So You Think You Can Dance- Recap

Auditions start out in Brooklyn, NY. I'm really just going to post some of my thoughts about the first round of dancers. Tabitha and Napoleon D' Umo are the guest judges. They do show so many terrible ones, so I probably won't get to mention all of them. The ones in red are going on to Vegas

Gabi Rojas- She suffers from rheumatoid arthritis- and dancing doesn't help her joints, now or in the long run. I know her style is contemporary, but it's also very "performance art" style- IMO. She's excellent, they give her a standing ovation. Her routine reminded me a little of Hok and Jaimie's (Wade Robson choreograped) "Hummingbird" in Season 3. She's going to Vegas, Nigel predicts she'll be in the Top 20, and I agree.

Weird weird contortionists- Mutation style dance form, and some really sick out of place joints. They make it to the choreography, but decide to leave. I'm really not surprised.

Crazy Kate and Just Ron- Ballroom-Terrible, but with some spice.

Pete Sabasino-The Tapper - From Philly with a lot of muscles, Nigel says he looks like a boxer! I think he's really good, Mary hates his outfit (Skinny wife-beater T-shirt, long baggy shorts) but loves him. Apparently a tap dancer has never made it into the Top 20 before, he thinks he's going to be the first. I hope he can do other styles well, because he's cute! Going to Vegas!

Tiffany Geigel - has a pronounced disability, almost no neck. I believe she suffers from Klippel-Feil I cried when she was talking about how people make fun of her everyday- she only has three out of seven vertebrae, BRAVE! She doesn't go any farther and she said she didn't expect to, she only wanted to show that all dancers don't have to look the same- She is a DANCER!

Maksim Kapitannikov- Ballroom dance with former SYTYCDer Faina Savich from Season 3, I'm not a big ballroom fan or very knowledgeable about it, but he was good. I don't really think he'll go very far if he goes to Vegas though. They send him to the choreography round and then off to Vegas, but he's no Pasha Kovalev (from Season 3).

Dancing Montage, no names, Going to Vegas.

Nobuya Nagahama - Voguing, Popping and Locking, Breaking, Funk Jazz, A Bunch of Crazy style. He's from Tokyo, Japan. Very good at using the music, especially with this little heart thing he does with his hands! Napolean compared him to Hilty & Bosch. He's going to the choreography round- YEA! He's going to Vegas!

Lauren Gottlieb is back, teaching the choreography round!

Day 2 of NY Auditions. I love how Cat Deeley says "Judges," it's so cute- "Jih-Jihs."

Arielle Taylor- Auditioned for season three, but was still in high school, got cut in the last Vegas round. Contemporary style, I think she's wonderful, very good jumps! Going to Vegas.

Thomas Martin- Claims that he was the number one national baton twirler, for six years running, when he was younger. I honestly didn't know there were male baton twirlers, and that they had competitions. He wouldn't be a majorette, so what are male baton twirlers called? If you know, please tell me. They do a Balero style dance and he's in all black with a turtleneck on, it looks like Lycra. AWFUL. SO BAD! He loves to perform, he says. He seems shocked that they don't like him. Flabbergasted, actually. I feel sorry for him, why doesn't someone who loves him tell him not to do this?

Dancing montage of really bad dancers.

Nina Estrina and Igor Zabrodin- Latin ballroom dancers, doing the Cha--Cha, she does a really low spin for a long, long time! I can't believe she didn't fall over from the dizziness! You could see her spotting on the spins, but at the end, you could see her spot waver a bit. Going to choreography round- Igor is going to Vegas, Nina isn't. That surprises me, because I thought Igor looked out of place doing the choreography.

Kellen Stancil- Uses an umbrella, contemporary, a little weird, but a beautiful dancer. His lines are excellent and his movements are very fluid. He breaks down in tears talking about his recently deceased aunt, saying she's the umbrella protecting him from the storm, his shelter and comfort. A tad too emotional for my personal taste, but I can't deny that he's a gifted dancer. Going to Vegas.

