I Can't Even...

If this isn't one of the most gorgeous dances - no, piece of art - then I don't know anything.

Travis Wall's choreography is UN.REAL. And I'm SO glad Robert is back on that stage.

June Jam Sesh

I'm linking up for #backthatazzup again!

Here are the songs I've been loving this month...

Silver Screen Shower Scene by Felix da Housecat

My step-sister actually danced to this with her studio company last year or the year before and I loved it then. This week on So You Think You Can Dance, Travis Wall choreographed a jazz (with my early favorite couple, Malece and Jade) routine that rocked my socks off.

We Can't Stop by Miley Cyrus

Can we just all agree this is a damn catchy song? I love it. I haven't downloaded it yet, but I'm *this* close. Weird af music video, but catchy song.

Let's Have a Kiki by the Scissor Sisters

This band is weirder than Miley's video for We Can't Stop, but I'm slowly becoming obsessed with this song. Who wants to have a kiki with me?

Midnight City by M83

I saw this band open up for the Killers four years (wow, really?) ago and thought, "They're pretty good. Kind of random, but good." Now they're everywhere. Victoria's Secret and car commercials, dance classes, I love it.

Down the Road by C2C

It took me forever to find this song after I heard it in that Dr. Pepper commercial and now that I've found it, I'm completely obsessed.

What songs have had you jamming all month?

It's No Secret...

That I LOVE dance. I danced most of my life. I watch So You Think You Can Dance almost religiously. I watch Dance Moms and love the drama (although if they're trying to integrate the dance dads from Cathy's studio, I might have to stop watching because they're just stupid). Last summer I fell in love with the new company Shaping Sound on All the Right Moves featuring a ton of SYTYCD alumni. I love dance.

So a few months ago when Shaping Sound finally announced their tour dates I was thrilled. I had to be there. I had to watch my new gay crush, Nick Lazzarini, in person. I love him. I don't care that he doesn't like girls. He's a beautiful specimen and he can dance. Total package. And Kyle is also super cute, too. Not to mention the choreography this group performs is just amazeballs.

Teddy, Travis, Kyle, and Nick, the founders of Shaping Sound

Anyway, tonight is the night they hit the stage in Dallas and I couldn't be more excited. Here are a few of their dances from the show last summer.

Travis Wall being dramatic... but beautiful at what he does.


Travis got asked to choreograph an Ingrid Michaelson music video.


Teddy's choreography for their opening show last year in LA.


These people dance how I wish I could dance! I love it!

Is there something you as much as I love dance?

SYTYCD Season 8 Round Up

I don't know if you know this or not, but I picked the winner of So You Think You Can Dance from her audition. This is only the second time in 6 seasons (there's been 8 now but I've only been watching for 6) that's happened. I mean really, please watch Melanie dance and tell me you don't fall in love. She looks like Ginnifer Goodwin and dances like I only dream I could.



Now here's her next to last solo on the show. She showed SO much growth from her audition to just last week. She's blown me away all summer and I'm really inspired by her.



Everything about the Statue dance is perfection. Melanie and Marko's partnership. Travis Wall's choreography. The costumes, make-up, lighting. Everything.

And that was just the first week of the competition!

This was two weeks ago (and performed again last night, but this is the original).


Ok, I don't want to bore you with all of her dances, but she really is AMAZING, so feel free to browse all of her dances on YouTube. And vote for your favorite ad of Melanie for Gatorade G Series Fit. (I like Ad A because she really does make everything looks so effortless.)

Also, don't think that since the season is over I won't still be talking about the show. I'm going to the tour in October so I'll be figuring out a couple of dances I want to see on tour in a couple of months.

Entertainment Weekly - How To Make SYTYCD Better

One of my favorite magazines, Entertainment Weekly wrote this article online and pushed it through Twitter today. Great article, though I don't agree with it 100%. But here are a few of the ones I do agree with...

