Top eight week on So You Think You Can Dance finally brought the long-awaited pairing of contestants, providing dancers with just a little better opportunity to showcase strengths. It’s refreshing, in a sea of routines sometimes overburdened by a detailed narrative, to get a dance with one simple purpose: movement. Choreographer Mandy Moore is good…
Tag: television
Dance, Quick Steps
So You Think You Can Dance: Meet the Top 10
Last week’s So You Think You Can Dance recap singled out Gaby Diaz’s tap routine with finalists Lex Ishimoto and Evan DeBenedetto. And while official pick Ishimoto is appearing here as a contemporary-first dancer, his training in tap has been substantial enough for the two to offer up this Fred-and-Ginger referencing routine from the usually…
Dance, Quick Steps
World of So You Think You Can Dance: Creative Editing
Back to the highlights as So You Think You Can Dance‘s second-to-last “Academy” round, whittling the All-Star teams down to two candidates apiece, before the top 10 reveal in weeks to come, brought back a bit more in the way of dance routines. While we’re sorry not to have seen, for example, Fik-Shun’s efforts with…
Quick Steps
World of So You Think You Can Dance: Traditional Value
Has the hour time cap forced So You Think You Can Dance‘s producers to tighten focus for Season 14 — highlighting both talent and stylistic diversity on a weekly basis, giving viewers less of the most conventional contemporary auditions and more ballroom, more varied hip hop, and a smattering of specialty styles? While the competitive…
Quick Steps
World of So You Think You Can Dance: Fancy Footwork
It was a passably good week for lovers of rhythm and footwork on the summer’s TV dance competitions. Tuesday’s World of Dance included a duel between Kyle Van Newkirk and high-profile hip hop duo Les Twins. The battle, unsurprisingly, favored the latter, but it was nice to get a glimpse of a full routine from…
Quick Steps
Wednesday Watch: World of So You Think You Can Dance
Note: Updated June 16 NBC’s new World of Dance set a rough road its first two weeks for fans of ballroom; similarly, the genre’s had more downs than ups on Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance, with the last real gasp in its last adult-focused season coming when Latin champ and SYTYCD Canada winner…
Dance, Quick Steps
Dancing With the Stars, Season 23: Week 10 in Review
We’ve reached the Semi-Finals, where votes cast now contribute to next week’s ultimate outcome. While there’s a probable frontrunner, dances from couples across the board stood out in this week’s Trio Night. 1. Laurie Hernandez, Val Chmerkovskiy and Maks Chmerkovskiy, Samba You can argue that this approach to a trio dance doesn’t quite meet the…
Dance, Quick Steps
Dancing With the Stars, Season 23: Week 7 in Review
Eras Night is one of my preferred Dancing With the Stars theme nights when done to its best — reasonable tributes to a period or a style, less so when involving odd mash-ups or blatant inaccuracies. Last night’s offered its own mixed bag, but on the whole presented a fairly enjoyable line-up — even if…
Dance, Quick Steps
Dancing With the Stars, Season 23: Week 6 in Review
Near the season’s halfway point, the standouts are established and the reliable choreographers can be expected to deliver. Here are a few routines that I prized from this season’s Latin Night. 1. Calvin Johnson and Lindsay Arnold, Argentine Tango A refreshingly stripped-down Argentine tango where the focus is on pure dance connection — and a…
Dance, Quick Steps
Dancing With the Stars, Season 23: Week 4 in Review
By week four, Dancing With the Stars contestants are beginning to shake out in terms of finalist potential, long run promise, and likely fodder. This week’s Cirque du Soleil theme set the stage for a few season-best performances, though wide range in terms of content-heavy material. 1. Laurie Hernandez and Val Chmerkovskiy picked up the…
