'Dance' wraps up auditions
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- June
- 5
Let’s call last night’s episode of “Dance” what it really was: A slapped-together collage of the remnants of the auditions.
Now, I’m no Milwaukee hater, but clearly the chilly city didn’t yield enough interesting dancers to fill two hours of air time.
So the show was forced to hop back and forth from Milwaukee to previous audition towns—and it was done so clumsily, I felt like Cat Deeley was taking Matt Lauer’s place in the Today show’s annual “Where in the World is …” travelogue.
Cat needed a map, not a voiceover, to help viewers identify where the heck they were at any given moment. I used guest judges Tabitha and Napoleon D’Umo as landmarks for Milwaukee.
But all the world’s a stage, right, so who cares where these dancers were? Much more important is how they moved—and I guess I haven’t been sipping the same love juice as Nigel, Mary and the rest of the “jidges.”
Because for the life of me, I can’t see why popper Michael Kim and hip-hopper Philip Courter (who both auditioned in previous seasons) got a ticket straight to Vegas.
Could the boys bust a move? Absolutely. But to throw around the phrase that the judges seem to like this season, they seemed a wee bit “one-dimensional.” I’d have at least sent them to choreography, despite Philip’s tears over seeing pal Yesenia Gomez smash her chances with a hurt knee. (His friend, Yesi, who made it far in the Vegas round last year, lost 50 pounds since then and said the show “changed her life.” Nigel made her promise to return next season.)
Were there stand-outs? Of course.
Roommates Katee Shean and Natalie Reid turned out to be unique, versatile contemporary dancers, which was a huge surprise after witnessing that giggly, dippy, pre-audition video where they showed off their bizarre workout routines.
Evan Kasprzak partnered with a hat in an effortless Gene Kelly-esque performance that, as Mary Murphy pointed out, seemed easy until he threw in some amazing leaps and controlled pirouettes that showed he was “damn good.”
And I must be getting better at this couch-judging thing, because the first thing I thought when I saw Cooper Zamorano was that he was a “dark-haired Travis Wall.” A moment later, Nigel agreed! Maybe it was the running shorts. The connection to my Season 2 dance crush made my heart go pitter-patter for Cooper, until Nigel mentioned that off-putting tongue thrust.
Then there was Astoria’s own Lizz Plott, who had a great smile, a laid-back attitude and an awesome talent for tap. She made Nigel plotz—the man’s been dying for a tapper to wow him for ages. She and fellow tapper Bianca Revels were praised up and down and got the golden ticket.
After a little while, so did Susie Garcia, the Miami high school teacher who proved she could indeed dance in the choreography round. The judges clearly saw more potential than I did in her initial audition, because I couldn’t get past the fact that Garcia was dressed like Christina Aguilera in her “Dirrty” phase.
Image details: Christina Aguilera at MTV European Music Awards 2002 served by picapp.com
That about sums up the memorable performances, except for the very last one of the night.
A “mystery dancer” named Danielle Chorizo shook her groove thang to “It’s Raining Men” in a black trench coat and umbrella. The routine was ridiculous, until “Danielle” revealed herself to be none other than Travis Wall in drag!!!
Image details: 2006 Summer TCA Day 16 served by picapp.com
Sigh. In 30 seconds, the show destroyed all of my Travis fantasies. Because I can’t possibly dream of mamboing into the sunset with a man who can work a pair of heels better than I can.
Ah well. I’ll have to console myself with the Vegas callbacks tonight!
Finally, we get to the good stuff—when the Top 20 dancers will be revealed. Tune in here tomorrow for another recap, “Dance” fans!
(Photos courtesy of FOX)
This entry was posted
on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 9:17 am by Heather Salerno.
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