Susie & Marquis' Smooth Waltz (Video)

It's hard not to compare this routine to Jessi & Pasha's nearly perfect top 20 Smooth Waltz, but hey, Pasha is the master of partnering and Marquis is 18 and not a ballroom dancer. Susie's salsa background shows in the first 10 seconds, but otherwise there's plenty of pretty going on.

_{Uploaded by kelxk3l}

Tonya Plank:

My second favorite of the night was Susie and Marquis’s Waltz. Breathtaking! But Nigel, yes, we noticed the second lift problem! We’re not blind! First lift was gorgeous though. Lovely fish dive! You can tell Marquis has ballet background, which translates very well into Standard Ballroom where you need an elegant carriage, a straight upper body, and good lyrical quality. Susie really surprised me. Her Salsa is fun but not tremendously precise, which is fine since Salsa is a social dance and doesn’t require precision and clarity. But her Waltz was another story entirely. She had wonderful control and beautiful lines. So far a couple of my favorite dancers.

News Update

We knew about one skeleton in Nigel Lythgoe's closet, here's another one from the 70's.

_{Uploaded by costumered}
Thanks to lothlorienbow at Live Journal for the find.




KHON2 in Honolulu talks to friends of season 4 finalist Mark Kanemura. Check the weather. Oh no! It's cloudy with light winds in Hawaii!




Pasha Kovalev appears next weekend at the San Diego Dancesport Championships.




Dance Magazine has a piece on Brian Friedman.

No matter where his career takes him, Friedman’s first passion will always be dance. “I refuse to stop dancing,” he exclaims. “When I have downtime I love taking class. I took two classes last week, basic jazz and tap. It’s important to keep yourself in it even when not doing it as career.” When asked about the future of dance on television and the role that dance has taken in reality TV, specifically over the past couple of years, he responds, “I think it's beautiful that reality TV is bringing so much awareness to the country about dance. I love knowing that people who wouldn’t necessarily have known about dance, now do. A lot of people don’t think of dancing as a sport...but because of these television shows, now they do. The dance community has gained a lot of respect from the rest of the country because of these shows, so we need to be thankful”. He also makes it clear that he is not a fan of all reality television. “Now, don’t get me wrong,” he adds, “There is a lot of bad reality TV out there, but I think that if you are going to be involved in it at all, there should be an art learned and the shows like "So You Think You Can Dance," do that.”

There's no mention of the Bollywood project we reported in February. I hope it's still a go.




PondCulture finally "gets" So You Think You Can Dance:

Yet the longer the auditions went on, the more I began to realize that because the prize is, in the vast schemata of entertainment greed, relatively insignificant, So You Think You Can Dance exhibits a radical honesty.

The auditions occur with all the other competitors watching. You know when they think someone is good.

You know when they appreciate when someone has great artistry. They stand and applaud like a drunken (but knowledgeable) New York audience on a Saturday night.

There is something really quite soothing about the fact that the other competitors clearly influence the judges by the sheer decibellicosity of their applause.

Eric at CatDeeleyOnline reports from the UK that Cat will appear on Regis & Kelly tomorrow. Can someone please Youtube a clip for him?




BuddyTV recaps the America's Best Dance Crew Audition special. There were no real standouts for me. What about you? THE BIG SHOW WITH JK LIVE that was supposed to feature a call-in with Shane Sparks, has been cancelled.



The New York Times takes note of street dance on TV.



The LA Times entertainment blog says the Shhh! Crew was robbed.

Pasha Feature

I am at a loss to describe what's going on at Arabic music and entertainment news site Stars-Cafe.net, except that Pasha Kovalev is featured in issue 32.

Pasha & Anya At Entyce

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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Pasha And Anya Interview

Murtz Jaffer at Reality Dish continues his excellent series of interviews with the tour dancers. Today we hear from the team of Pasha Kovalev and Anya Garnis:

Murtz Jaffer: I wanted to start with Anya. I think I read something really funny on your bio where it asked you what your favorite hobbies were and you said 'none.' It actually says that. I guess you are so busy with dancing that you don't have time for anything else. I wanted to see if there is anything else that you like (besides dancing)?

