Fame or Famine

I have a bone to pick, I’m afraid, with Mia Michaels.
It’s not a big bone, it’s just a little one, an accusation of hyperbole and misleading compliments. It’s simply this: she recently compared Will’s rendition of Tyce Diorio’s contemporary dance piece to something approaching the skill of Desmond Richardson.
I almost hesitate to bring it up, simply because it seems a bit like sour grapes. It’s not, really; it’s more a cautionary word to people who may think that because they watch shows such as SYTYCD, they aren’t missing anything when they fail to buy tickets for their local ballet or …read more

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As Kourtni Lind and Matt Dorame leave So You Think You Can Dance, I’m noticing how the thing that really seemed to knock them out is chemistry. Over and over again, the judges came back to it.

Mary Murphy: “Even though it’s slow, it still has to make us feel something. I didn’t,”
Nigel Lythgoe: “It didn’t grab me. It was a bit like hip-hop on sleeping pills.”
Napoleon D’Umo: “…you’ve just got to get down and grimy a little bit.”

Notice how they didn’t say anything bad about the technique, or the costumes, or the pacing, or really anything about the dance …read more

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As I’m sure you may all suspect, the life of a B5Media entertainment blogger is filled with fast cars, loose women, and free high-class sushi at the finest restaurants in Vegas.
OK, now that you’re done chuckling, I have to say that that last part is actually true, and it’s part of why I like working here: the people are great. But then occasionally an email comes to my inbox with a more unusual sponsorship tie-in to a show that I cover.
Like, So You Think You Can Dance. Which, of course, leads the mind naturally to…fabric softener.
Snuggle Up to Your Happy …read more

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Poor Chelsea Traille, put to the bottom three in the last episode and then ousted by the judges. You can see her solo below; I can see why the judges might not have liked her – in my opinion, while her technique and energy are great, there’s not a real coherence to the solo – instead of having a definable theme or beginning, middle, and end, she just sort of strung a bunch of fairly standard dance forms – flawlessly executed, mind you, but still standard – into a solo. And for the judges in the third season, that’s just …read more

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This just in: Tango is useful to help people battle depression.
Apparently researchers in Australia’s University of New England are exploring whether tango can “boost people’s emotions.”
“While you’re doing tango you can only be in the present — you really have to focus, concentrate, and it doesn’t allow your thoughts to drive into your mind,” says Rosa Pinniger, who is heading up the research. “If people can have a break from their negative thoughts for three minutes, which is the time of the tango, they can realize that… this is what it is, nothing else. So all their problems and their …read more

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“Hi, my name is Jessie, I’m 15 and I have my own radio show,” started the email in my in-box, and I almost thought it was spam. Luckily, my peripheral vision caught the name Shane Sparks in the paragraph and I read more closely…
Welcome to the Big Show with JK Live!
Jessie is the host of a show aimed at teens on BlogTalkRadio. Aside from the normal sports talk he’s also covering entertainment news, and am I jealous: he’s managed to snag Shane Sparks (about whom we’ve raved before) for an interview. You remember Shane, fantastic choreographer on So You Think …read more

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Every once in a while it is the job of a blogger to grab the bull by the tail and face the situation, and this is one of those. I made a rather egregious error in a prior post, for which I apologize.
Haylie Duff, Not Hilary Duff
Yes, that’s right. Legally Blonde: The Search for Elle is not hosted by Hilary Duff, as I wrote, but by Haylie Duff, her sister and co-star for the movie Material Girls. Haylie has also appeared on Broadway in Hairspray, but her longest and most recognized role was on the long-running TV series 7th …read more

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I’ve been very interested in learning some of the behind-the-scenes aspects of everybody’s favorite reality dance competition, So You Think You Can Dance. I think it was getting Arielle’s perspective that got me interested. But something is rotten in the state of etc…
So You Thought You Could Dance?
Like me, the TV Grapevine had a personal connection to someone who auditioned for the show. Like me, that person didn’t make it past the preliminary stages – but in their case, she was able to stay the extra day to see the “individual round.”
Yes, that’s right. That “individual round” is not …read more

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The Show Tracker at the LA Times brought up an interesting point about So You Think You Can Dance. Specifically, Claire talks about her surprise – at first – at the snippy and irritated way the judges treat the dancers auditioning. Unlike American Idol, they seem truly annoyed with not only the dancers who truly have no chance, but also with some dancers like “Stepford Dancer” Paige Jones, who puts in an honest effort but still… has no real chance.
Her theory is that unlike Dancing with the Stars, which doesn’t really have an audition process, SYTYCD has a very limited …read more

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Lynn Devries, my fellow B5Media blogger, has a nice prequel to the So You Think You Can Dance season coming up. She snagged an interview with the host, Cat Deeley, along with the folks over at TV Guide.
One of the more interesting things I found in it was Cat’s comments about the true purpose of the show. “…this isn’t just a dance competition. It’s to find America’s favorite dancer…” That explains a lot to people who complained last year that so many technically proficient dancers were being given the boot while those who engaged more with the audience stayed in …read more

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