Tour Update From Sabra

Sabra Johnson has posted some thoughts about the tour to her Myspace blog:

To Everyone

We just left San Francisco and came into Oakland to do our show tonight. It's our 44th show. It's pretty insane and I'm not so sure how I feel about it :). Including tonight we have 6 shows left. We will be done in a week from today. Seven days. I can't believe I've basically spent my whole year doing this show and now it's coming to an end. It's a bittersweet ordeal.
Haha being with the same 14 people everyday can get a little overboard but you get attached at the same time. It's our routine and now we are pretty much bound together for life. We will never forget and when we meet again things will be the same way we left it. This tour has been soooooo long but so short at the same time. Everyday we are in a different place and a different time which means we all lose track. A week feels like a month and a month feels like a week. We have been lucky to see so many places and sleep in everyday all the while doing what we love:).
I'm not the homesick type but I miss my fam and friends and I can't wait to have my own bed and closet! I can't wait to see what I can do with this opportunity. This has been like the start of my life. It will always be very, very significant but a small portion of my life. I hope I make good choices so my experiences only get better. I've had a lot of fun and I've learned a lot about...... everything.
There's no way for me to explain really what it has been like. We have all grown in different ways but it's been together. This experience is ours and only ours as the 14 of us go on and do seperate things. We will always have this and be the ones to understand what it was like. It's neat to be able to call it our own, kind of like a secret:).......

SYTYCD News Roundup

_{Courtesy of} Down The Road Webzine


Marine Gobert continues her series of interviews at Down The Road Webzine. It makes a difference when a real fan asks the questions. As Marine says on her LJ blog:

I know there's some tour drama and some people are mad at the dancers - but instead of focusing on the negative things about the dancers, I want to talk about the positive things and say that Jesus and Sara are super nice, down to earth and mature. It was great to interview them, and great to chat with them later on at the backstage meet and greet.

LINK to Jesús and Sara interview.
LINK to Dominic and Shauna interview.



Brian Friedman is taking heat in the UK for some performances on The X-Factor:

X FACTOR choreographer Brian Friedman has come under fire after a catalogue of disasters last week.

We can reveal the dancers he chose were not up to the job – but it was reckoned too late to hire any more.

So he had to DROP some dancers and LEAVE OUT parts of the tricky routines.

Creative director Brian is now under pressure to produce a better performance in tomorrow’s show.

SOURCE

The article doesn't make it clear what happened. Can any of our UK readers fill us in? If you guys don't want him any more, we'll gladly take him back.



The tour ends a week from today in Reno, Nv. Previewing Wednesday's show in Everett, Wa. Andy Rathbun of Herald.net talked to Lacey and Neil:

While many of the show's contestants had training in dance, TV brought them a rare sort of attention. Dance, after all, usually doesn't attract fans like this -- the sign-waving, MySpace-posting variety.

"You never play arenas, and you're never the headliner of the show," said Neil Haskell, who also finished in the show's top four. "Say you're on a tour. You're backing up an artist, so people never know your name, people never know who you are."

Kiss that anonymity goodbye, Haskell. People run up to the 20-year-old in shopping malls, screaming, he said. He was quick with a wisecrack during the TV show's run, but he said he deals with those Beatlesque moments calmly in person.

"You just have to remember that some people sometimes don't realize that we're exactly like them," he said. "I'm not any different than who I was last year at this time."

MORE



Our friend Rebecca alerted us to a great album of photos from the Phoenix show over the weekend. She recommends the Danny/Anya Apologize pics.

LINK



Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day here in the States. I'm very thankful for everyone who visits the blog, and especially those who took the time to share their pics, videos, and show reports over the last few months.

More Interviews From Toronto

_{Courtesy of} Down The Road Webzine
Marine, aka LightGrenade, is posting a series of interviews with the tour cast at Down The Road Webzine. The first 2 are with Pasha & Anya, and Hok & Lacey. Marine promises more tomorrow. There is a gallery of photos here.

An excerpt from Pasha & Anya:

What was your favorite style of dance to learn on the show?
Pasha: You know, every style of dance was interesting to try, I think hip-hop was the most challenging and surprising because it’s completely different game play because in ballroom you’re here, and up there and dance with your partner and presenting your partner. In hip-hop, you’re down and slouching and “whassup girl!” and I’m like “oh, how does that work?” I learned a little bit. [laughs]

Anya: I would say contemporary and hip-hop as well. You’re taking your heels off, and you’re a different person, basically. [laughs] It was very challenging, different connection with your partner and there are different movements so I definitely felt that my body was very sore the next day after hard training and long hours of practicing.

