So You Think You Can Dance Season 7 Episode 2 stopped in LA and Chicago. In LA, we met Lauren Froderman, Rachel Girma, Christina Santana, Alexi Agdeppa, and Ryan Ramirez. Then we met Kent Boyd and Andrew Phillips in Chicago.
The first stop tonight is Dallas, TX. Tyce Diorio and Toni Redpath join Nigel.
Ida Saki chooses some sleepy music that Tyce loves. Her mom was not allowed to dance because she lived in Iran, but Ida’s dancing for them both. The judges are amazed.
Haylee Durbin started dancing when she was two, but she doesn’t want to be mistaken for a frilly girl. Nigel’s not sure about the style or the stank face. She’ll be going to choreography.
Conor “Scooter Rocket” McLaughlin shows up wearing a helmet. Underneath that helmet is Clay Aiken’s little brother, except he can’t sing despite thinking he can. Seems he also missed the memo that this is a dance show because he’s on skates. Pointless.
Nicole Knudson hopes to one day have hair like Marge Simpson. Tyce says this is the kind of talent that comes along every hundred years. She’s everything and also a bag of chips.
Haylee is eliminated.
Deroccius Harris says he tries to be masculine, sexy, poppy, and jazz handy. He fails at all of those things. Nigel tells him he might make the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders.
Marcella Raneri is harboring a dark secret. Her father was born into the mob, and he has since been sent up the river. Now she has to work (as a lingerie model for her mom) so she can dance. Visually stunning, but the dancing is somewhat lacking. She will be heading to choreography.
Jordan Johnson comes from a small town of about 1100 people. He’s struggled with depression and addiction. He’s got some gymnastics background in addition to dance. Nigel likes that he never knows what’s coming. Toni wants him to take that he’s not “traditionally handsome” the right way.
Marcella advances to Vegas.
Nashville, TN is the next stop. I don’t really think of Nashville when I think of dancing. Joey Dowling joins Nigel and Adam.
Faith Looney is doing flamenco with her friend Kelsey. They’re the best of friends, although once they didn’t talk to each other for two and a half hours. Joey almost thought she was making fun of the style.
Shanya Vaughn is bringing everything she’s got. She can keep it. Apparently, she’s on the show so she can be a model. That’s not happening any more than the dancing.
Brian Gaynor is back after doing the robot three years ago. Not much point since we know he’s not going any further, but at least he’s better than what we’ve seen so far from Nashville. Nigel promises him he’ll put his group of three dancers on the show.
With that, the auditions are over, and Vegas week begins. Over 100 dancers have made it there.
The bad news: only 10 people will make it to the top. They will be dancing with all stars as their partners instead of newbies. I’d rather see a top 20.
Billy Bell and Alex Wong have come straight to Vegas. Alex was unable to be in the top 20 because of his contract with a ballet company. Billy was eliminated due to illness. A pair of tough acts to follow.
Anthony Burrell pulled a hamstring but has been cleared to dance by the clinic. Then the axes fall on 26 dancers. He is not one of them.
After the cuts, hip hop with Tabitha Dumo is the first test. Rachel Girma and Jose Ruiz are not used to choreography. Jose seems to be catching on, but Rachel’s stressed out. She has been eliminated. Jose, however, will advance to day 2.
26 more dancers are then eliminated.
Sarah Brinson has injured her back, but she’s going to have to hit the stage with Anthony in the last group of the day. She has been cut, but he will go forward.
Ballroom will be their next test, complete with scary drill sergeant choreographer Toni Redpath. She seemed so sweet as a judge. Now she’s a lunatic.
Jordan Johnson is one of the worst of the day and is eliminated.
Nicole Knudson looks a lot better with her hair down. The judges ask her to dance again without the hair in the way. Anybody wanna be her partner? She manages to get ballroom dancer Serge Ornick to dance with her. Will he help her or overshadow her? Her performance is enough to move on to the next round.
Adechike Torbert has been just barely scraping by at every turn, so the judges give him a chance to dance for his life. With only 10 spots, it seems futile, but it’s enough to survive for one more round.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of So You Think You Can Dance Season 7 Episode 4, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on Fox.
That “sleepy music” that Ida Saki danced to was the theme from the blockbuster movie “Schindler’s List”. It is a beautiful piece of music that evokes very strong emotional responses in anyone who has seen that amazing movie, hence the reason Tyce and Nygel both exclaimed that they love that piece as soon as it started to play.
I have that on VHS. Now I just need a VCR.