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.

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

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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.”

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

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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.

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.

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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.

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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."

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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).

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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.