News Update

He must be the most interviewed person in the dance world. Shane Sparks tells the LAist about his upcoming Dream Girls Project and his favorite dancer of all time.



This blogger attended the Monday taping. Spoiler Alert!



Jessica King returned home to Myrtle Beach, S.C. to recuperate from her injury.



Gev Manoukian is back in Park City, Ut.



The soon-to-be Project Runway-less Bravo TV network announced the renewal of several shows, but there's no mention of Step It Up & Dance.

News Update

Jamie Bayard is a "little surprised" at his top 20 elimination.




Montgomery, Al. loves Twitch.




Katee & Joshua's No Air routine punched One Writeous Chick in the stomach.




Ducky and GMMR podcast So You Think You Can Dance. Ducky recaps the results show, with clips.




Neil Haskell talks about his character in MTV's The American Mall which now has a premiere date (August 11th), and an official website.





Step It Up & Dance's Miguel Zarate get's a bit whiney in this AfterElton interview.

Cody Green Interview

Step It Up & Dance winner Cody Green says he knows "all the kids on that other show. They're amazing". He joins John and Colin for the final Suck It Up & Dance recap video blog at NewNowNext. There's also an interview with Jerry Mitchell. He explains how the show changed over the course of the season:

...did you see the difference in how the last three episodes were shot and edited? Go back and watch episodes nine and 10 — the dance in episode nine, Vince’s dance, you never saw that much coverage before… It was like a camera just locked on them all.

News Roundup

It looks like Shane Sparks will choreograph the So You Think You Can Dance top 18 group routine next week.



Phillip Chbeeb blogs from his Myspace:

HELLO EVERYONE!

the reason i was not aired on the vegas episode of the fourth season of "So You Think You Can Dance" is because i caught pneumonia a couple days before vegas week and had to drop out of the competition because i was unable to dance in that state and therefore was dropped from the competition....

i was invited to go directly to vegas next year tho...


spread the word!!!!


take care everyone


peace

Our friend Leee, whose recaps deserve their own recaps, is taking on extra blogging duties this season.




OK Magazine talks to Step It Up & Dance winner Cody Green.

Step It Up & Dance Finale

Congratulations to Cody Green. He won the $100,000 prize on the first season of Step It Up & Dance.




Jerry Mitchell says he knew Cody would win from day one:

"When Cody walked into the auditions in Los Angeles I turned to everyone at the desk and said he would win."

Guest choreographer Keith Young worked on So You Think You Can Dance season 1.



AfterElton recaps the finale.



Big thanks to BravoTV for supporting bloggers.

Step It Up & Dance Finale Open Thread

Step It Up & Dance Finale Preview

Will it be Cody, Mochi, Miguel, or Nick? We'll find out tonight on Bravo, after the Las Vegas week show.


_{Courtesy of BravoTV}

News Roundup

JigTV has video interviews with Travis Wall, Brian Friedman, and more. Thanks Loralyn!



TVGrapevine interviews Atomic Goofball, Phucdat Nguyen.



Carissa at 5 Dollars thinks we already have a pretty good top 21.



It looks like the ephemeral pop star guest appearances will continue this season. Pussycat Dolls appear in the first results show, June 20th.



John and Colin get a little mean this week recapping last week's Step It Up & Dance.

TV Dance News Update

TVSquad's Kristin Sample recaps Charleston/DC audition show. There's a disagreement between Kristin and fellow TVSquader Jason Hughes over The Mary Issue.



Diane Macedo at Fox News:

This week’s lessons include: sob stories earn you air time, arguing with the judges will not make you look cool, second chances can be worth giving, and break dancers will never get straight through to Vegas.

There's a great shot of Brandon Bryant in mid-air. Go.




Adam B. Vary at EW asks "who doesn't love druidic lesbians?"





Ashlee Nino says: "Hey peeps I'm performing tomorrow (Sunday) with Mike Meyers and Chris Brown on the MTV movie awards...check it out!!!




A blogger from the world of martial arts is impressed with the "coordination, grace, and overall skill" of So You Think You Can Dance competitors, even the middling ones.





Step It Up & Dance's Cody Green talks to PaperMag.




Host Elizabeth Berkely has signed on for the Donnie Darko sequel, S. Darko.

Step It Up & Dance

Step It Up & Dance really came into its own last night with its best episode so far. Viewers had a chance to see the creative process of dance during the extended session the dancers spent with Vincent Paterson and Nancy O'Meara. This is what I hoped we would see all season long.

There's some extended footage of the final 5 dancer profiles here.


Tamara Brooks recaps last night's finale, part 1.


Colin at NewNowNext talks to Broadway/internet personality Britney Houston and recaps last week's Umbrella episode.


Jerry Mitchell is involved with the Fire Island Dance Fest along with Rasta Thomas and Jason Samuels Smith, July 19th and 20th.