If you haven't noticed, SYTYCD is one of my all time favorite shows. This season I have missed Mary Murphy a great deal - especially the Hot Tamale Train. While I love Mia Michaels, I love her more as a choreographer. As a judge, she can come across way too harsh - a problem she had almost once a week for a while this year. We're in our second season without Mia choreography regularly and I really miss it - although Travis Wall is quickly outdoing her, in my opinion.

The judges have been talking a lot this season. They critique longer than some of the dances many times - one of the reasons I think I have a hard time remembering the dances at the end of the show. I understand 2 hours is a long time to fill, like EW says, but they haven't had this issue in the past I don't think.

With the bad dancing, maybe find the worst of the stop and make a montage out of the rest? Don't go Idol on us and make an entire show (I don't know if they ever did this, I stopped watching after Fantasia, but I remember thinking there was way too much bad one audition episode). Honestly, they could do the individual cities quicker and spend more time in Vegas if you ask me. I'd love to see more of what they do in Vegas, and probably meet who will be in the Top 10/11 while they're showing off their work ethic and personality and interacting with other Vegas-goers.

Keep the All-Stars. I'll admit, I was not a fan when this was announced. Not a fan at all, but I have LOVED seeing some of my favorites (Neil, Mark, Twitch, Courtney, Comfort, etc...) week after week. I've also met Alison from season 2 because I started watching season 3. At first it was hard NOT to watch the All-Star, especially when it was one of my favorites, but I also think that's because I wasn't used to it. I wasn't used to having to differentiate between contestant and all-star. Now that I know, I think it'd be ok if they kept them.

The stage issues... I think they've fixed my issues with it. I do miss the old stage, but I love that SYTYCD is grand-scale enough to be in Kodak. Last year, season 6, that is, the camera angles sucked, they hadn't quite figured out how to pan around and use the space, but this year there are a ton more camera angles, bring me the feel of the old stage on a grander scale. I also am very glad they got rid of that awful screen. Although well used in dances like Mollee and Jakob's Viennese Waltz to "Ordinary Day," the lights this season are SO much better.

Less dances? Not so much... The reason for the less than memorable dances this season is also the reason season 6 in the fall flopped - not enough down time. The SYTYCD choreographers are used to a year off, working on other projects, before having to deal with the dance-heavy format of SYTYCD. The choreo this season hasn't been as amazing as past summer seasons but it definitely MUCH better than season 6 choreo.

Recreating dances is a fabulous idea, although I'd save it for the finale or the week before the finale and let everyone dancing do it instead of their suggested one dancer per week. They could spend the season hyping up their favorite old dances from movies or broadway shows and finally announce - surprise (at least for the first season they do it), you're learning a Fred Astaire/Gene Kelley/Ginger Rogers dance! Come to think of it Robert, Kent, and Lauren are totally Fred, Gene, and Ginger! Maybe they'll surprise us tonight?

Kent and Neil Contemporary by Travis Wall

Seriously, one of the most amazing dances ever on the SYTYCD stage. Neil's been one of my favorites since he was on the show in season 3. Kent is like a younger version and I love him. This dance is perfection.

My Season 7 Top 3

The top 4 have performed and now it's time I tell you why I think these three dancers deserve to be in the season 7 finale of the great SYTYCD. Let's review the top 11:

