One of the best reality shows returns for Season 5 on Thursday with a 2 hour premiere.

And I can't wait to see my favorite reality host, Miss Cat Deeley!

Preview


And to get you in the mood, SYTYCD Australia just completed their season. Here are two of the group numbers performed in the finale show.

Finale opening number:

Everybody's Free...to dance in Australia!

and the Choreographer group ballroom routine:

Explosive

Yeah these kids have lots of talent. This show should be fun. Loved the "Everybody's Free..." routine. Wow! Super performances...

Btw, MDG did you happen to notice the VERY quick snippet (2 seconds @ most) of the two guys, in matching black outfits w/ turquoise sashes, dancing together on the "Preview" link that you posted. I timed it @ around 1:34. One is spinning the other a la disco/salsa couple dancing. That'll be interesting to see.

It's back in two days!

More preview Season 5

In this clip, Nigel mentions it would be great to bring the winners of other countries SYTYCD to America to compete. That would be awesome. Recently crowned season II winner Talia (a ballerina) would give them a run for their money.

Talia final solo

Argentine Tango with Ben

Great dancers. Out!

I really like this show. I watched the Canadian version last season and it was awesome. My favorite was Natalli. Here she is with eventual winner Nico dancing to the superb "Knock On Wood".

And here dancing the paso doble with Francis.

My partner and I have a running joke about host Leah Miller... "Oh my gawd, that was a-MA-ZING!!!" You have to watch it to get it, I guess...

That was good. Wasn't Blake from SYTYCD Season 1 one of the choreographers?

Can't wait.

It's just so incestuous.

In this clip from last year's AI finale, you have last year's AI finalist (one who was also on Star Search), then you have the So You Think You Can Dance alums, where some went on to be on Dancing with the Stars, and ends with Hok and Qwest Crew from Randy Jackson's America's Best Dance Crew.

Six Degrees

So it's like the people who are on every reality show they possibly can? Survivor to, say, Celebrity Rehab or some such thing?

Loved the first show. I'm so glad they did not focus on the bad dancers. Nigel is getting slammed for his comments on the male-male dancers, but it didn't bother me any. They were not that good and I also found it very distracting. Nigel's tweets are pretty good and honest.

My favorite was the first dancer Gabi Rojas and the guy who lost out to Gev last season, Brandon. I still don't see why they thought Katee's roomate was so good. Elias, the 18 year old who danced with his 16 y/o brother was so damn cute. Although it was kind of pervy that he said he and his brother shared everything...even their bed. But I guess coming from a family of 14, a lot of sharing goes on! Too bad he didn't make it to at least choreography. The show is coming back in the fall (auditions are being held now) so maybe he auditioned again.

It looks like this is going to be a good season. Wade Robson and Shane Sparks are also returning to the show this year.

Brandon's audition was jaw-dropping. Maybe it's for the best that he missed out last year because his improvement over the last 12 months makes him a killer contestant this year. I don't really get why the judges were so gaga over Katee's roommate either. Good gawd, it looked like Sonia was pleasuring herself with a shower nozzle during that audition.

The all-male ballroom dancers were interesting, but not very good. In my "expert" (after umpteen seasons of watching SYTYCD and Dancing with the Has-Beens and Never-Weres Stars) opinion, I thought their technique was fundamentally flawed. There was also the minor issue of Butterfingers dropping his partner like a bowling ball. Look at those two and compare them to Dimitri or Pasha, and there's no comparison. I don't have a problem with Nigel because he was just being honest. Also, I think he would have liked it a lot more if the two guys were actually strong ballroomers.

And yeah, Elias was so damn cute. He definitely has the personality to go far in the competition, but I'd like to see him get a lot more training before he gets on the show so that he doesn't struggle playing catch-up too much.

Here's a clip of last season's finalists at the So You Think You Can Dance Off on May 18th to kick off Season 5. I like the interview with Mark & Katee and how Mark (My fave from last season) REALLY wants to dance with Lady Gaga.

Dance

The thing I like about SYTYCD is that they don't drag the audition process out. Next week is the "Semi-Finals" where they will narrow the field down to the 20 finallists. Judging from the auditions I have a feeling they want a girl to win. They sure focused on more girls during the audition rounds. I hope Asuka makes it to the Top 20. And I think her dance partner Ricky Sun looks really hot this season. I don't remember him looking so good last season. I also like Pono even though they seem to be fixated on "annti-feminine" dancing. Gene Kelly-ish dance Evan is also one of my fave guys. Also Phillip Chbeeb has improved since last season as well. I think Philip is a lock for the Top 10 guys. There were too many other female dancers that were really good. It looks like it's going to be a fierce competition for the Top 20.