Step It Up & Dance Finale Pt. 1 Preview

TVGasm snarkcaps last weeks episode.


Jerry Mitchell begins the search for the next Elle Woods Monday on MTV.


Bravo TV's May ratings have been good, due in part to dance reality:

Bravo's latest creative competition entry, "Step It Up & Dance" continues to perform, with double digit growth in its time period versus second quarter 2007, increasing by 95 percent in adults 18-49 and 68 percent in total viewers.

Blake McGrath, Comedian? (Video)

Part 1 of what Blake calls his Comedy Series.


Ok. Well, if the comedy thing doesn't work out, it's not like his only alternative is insurance sales. He's releasing a CD in September.


And then, there's always this:

There's more where these came from, Blake's Youtube page. Brian Friedman and Step It Up & Dance's Miguel Zarate show up in this NSFW video.

TV Dance News Roundup

Jesús Solorio has released a new song, Hypnotized, at his Myspace music page.




America's Best Dance Crew, JabbaWockeez, performed at a recent Lakers game. This blogger posted some video.




Let's not kid ourselves. Many have not hopped aboard the So You Think You Can Dance bandwagon. Pond Culture and Manhattan Dinner voice their opposition, aimed primarily at Big Teeth British Guy.



This Thursday night's Step It Up & Dance will be part 1 of the finale. The theme is the 25th anniversary of Thriller. Speaking of which, for those who missed it, this is from Halloween night of the season 3 tour.
_{Uploaded by SYTYCDislove2}

News Roundup

Our Idol blogging buddy Dave Chung got to hang with some SYTYCDers at the finale after-party Wednesday night. Check it out at his blog.



Cat Deeley, who has bravely prevailed despite SYTYCD's pervasive "racism" against tall people, says that Dancing With The Stars-type shows are:

...kind of different to our show. It's not about the celebrities, it's about the kids and seeing how far they can go on this journey. Normally, dancers aren't normally the people in the spotlight, they're normally the back-up guys.

"We're taking dancers, putting them in the spotlight, and challenging them - they have to learn different styles and that sort of thing. And that is exciting for me."

Dave Scott receives his Fred & Adele Astaire Award for film choreography on June 2nd.




Diane Macedo of Fox News especially appreciated Victor Kim's audition:

Still, none of these three managed to come anywhere near Victor Kim’s skill. This kid is funny, likeable, can walk downstairs with his hands and basically defies the laws of physics with everything else he can do with his body.

What he can’t do, however, is learn a contemporary routine, as he got the boot after the choreography round. I’m officially in mourning and think the judges are insane. If Cedric deserved a shot at the finals last year, Victor definitely should have at least made it to the Vegas round this year.

We've recruited another one. The Palm Beach Post's Leslie Gray Streeter:

Curse you and your perfect dancers, Nigel!

I have avoided watching "So You Think You Can Dance" for the past three seasons because it was just too much. I had given so much of my brain to the whole "Idol" machine, from the goofy auditions and the ratcheted-up drama, to the inane judges and the presumed producer trickery. I needed to give my summer energies to something more pure, like that hairdressing show on Bravo, or to training for a half-marathon in the middle of the South Florida heat, because "Idol" done took my brain and I make really stupid decisions.

Needless to say, she's hooked.




The LA Times blogs Monday's dance-off and recaps the first episode.




The New York Daily News' Cristina Kinon says "when it comes to some of that interpretive cr*p, I just don't get it."




Even the guys at betting site Bodog Beat were blown away by Robert Muraine's audition.



A dancer named Jennifer blogs her experience auditioning in Milwaukee at TVGrapevine.



Step It Up & Dance (new Wikipedia entry) eliminated poor Oscar for the 2nd time in 3 weeks. Is that a reality TV first? Congratulations to good guy Nick "Get back on stage!" Drago for winning his first challenge. Recaps at It Happened Last Night and While Not Making Other Plans.

News Update

Today's the day!

Daniel Fienberg at From Inside The Box has more from Cat Deeley's conference call. He quotes Cat as saying

"There will definitely be another amazing Mia Michaels routine that's going to give you chills. Wade Robson is also going to do something very special for us."

So we will see Wade at some point during the season, but I'm guessing it will be something that borrows from and promotes his current project with Criss Angel.




As we so often see with the mainstream media, the Toronto Star tries, but just misses the mark. Comparing So You Think You Can Dance to Dancing With The Stars:

The Dances: Stars is all ballroom, in its various forms. Think is ballroom too – and everything else under the sun. Jazz, jive, modern, Broadway, salsa, swing, hip hop: where else would you be able to see a classically trained ballerina master and flawlessly perform "krunk"? How else would most of us even know what "krunk" means?

Some of "us" still "don't".



The LA Times follows our Mandy Moore as she choreographs non-dancers for the Idol finale.



