So You Think You Can Dance kicked off its live concert tour on September 20 in Tacoma, Washington. The Top 10 finalists from season four, plus three special guests (also from season four), are hitting over 40 cities across America. The tour concludes November 17 in Tampa, Florida.
In addition to attending the opening performance of the tour, I also had the opportunity to meet with five of the thirteen dancers. Season four winner Joshua Allen, as well as Katee Shean, Mark Kanemura, Chelsea Traille, and Jessica King (who dropped out of the competition mid-season due to broken ribs) chatted with me about the show and the tour. Only a few hours later they would take the stage in front of a sold-out Tacoma Dome audience.
As a neophyte to So You Think You Can Dance, I was more than a little unsure about how to conduct the interview. My worries dissolved quickly because of the disarming, easy-going nature of these talented performers. I welcomed the chance to get to know some of them prior to watching them in action.
Joshua admitted he had never been to the Seattle area before, nor to "over half of the places" he would visit during the tour. All of the dancers, who had flown in to Seattle that day, were excited to perform in front of the large - and hopefully enthusiastic - crowd that night. I asked what had drawn them to audition for So You Think You Can Dance. All of them stated that they were fans of the show and saw it as an opportunity to further their careers in dance. Chelsea considered the show to be like "watching training." She recorded each episode to watch many times over, learning from what she saw. She said, "If I could just get a second of that [training], or even just a glimpse of it - that would be amazing and so I tried out." Mark, who was teaching dance in Hawaii, saw the show as an opportunity to "break out of his comfort zone and do something different."
Joshua, who began his dance career as a street performer, had been trying to save up enough money to get out to Los Angeles for the audition. Then, much to his surprise, he learned that auditions were to be held right where he lived: Dallas, Texas. He made this discovery a mere week before the audition date. He tried out on the "coldest day in Dallas ever," waiting in long lines, and eventually won his ticket to Las Vegas.
While on the show, the dancers all had to claim a specific style of dance, but all were quick to point out that a dancer must be versed in several styles to be successful. Chelsea told me, “The thing about dancers is we don't discriminate [against] any kind of dance. I'm just as intrigued watching hip-hop as I am ballet or contemporary. I feel like we're so different, as different as a fingerprint. [Dance] is an expression of yourself. I'm 23, and ten years ago there was no dancing on TV. To turn on the TV and see crews, contemporary dancers - it's just insane."
Article comments
1 - Jcf
A very well-written objective review without any hype. Bravo!