Anya Garnis: Oh no. They must have changed it because my answer was like 'I was studying speech and acting' so yeah, I am doing some different things on the side. Dancing is how we work and how we support ourselves, but besides that I have been taking acting classes as well as... (turns to Pasha). What's that face?

Pasha Kovalev: I was messing with Neil while you were answering your question!

AG: Yeah, I have been taking speech classes, working, you know, being from a different country and all. That's my hobby, I guess! (Laughs).

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Tour Video

Lacey and Danny's Samba from the Boston show, courtesy of stuntedcat.


Pasha & Anya from opening night in Albany. Thanks to ChigzSYTYCD. They ARE a hot couple.

Tour Coverage

_{Neil Haskell and Sabra Johnson}

Our friend Ruby has an excellent set of photos from the Wilkes-Barre show posted at Photobucket.

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The Democrat and Chronicle sent Anna Reguero to cover the tour date in Rochester.

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NorthJersey.com previews Saturday's East Rutherford show and talks to their homeboy Pasha:

Q. Will you be able to sleep in your own bed when the tour comes to New Jersey?

This is how the tour works: You dance, hop in the bus, go to the next city, and it starts all over again. I'll probably be looking at New Jersey through the bus [windows].

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Karyn D. Collins of the Asbury Park Press also previews Saturday's show:

"It's just so much fun, coming out and seeing all these people that have watched the show," says [Sabra]Johnson, the 20-year-old sparkplug of a dancer from Roy, Utah, who won $250,000 as the first-place winner. "In the (television) studio during the competition, we had a live audience, but this is a completely different feeling."

Johnson has only been dancing for four years, a personal journey that amazed fans of the show. But even runner-up Tidwell, a stage veteran who has performed around the world with the American Ballet Theatre, said the "So You Think You Can Dance" concert tour was unlike anything he had experienced.

"We're not in theaters; we're in arenas with thousands of people screaming for us," Tidwell says. "It's like when you go to a concert. It's really cool. We're having a blast."

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Tour Coverage

Sabra & Neil's Paso Doble in Albany, uploaded by iarechigz.


DanceNYY has several videos up from the Albany show. Here's Dominic, Sara, and Hok breaking.


Lauren Beckham Falcone of the Boston Herald attended the show and talked to the cast:

“Opening night (in Albany, N.Y., Friday) was so cool,” said Neil Haskell, who made it to the top four this season. “There’s such a difference performing in front of a small audience then going to an arena filled with fans.”

Haskell admitted that being the object of thousands of people’s affections is a little bizarre.

“It’s weird, but I wouldn’t want to take it away,” he said. “It’s just strange when people are snapping your picture and you’re like, that’s not going to look good.”

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LJ Blogger lostinadream04 has photos from Albany.

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Kim at GirlsTalkinSmack has pics and a list of routines. Those hoping for Pasha & Anya and Danny & Jaimie pairings will be happy.

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Previewing the tour for Pennsylvania's Times-Leader, Lisa Sokolowski talked to Sabra Johnson about what winning means for her:

“Dancers are never put on a pedestal,” Johnson said. “I’m going to use this as best I can to do shows and teach and travel and do basically whatever I can. People know me and like me. When that time is over, and I’m not as cool anymore, I can start training again. For now, I’ll put that on hold for one or two years.”

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Video Of The Day

We found 3 Pasha Kovalev fan videos.

The first was created by heckyeahfool


The next by buffmetube


And finally, by helloworld409

MySpace Finds

Anya Garnis finally has a Myspace page.

Behind the scenes slideshows on Pasha's page and on Jimmy's page.

Bonus Recaps

Like finding that 20 you didn't know you had, we get one more recap from Leee at T!YBE.

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We get a few belated thoughts from a community blogger at TVGuide:

With Pasha gone, I wasn't really rooting for anyone in the final four and would have been truly happy to see anyone win so getting to the final reveal was secondary for me while watching the episode. For me it was all about seeing my favorites again (PASHA! SARA!) and a lot of montage/dancing. And other than the final four, don't think I didn't notice and Sara and Pasha probably danced the most routines that night. That made me happy. The routines that the judges "picked" were mostly right on, but it did feel VERY structured.

