(S04E03) Last night we joined Cat, Nigel, Mary, and Tyce in Charleston, South Carolina for more auditions. I, for one, am getting sick of the two-hour audition shows already. We talked about this last week and I have to point it out again: maybe if they showed more dancing, these audition shows would be better.
Cat assured us at the beginning of the program that Charleston would not disappoint as SYTYCD went there in season two. Who did they find in South Carolina? Natalie, Dimitri, finalist Heidi and none other than Travis Woll, season two's runner-up. In the second hour, Mary and Nigel headed to D.C. where they were joined by Dan.
Find out what happened in both cities after the jump.
I don't have too many dancers in my first section. Like I said, I'm getting sick of the auditions. I think my excitement from the premiere last week has waned a bit. Feel free to leave your favorite / least favorite dancers in the comments.
And I must address something Jason said after Wednesday night. Of course, because he's my tag team SYTYCD partner, I want to disagree with him about Mary. It would be a healthy debate and I encourage you readers to chime in. But, I think what he said about the screaming judge was spot on. She is a personality that grows on you. And, if they keep the screaming and laughing to a minimum in the final edit of each episode, I may end up liking Mary Murphy. Moreover, she is indeed a fair critic. But I don't think I've found a judge who isn't on this show. It's the main reason I prefer SYTYCD to Idol.
Most Interesting / Entertaining of the Night:
Let's start with the end of the show. I am so happy that Anthony, the Juliard ribbon dancer from season one, came back for more abuse. This time he wore camos (an attempt at being more masculine, presumably) and did a piece he called "dynamic" and "in your face." It was neither. As Nigel put it, Anthony just doesn't have that spark. He is a tremendous technical dancer, but he just doesn't have enough personality. Still, the judges put him through to choreography. In the end, he didn't make it to Vegas. Anthony acted professionally and graciously in front of the judges, thanking them for the opportunity. However, he wept on Cat's shoulder and cursed about his shoes shortly afterwards. He continued his antics all the way down the block, barefoot the whole time.
My favorite female audition of the night was Courtney, whose grandparents accompanied her to the audition. She joked about her loud Italian family in her interview. Then she took the stage. Gorgeous girl. Gorgeous body. Gorgeous dancing. My favorite male audition was BJ, who came to the auditions with ten bucks and left with...er, just ten bucks, unfortunately. He had such interesting movements starting with a weird foot shuffle in second position plié, followed by a crazy leg vibration and "speed skating" jumps from side to side. Mary exclaimed, "You had some extraordinary moves that I have never seen before." And she was right.
Best Outfit of the Night:
This one is a tie between Syiddah and Jason (who asked to be called Betty). Syiddah looked like a cross between Rainbow Brite and the lion from The Wizard of Oz (post-primping in the Emerald City). Jason wore ill-fitting puke-pink trousers, a silver and black sequined blouse, and runny make-up. 
Best Song of the Night:
No one had really memorable music tonight. However, I liked the music that Brandon used (the guy who lied about his age the first season). It was an orchestral piece and complimented his strong movement. And Jason (Betty) dancing to Paula Abdul was pretty funny.
Best Line of the Night:
I've got to give it Nigel on this one. After Jason (Betty) finished his audition, the judge expressed his revulsion: "Not only are you a disgrace to dancing, you're a disgrace to tranvestites." Nigel followed with, "You are the reason why so many fathers don't like their sons dancing." Ouch.
Going to Vegas:
Sheila, a freshman at the University of Georgia, missed a whole day at school to be at the auditions. Her father wasn't happy about the skipping class. Looks like he'll have something to be really angry about; Sheila will be missing even more school when she goes to Vegas.
Jeremiah, the slightly unhinged contemporary dancer, made it too. After he said, "My most negative feature should be that I'm human," in his interview, I really wanted him to be bad. But he wasn't, much to my chagrin. So, Jeremiah and his attitude are going to Vegas.
Twins Anthony and Antwain are going to Vegas. Anthony auditioned and was mediocre. Antwain auditioned and was slightly better. They both auditioned and were electric. They made it through the choreography and they're going to Vegas.
Courtney, my favorite female audition of the night, is going to Sin City too.
Markus, who danced for his departed mother, got a ticket. He did a weird combination of contemporary and hip-hop to Elliot Yamin's "Wait For You" that he choreographed himself. Nigel complimented his musicality, but questioned his facial expression, saying he looked disappointed with himself.
Megan, who threw her head around too much, got through to Las Vegas. She came to the try-outs with her biggest fan, her aunt.
Brandon (I mentioned him above) got a ticket to the next round. After he finished dancing, Dan said, "I don't think I know anyone who can do that routine." The piece did indeed look very difficult, replete with several turn sequences, leaps, and balances. He's pictured above in an attitude derrière.
And then there's Claire. You readers were asking about her last week. And you were right. Nigel's invitation to go straight to Vegas only applied to last season. Since Claire had a baby last year, she missed out and had to start from scratch this year. Her audition was lackluster as she mostly just walked around on relevé and shook her booty, a skinny booty at that. But, after performing Travis' choreography, the new mom made it through to Vegas.
Jason and I will see you next week! If you want to watch some of Thursday's auditions, check this blog out.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-30-2008 @ 1:22PM
Danielle said...
Im sure the judges were pleased to give Anthony another chance. What a great brother and they were awesome together! Im glad to see Claire didnt make it through. I personally dont want to watch a skeleton dancing on stage. That girl literally had no meat on her bones. They were a few that had some great moves. I just cannot wait to the real dancing begins. Only one more episode!