Chimezie Nwosu- Hip hop, really cool performance. I like how he uses the music, especially the honks and beeps. He doesn't like it when people keep mispronouncing his name, which Nigel does repeatedly. He's going to the choreography round. Napoleon thinks he will be able to work wonders with him once he gives him some good choreography. Yea!! He's going to Vegas!

They're done with New York now, on to the Mile High City- Denver, CO. Tabitha and Napoleon D'Umo are not judging this leg of the auditions. I know everyone loves Mia Michaels, and she's great, (okay, she's a but mouthy, but her choreography is generally excellent) but I love Tabitha and Napoleon. Almost all of my favorite performances last year were choreographed by them. Sonya Tayeh is the guest judge. I don't know all that much about her, except that she choreographed last year critically acclaimed "The Garden" with Mark and Courtney. And she raocks a fierce mohawk. P.S. I love how Nigel's hair drastically changes between the rounds!

Kayla Rodomski- They do a past story, her father left when she was very young and she and her mom went to live with her grandparents so they could afford all of her dance classes. Contemporary, kinda reminds me of Kortni, from last season, going to to Vegas. Her Grandpa starts to cry! Sweet.

Dancing montage of good dancers, Sonya loves all of them!

Misha Belfer and Mitchel Kilber-- Ballroom dancers- Same-Sex ballroom dancing is their forte, though only one of them is gay. I think they're kinda fabulous until they fall down. Like fall down in a can't recover kind of way. Nigel compares them to Will Farrell in Blades of Glory. Nigel doesn't like them as a pair, shocker. Mary says their technique needs work. Even bigger shocker (I'm not being funny here) is Nigel wants to see them dance with girls, but they fail to impress them. And they do need some work.

Allison Moist - (I hope that's not her real name)- Dancing to the theme from Star Wars, with light sabers, and lion ears and face drawn on- whiskers and everything! Before she said her face was painted like a lion, I thought she was trying to do her best Ewok. Oops. Um, not good. I feel too bad to say anything else about her, because she left the stage in tears. Mary says she pranced instead of danced. Sonya, after gaining control over her bout of hysterical laughter, says she flailed her body around. Nigel said she was obviously from another galaxy, far far away. They were mean to her.

Dancing montage of bad dancers. Really. Really. Really. Bad. Dancers.

Elias Holloway- brings his younger brother for dancing support, but he's not trying out. They do hip hop and pop-locking. I know the difference between popping and locking, but I don't know what pop-locking is- I'm going to have to look it up afterwards. They both seem a little strange, but he was very entertaining. He's going on to choreography. He doesn't do very well, Mary says he needs more training, but please come back next year and try out again.

Natalie Reid- who lost on the last spot last year, to her best friend Katee (Katie) Shean (who went on to the final four). She's a beautiful dancer, I'm glad she's back. Even if I didn't know that she and Katie were roomates and best friends, I would still think their style is almost identical. Every single movement is pronounced, even her fingers! Sonya LOVES her. Mary gets teary, says she's "very organic." Nigel says she's going to Vegas!

Brandon Bryant- the guy who lost out on the last spot to Gev Manoukian last year. Wow! He's intense and so is the music, O Fortuna Carmina Burana. I think he's pretty incredible, I'm not a fan of his shorts, but he's amazing. Mary starts bawling, through her tears she tells him he's everything a dancer should be. Nigel says he is a beautiful dancer. He was cut last year because he didn't let enough of his personality show through. I hope he's gotten better at it, because I really like him. He's going to Vegas!

Next week they're going to Miami and Memphis. So this concludes my SYTYCD recap.

Oh, I looked up "Pop-Locking" and Wikipedia, says it's a term that "gained popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s in some circles around Los Angeles as a general slang term for popping and its integrated styles. The term is controversial because some believe it generates connotative confusion by incorporating the word "locking", which also is the name of another distinct style of street dance (see locking) that is generally kept separate from popping compared to its more integrated styles." Okay, now I'm really done!