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Pasha And Lauren Interview

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

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.

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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.
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Nate Levy covers all the details in his recaps.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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."

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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.

Nick Lazzarini Speaks Out

So You Think You Can Dance season 1 winner Nick Lazzarini posted some thoughts on season 3 to his Myspace blog

sytycd 3

hmmmmm....so i just watched the show all the way through and i have some mixed thoughts. mandys piece was amazing. loved it but the rest of the show choreography wise didnt impress me. neither did the other dancers besides sabra and neil. i thought sabras solo was amazing and for the first time i really thought neil looked like an artist. i was so impressed with him. what was pasha doing???? hes such an amazing ballroom dancer and he came out and did comtemporary??? random right. he needs to stick to his thing which got him this far cuz hes brilliant at it. i like lauren but come on over jaimie??? its a shame shes not still here cuz then we would have a real competition with her danny and sabra!!! that wouldve been dope. alrighty here it comes... due to popular demand im going to post my thoughts on lacey. i honestly was disgusted by her solo tonight. her dress was completely up her butt, she was touching herself every 3 seconds, she ended straddled on the floor, and looked trashy. i understand that shes a "good" performer but lets call a spade a spade the only reason shes on the show is cuz shes benjis sister. sorry its true. there are way more talented girl ballroom dancers in the world and she just happens to be from the blessed family i guess. there i said it. hate me if u want but its my opinion and everyone is entitled to it. just like last year travis should have won over benji. i understand its about americas "favorite dancer" but as a dancer i look at whos best and thats DANNY FRIGGEN TIDWELL!!! ok enough of my babble. just had to share some thoughts ttyl peeps!

Thanks to Gen for the tip.

Around The Web

Brett Love at TVSquad on Pasha & Lacey's Smooth Waltz:

Like many of the other waltzes we have seen this season, this one will probably most often be described as beautiful. As it should. Pasha was great leading Lacey through the dance, and this was the first time that I really got the feeling that Lacey was in the moment of the dance, and not performing for the audience. It felt like she took those criticisms to heart last week and acted on them. The only bad thing I could say about this one was that getting into their lift was a bit wonky. But that was just a tiny little moment, and it was still a very impressive move.

I agree it was beautiful, but I also, momentarily, missed Jessi.

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Nate Levy has adjusted his format a bit. It works! On Neil and Sabra's Jazz:

First up, they have a Mandy Moore 80’s Jazz power lunch dance. Can American Psycho please get referenced? No, instead Neil references The Karate Kid. That didn’t even have power lunches! The routine is fun, and does display some amazing moves from both Neil and Sabra. This may actually be one of the first times I think Neil deserves to be in the top 6.

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Daemon's TV has all the clips and iTune links.

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TVGuide has one more interview with Dominic:

TVGuide: What's your favorite memory from the show?

Dominic: I think the best memories of the show so far is when we were in Vegas. Every night after we finished dancing for 10 hours straight, it would be late at night, like 12 o'clock, and we would dance for hours, until like 3 in the morning, at this little bar/club, and it was just a bunch of dancers from all over the place. Everybody was in their own world. It was kind of like our own West Side Story. We danced for a few hours and we knew we had to wake up in like two more hours, but those were the best memories so far.

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Quick Reviews

Emily at Eclaire Fare on Danny & Lauren's Contemporary:

Mia Michaels had them dancing as aliens. I didn’t see where aliens came into it. I liked the first half, when Danny’s movements were flawless. He brought Lauren up a couple of notches. However, the second half of the routine seemed to waste a lot of time running around the stairs when they could have continued the interesting movements.

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Hanh Nguyen at From Inside The Box on Pasha & Lacey's Smooth Waltz:

I'm not that familiar with the technical aspects of ballroom, but I was gratified that the judges backed up my feeling that I had seen something beautiful, controlled and complex. Pasha, the ultimate partner, did a great job, and Lacey, who's not that skilled with ballroom, kept up with the rise and fall movement, had beautiful lines and actually projected emotion. I'm not so sure the lift was successful, but I appreciate the effort. Oh, and I was very happy in this case that the music had no lyrics to get in the way of the lyrical dance.

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