Alexie was voted off first. She was a super cute jazz(?) dancer. Adorable, very cute personality, just didn't fully connect that first week.
Christina - beautiful ballroom dancer. I was sad to see her go because she was our only ballroom dancer this season, but that's how the show works, someone leaves every week.
Melinda - the show's fourth ever tap dancer and this season's only. I loved her personality. She was easily my favorite personality on the show and I was very sad to see her go. Not to mention she was the third girl in a row to be voted off.
Alex faced an untimely end to his run on the show when his achilles tendon tore away from the bones in his foot. I honestly thought he could have won, but as sad as I was that it was him, I'm glad he left when he did for many reasons: 1. I can follow him on Twitter, 2. He's hilarious, 3. He went out on an awesome note because he had just done the amazing hip hop with Twitch I posted a few weeks ago, 4. If all is well, he'll be on season 8. I don't mean he'll try out, I mean he'll try out and make season 8. He's just that good.
Ashley - Again, I was angered when the injury fairy returned and it was announced Ashley would leave due to rib bruising. Not so serious that she won't be on tour though!
The Top 6 danced twice, technically. The judges allowed a week where no one left which was nice however, two left the next week.
Jose - one of the best B-boys on the show in history. No one can touch Hok and Dom from season 3, but Jose comes close. It was his time to go though. He has that star quality needed to go far in the show, but his technique wasn't there because he was a b-boy.
Billy - Should not have left last week. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not his biggest fan. BUT, he has grown SO much since he tried out for season 6 last year. He was so flaily and just seemed out of control, but getting mono last fall was the best thing that could have happened to him. He developed his style and was able to un-flail it. Not only did his style evolve, his personality grew on me. I can't say whether r not I would have wanted him in the finale next week, but he should have stayed for this week over Adechike.

On to MY top 3. Winner first.
Lauren Froderman. This girl is FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC. She adapts to any style like it's her own. To me, if you can excel at jazz, you're pretty good when it comes to anything else. Maybe, not perfect, like Lauren, but if you understand jazz, I feel like you can pick up other forms of dance. She picks up ev-er-y-thing-uh. Tonight we learned that she was involved in EVERYTHING in high school: cheerleading, dance line, and VP of student government. Can we say personality out the ears? Here are two of her dances that I think showcase her talent very well.
Hip Hop with All-Star Twitch Boss
Jazz with Billy Bell
Also of note: her samba(?) with All Star Pasha this evening.

Kent Boyd. He could win, but I'm afraid it'd be because of the mass amount of teenage girls that are in love with him. He's definitely got the talent, but he gets more screams than everyone on this show season 1 -7 combined and it's really started to irk me. I loved him from his audition, and he's just precious, but the fan girls are driving me crazy - that's the only reason I don't want him to win. Whoever does come out on top between him and Lauren - the vote is going to be ridiculously close.
Broadway with All-Star Neil Haskell
Contemporary with Lauren Froderman
Also of note: Contemporary with Neil this evening - perfection.

Robert Roldan. Mia Michaels had it right when she called him a prince tonight. He is one good looking 20-year-old I'd love to coug on (although, my mom says it's not coug-ing since I'm only 2 years older). I cannot wait to get my picture with him at the tour in September. Not only is he absolutely gorgeous, he is one of the strongest dancers this show has seen. He has SUCH a presence and is so masculine in everything he does. He makes me want to try out for the show in hopes he's an all star I can dance with if for some strange reason I made the show. He is fantastic. He, like Lauren, can pick up any style of dance. He's done just about every ballroom style the show features and he's done them perfectly. Tonight he did hip hop for the first time on the show with Dom and killed it. I can't say enough about him. I love him to death and I hope he beats out wet blanket Adechike to be in the finale.
Jazz with All-Star Courtney Galiano
Contemporary with All-Star Alison Holker
Also of note: Hip Hop with Dom tonight

Why I don't think Adechike should be there next week - he shouldn't have been there since Alex got hurt, let's face it. He doesn't have the personality, and if he does he has issues showing it. I have not connected with him at all. I understand why he's Top 11, for sure - he's brilliant in his style (contemporary), but anything else he freaks out too much about getting the steps and can't convey the character/his personality. He should have left instead of Billy last week, but for some strange reason the judges gave him a fourth chance? The judges have given him his fair share of chances and just when I think he's changed, he reverts back to the start. I gave him a chance, but I just can't handle his lack of personality anymore.

I'm done ranting and raving. If these dances have intrigued you at all, watch the finale next Wednesday and Thursday on Fox. We're sure to see a few of these again for sure when the judges pick their favorites. Also, if you love Robert, please vote for him - "East Coasters" (aka actual east coast and central time zones) have 37 more minutes to vote!