Saturday, October 27, 2007

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: When I decided that it was time for my inaugural reality-tv-related live event -- at the Nassau Coliseum, no less! -- I thought that I was going to be embarrassingly old relative to the universe of people who would choose to attend the So You Think You Can Dance tour. To my mild amazement, I wasn't. In fact, I actually felt pretty young compared to many of the people sitting around us. So apparently SYTYCD's fan base skews older than I'd realized. Who knew?

I have to say that I was surprised by the production values of the thing -- from impeccably timed prerecorded Cat Deeley voiceovers ("Welcome . . . to so you THINK you can DANCE!") to well-written and shockingly well-delivered patter from the dancers themselves that, like, made Jaimie, like, giggle, sound articulate, while Dominic was given a number of self-deprecating comedic sketches. The producers did a really impressive job of recreating the "our show in your living room" communal spirit that is, to me, one of the most appealing aspects of the TV show.

And there was dancing, too -- tons of it! Solos (actual choreographed ones, from what I could tell) from all of the top ten dancers plus at least 25 group or partnered routines. All of the greatest hits were represented, from Sabra and Neil's "Sweet Dreams (are Made of This)" workplace dance to the oft-touted-by-me hummingbird and flower dance (Hok! Hok! Hok!) to the Danny/Anya foxtrot to the Mia's dad dance to the hobos cabaret to the Benjy-choreographed west coast swing to the Dmitri-choreographed samba to the Lauren and Pasha we-are-the-machine dance and so on. If you can think of a dance you particularly liked during the season, it was danced on the tour. Sabra got very little in the way of special attention -- she got to dance the last solo, and was alluded to as the winner a few times, but that was it. And even though the teenybopper contingent was less dominant than I'd anticipated, they were loud Loud LOUD when it came to screeching for Danny and Neil whenever they set foot on stage.

If there was one glaringly odd choice, it was Kameron and Shauna dancing the Shauna/Jimmy "Ease on Down the Road" number from maybe week two of the finals. Shauna was apparently brought on the tour as some sort of alternate/understudy (along with Anya, Hok, and Jesús), so her appearance wasn't terribly weird, but plopping Kameron into the Jimmy role for what was never a memorable dance to begin with just underscored the degree to which Kameron made it as far as he did in the competition solely by virtue of being the prop around which Lacey danced. In a two-hour show chock full of great moments, the fact that Kameron didn't have any great moments of his own was pretty obvious.

So now, having been to my first SYTYCD tour, I think it's pretty safe to say that Mr. Cosmo and I plan to attend next year's festivities! Go Room 19!

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