I have already started my list of Songs heard on SYTYCD Season 6. And that's another reason why I love this show. I can add new songs to my playlist.

Love.It.

Vegas rounds will be shown this week with the field being narrowed down to the Top 20.

SYTYCD is definitely a pleasant break from the rest of the dumbed-down summer shows we normally get. Watching the Vegas week semis as I type...makes me sick how talented (and beautiful) most of these people are, amazing! Group choreography is next, should be interesting!

despite's choreographer Sonia's multiple climaxes during Natalie's (Katee's roommate) first audition, a few people here didn't think she was all that, and whaddya know, she got cut pretty early on in Vegas. Her friend Brandon (not sure of the name, the cute boyish-looking black guy who barely missed a final 20 spot to Gev last season) was a shoo-in, or so you'd have thought. I love the guy, but Mia doesn't seem to like him at all (and her opinion counts for more). Ricky and Asuka are amongst the very few ballroomers left, so they darn well better make it. The only other dancers I'm really rooting for are the Broadway brothers, Evan and Ryan. It looks like just one of them's going to make it in, however. If so, hopefully it's Evan, my co-favorite so far along with Brandon. Ryan's great, but I think his future in dance is choreography more than performance.

Damn damn damn why couldn't they let Alex out of his contract! He would have been my favorite. AWESOME dancer, smokin' bod and he's Asian! He's the Asian male I've been waiting for to be on this show or idol.
I hope he returns if not in the fall, but next season. I would have loved it if Alex and Ricky Sun had made it.

There were a lot of dancers who were not shown. I love the two ballroom girls, Asuka & Janette. Janette may be one of my faves because she's so damn sexy. I am really anxious to see Melissa Sandvig dance. She's the naughty ballerina but we never really saw her. I'm sure there will be a couple of other girls that I will fall in love with. Right now, tho, Janette is my fave girl.

For the males, I am so glad Evan made it because he is just so adorable. I'm also glad Pono made it because he's from the same dance studio as Mark. Brandon is cute and I love his solid build. Tony is the Ivan and Cedric of this season. I hope he grows because he's also one of the eye candy. Phillip Chbeeb is a crazy popper and I bet he'll do well in other styles. I love Vitolio's story (he's basically grew up on the streets in Haiti) and he is a beautiful dancer and has a great personality as well. Jason Glover...wasn't he the one who said he hit his head on the floor?

I already have my list going for "Songs heard on SYTYCD".

I am ready to go. Fu*k Idol. This is Showtime, baby. Let's get the season started!

hey, by any chance, do you know the name of the song they play during the choreography scenes from this year? It's a great dance song, and I can't figure out the name or artist.

Thank you! You can email me at ctbriguy1@yahoo.com.

Which choreography scene? There were many. Sonja's choreography? The montage of dancers?

I liked the music during Sonja's and Mia's scenes.

Sonja used the Ting Ting's "Great DJ (Calvin Harris remix)
Mia used "Belief (Stripped Version)" - Gavin DeGraw

Wow, this season's top 20 (well, top 19, more on that later) is the best of any season to date. The talent level just seems so much higher than seasons past. On to the numbers ...
Jeanine and Phillip. I don't know if I can say much about Jeanine because my eyes were glued to Phillip the whole time. His dancing is so unique that you can't help but be drawn in. But good choreography from Tabitha and Napoleon, and Jeanine managed to hold her own (although I had to watch the number a 2nd time to see that).
Asuka and Vitolio. Yikes, I couldn't stand this Broadway number by Tyce. Asuka and Vitolio are both so good, but I worry they'll be in the bottom 3 after this one, especially since there were so many strong routines tonight.
Karla and Jonathan. I'm a bit surprised that the judges liked this number as much as they did. Latin is even Jonathan's specialty, although he didn't look all that strong here. He's kinda cute, which will get him some votes, but this is another bottom 3 number for me.
Randi and Evan. Tyce completely redeemed himself with this number. I just loved this choreography, and Randy and Evan danced it beautifully. If I had to pick my favorite this early on, I'd have to say Evan. I just love his old school, Gene Kelly style of dancing.
Paris and Tony. Tony is the reason I said "top 19" at the top because he looks like the dancer who really doesn't deserve to be here. I think the judges wanted another Ivan (Season 3, the super-likeable hip-hopper who grew so much). Even though hip-hop is supposedly Tony's genre, he looked pretty weak in his own specialty. How the hell is he going to survive if he gets ballroom or (eek!) contemporary?? This has to be bottom 3, and both dancers deserve to go.
Caitlin and Jason. This Bollywood number has to have the highest degree of difficulty of all the routines tonight. Your legs are doing one thing, your arms another, your hands and fingers something entirely different, and your head has its own choreography. The leg strength these two had to have to pull this number off is really impressive. All in all, a great job on an extremely difficult routine.
Melissa and Ade. You worry a bit about guys like Ade, who get absolutely no exposure in the preliminary weeks, yet have to compete against contestants like Phillip Chbeeb, who already have strong followings going into the first week. That's why I was so happy for the guy that he got such terrific choreography from Mandy Moore. This piece was just beautiful, for exactly the reasons the judges stated: Melissa's ballet training and Ade's strength. That lift blew me away.
Kayla and Max. It's very early on, but Kayla's my pick to win this whole thing. I can't believe how well she picked up on the samba, one of the more difficult latin dances. Also, when Adam goes absolutely gaga over a dancer, like he did with Sabra in Season 3, it's a good sign for that person. But Max, with his early training in ballet and folk dancing, has the potential to get to the final. This samba just scorched! Terrific choreography from Louis van Amstel, and these two made it smoke and sizzle.