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5-30-2008 @ 1:54PM
Kristin Sample said...
I thought Claire made it through after choreography? But, I could be mistaken (a very high possibility knowing me).
And I have to agree with you about how thin she is. I don't mind dancers being thin, skinny even, but she looked like she was thin because of stress. And that's never a good thing. When can see the very top of someone's rib cage, I think there's an issue.
5-30-2008 @ 2:03PM
Danielle said...
Oh, reading the recap, she did make it through..I forgot about the choreography part. Oh well.
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5-30-2008 @ 2:22PM
Emily said...
I agree with you Kristen, I'm over the auditions already. Let's move on to the competition!
I thought the last performer, Anthony, looked like he was channeling a pissed off Steve Urkel - all he needed was the horn rimmed glasses. It's got to suck to have paid for Juilliard training and not be good enough for a reality series call back.
I realize it is part of the show for the bad dancer performance and the inevitable ridicule from the judges, but I don't like it. If they are no good, don't give them the satisfaction of making it on TV. I don't like it on AI and I don't like it here, either.
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5-30-2008 @ 2:57PM
Danielle said...
What aggravates me is when ppl know they cannot dance and still audition. Remember that girl last night when Nigil mentioned her dancing she replied "if you call it that". "It's my own style"...give me a break!
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5-30-2008 @ 4:31PM
Erin said...
The song Brandon danced to was part of "A Requiem for a Dream" soundtrack.
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5-30-2008 @ 4:57PM
sabercat said...
Only one more show and we can get to the real dancing. Yay!! i don't think I would mind these shows as much if they actually balanced out the good with the bad. I know they have to show the bad (to get people like my husband to watch) but out of about 50 that go through to Vegas we only get to see 10? Come on! Give me someone to cheer for!!! When we get to the Vegas round, we're going to be watching a bunch of strangers. We are investing 8 hours of watching to have to start from scratch next week.
And for the record.....I like Mary. She broke my heart last year when she was crying and couldn't talk after Mia's Heaven routine. She knows and loves dance with everything in her body.
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5-30-2008 @ 5:25PM
Oreo said...
I watched the two hours of SYTYCD in about 25 minutes. No one stood out, or anything.
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5-30-2008 @ 9:45PM
SImpression said...
I like the auditions. Though i of course like the second half of the show a lot better. I don't know how to explain it but i dont ever get annoyed or angry when watching the audtions. I just enjoy i guess. I think a lot of them are interesting to see how they play out, and its interesting to see who makes it to Vegas and then you try and think in your mind on who could be in the top 20 and what not. It's interesting. (lol i said that alot.)
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5-31-2008 @ 12:35PM
Sang said...
Although I didn't like the final dancer, Anthony, personally, I'm still willing to admit he was the most technically proficient dancer on the show thus far this season. I mean, they let that crappy strip club DJ through and not a Juliard grad? Something's gotta give.
It really goes to show that SYTYCD is more a personality contest, much like American Idol, than it is about overall skill.
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5-31-2008 @ 12:42PM
Simon Says said...
To Nigel.
I'm posting this May 31, 2008, 10 days after the American Idol Grand Finale.
I watched American Idol both nights of the grand finale waiting for the announcement of the winners name of the 2008 American Idol
Songwriting Competition....and I'm still waiting.
The following quote is from the only link American Idol.com has concerning the songwriting contest. (It's under the Show Guide Link....American
Idol Songwriter)
"The Nation Has Decided"
"Who Has Won? Tune in to the American Idol Finale on May 20th and 21st 2008 to find out." End quote.
Like I said....I watched. And here's the only thing said about the winner.
Ryan Seacrest......"Ladies and gentlemen singing the winning song of this years competition...Time Of My Life..this..is..your American Idol David
Cook, Goodnight." End quote.
9 days later American Idol has yet to name the winner. It's not in the American Idol news section, not on the American Idol
homepage..............Nothing.
Last year the winner's were introduced on camera by Ryan Seacrest. This year nada.
The following is from the Myspace blog page of the winner of the 2008 American Idol Songwriting Competition....... Mr. Regie Hamm..........and
he does not seem happy.
"AMERICAN IDOL, MAGIC RAINBOWS ...AND DOTTIE"
"The guy in the feather suit who wrote the song for Simon had his own photo stand where you could have your picture taken with him.
Hmmmm, maybe next time I'll write a song so campy it simply must be performed in front of fifty million people with the USC marching band. At
least then I might have my name mentioned or my face shown ...but I digress." End quote.
American Idol made a lot of money off this contest and the ONLY thing we got in return was a thanks for the $10.00 email.
P.S. I dare you to sign up for the American Idol Forums (Songwriting) and post a question or comment about this and see how long it takes till
the forum moderators delete it. Don't worry you won't have to wait long.
http://americanidolexposed.weebly.com
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6-02-2008 @ 5:01PM
Sue Brody said...
Kristin, I couldn't agree with you more in your comments (except that I actually thought Anthony deserved to go to Vegas). I am SO over Mary, I think that the audition shows should be an hour shorter each night (or condense them), and I am tired of the bad dancers at the expense of the good ones we may not see until Vegas (or not until the Top 20, like Neil last year). I also would like to know what music the dancers are using, the way we do during Top 20, though it's not critical. Anyway, I feel that we have more fun with the Idol auditions. These just become tedious or nasty. There are clearly good dancers who move, b/c we see them for about 30 seconds (at most) apiece, so why don't they get face time?!
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