When So You Think You Can Dance began, it was American Idol with dance, following the singing competition’s format and general tone as 16 performers competed to be America’s favorite dancer. The show has evolved since them, expanding the finalist count to 20 (except for the ill-conceived Top 10 of season seven), bringing in All-Stars, and ultimately cutting the results show to create a spectacular two-hour block of professional-grade choreography. Last season had some scheduling problems because of baseball, but hopefully, Fox and this show’s producers have figured out a way around that so that there aren’t too many double eliminations. (Also, no more tribute episodes. Ever.)
Auditions are an integral part of the American Idol/SYTYCD DNA, giving anyone willing to wait in line the opportunity to be on television if they’re good/bad enough or have an inspiring/tragic story. While there are plenty of spectacular dancers during auditions, there’s also a huge amount of filler material and time spent on people that don’t make it past the first stage of the competition. That’s why this will be the only SYTYCD TV Club review until Vegas week. That’s when I’ll be addressing some of the dancers that stood out in the four cities that I won’t be covering, and then there will be weekly coverage for the rest of the season. Feel free to turn this episode’s comments section into the discussion forum for the next three weeks, because there look to be some significant lows coming soon. Tomorrow’s Detroit auditions look especially trashy, what with Mary getting a lap dance on stage and all that.
Season nine was an impressive display of this country’s finest up-and-coming dance talent, and it looks like season 10 will be following the example of what came before if the Los Angeles auditions are any indication. That means lots of hip-hop and contemporary. The season begins with adorable animator Du-Shaunt a.k.a. “Fik-Shun,” who still has that burnt wax smell after emerging from his Cyrus mold. He’s got the precise movement and expressive face that made Cyrus a hit with the judges, and he’s sent straight through to Vegas. It’s an incredible solo, but I can’t help but be nervous that Du-Shaunt will follow the same path as his animating predecessor and fly through the competition on personality even if his performance in other styles is lackluster. Granted, it’s only been one episode and we didn’t see Du-Shaunt go to choreography, so it’s very possible that he’s trained in other styles or will be able to pick up them up easily.
Last year was light on ballroom except for the power couple of Lindsay and Witney, but in Los Angeles, the focus is on the male ballroom dancers. Paul is the winner of So You Think You Can Dance Armenia, which might seem like an unfair advantage, but this show does accept professional dancers, so why not include him? He’s got the looks, the charm, and the talent, and this show can always use more male ballroom dancers. But as much as I enjoyed Paul’s performance, the real standout ballroom dancer this week is Armen, the balding 27-year-old rapper who has a single featuring Joey Fatone. He’s a ridiculous reality TV caricature that seems too good to be true, but ladies and gentlemen, he’s the real thing:
Armen wants to show the world that he’s a star, and while he shows off some fancy footwork on the floor, it will be interesting to see how he fares in Vegas. Both Armen and Paul go straight to Vegas because Mary Murphy wants some goddamn ballroom dancers on the show this year, and of the two, I see Paul making it into the top 20. He might end up getting kicked off at the last minute to give a different person a place in the competition, but I could also see the producers loving the idea of having someone become the first person to win two SYTYCD competitions during the show’s 10th anniversary season.