So You Think You Can Dance, the summer's hottest reality show, began last week with open auditions in Los Angeles.  Judges Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy, accompanied by Mia Michaels, sought out all the talented dancers in southern California.

Tonight, the judges continued their trek across the country, hitting Salt Lake City, Utah and Dallas, Texas for even more dancers. Read on to see what went down in tonight's two-hour broadcast.


Salt Lake City

Choreographer and new guest judge Mandy Moore joined Nigel and Mary in Salt Lake City.  Even though snow was ferociously falling throughout the two days of auditions, the three judges wrangled up 42 extremely talented dancers to send to the Vegas round.

Some standouts with inspirational stories from Salt Lake include Chelsie Hightower and Brett Banford.  Chelsie is a ballroom dancer whose family has run into financial troubles, losing their home and nearly everything else.  She managed to continue with her dance training, however, and impressed the judges enough to earn a ticket to Vegas.  Brett is not going Vegas, but he indeed proved to everyone who watched So You Think You Can Dance tonight that people with Down Syndrome can still cut a rug.

Another fantastic performer was Kelli Baker.  She had a lot of pressure on her shoulders because she is the daughter of Bonnie Story, an Emmy award-winning choreographer for High School Musical.  Bonnie obviously taught her daughter well, because Kelli was amazing, probably the best one of the night.  We'll see her next week in the Vegas auditions.

There were several dancers from Salt Lake who needed two opportunities to prove to the judges that they deserve to advance.  Among them were Gev Manoukian, Ryann Race, Kortney Pearson and Shelley Stringham.  Gev is a very talented hip hop dancer who likes to also likes to break dance on ice.  I was rooting for him to make it, but he got cut after the choreography.  Hopefully, he spend the year taking class and come back next year.  Ryann is a strip club DJ who, in my opinion, shouldn't have been allowed to advance.  I don't think that he really is So You Think You Can Dance material, but there's still a chance that he will get cut in Vegas.  Kortney and Shelley are best friends who do everything together.  Shelley is the stronger dancer, but they both get invited to Vegas.


Dallas

Replacing Mandy Moore in Dallas was Adam Shankman, the genius behind Hairspray.  The auditions started off inauspiciously, with many a delusional dancer taking the stage.  One of them, a full-contact fighter cum country line dancer named Chad Agnor, pulled his hamstring just before taking the stage.  He wouldn't have made it anyway, even if he hadn't injured himself.

My favorite pair from Dallas were John Dix and Arielle Coker, who danced a marvelously executed lyrical pas de deux.  Arielle was a sight to behold and the judges all immediately fell in love with her.  John was not as strong a dancer and was asked back for the choreography.  Unfortunately, even after a second chance at performing, he was cut from the competition.  Arielle, however, was put on a plane to Vegas.

A walking, talking human Barbie doll, in the form of Paige Jones, auditioned in Dallas.  She is the epitome of the Texas pageant girl, with a shelf full of trophies to prove it.  She proved to the judges that she had decent technique, but the judges didn't appreciate as much her "dance competition" style.  She squeaked her way through the choreography and earned herself a ticket to Vegas, however.

As in Salt Lake City earlier in the evening and in Los Angeles last week, there were plenty of bad dancers in Dallas.  The last of these was Steven Artner, who performed a "chair dance," his hair styled into two Mickey Mouse ears on top of his head.  He didn't take kindly to the judges' harsh criticism, and even called Mary Murphy a "delusional bitch."  Now, as much as I can't stand Mary Murphy or her piercing shriek, I think she does know what she's talking about and she's hardly a bitch.

Don't miss the next round of auditions tomorrow night beginning at 8pm.  So You Think You Can Dance will make its way to Washington, DC and Charleson, SC.



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