My crushes are Jason, Brandon, and Kupono. I can't explain it with Kupono, but he is just so damn cute and sexy, and his personality is even cuter and sexier. And what the hell was wrong with the hair? I thought it made him look HAWT!! Bummed that he cut it, although it seemed Nigel wasn't going to take no for an answer.

If there weren't so many good dancers who performed terrifically well, I'd say go ahead and give Tony a chance to become this season's Ivan. But there's just too much talent this season, and it would break my heart if a guy other than Tony got cut. It's kind of a guilt-by-association thing, but I'd boot Paris too.

We are totally on the same page this week. Even the crushes are the same. Tony is definitely the weak link this year and I hope he goes tonight. I hope he doesn't pull a Cedric. Loved Mary's Botox comment. That was wicked awesome. Love Cat. "My new babies!" My fave of the night was Ade and naughty ballerina. I think Adam was emotional because he sent a tweet last week that he broke up with his boyfriend and was devastated. The song, dance and ambience probably hit him.

I am anxious to see the bottom 3 couples. I hope it is Tony and, because I don't really know much about her, Paris who are sent home.

I am amazed that America actually got it correct and the bottom 3 were the worst 3. And I was also shocked that the judges actually sent home the two dancers who I thought should go home. With the two weakest links gone, next week will be tough.

Maybe not that tough for the guy to be eliminated. Most of the ballroomers, or at least all the Russian ones, we've seen have been superbly well-trained: Dmitry, Pasha, Anya, Faena, etc. Even the untrained eye can tell that they've had years and years of top-flight training. But this year, we have a couple of salsa dancers whose training seems to be more of the informal variety, Jonathan and Janette. Janette is terrific, but when Jonathan did his solo, it looked like he had no idea what he was doing out there. Nigel even said that they saved him more because of his gymnastics, not his dance. But MDG, you're right about the girl to be eliminated next week. That'll be real tough because looking over the 9 remaining, none stand out as a weak link.

I agree, it was terrific to see that America got it right with the bottom 3 couples and the judges got it right with the 2 eliminations.

I love this show. I do think that there is an element of luck involved w/ which choreographer the couple gets for the week, I think it's easier to make it through a ballroom dance that you're not familiar with vs. one of the "out there" contemporary dances when you don't connect with the "concept" or "vision" of the dance.

Sure a good dancer should be able to execute, but some of the numbers over the seasons have been quite conceptual. I think some of Mia's numbers make way more sense in her head than they do on the stage.

also wanted to add that I thought the group number to Shane Sparks choreo to "Boom Boom Pow" was somewhat lackluster.

Oops, forgot about a couple of the performances. A bit late, but here's my take ...
Janette and Brandon. According to the show's site, Janette has had some formal training in all 3 genres plus ballet/pointe. I thought she looked a bit too good for an untrained/self-trained dancer. Brandon's feet were indeed off in this number, but it was pretty good overall, just not great like a lot of the others Wed. night. I loved Shankman's comment about Brandon dancing with clothes on. Ya big perv you!!
Ashley and Kupono. Sometimes I think Wade Robson could defecate on a plate, and the fawning dance community would call it the Venus de f*ckin' Milo. I absolutely hated this routine for the reason I hate most of Wade's routines -- they're pretentious mime theater. But I'm so damn glad my #1 crush Kupono survived.

Nah, I didn't care for Shane's routine either.

Who's going to be bottom 3? I'm thinking Phillip & Jeanine, Kupono & Ashley and I'll go with Jason & Caitlin. I really think all remaining dancers are talented so it will depend on the luck of the draw. You don't want to pull Krump!

