‘So You Think You Can Dance’: Miami and Memphis auditions

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Based on the Miami and Memphis auditions on tonight’s ‘So You Think You Can Dance,’ this season will feature a wider variety of dancers than last year. Thank goodness for this: we all like contemporary dancers but we don’t need a season stacked with them! Also, it seems like the guest judges will be more entertaining than ever. Choreographer Tice DiOrio was the guest judge during the Miami audition and it was clear he’d be fun to watch the moment the look of unadulterated disgust crossed his face as he watched Tony Riendeau display his ‘Tony style’ dancing. It was ‘ba-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaad,’ said Tice, which upset Tony so much that he needed a medic (or did he?) Tice was on fire after that, calling Jennifer and Jessica Guadix (the awkward twins with the weird scarves on their pants) ‘fun but tragic,’ describing one dancer’s performance as a ‘milkshake full of Tylenol,’ claiming to need to call the ‘dance police’ on someone else, and moaning ‘What is happening to my life right now?’ after another audition. Tice’s best moment came after Wislande Letang’s audition, when he used the word ‘chassé’ with more frequency, horror and disbelief than I ever expected to hear in my lifetime.

For me, there were a few ‘medium-lights’ of Miami, i.e. dancers who the judges liked but seemed to lack the X-factor for now, like Joseph Smith with his ‘Shawam!’ catchphrase, who struck me as a lesser Twitch Boss, both in terms of personality and dance. Some of the highlights though included Janette Manrara and Romulo Villaverde, the ballroom couple with the amazing unique lifts and Erik ‘Silky’ Moore, who made tap look easy.

Other than a few goofballs (specifically the red-dread-head who seemed upset to receive any sort of feedback from the judges at all), Memphis offered some promising auditioners, like police officer Marico Flake, who showed the world Memphis jukin’, a fun hip-hop style that can alternately look like it’s moving in fast or slow-motion. Travis Prokop is a tall dancer who needs to still prove himself in terms of strength, but of all the personal stories tonight, his was maybe the most touching. Prokop’s father is a football coach who was proud of his son for finding what he wanted to do with his life, not disappointed that he didn’t play football, and judge Nigel Lythgoe paid special tribute to the proud parent during the audition.

Although I tend to find sibling tryouts (of which there seemed to be an unusual amount, tonight’s episode) gimmicky, I did enjoy the Kasprzaks’. Evan, a Broadway dancer, came back after being eliminated in the final Vegas rounds last season. He and his audition were charming but I especially liked his older brother, Ryan, who performed a tap solo accompanied by a yellow whoopee cushion. It was very important to me, for some reason, that the cushion was yellow. Both brothers were sent straight through to Vegas.

Tomorrow we wrap up auditions in Los Angeles and Seattle, with good and bad news (although it’s subjective which is which): Adam Shankman is back as a guest judge...and Sex is back to try out once again.

--Claire Zulkey

(art: FOX)