Wednesday, May 26, 2010

It's almost that time...

for SYTYCD!!! One of my all time favorite shows, So You Think You Can Dance, is about to start everyone. Thursday, May 27, 2010, at 7 PM (Central time) on Fox. I'm bummed it's a summer show only because I have to miss four weeks of it for camp. However, my lovely mother has a DVR, which is a Heaven-sent technology that I love on a daily basis. In honor of my favorite show's return, I'd like to highlight a handful of my favorite dances from the show's 4 seasons that I have watched. (I tuned in starting with season 3 because I knew a girl in the Top 20 and fell in love!)

Season 3 Favorites
I'll try to keep each season to 3-5 dances since this will be a long post even if I did one per season.


Dancing by Kameron and Lacey - Oh my gosh. The jump at 1:15. PERFECT. I get chills EVERY time. Lacey was one of my favorites for the season. She's been one of the pro's on Dancing with the Stars for two or three seasons.


The Moment I Said It by the Top 10 - I mean, let's face it, Imogen Heap music and Mia Michaels choreo... It's perfection. Mia Michaels is an artistic genius and I'm so excited she's coming back to judge for season 7.


Sweet Dreams by Neil and Sabra - This is still one of my FAVORITE dances. I find myself comparing other dances to this one A LOT. Neil was by far my favorite boy this season (and maybe of all the seasons I've watched... If not, he's definitely up there). I'm super pumped for Neil to return as an All Star this season!


Fuego by Pasha and Lauren - Sorry it's not the TV version, it's the best I could find. I remember not liking Lauren until I watched this dance and then I was like, "Ok, I get it, I understand why she's on the show." Always loved Pasha. Excited to see both of them back as All Stars with Neil.

Season 4
Ok, as much as I loved season 3, season 4 was probably the best dance wise. Seasons 3 and 5 had the personalities (don't get me wrong, 4 has big personalities, too), but season 4 had the dances and dancers capable of performing the choreo to the degree required (and surpassing that).


The Garden by Mark and Courtney - Hello, Sonya Tayeh! She's perfection. Mark is perfection. Courtney is perfection. This is by far probably my all time favorite dance on the show. Two of my favorite dancers (and All Stars for season 7) only make this dance better. I remember when Adam Shankman requested this is one of his favorites for the finale, I knew I wasn't alone in loving this dance and these two dancers. PS - Mark has been one of Gaga's back up dancers for the past year. It only makes me love him more!


No Air by Joshua and Katee - This dance on tour left me speechless. I hated this song until I saw this dance. Not to mention Josh is from Fort Worth and taught a class at TCU after winning SYTYCD (still mad I wasn't a dance major for a day). They were the IT couple of season 4 and I didn't get it until the show intoduced Bollywood with them (look it up, it's a definite honorable mention).


Bleeding Love by Mark and Chelsie - Is anyone else as in love with Mark's dance abilities as I am? Season 4 intro'd us to NappyTabs, aka Napoleon and Tabitha, the hip hop married couple with ridiculously good ideas and choreo. Chelsie has been a pro on DWTS for two seasons I believe. She was a favorite of mine.


Marcy by Twitch and Katee - I wanted Twitch to win SO bad. He was my favorite guy for this season (until I saw Mark in the Garden, then it was a tie). Still the most famous prop on the show, I'm convinced.


The Dance by the Top 12 - Couldn't find the original TV version, but this will do. Probably my favorite Top 12 I've seen on the show so far. Mark got to be super creepy. The boys got to beat the floor with giant sticks. I really think that's why I liked it so much. I mean, besides it being a phenomenal dance. And now I have to move onto Season 5 otherwise, I could show you 10 more dances from Season 4.

Season 5
Again, we had stand out dancers and personalities, but the choreo didn't touch season 4 (for the most part, my favorites are up to that standard though). What happened in season 5 is that the first episode was fan-freakin'-tastic. It was hard to see how anyone could go home. And instead of building up like the other seasons, they just kind of stayed at the super awesome level they at which they started (yes, I got super grammatical correct on you just so I didn't end the sentence in a preposition).


If It Kills Me by Jason and Jeanine - Chills. Thank you, Nigel, for bringing Travis Wall (season 2 runner up) back for choreography. Why didn't he win his season?


Battlefield by Brandon and Jeanine - Ok, if this dance isn't perfect then I don't know what is. Seeing this in person when they came to Nokia (now Verizon) in Grand Prairie is one of the highlights in my dance life. Obsessed.


Jai Ho by Jason and Caitlin - This was how season 5 kicked off. Literally. It was the first dance of the first competition episode. How do you get better than that? Thank you, Nigel, for bringing Bollywood to American TV.


Eyes on Fire by Kupono and Kayla - Thank you, Sonya Tayeh, for being on the Twilight bandwagon and choeographing a dance to this song. They were my favorite couple of the season (until Brandon and Jeanine - runner up and winner, respectively). I wanted Kayla to win until the very end. Kupono is Hawaiian like Mark, so I'm wondering what's in the water there to make these guys so amazing? Also noteworthy is Kupono and Kayla's "Addiction" dance to "Gravity" by Sara Bareilles. Absolutely stunning.


Hot Like Wow by Max and Kayla - How the first episode of competition ended. Just imagine the 8 dances in between. Kayla's original partner, Max, and Kupono's partner, Ashleigh, getting voted off was sad but probably the best thing that could have happened for Kupono and Kayla because they were a match made in heaven (as seen above). However, Max was amazing and without him this dance wouldn't have been what it is.

Ok, bonus for season 5, because I'm afraid there were too many good dances.

Kick It by the Top 3 Girls - So I literally looked for 3 other dances before settling on this one. It so perfectly showcased the top 3 girls' personalities and dance abilities. Sonya Tayeh is a genius.

Season 6
Although the dancers were talented, there was little turn around time from season 5 to season 6 because 6 aired in the fall. Because of the lack of down time, I'm afraid the choreographers weren't exaclty bringing their A-game as usual. Plus we experienced the absence of Mia Michaels, which was really depressing and only made us realize more that the choreo wasn't as stellar as usual. We also found ourselve on a new stage which isn't too bad, but it limits the camera angles as compared with the first few seasons...


Bad Romance by Nathan and Mollee - A few of my favorite things... The IT couple of season 6 (or one of many IT couples), Lady Gaga, and SYTYCD. I love that they do Gaga-ish moves throughout as well.


The Can-Can by Nathan and Mollee - The first time the can-can was performed on the show. Mollee had a sprained ankle was still that good. So enerrgetic and fun!


Ordinary Day by Jakob and Mollee - Sorry for the Mollee love-fest, but these are honestly some of the best dances. If this isn't one of the most perfect waltzes you've ever seen, then I don't know what perfect is.


Tore My Heart by Jakob and Ellenore - AKA The Garden, Pt 2, as deemed by Adam Shankman very appropriately. Not as amazing as The Garden, but definitely awesome.


Afro-Jazz by Russell and Noelle - Another first in SYTYCD - the African Jazz. SO good. I'm pretty sure this is how we ended the first episode of competition and I was siked. I was hoping it'd be a good prediction of the rest of the season. Mainly what it did instead of that was to solidify my love of Russell who ended up winning.

I can't wait to see what Season 7 has in store despite its many changes. I wasn't happy with the changes until Nigel announced the All-Stars.

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