Well everyone.
The Auditions for So You Think You Can Dance Season 12 has finally hit their stride. After four (now five) weeks of watching struggling and aspiring dancers competing for the Golden Tickets, the time has come to the wire. This is the final chance for them to show the U.S. of A. what they got, what they bring and what they can do to be some of the best. And here,
The final auditions took place in the Greatest City in the World, the Big Apple, the City That Never Sleeps, the Concrete Jungle, the City So Nice They Named it Twice, : New York City. NYC has had some of the best dance studios in the world and is the birthplace of street dancing, where some of the most iconic creatures of dance have made Gotham the best place in America to be stretch your body and freak people out.
So let’s check out my faves from this episode, and see how they’ll stack up.
Also, I’ll later give my favorites from this season so far going to the Vegas Round.
After the judges get to their seats (not before talking to the auditionees about holding onto their dreams...with Paula yammering on of course), they (and us as well), meet the first dancer.
Street-er Virgil Gadson from my hometown, Philadelphia is not making his first appearance on the show. He previously auditioned in Season 8, but was booted after reaching the Top 30. From there he later resided in New York for a year+, and has even booked a dancing role on Broadway in After Midnight (wow!). So...if that doesn’t sound like a bizarre-yet-amazing rags-to-riches dance story, then I don’t know what is. Let’s see who he does back in the...middle? *shrugs*
I loved his movement across the stage, and his style; like an octopus with rhythm mixed with Michael Jackson’ Scarecrow in the film adaption of The Wiz. Just fantastic His spirit had a real good infectious feeling and the smile he brought was electric. It was a joy to watch.
I loved watching every moment of him. Even his brief moment of doing the super stupid Shmoney Dance made me smile. This dude is really good, and I think he could go to the Lives this time (hopefully).
Oh and another thing...guy looks like Allen Iverson. Who is also known for being from Philadelphia, as he was Guard of the 76ers. (just putting it there.)
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Up next is Alexia Meyer from Orem, UT. She came to join the Stage side with her audition. Which I loved. Her skills and timing with the music are impeccable, and her emotion and passion were on point. I enjoyed this audition with not a lot of words. She deserved her Ticket, as she’ll be a perfect addition to the Vegas rounds.
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And now a two-fer in all the wrong places: two male dancers have exhibited two different dance styles and genres: tap...and whatever the hell the other one did. But here’s the surprising part. The Tapper is on the Street side and the other dancer is on the Stage side. Strange as heck and not a great fit for either dancer or side.
Let’s start with the Tapper, Justin Ballasy from Allentown, PA.
I loved his tapping skills, but but they were too fast for the music, and the musicality element of tapping is just as important as the taps themselves. They must go hand -in-hand, or else everything is out of whack. And that’s what happened here. He needs to fix it if he wants to continue in the competition. But other than that, he was great. Again, I loved his tapping and would love to see more of that in Vegas. Oh, and he deserves to be in the Stage side, as Tapping has been a part of Stage Dancing for ages. It just doesn’t fit in Street at all.
Just like this next dancer doesn’t fit in Stage at all. Or maybe even the show itself. But it makes a world of sense compared to being in the Street side.
Meet Thomas Condello from Staten Island...aka Mr. Hollywood (a name he got from a friend of his mom.) To the judges, it seemed like his audition was among the cream of the crop. But for me, it was among the bottom of the heap. I did not find his dancing great--or even good. Just fine or Maybe average. Entertaining, yes, but just average.
I was also really annoyed at the judges’ positive reception of his audition. Maybe it was because they don’t want to hurt his feelings (understandable) or because the fact that he’s Mr. Hollywood and he’s getting the response he deserves (that’s debateable).
Either way, good for him. I honestly don’t see him going to the Live Shows.
This story on these dancers was on for the ages. Both males in two wrong places (one in Street, the other in the competition in the first place), but end up only going higher. Thanks for the confusion, Nigel.
