The second week of auditions continue tonight on So You Think You Can Dance.  Last week, Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy and Mia Michaels took Los Angeles by storm and found 30 promising young dancers to send to the Las Vegas rounds. Tonight, Nigel, Mary and Mandy Moore will make their way to Salt Lake City and Dallas, continuing in their search for America's next favorite dancer.

Stay with me for the entire two-hour broadcast.  I'll be on hand, providing you with live thoughts throughout.

Salt Lake City

Cat Deeley greets us from a very snowy Salt Lake City.  At seven o' clock in the morning, at about four degrees before zero, a huge line has already formed outside of the audition venue.  Everyone looks super excited.  As in last week, the dancers have one minute to make a great impression on the judges.  If they are great, they automatically go to the Vegas audition rounds.  If they suck, they are sent home.  If they are in between, they are asked back for a choreography round at the end of the day.

The first hopeful of the day is Chelsie Hightower.  She has an inspirational story, overcoming poverty and the loss of their home.  She dances ballroom with another contestant's partner and she is fabulous.  Nigel thinks she is hot and impressed with how well she used her facial expressions.  Mary Murphy calls her a hot tamale, but at least she didn't shriek it.  She's going to Vegas!

The next person to audition is a young man with Down Syndrome named Brett Banford.  He wants to prove to everyone that people with disabilities can still dance.  He also loves Cat Deeley.  He does a hip hop routine, which is good for someone with a disability, but not highly technical.  Nigel gives it to him straight: he would do great at a club, but he's not good enough for So You Think You Can Dance.  He is very winsome, but he's not going anywhere.

The next dancer comes from a huge Native American family.  His family is involved in a Native American dance troupe called Morning Star, but he does more of an urban kind of dancing.  I'm not sure I like it, though.  There's a lot of frantic movements and twitching on the floor.  Nigel advises him to calm down.  All the judges give him a no.

There are a couple of bad hip hop dancers who clearly are sent home right away, which I will skip over.

Gev Manoukian, originally from Kazakhstan, dances next.  He likes break dancing on ice, wearing figure skates, which is pretty amazing.  I would watch a show like that!  But his audition is a beautiful blend of break dancing, popping and a modern.  He's kind of amazing.  The judges invite him back for the choreography round.

The next performer, Lindsey Judkins, is way too cheerleady and gymnastics floor routine for my taste.  It's clear that she is really athletic and controlled, but she just seems to chipper and not soulful enough for me.  The judges call her a "cutie patootie."  Mandy is concerned that Lindsey is too one-dimensional, but Nigel gives her a ticket to Vegas anyway.

Since this is Salt Lake City, a lot of the very young performers are already married and procreating.  Nicole Downer is 27 and a stay-at-home mom of four.  She brought all the young tykes to the audition.  Too bad she is not a very good dancer.  She should probably stay home and keep making peanut butter sandwiches.  It's so embarrassing watching people like her.  I'm cringing.  The judges think she is so much fun, but no dice.

The last solo audition of the day is by Kelli Baker.  Her mother is Bonnie Story, who won an Emmy for the choreography for High School Musical.  I'm expecting a lot from this one.  She does live up to my expectations with a beautifully controlled and emotional lyrical performance.  She is the best dancer that all of the judges have seen this season.  And she's going to Vegas!  She does a cute celebratory dance on stage before retrieving her plane ticket.

It's time for the choreography round.  They have half an hour to learn a group routine.  Gev doesn't do a great job in choreography, but he's going to Vegas anyway.  Nigel totally psyches him out.  So far, 18 hopefuls from Salt Lake City have been awarded with tickets to sin city.

Day two in Salt Lake begins.

Naomie Christensen, who looks like a female LARPer if ever I've seen one, dances first.  She claims to be an actor as well as a financial planner.  Sadly, she is one of those poor, delusional saps.  Mary goes on a tirade at Naomie for wasting her time.  Obviously, she's not going to Vegas.

Apparently, everyone after Naomie royally sucked as well.

After a string of bad, bad, bad dancers, we get Ryann Race, who is a DJ at a strip club.  Strip clubs in Utah!  It must be the only one.  He was just broken up with by his stripper girlfriend two weeks ago, so he's going to try to express his emotions through dance.  Wow.  I don't really know where to start.  He's equal parts dorky white guy and .... actually, he's just a dorky white guy.  Wait!  Holy crap!  The judges like it!  What is going on?  They are inviting him back for the choreography round.  Are you kidding me?  He wasn't really dancing!