In what I'm told is a "last minute update", pop sensation Rhianna and famed choreographer Tina Landon make a special guest appearance on tonight's Step It Up & Dance.

Step It Up & Dance Preview (Video)

Courtesy of BravoTV

TV Dance News UPDATED

Clearly, So You Think You Can Dance will be represented on Wednesday night's American Idol finale. What's not clear yet is whether it will be past season favorites or, as it was done in Australia, a random group from this season's hopefuls. Of course, Australia had no past seasons to call on. We'll know sometime Wednesday as the dancers will preview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.




BuddyTV covers Cat Deeley's conference call from earlier today.




The Torontoist takes a stand:

So You Think You Can Dance is kind of like American Idol, except for the following things: the judges often offer good critical analysis and are not always grandstanding idiots, the contestants are all professional-level quality dancers in at least one subset of dance rather than simply being a bunch of interested amateurs imitating whatever they think is cool, the good performances are more interesting to watch than the trainwrecks, everybody involved acts in a reasonably classy manner, and the show does not suck.

UPDATE: Writing for MSNBC, Andy Denhart misses some of the finer points, but gets it mostly right, and his heart is in the right place.




John and Colin eventually get around to recapping last week's Step It Up & Dance after talking to another Broadway guest.




Raw Vegas has video of JabbaWockeeZ performing Apologize on a very small nightclub stage.




The Art4Life event in Hollywood tonight includes "performances by the cast of "Step It Up and Dance", Fysh'n'Chicks from "America's Best Dance Crew", and cast members of "So You Think You Can Dance" including Blake McGrath."


_{Loralyn and Sue B contributed to this report.}

TV Dance News

BuddyTV has the So You Think You Can Dance early season schedule. We'll know the top 20 on June 5th.



Big congrats to choreographer Dave Scott. He was just named winner of the 2007-08 Fred & Adele Astaire Award for Best Choreography in Film for his work in the Step up 2: The Streets.




Tyce Diorio will be one of the judges on Master Of Dance, TLC's entry in the dance reality genre.



Shimmy interviews Ivan Koumaev.




Tamara Brooks at Zap2It recaps Step It Up & Dance. Welcome back Oscar.

This interview with Step It Up's Miguel Zarate adds some depth to what we know about him. Well, except for the part where he wants to be the next male Madonna.




The Pasadena Star-News catches up with ABDC finalists Kaba Modern.


I was unaware of this America's Best Dance Crew drama at the time:

The theory goes that, because a Kaba-Jabba finale would have resulted in a hip-hop dance showdown featuring almost exclusively Asian faces, dial-in totals were given a, uh, "Florida tweak" to provide Boston's Status Quo crew with a protected berth for the final round.

I wouldn't put it past MTV to tweak the totals, but if you buy into the identity-politics voting theory, isn't it very possible that Kaba-Jabba split the Asian vote?




Our friend Selly remembers Dr. Jimmy Slyde.




The CTV website is doing an outstanding job covering all the events leading to the first season of So You Think You Can Dance Canada.

Step It Up & Dance Preview (Video)

This week, the challenge is latin dancing… Cody, after winning two challenges, has to beat Miguel out in his preferred genre. Can he do it? Mochi, after being sent to the hospital for previously hurting her knee, is asked to perform a dance that requires deep lunges. Will this injury be enough to send her home?



Videos courtesy of BravoTV

TV Dance News

Sorry for lack of posts over the last few days. There just hasn't been much to report.

John and Colin at NewNowNext video blog the most recent episode of Step It Up & Dance with a guest. There's also an interview with the offed Michael.


She almost made it to the So You Think You Can Dance top 20 in previous seasons. DubCNN talks to Deja Riley. I don't know if she auditioned this year, but we may see her on TV anyway.

Dubcnn: You’ve done a presentation pilot, right?

Yes! They don’t know what the show is going to become, but I shot it last week and I’m shooting the remainder of the episode this week.


Dubcnn: Tell us a little bit about that.

It’s entitled “Prom Night”, which is teenage show, that could very well turn into a reality show. It’s basically a show about high school prom nights where it shows kids getting ready, going to the proms, or it could turn into something where it would be a sitcom or a recurring show. We don’t really know what it’s going to become, but it’s been a great experience for me.

Another previous auditionee, Anthony Bryant, has released a video for the purpose of thanking his fans. Anthony doesn't lack self esteem, but that's ok in my book. Dancing is a tough life.



SYTYCD's Doriana Sanchez and Wade Robson, along with Step It Up's Vincent Paterson, are involved with projects in Las Vegas.



Australia's Favorite Dancer, Jack Chambers, has commitments to fulfill in Brisbane before heading to Broadway in August.



Dan Karaty and Blake McGrath judged auditions for So You Think You Can Dance Canada in Halifax.