Loved the music tonight. Mia choreographs the group number for tomorrow.

Loved the song "Hot Like Wow" by Nadia Oh and "24 Hours” (The Aston Shuffle A-Bomb Remix)" by Terry Poison.

I actually have no clue on who they are going to send home tomorrow night. I know it won't be Phillip if he is in the bottom 3. No way.

Ade is a god.

Although the talent this year is excellent, I think the guys are generally outshining the girls.

My partner and I can't help laughing our asses off everytime we hear Cat Deeley speak. We watched this SYTYCD parody on MADTV during the US presidential election and Nicole Parker has replaced Deeley in our minds.

Edited to add: After watching the elimination round tonight, I have to slightly disagree with myself. I think it's more even than I thought between the guys and the girls, though I think the best guys are better than the better girls.

I cannot believe that the guy who danced the tango (don't remember his name...) was not voted off. He was horrible, in my opinion.

no time this week to go over every performance, but here are the standouts this week:
Phillip was AWFUL. Remember the 1st week of Season 3 when the judges tore Ivan to shreds for his salsa? Phillip was even worse than Ivan. That might have been the worst ballroom performance I've ever seen on this show, certainly by far the worst tango. I felt bad for Ashley because there really wasn't a girl who deserved to be cut. I felt even worse for Max because Phillip REALLY deserved to go but Max ended up getting the ax.
Jonathan stepped up big-time. I'm still a bit baffled that he made it into the top 20, but he was simply terrific in the contemporary number. Granted, he mostly did a bunch of assisted lifts (which he pulled off to perfection) and there was that one big jump, but it's not like his half of the choreography was easy.
Bad choreography kills. Of course, any given week some dancers will great terrific choreography while others, not so much. Man oh man, did I bleepin' HATE that pop-jazz number by Brian Freedman. Just pretentious sh*t on a stick. And it seems nobody else liked it either because Max and Kayla ended up amongst the bottom 3 couples, even though they did actually dance that steaming pile of cowplop as well as it could be danced. It's not just coincidence that the couples who performed Shane Sparks' two routines also ended up amongst the bottom 3. Does Nigel really like Shane's choreography all that much? Or is it a very convenient symbiosis that the show gives Shane a chance to promote his movies while Shane then turns around and hires a bunch of SYTYCD alums?
Enough of the PretentiousArtySpeak! It drives me nuts to listen to Little C's verbal pretentiousness to the eighth power. Why does he use words that don't exist? ("comfortability"??) Why does he say things in such a way that nobody but the most piss-pretentious danseur can understand? Spare me the pretentious bullsh*t and just speak English. Get over yourself.

It was terrific to see Evan's brother Ryan give it another shot for Season 6. His audition performance was outstanding.

Great analysis BoSox.....totally agree. If one couple had danced their hip-hop well I would have put it on the dancers, but when both didn't do well then you have to look at the choreographer.

I realize that the response to art is very personal, everyone sees things reflected off their own experience. I don't know what it is about Mia Michaels but I just don't like her routines....last night's routine reminded me of Day of the Dead people on heroin having an epileptic fit...wasn't entertaining.

Phillip was horrible on Tango but he wouldn't have gone home even if he was in the bottom 3. His solos are amazing and they would have saved him guaranteed. I really thought that Kupono was going to be sent packing along with Ashley. Max and Kayla in the bottom 3 shocked me. I disagree with BSR because I really enjoyed the Friedman choreographed dance.

I actually didn't understand all the hype over Jonathan and Karla's "Falling Slowly" dance. I actually think that Jonathan is the weakest of the guys and i would have sent him packing if he was in the bottom 3.

My faves after two weeks:

Melissa & Ade
Kayla & Max - More Kayla than Max.
Randi & Evan - More Evan than Randi.
Janette & Brandon
Ashley & Kupono - More Kupono
Janine & Phillip
Caitlin & Jason - Although Jason nailed his dance for your life solo
Asuka & Vitolio
Karla & Jonathan

I think Mia's number would have worked better with less dancers. Probably as a top 10 group number.

Along with Mia, I cannot stand Brandon. He reminds me of the guy in either Season 1 or 2 who did great solos but never danced well with his partners. Attitude city.... I just don't find his dancing genuine or from an honest place. Sorta like Danny Tidwell- awesome dancer, but lacking emotion.

I haven't liked either of Jonathan's performances- don't quite know the source of the raves- is he a family member of someone at FOX?

I thought Max's solo was terrific. He got screwed, because based on performances and the solos from this week, Kupono should have gone home. Saying his solos are limited because of his ballroom style is ridiculous, because Phillip will always be limited to his unusual style as well. Was pretty sad...