The auditions concluded in So You Think You Can Dance Season 8 Episode 3 with auditions from Jordan Casanova, DC Chapman, Arielle Coker, and Alexis Mason. Tonight we go to Vegas with more dancers and more judges. Robin Antin, Adam Shankman, Debbie Allan, and Tyce Diorio join Nigel and Mary.
Iveta Lukosiute is in her third trip to Vegas, where she apparently believed she was going to be performing at a gentleman’s club. They don’t have to ask her to take anything off because she starts off pretty well unclothed to begin.
Marlon Pelayo shows up in a unitard, which the judges complain about.
Marlon’s out because his outfit’s too distracting. Iveta’s very distracting outfit, however, is not a problem, and she’s moving to the next round.
Wadi Jones is a bboy known for his freerunning. Sasha & Natalia Mallory decide to perform together again for their “solos”. They’re heading to the next round.
114 people move to the next round (hip hop with Tabitha and Napoleon), with 46 having been eliminated from the solos that may or may not have featured two dancers.
Chyna Smith tries to be up for the challenge of being bad ass and buck. As much as any person from Idaho can be. She realizes she’s not very good, but they’re going to give her another chance.
Hero McRae (who I never understood why they didn’t send to choreography) and Patty Anne Miller are eliminated. Mary Kate Sheehan, Kristen Dobson, and shouldn’t have been sent to Vegas Princess Lockerooo are also out.
Wadi Jones will perform in spite of the cramps in his legs. He’s lucky this is a comfortable style for him because the lack of practice doesn’t hurt him.
8 contestants have been given another chance to dance the same style they messed up earlier, including Chyna and Iveta. They’re all through to the next round.
The first challenge of the next day is Tyce Diorio’s broadway routine. Jason Gilkison joins the judges’ panel while Adam gets his knee checked at the hospital.
Lil O, somebody named Jessica, Jordan Casanova, and Wadi are through to the next round. A long list of others join them.
Rebecca Hart is in her fifth season. She talks about how she really wasn’t going to come back again. Really? Jeremiah Hughes has been around just as long as her and has gone so far as to audition for SYTYCD Canada, too. He was previously cut in a silly display from the judges complaining about him being upset. Jeremiah scrapes through. Rebecca is out, and her request to dance for her life is denied, regardless of whether she’s made it further than this before or not.
Jason Gilkison’s jive is the next task.
Josh Williams has been struggling to lift his larger partner Natalia. Whether she’s talented or not, her size is a problem (if it weren’t, they wouldn’t have to work around it), and keeping her around just seems to be delaying the inevitable. They are split up and given new partners. Natalia gets a larger Bryce Johnson (the professor) as her new partner. She’ll be moving to the next round.
Ryan Ramirez was axed last season in the final round. She’s going to the next round, and so is Sasha.
With a winner in her family, Alexis Mason is expected to be in the top 20, which we’ll be back to again since they decided the top 10 concept was stupid. The judges question think her performance was artificial, whatever that means, and ask her to dance for her life. Nigel says no. Mary agrees with him but says yes. Tyce is also conflicted but says yes. Debbie also says yes, which is enough for her to stick around.
At 10PM, they’re told they are not done for today. It’s group night. Each group picks a CD at random and must create a routine for that piece of music.
A group of contemporary dancers (Bridget, Caitlynn, Ricky, and Clarice) plus Wadi is up first. They bounced through their choreography quickly and were all quite happy as they finished up around midnight. They sail through to the next round.
Natalia is not feeling well, but she has been cleared by the medics to dance. In her group are DC, Arielle, Dashi, and Jordan. Their additional problem beyond the lost rehearsal time is that DC feels he’s being ignored by dancers outside of his style who are too graceful. Regardless, they’re through to the next round.
Day 3 is contemporary day, which Nigel warns them will be a bloodbath.
Ryan is injured and off to the hospital for an X-ray. Natalia’s also off to the hospital due to her low blood sugar.
Sasha is through to the next round, and so is Bryce. Robert Taylor Jr., Wadi, and Lil O are as well.
Ryan returns with good news that she does not have a fractured or broken butt, just a lot of deep tissue brusing. She is cleared to compete and opts to dance in this round regardless of the lack of rehearsal. To give her a bit of a boost, they give her Robert Roldan as a partner, but she doesn’t really need the help because she’s got it down.
Jeremiah and Arielle are in the next group. He has been cut in contemporary twice before, and she was eliminated last time in this round as well. DC is also in their group. Arielle has been eliminated, and DC has as well, with a request from Debbie to man up. For Jeremiah, the news is positive.
Chyna is out.
Natalia returns with news that she has diabetes. She is cleared to dance and gets a pass through contemporary, and she and her sister are through to the next round.
Kimalee Piedad, Chase Thomas, and Amber Williams have been eliminated.
The final performance of the night goes to Alexis Mason, who has been eliminated.
31 dancers remain, and from them the top 20 will be chosen.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of So You Think You Can Dance Season 8 Episode 5, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on Fox.