SF Chronicle Shows Love For SYTYCD

The San Francisco Chronicle's Dance Correspondent, Rachel Howard, attended Friday's show in Oakland. She has a few reservations and critiques, but overall, thinks So You Think You Can Dance is a positive influence:

If "SYTYCD" is becoming part of our default national arts education, frankly, we could do worse. It's often criticized for cliched, commercial choreography, and on Friday you could see why. However heartfelt Mia Michaels' flower dance in memory of her father may be, it's sentimental mush (her dueling-princes showdown for top two male finalists Danny and Neil, though, is brilliant), and the imagination behind something like Wade Robson's swamp-creatures group number hardly stands up to the simultaneous wit and emotional complexity of a master like Mark Morris.

But a lot of the dance-making here is fantastic by any standard, especially the ballroom (Danny and Lacey Schwimmer smoking through that samba) and the hip-hop (Sabra and Dominic building heat in Sparks' strangely touching chair duet). And a lot of what the audience loves best tilts toward artistic ambitions, like Hok Konishi and Jaimie Goodwin in Robson's hummingbird dance, resurrected Friday.

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Tour Reviews

_{Courtesy of Kiches}
Reader Kiches posted a lengthy review of the Oakland show, and the meet-n-greet afterward, to IDF forums.

LINK to show review.
LINK to meet-n-greet review.


Blogger Gura talks about 2 of my favorite things: food and So You Think You Can Dance.

Friday we slept in. Made some duck noodle soup from the leftover duck. In the evening we went to the "So You Think You Can Dance?" tour in Oakland. It was a relatively small crowd, so parking was easy. Along with the top 10 they brought along 4 of the other top favorites: Shawna, Hok, Jesus, and Anya. Danny is just simply mesmerizing and Pasha is quite hot, especially when he did his cape solo. The girls screamed for Neil and he played to them by showing off his body. We finally got to see a hip hop routine by the three hip hop dancers: Hok, Sara, and Dominic. Dominic was from Sacramento so he was enjoying performing in front of his home crowd and had several comedic interludes as part of hosting the show.

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SYTYCD News Roundup

Our friend Jayne, aka Wintermute, may be writing Project Runway reviews these days, but she didn't let that keep her from the So You Think You Can Dance tour date in Oakland. She reports at her blog, Thrown Under The Bus:

"Ohmygod, ohmygod, OHMYGAAWD! YEEEAAYY!!!!" Every time Pasha, Neil or Danny took the stage, the group of three *very* sharply dressed middle aged men sitting next to my mother at last night's So You Think You Can Dance show would scream with giddy glee. I even witnessed fist pumping. Several times. OK OK, so some of those giddy screams may have come from me, but who's keeping track, right? They were awesome. Behind us sat the unofficial Pasha fan club, headed by what I thought was the cutest 14-year old girl EVAR. Then I heard her scream. My eardrums are still ringing! Holy cow. They sure did love them some Pasha!

MORE Link fixed!

Speaking of Pasha, here he is dancing with Anya in LA. From what I'm hearing, they have both grown in stature through the course of the tour.




LJ Blogger fixyoux has posted 3 lists of rankings. You are free to disagree.

LINK to top 10 contemporary dance routines from all 3 seasons.
LINK to top 10 11 dancers from all 3 seasons.
LINK to top 10 group routines from all 3 seasons.


I enjoyed this little story about what a certain song on "Mommy's Dancing Show" did for LJ blogger turtle_head's family.

Now the kids love that song, because they associate it with me, and a show that made me happy and always put me in a good mood. For them, this song is a joyful memory that reminds them of a happy time.

And I didn't think it was at all possible, but now I have completely changed my opinion of the song. I can hear it now and I feel...okay. I think of my own kids and how awesome they are. I think about great dancing and how my kids love stuff that I love just because I love it and they love me and it's one big lovefest.

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Blogger Shana at Head-on Relief compares SYTYCD to Dancing With The Stars:

I love Mary Murphy. I might sometimes say I don’t like her, but really, SYTYCD would be nothing without her. Nigel is boring, and when Mia Michaels is a judge, I want to run through a foggy forest while wearing a long, flowing white gown, and once I reach the end, burst out into a sun-lit meadow where I can sing and frolic in yoga pants and a tanktop. And then I awake in a cold sweat, hoping to never see the MiaMullet ever again. When does the new season of SYTYCD start???

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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."

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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.

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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!

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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!