‘So You Think You Can Dance’: Let the season begin!

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

There are many wonderful things about ‘So You Think You Can Dance’: The amount of physical work that goes into the performances. The no-bull judges. The variety of personalities. And we got a taste of all these things on tonight’s fifth season premiere. If you’re like me, after last night’s supersized ‘American Idol’ finale you were a little overwhelmed by another two-hour program. I could have done with just an hour of auditions, thank you, but there were still many noteworthy moments from tonight’s first episode, which featured auditions in Brooklyn and Denver, to give us a taste of the season ahead.

First, if you haven’t watched the show, dancers audition for the judges and are given either a no, a ticket to Vegas (like Hollywood on ‘Idol,’ only in Nevada and with dancing), or are held for further scrutiny as they’re asked to learn and perform choreography, either to go to Vegas or be sent home.

Along with Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy, choreographers Tabitha and Napoleon sat in as judges in New York. The first dancer, Gabi Rojas, who literally grew up in the circus, started things off, earning a ticket to Vegas and a standing ovation from her audience of competitors. I hope she makes it to the top 20 because it would be interesting to see what a choreographer like Mia Michaels would do with her and her background.

We also met a couple of dancers who practiced a genre called ‘mutation,’ basically creepy, slow-motion zombie hip-hop. But why were they dancing to a peppy, uptempo ‘80’s-sounding number as opposed to something by Philip Glass, or perhaps ‘The Monster Mash’?

Next is what separates the judging on ‘American Idol’ from that on ‘SYTYCD.’ The judges on ‘Idol’ once in a while will let someone through to Hollywood who is not really that good but is entertaining (see: Bikini Girl). But Lythgoe and Murphy can withstand anything, even an inspirational story. When Tiffany Geigel -- a woman with a disease (Spindia thoracic dysplasia) that shortened her torso, bringing her head, neck and shoulders all to the same height -- danced, she looked like an unusual, beautiful character from an illustrated book, with her long thin legs and twirling hair. But even though she looked lovely when she danced and the judges were stunned by her bravery, they cut her right away, citing problems with her technicality and that she’s just not right for the competition. There is no time or room on ‘SYTYCD’ for patronizing.

In Denver, the mohawked choreographer Sonia Tay sat in as guest judge, looking like the love child of Demi Moore and Kara DioGuardi. Despite her tough look, she fell all over herself for the dancers she appreciated, except for a few, including Misha Belfer and Mitchel Kibel, two male ballroom dancers, one gay, one straight. ‘SYTYCD’ has featured men dancing together before but not in this capacity. Nigel was right when he said the guys looked like they were from ‘Blades of Glory’ in their tight outfits. Here is a good technical reason why it’s not the best idea for men to dance ballroom together: If they’re both doing lifting, they both have muscles, which makes them both heavy and prone to being dropped, which is what happened. Moreover, the judges just couldn’t swallow the dance form, which is patently made, unlike hip-hop or contemporary, for a male and female dancer. It was a heavy, interesting topic to address in the first episode of the show (for the record, the guys were sent to choreography but didn’t make it to Vegas).

Other than Nigel making a joke (‘You might like it,’ he said to the guys about dancing with girls), the judges were respectful of Misha and Mitchel, unlike how they were toward Allison Moist, who ‘pranced around,’ according to Mary Murphy, to the ‘Star Wars’ theme. As kindly as the judges can be, they can be vicious when they sense they’re having their time wasted, probably in comparison to the actual, trained dancers waiting to try out. Nigel similarly yelled at a dancer for pointing to her crotch (with both hands, in case you wanted to know) at the end of her performance.

The show ended on a happy note for those who watched last season: Brandon Bryant, who tried out last year but didn’t make the top cut, as well as Natalie Reid, Katee Shean’s roommate who also didn’t make it past the audition process, were both brought back to Vegas, although that never means they’re guaranteed to make it this season.

It feels like each summer it always takes a week or two to adjust from singing to dancing on Fox, but the transition is a fun and exciting one, especially since some could argue that the lesser-watched ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ is actually (shh) a better show.

-- Claire Zulkey

(art: Fox)