MORE


Hok & Lacey are finally asked about something other than their relationship:

So I heard you guys got injured, tell me about that…

[Hok and Lacey laugh]

Hok: We’ve never had that question! That’s true.

Lacey: Well, why don’t you talk first.

Hok: Okay, I’ve had a herniated disk before the show and I think it’s ‘cause of that I strained my oblique muscle on the other side so basically I had an injury on my left side and I injured my right side too, so I was off the show for a little bit but now the right side’s completely better and you know, the left side is still not completely better, but I have to cope with it. And Lacey is doing…

Lacey: I just got back, it’s actually my third show back, it’s kind of weird actually because I’m not all the way better yet, and I won’t be until after surgery, but I’m clear to dance for now, you know, it can’t get injured any worse, they said, I just have to bite through the pain a little bit. I have a torn meniscus on my left knee so I’ll be getting surgery very shortly unfortunately.

Ouch. So you’re not performing all the dances yet.

Lacey: No, there’s certain dances that I can’t do, I’m just warming my knee up to it so by the end of the tour I should be able to do most of my routines.

Well I hope you guys feel better soon!

Lacey: Aw, thank you!

MORE

Meeting The Cast

Cami writes to tell us she posted videos of meeting the tour cast after the show in San Diego. They're good quality videos.

There are more at her Youtube page, including Sabra, Neil, Kameron, Sara, Dominic, Pasha, and Lauren. She has almost 300 photos of the show and after, at her Myspace page.

Thanks Cami!

More From Sabra

Dino-Ray Ramos of InsideBayArea.com interviewed Sabra Johnson:

Q: Who would you say was the most critical judge?

A: Dan (Karaty) and Mia (Michaels). Dan has really good things to say. I liked him the best. He kept it simple for people to understand. He kept
it relevant and always gave you something. Mia is just scary. (laughs) I think she is just a critical person. She has high expectations.

LINK

Yet Another Dance Show In The Works

American Idol's Randy Jackson has received the go-ahead from MTV to begin production on "Randy Jackson Presents America's Best Dance Crew".

Basic premise of the show -- a sort of hip-hop "So You Think You Can Dance?" -- remains: Dance "crews" of five to seven members come to Los Angeles to compete against each other. Viewers will pick the ultimate winner, with live performance shows sending home one team each week.

SOURCE

This joins Bravo's Step It Up and ABC's Dance Wars: Carrie Anne vs Bruno as new productions of dance reality programming here in the US. If the TV writers strike drags on, chances are we'll see more.

For Danny Fans

Danny's solo in Houston on Thursday night. The audio is dodgey, but I bet you can't watch it just once.

Attention SoCal

_{Click to enlarge}

Shauna Noland will appear with the Unity Dance Ensemble December 16th and 17th at the Truax Theatre in San Diego. More info here, and previous coverage of Shauna and Unity here.

Travis Solo

Here's another great solo from Travis Wall at a Nuvo workshop over the weekend. Did I see a tiny bit of Danny influence in there?

Danny And Sabra Interview

The final interview in the series. Murtz Jaffer of Reality Dish talks to Danny Tidwell and Sabra Johnson. Shane Sparks catches some heat:

MJ: I asked Sara about your 'Push It' performance and that was one of my favorites.

(Danny makes face like he hated it).

MJ: And that was the face that she had too, so I wanted to see what you thought about it.

DT: I hated it!

MJ: That's what she said too! It came off fine on TV.

DT: Yeah, Shane Sparks didn't like me very much. He didn't like anyone really.


SJ: He didn't like anybody except Lacey. Just going to throw that out there.

MJ: He did love that guy who performed on the finale. What was his name? Brian Gaynor.

DT: Yeah.

SJ: Uh huh.

MJ: He loved him. He was the only one who I saw him stand up for.

DT: Yeah, he definitely was trying to sabotage us.

SJ: Yeah.

DT: It worked!

SJ: It worked!

(Danny & Sabra laugh).

LINK

Neil Haskell Photo Shoot

Neil Haskell recently did a photo shoot with Scott Southerland of Think In Color Photography.

LINK