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But there is less confusion with these next two dancers.
They’re both female, they’re not related, they’re both best friends, and they are from two different cities. And they both partially share the same name.
Angela “Angel” McNeil (from Kansas City, MO) and Angely “Cookie” Deaza (from Washington Heights, NY) are a duo act that came to shake up the competition. and they sure did so with their audition. It was like a battle
The ladies blew me away so far with their audition, that I have only a few words:
They were wiggling around like worms on speed. The rhythm was so nice, and the movement was fantastic. I (sadly) agree with the judges in that Angel was much better than Cookie. Angel had more excitement, animation, velocity and movement than Cookie.
I hope to see Cookie next year, while I shall not wait to see Angel in Vegas and maybe the Lives. Even though I know they might split up come the Lives, I really will hope to see them both together again next season.
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Next is Alain Lauture aka “Hurrikane”, a native of Port-au-Prince, Haiti now living in New York City.
After spending childhood with his mother and four other siblings in his native country, his father decided to take them to the US to live with him. Thanks to his love of watching the dancing found in music videos of the era, Alain decided to take up dancing, a love he has kept ever since. His wish is to dedicate his audition (and possibly his time in the competition) to the kids in Haiti keeping their dreams alive and one day realize them, thanks to him on the show.
And I think he has done that.
His audition of “locking” (as in “pop-locking”) was really fun to watch. His locking was superb, and the joy on his face was infectious. His style reminded me of the dancing I used to watch on shows like Soul Train and What’s Happening!! . And if you remember Rerun from the latter show, his talents are well-shown in Hurrikane’s talents here. And it was a joy to watch.
Here’s hoping the second coming of Rerun will “rerun” his amazing vibe and wonderful fun feelings in the competition.
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The final dancers for the day (and the final dancers I’ll review here today) are another duo package that impressed me.
this time is Stage-rs Kenya Welch and Connor Bermingham from New Hampshire.
Their audition almost made me cry; the emotion exhibited is beautiful and the teamwork is just lovely. Also, the song playing, A Great Big World’s “Say Something”, really didn’t help matters for me. Paula pointed out the flexibility from Connor, which I agree with. I usually see that in female auditionees, but this was very impressive to see from a guy like him in this case.
When Nigel said at first that only one of them would move on to Vegas Week, I was saddened to hear it; but then when Paula said “What?”, I stifled a little. Then he recanted, I laughed in joy, because both of them are moving on. And they deserve it, as they’re both very talented Stage dancers who need to go to Vegas, and even the Live Shows.
So at the end of the day, 18 Street Dancers, and 10 Stage dancers have all been chosen to move forward to Vegas to prove their strengths of going to the Live Shows. With this number of contestants going even higher, the bar could not be risen higher.And for me, the chances of favorites from the Auditions going to the lives couldn’t be any more stained. I fear the faves wouldn’t make their way to it, so let’s hope at least some of them go through.
So here are my favorites from Auditions:
Stage:
Male
-Avo Karapetyan
-Allen Genkin
-Jim Nowakowski
-Connor Bermingham
Female
-Jordan Hillenberger
-Christine Sheppard
-Alexia Meyer
-Kenya Welch
Street:
Male
-Asaf Goren
-Corey “Mission” Whitfield
-Virgil Gadson
-Alain “Hurrikane” Laumure
Female
-Jana “Jaja” Vankova
-Samantha Reyes
-Angela ”Angel” McNeil
Let’s hope some or even a few of these dancers will make it through the Vegas Round and to the Live Shows. I’ll even go the route of praying, but not really. See you soon for the what everyone’s waited for: THE VEGAS WEEKS!! The part of Season 12 where the best of the Audition Phase compete for the coveted 20 spots of the Live Shows., It’s up to the judges and the Choreographers of the Stage and Street sides to whittle down the remaining's to to Cast of the Lives. Tune in later on for the result of Week 1. See you then.
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