So You Think You Can Dance: The Vegas Callbacks

So You Think You Can Dance: The Vegas Callbacks

This is very exciting. The audition rounds are over, and only people who have an actual chance of making it onto the show will be performing. The pre-show clip package promises lots of crying dancers, crushed dreams and one person getting kicked full out in the head. Good times. The judging panel includes Lil C, Debbie Allen, Adam Shankman, Tyce DiOrio (who makes a real knob of himself on his intro), Mary Murphy and Nigel Lythgoe. Nigel announces that solo performances will be up first, and if the dancers aren't good enough, they will be immediately cut. The Peanut Gallery's response to this? "Awesome." Up first is that exorcist guy from  Dallas. Shankers is crying already, and the guy is really damn good. We lose two of the first ten people, and it does seem pretty harsh. The next person we see dance is Janelle, the Belly Dancer. The new judges really love her. 51 people are cut from this round, including that dumb hip hopper/karate champion Tim Conkle. 

Comfort and Twitch are back to teach people some new style of hip hop from Atlanta.The exorcist guy finds out that he can't do choreography, and chooses to leave. One of the dragon house folks also knows he is out of his depth, and just leaves without talking to the judges. Boris of the dragon house tries the choreography and fails pretty miserably. The praying mantis guy from Salt Lake City is also out, as is that young mother who's (adorable) kid got her on the show. Cyrus of the dragon house ekes through the hip hop round, but it really doesn't bode well for him as we move on. How will he handle Broadway?

Day 2 in Vegas brings a whole new kind of hell for the dancers, and that hell is a Broadway routine choreographed by Tyce DiOrio. He is the worst. People agree with me on this, right? The first profile we get is of two ballroom girls from SLC who are best buds and roomates. The way they are building this up, I think it may just come down to these two for the last spot in the Top 20. It seems like almost everyone makes it through the Broadway round, which flies in the face of what Tyce said about his choreography being super difficult. We get a small profile of Alexa, the girl that Ryan just beat out last year to make it in the top 20. She gets a talking to from Shankers, who tells her that he is sick of saving her, and that she needs to stop being so dead in the face. The previews tell us she is going to get yelled at again, and I think she might be actually quite similar to Ryan. Flashes of brilliance, but ultimately not good enough. 23 dancers get cut in the end. The balls-out rejection of Vegas is pretty depressing. 

The next round of choreography is Sonya Tayeh's jazz, which really should be its own genre. There is a bboy who has a crappy attitude and who is threatening the weird bacon-eater's chances of going through (who's weird style fits well with Sonya). That stripper girl from Salt Lake City (I think), also gets cut, but she argues with the judges. They give her the chance to dance for her life. Danielle, the Bacon person, helps out another dancer and does the routine again. Her partner full-out kicks her in the head, and it looks pretty rough. Cyrus is in a jazz group with Amelia, the girl that got The Artist treatment back in New York. The judges aren't impressed, and Amelia will dance for her life. Sonya kind of fakes out Cyrus, and tells him he is through. Danielle is taken to the hospital, but hopefully she will be ok. It is time for Amelia and Rachel (stripper girl) to dance for their lives. Rachel is just out, and Debbie Allen tells her to stop just slutting it up. Emilia is next, and the judges seem quite impressed with her solo. I wonder if this was some sort of fake out? Sonya gives her a yes, Nigel says no, because he wants her to put some of that talent into other people's routines. Everyone else says yes, and I think it was sort of a fake out/a Nigel's superiority teaching moment. 

The group routine is next, which is a rough exercise where these dancers have to work in groups of 5 or 6 to choreograph a routine to a random piece of music, and in an extra twist of cruelty, they have to do all of the work overnight, and then perform it the next morning on no sleep. It is guaranteed drama for the show, but also guaranteed injuries. The first group we see adds the hospitalized Danielle after they start, and then bitch about it. Danielle is cut, which seems really uncool, as she got kicked in the damn head. There is a cute routine after this that has a group with one fun girl with pink hair (Aubrey) and 4 guys. The final group includes cute Adrian Lee and Alexa the boring. Tyce lays in on Alexa again, and so does Mary. They want her to scream about how much she wants it, and they finally make her cry. 

The last round of choreography is the dreaded ballroom round, which basically no one likes. Cyrus is particularly frightened of the Cha Cha they have to do. He looks hilarious in heeled shoes. Comedy gold, really. He isn't great at the Cha Cha, and they let him dance for his life. It is a fair decision. We get a montage of people who just have to leave, and that includes Dee Tomasetta (the Italian from Salt Lake City), and that white hip hopper from nowheresville, Georgia. Aubrey, the stand out from the group round is told she is just done, and she really loses it. So sad, again. Alexa is up next, and I am really sick of hearing about her. The judges react to her changes performance, and actually yell encouragement at her while she dances, which seems really mean to the other people. The last thing on the agenda for Day 2 is to have Cyrus dance for his life, he isn't nervous at all because he knows he is a great dancer. His routine is bonkers, again, and they all say yes to him. 

The contemporary round is last, and Travis Wall is the choreographer, which is awesome. We don't get to see much of the performances here, and then Nigel calls a bunch of them to the stage, en masse. He picks out about half of these people, and tells them they are through. The remaining dancers (about 18), get the chance to dance the contemporary routine one more time, but most get cut. The last group of these features the white-girl krumper Mariah, who is also cut. 

The next day, the dancers will have dance their final solos for the judges, and in practice, Joshua Alexander attempts a backflip and he falls on his head. His buddy announces "he's not moving", and the producers really want us to think he might be dead. It is a really pathetic attempt to get us to believe someone actually dies, and the show plays it over and over again throughout the two hours. Surprise, he isn't dead, but he does get to ride in the ambulance, and I do hope he is ok. Alexa is up first in the solos, and Debbie mutters "this child could win". She does look more impressive here than she did in the earlier rounds. We just get a super montage of everyone else doing their solos, and they all seem great. They show some guy that I don't think we have seen before, who is crazy talented at ballet. He can jump like 20 feet in the air. I don't even catch his name, but he is amazing. Nigel calls up the boys, and has to release a few more people, including my boyfriend, Adrian Lee. So sad. He calls the ladies up as well, and lets them all stay. That gives us 35 dancers left that will have to be pared down to the top 20 next week. It should be fun/interminable. 

More Crushed Dreams:

• That was a much more fun episode to watch, given that we are finally getting down to those people who might actually be on the show. The auditions certainly aren't as bad as on other shows, but they do wear after a while.
• That being said, damn, that was a lot of rejection packed into two hours. 146 really talented dancers just got told "we're going to pass today" on their dreams. Does anyone else need a drink?
• I must confess I don't know much (anything) about Debbie Allen. These rounds have inspired me to find out more. Some quick research tells me she played a big role in the television series FAME, where she was the lead choreographer. She also has an impressive Broadway career. 
• Let's talk about favourites going forward. I think we are definitely going to see Amelia and Alexa in the top 20, given the amount of time we have spent on them so far. I think Cyrus is in for similar reasons, and because SYTYCD loves to keep its cred up. One or both of the ballroom girls will be in as well, but other than that, the other spots are really up in the air. There are certainly a number of dancers we haven't even seen yet (see next bullet), so that should be fun next week.
• When they called up all of the remaining boys, there was this guy in full tails with a freaking cane that we have never seen. This must mean that he is a tapper, and also that he is awesome. Tell us about him, show. PLEASE. 
• Definitely looking forward to the top 20 next week!

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