Roundup

TVSquad and BuddyTV provide recaps of last night's results show.

Our buddy Ducky reviews and has photos from the visit to LA's Best.

LINK


Our friend Jayne at Thrown Under The Bus is thrilled the spoilers were wrong.

LINK

Daemon's TV has the clips and iTune links.

LINK

LSJ columnist Mike Hughes has some random thoughts.

LINK

Wednesday's final performance show was taped last night. LJ blogger highway_nine has detailed dance spoilers. SPOILER ALERT

LINK



More Jean-Marc & France

Paso Doble


Cha Cha




Last Night's Opening




Recap

Mickey has all the clips and results.

LINK

I gotta go watch 'em myself.



We're Back From Cable Outage

Apologies to all who were expecting coverage of the results show tonight. I came home from jury duty to discover my cable out, both tv and internet. Gotta get caught up. Let's see, were those spoilers true???



Monday, August 13, 2007

Jean-Marc and France

We found this video of So You Think You Can Dance choreographer Jean-Marc Genereaux and his partner, France Mousseau, dancing at a ballroom event. Not sure how long ago this was, but France's hair wasn't red yet, and it's a lot of fun to watch.




Travis At NYCDA

Here's a Loralyn special: Travis Wall solos at NYCDA Philly to The Fear You Won't Fall, Danny's solo song from last week. It reminded me of what an amazing dancer he is.




Around The Web

Remember, tonight's special results show airs at 8pm ET/PT, not the usual 9pm slot we're used to on Thursdays. There are no reliable spoilers out there, so we'll actually have to wait for the show. This article claims Danny is a half step ahead of the other contestants in the competition, though no evidence is cited.

LINK

Is Mary more annoying than Paula? That's what this Vizu poll says.

LINK

A reality show about producing reality shows is canceled. Go figure. Uncle Nigel was involved:

The program was marred with production problems from the start. In one episode, for instance, there was mass confusion when the judges tried to eliminate a contestant due to the weak elimination process she had conceived for her show.

“I kept trying to tell her she was eliminated, but she thought I was complimenting her on the way she eliminated contestants on her show,” recalled Lythgoe. “It took 45 minutes of us talking just to get her to understand that I wanted her to hand in her copy of ‘Final Cut’ and leave.”


LINK

Television! You Black Emporor updates with a recap of last week's show. A little different than usual, but still entertaining.

LINK

Season 3 Audition favorite Yessy Gomez is training hard to be ready for next season. She's such a bright light, let's hope she'll be ready for Mia. Stop by her Myspace page and wish her well.




Sunday, August 12, 2007

Off-Topic - More Cebu Jailhouse Rockers

We recently posted a video of Filipino inmates re-enacting Thriller. Loralyn sent us a story with more info.

We found a video of a Filipino television report about the prison dance program. It's mostly in Tagalog with dodgey subtitles, but it's pretty easy to follow. I know it's off-topic, but there's something about this story I just love, and hey, start your own blog if you don't like it.


And of course, somebody's done a mashup.


One video on Youtube credits the regular inmates, female inmates, and "gifted" inmates of Cebu.

Sister Act and In The Navy/YMCA after the jump.

CLICK FOR MORE
I Will Follow Him from Sister Act


Hang with this one, it's worth the wait.



Mandy Moore

I've been trying to find an online presence for choreographer Mandy Moore, but with no luck so far. Searching is complicated, of course, by all the content involving the singer of the same name, but our Mandy doesn't even seem to have a Wikipedia entry. How can that be?

I did find a couple of videos. In the first, Mandy dances with Dee Caspary at CanDance in Toronto last November. Uploaded by Jennn24


The second is Mandy's choreography performed by Jillian Meyers and Tony Testa at Dancescape 2007, uploaded by Jillian Meyers. The video has an unusual retro look. I kept expecting to see Jack Ruby seating guests in the foreground.


Tour Ticket Giveaways

Houstonist, Torontoist, and Phillyist are each giving away tour tickets, possibly other cities' "ist" sites too. Requirements to win vary from site to site.

Has anyone heard that their city has sold out yet?




Around The Web


The Salt Lake Tribune asks each of the top 6 two questions:

If you could dance with anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?

What is the greatest dance movie of all time?


I don't know about you, but I gotta love an article that mentions Fred Astaire, Justin Timberlake, Elvis, and You Got Served.

LINK


We learn a lot about Sabra Johnson in Nancy Van Valkenburg's article at Standard.net:
Kandee Allen, owner of Bountiful's Dance Impressions, remembers her first impression.

"Sabra came in with a friend who was in our senior company, and she really hadn't danced before," Allen said. "She was flexible and determined and hardworking. She danced with our senior company for two years. It's truly unusual for someone with no experience to do what she did here."

Most students had parents easily able to afford the price of classes.

"Sabra waited tables at Village Inn in Roy to pay for her car, so she could get to classes," Allen said. "She did anything she could here to pay for classes. She taught classes as a substitute. She put rhinestones on costumes. She cleaned toilets. Her mom didn't have a great job, but Sabra wanted to learn, so we always found a way."

MORE


We have come to rely on our friends at Theory My Culture to put the show in cultural perspective.
What would any candidate tell us about ourselves, as a national culture? How each dancerly Self expresses aspects of American culture and its (our) obsessions? That’s fun speculation. How Lacey might reveal our national obsession with girliness. How Lauren might embody our obsession with speed and precision. How Sabra might express our admiration for genius and the naturalness of beauty (has she REALLY only been dancing for four years?). How Danny might be our aristocratic class, whom we’ve always held to a different standard. How Neil plays the role of exemplary idol with white-boy cuteness and untouchable “something.” How Pasha is the immigrant par excellence, both himself (undeniably Russian) and “us” (ballroom as nostalgia).

MORE


Speaking of perspective, that's something we should keep in mind this week. It's a TV reality show. Every single one of the dancers we'll be discussing are talented, hard working people, committed to their art. Let's celebrate and enjoy our personal favorites, and remember that no one here deserves anything less than respect for their dedication. It's highly unlikely we'll ever hear of any of these people going into rehab, making a fool of themselves in public, dog-fighting, etc. Let's all try to keep that in mind.



Lacey & Kameron Video Montage

Youtuber Diamondbackcutter created and uploaded this video montage of Lacey & Kameron.