Finally, some good dancers take the stage.  Matt Dorame dances, and I think he's definitely still rough around the edges and can benefit from continuing to stay in class, he definitely has talent.  Nigel likes his lines and his techniques, but doesn't like his athletic shorts.  He's going to Vegas!

Thayne Jasperson is another strong lyrical dancer, who is going straight to Vegas.

Best friends Kortney Pearson and Michelle "Shelley" Stringham who have done everything together audition together.  They got married at around the same time and divorced around the same time as well. 

Kortney performs first.  She has kind of a hip hop feel, which would work well in a club, but it's technique-lite.  It's her first day back at dancing in five years.  Nigel tells her to get her technique back if she wants to continue dancing.  The judges invite her back for the choreography.

Shelley auditions next.  I think she's much better than Kortney.  Her audition starts out pretty slow, but she gets into the swing of things and exhibits strength and pretty good turns.  She slips around on the stage wearing socks, but the judges ask her back for choreography.

In the second choreography round, the judges determine that Shelley and Kortney are going to Vegas.  Geez Louise, Ryann is going to Vegas too!  What a lock of crock!  Sixteen other contestants will be joining them, bringing the two-day Salt Lake City total to 42.


Dallas

It's time to hit the Lone Star State.  It wasn't snowing in Dallas, but it still looks pretty cold here.  A lot of the hopefuls line up, bundled up in blankets.  Taking the guest judge seat in Dallas is Adam Shankman.  Yay!  He's my favorite of the So You Think You Can Dance guest judges.

Brian Davidson is the first audition, and already, I'm not expecting much from him.  He is a slovenly-looking 30-year-old with a weak chin and an almost-mullet.  Sure enough, he is awful.  Just awful.  I think he's even doing the white man's overbite.  He argues with Nigel and makes the walk of shame down the aisle of the theater.  Ugh.

The next person to audition is a full-contact fighter named Chad Agnor who is also a ballroom dance instructor and owns a dance studio, teaching country line dancing and hip hop.  Wow, that's quite a combination.  I'm looking forward to seeing him dance, but he injures his hamstring during warmup.  Uh oh.  He looks like he's going to go through with it, though.  He limps on stage, and Nigel tells him that he really doesn't recommend continuing.  Chad tells them to cue the music and he commences his country line dancing inspired routine.  Not great at all.  The judges send him home.

Now for some dancers of the female persuasion.  Paige Jones, Pageant Barbie personified, is perky and has an entirely pink apartment.  She is a college student and she takes notes in class with a fluffy, sparkly pink pen.  Oh gawd.  This is going to be interesting.  She's a decent dancer, and impresses me with a series of fouetté turns, but she's really cheerleady.  Nigel calls her a Stepford dancer.  That is so right!  The judges ask her back for the choreography.

Joshua Allen performs a hip hop routine next.  He definitely has a lot of personality and has great moves.  Adam Shankman is impressed that he added in a port de bras into his routine.  Finally, a good hip hop dancer!  Mary shrieks that she fell in love with her dancing.  He is coming back for the choreography.

Cassidy is a hip hop dancer.  Her signature moves are her booty shaking and body rolls.  Now, that's just embarrassing.  Please, make her stop!  NIgel tells her that it was one of the worst auditions he has seen.  She blames her poor performance on her nerves.

After Cassidy, things got even worse.  Brianna Gardner "looks like a very bored stripper," according to Nigel.  It's really true.  Kayleigh Darling was not better, with awkward tourjetes left and right.

John Dix and Arielle Coker dance a gorgeous lyrical pas de deux.  Arielle in particular is spectacular.  She's got legs that go on forever and she knows what to do with them.  Nigel likens their performance to Step Up and Step Up 2.  Arielle gets a ticket to Vegas, and John is asked back for the choreography.

Next, we have a montage of good dancers.  That's a change!  I like watching good dancers!

Finally, it's time for the last contestant of the day.  Steven Artner, his hair pulled up into two Mickey Mouse ears, performs a hip hop "chair dance."  The judges watch him with varying degrees of confusion or distaste on their faces.  Nigel asks him what the hell he was doing.  Nigel says that he wasn't good, but Steven says he was good.  Mary says it was terrible, but Steven argues back.  Can we say delusional?  Actually, he calls Mary a delusional bitch.

After the choreography round, the judges have decided not to award John Dix with a trip to Vegas.  Sad!  I really liked him.  However, Pageant Paige and Joshua Allen, along with 38 other dancers all got their plane tickets.

Tomorrow, So You Think You Can Dance will hit Washington, DC and Charleston, SC for another two-hour audition episode.



-Debbie Chang, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of FOX)