So You Think You Can Dance rolled on through auditions this week, showing us stops in Miami and Memphis on Wednesday followed up with Los Angeles and Seattle on Thursday. There was a lot of great dancing, especially the L.A. part of the show. It was shocking to see, meanwhile, how bad the first day of Seattle auditions were (only four or five people total got Vegas tickets that day).
Here are some of the stunning clips from this week’s auditions.
Among the absolute best of the best was Nathan Trasoras in L.A. His dance was incredible… and he’s only 17! He’s too young to participate this season, but he got a Vegas ticket for Season six, airing this fall.
Performances like this are why I can’t help but love dancing. It’s just extraordinary artistry. It’s good that Nathan stuck with it at his brother’s insistence. Take that, people who tried to put him down.
Here’s a fantastic ballroom routine from Asuka Kondoh & Ricky Sun, also from the LA auditions.
Brothers Evan and Ryan Kasprzak both did great in Memphis and are both off to Vegas. It’s this number from 21 year old Evan (choreographed by Ryan) that left me dazzled. Ryan’s tap number is also good, and humorous, but didn’t overwhelm me like Evan did.
Another Memphis stand out is Caitlin Kinney, performing to “Winter Song” by Sara Bareilles (yay Sara)& Ingrid Michaelson. Gorgeous!
Okay…there’s a lot more to this post, but I need to break up the length so…
Seattle, as noted, was on the painful side, but Kelsea Taylor broke out of the crowd with this great and quirky number. “Beautiful, disastrous, weirdo” as Mia Michaels said.
Memphis auditioner Travis Prokop moves so good for a tall guy, and has a great supportive father. It’s a great dance and a great story. Travis survived choreography and we’ll get to see how he fares in Vegas.
Here’s a great combo from L.A., a Hip-Hop/Popper partnered with a contemporary dancer. This was a unexpectedly awesome number from Phillip Chbeeb and Arielle Coker (go in about 2 minutes for the start of the dance).
Another person that lit up Seattle is Kuponohi’ipoi Aweau.
Last up, Sammy Ramirez, a hip-hopper who does a quite stunning pop/lock routine. You can’t help but watch him move his body… and then he unleashes a killer smile. He did good in choreography too and he is Vegas-bound.
Okay…this is an uber-long post. But there was so much great dancing this week that I needed to showcase.
Next week SYTYCD is off to Vegas for two shows. There are more than 170 dancers competing to be in the top 20. It’s gonna be an awesome couple of shows.