Hey So You Think You Can Dance fans! To better cover the technical talents of season 6, we've brought on a guest columnist with decades of dance experience. Kimberly C. Ellis is a performing artist, dancer, poet and scholar whose been dancing since seven years old. Kimberly, who is best known as "Dr. Goddess" will be bringing your her dance-pertise in a weekly column recapping and reviewing So  You Think You Can Dance with an eye on technique.

By Kimberly C. Ellis (aka Dr. Goddess)

Our last day in Las Vegas could easily be summed up with this: "the thrill of victory and agony of their feet." My, my, my what a beating for their feeting! The end of the show is a good way to begin this recap because when Nigel Lythgoe informed Dominic Pearson, the overly confident (and slightly arrogant) Contemporary dancer, that he'd only received two votes to move onto the next round, Dominic, literally, broke down and cried onstage. On the one hand, we feel his pain because, as Cat Deely laments in the voiceover, "they come agonizingly close", so it does hurt---and bad. However, there was a sense of privilege that Dominic carried that went beyond the self-confidence necessary to do an outstanding job and impress the judges. Dominic simply looked a bit uncommitted in his movement and didn't get into character during the Broadway routine, as had so many of the other male dancers. We'll come back to Broadway and those results; but the point is, you have to live in the moment, dance like you do NOT yet have the part and commit yourself to the performance, the music, the stage and yourself. After all, if you do not love dance, you will never make it; and, as Debbie Allen astutely pointed out, "this is not the end of the world . . . it's a big television show, but it's not the end of the world."

A perfect theme for the beginning of the end of the Vegas Week auditions, yes?


The show begins with Laurie Ann Gibson's "encouraging" lessons on self-motivation and Jazz dance. Laurie Ann yells at the dancers like an enraged, hyper-medicated Lydia Grant (Debbie Allen's character from Fame)---without all the love, nurturing, inspiration and warmth Ms. Grant brought to her classroom. I'll never forget Laurie Ann yelling at her dancers on the first season of P. Diddy's Making the Band (during which most of you new viewers gained her acquaintance) when, after the 30th time they'd rehearsed the piece, she bellowed to the girls, "You Guys??!! What is Diddy gonna saaaaay??" [Cue horror-film music and a close up of P. Diddy's shoes approaching the studio]. And, just like in So You Think You Can Dance, dancers got cut. Oh, it was hilarious . . . but I digress . . . Wait, no I don't! My point is, Laurie Ann brought that same fire to her Vegas Week Jazz choreography instruction with such lines as "You are so messy!", "Quiet!" and "The audacity of you to ask me such a question! Just dance!!!" Ah, the familiarity of her psychological torture is so refreshing!

Nevertheless, most dancers who have ever had formal instruction know that such, um, "mental motivation" is pretty routine in the performing arts world, no need to spare the rod for the next Top 20! Sucking it up and moving through the routine came the first group, in which Karen Hauer (who danced with her hubby in the Boston auditions), admitted she was exhausted and on the brink of tears. Luckily for us viewers and in clear distinction from many of her peers, she did not cry, she simply danced---not to the best of her ability but she clearly learned the choreography and carried powerful energy when executing a few of the key moves. Hence, she scraped through to the next round with a "meh" warning from Nigel. Unfortunately, her dear husband, Matthew Hauer, simply could not pick up on the choreography, spent the entire performance looking at the dancer on his right for instruction and then inserted a couple of fancy kicks. He was promptly let go. So, our first married couple sent to Vegas would later check into the "Heartbreak Hotel".

The second group performed so horribly as individuals and as a collective that Nigel turned the audition into a Master Class, scolded each dancer and instructed them to perform again. See what Laurie Ann started?! They did so but world Ballroom dance champion Iveta Lukosite and Willen de Vries (of same sex ballroom dancing fame) were cut and sent home, along with several others.

In the final group came Contemporary dancers, Mollee Gray, Billy Bell and, Krumper, Russell Ferguson. They excellently displayed shoulder rolls, full body layouts with quick snaps to the floor, sharp jazz kicks, hands and energy (!!!). While Mollee's performance proved too kiddie-boppish for the judges, Russell's barrel turn and sharp execution proved stunning, and led the judges to ask if he'd had any prior, formal dance training. He has not and Russell continues to be amazing. Unfortunately, Mollee sprained her foot and was taken to the hospital.



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