SYTYCD – Season 5 – Auditions: Brothers and sisters and twins and other double takes.

Miami, FL
This was neither an inspired nor inspirational night. First, they showed us the Miami auditions and just at the beginning I saw my friend Ashley, in one of those outside shots, goofing around and shouting something to the camera that I couldn’t understand. What were you saying, Ashley? She auditioned in Miami for this season but didn’t make it pass the producers. Why? It’s hard to figure it out. She’s incredibly beautiful and an incredibly good dancer. She may have been too young for the show this season, or maybe did not fit their casting needs for this time around… Who knows?!? I know that her not making it into Vegas cannot have been based on her dancing skills because that is something that she certainly doesn’t lack. She has grace, technique and personality all together… and Nigel, Mary and Tyce didn’t even have a chance to see her! But just so you know how fake it is when Nigel, Mary and whoever else is judging try to make you think that there is no filter… there is. They don’t see everybody. And, definitely, many of the “auditioners” are let through just to feed the required casting silliness of these first audition shows. So when Nigel acts “outraged” at the contestants with arguments of how-do-you-dare showing up here in front of us with THAT routine (or lack of it), just think that the show producers already knew THAT and actually sent those same contestants in front of the judges and the cameras with full intention.

Well, enough of that. This time in Miami there was Tyce Diorio as one of the judges. I honestly do not recall him judging in any past seasons, but as much as I respect him as a choreographer (he’s really accomplished) I did not like his judging. He was mean (even Nigel said so) and, honestly, dorky. It all started with his comments about Tony Tonystyle, who very well deserved to be called on his making a fool of himself, but then Tyce, trying too hard to be “cool”, went too far and lost his cool. Tyce’s judging went down the hill from that point on. I hope they keep him as a choreographer for the show--he’s done great choreography; don’t judge him solely on that Katie/Courtney Broadway routine that wasn’t cool either--but keep him far from the judges table for the rest of the season!

Twins was the “theme” of the night. There’s not much to say about the Miami set of twins (were they wearing scarves around their ankles?) but that they were the worst set of “identical” twins I’ve ever seen… and I’m not even talking about their dancing yet… just that for identical they looked very different... about their dancing… well, that goes to show that neither ballet nor riding a bike can be learned by reading a manual!

The rest of the Miami auditions seemed packed with pretty people (not everybody, though) with little dancing skills (not everybody, though). What? What was that? Was that all that they could find down here? I cannot believe it! Well, just to remind you, they already have Brandon (from Miami’s New World) in the show and he’s going to make it to the top ten. Among Miami’s most memorable who made it to Vegas were Joseph Smith: dropping, popping, hip hopping from Orlando. The big shawahm! Janet Manrara and Romulo Villaverde, the ballroom couple. Erik “Silky” Moore, who was awesome! He even made his tap/hiphop/jazz/breakdancing number look easy! Priscilla Marrero, beautiful, although hard to tell if she’s really as good as the judges seemed to think. Talia Rickard, with a heartbreaking story, and who seemed to me better than what the judges seemed to think. Also to Vegas went Scary Featherman, Paris Torres from Seattle, and Alex Wong (who may be top 20 material).

Memphis (not Miami’s twin city, but more twins here)
Let’s see if Motown City can be Movetown City. Here we see Li’l C krump expertise helping the panel decide on the young starry eyed chicken dancers: Marico Flake’s Memphis Junkin’ (?) style steps him through to Vegas. In a producer coup we see that Brendan Fraser can learn how to make a great comedy by watching Dustin Dorough’s clips. Dustin has been cut down by the flu and bronchitis, but really… he needs to learn how to dance like a man dances. Chris Carroza has a Boy George moment that lasts less than 15 minutes – and that seems even a little too much on the high side. Caitlyn Kinney goes to Vegas with her sister. A nice gesture from the judges so they don’t separate the sisters… They kept doing that through the show to keep up with the theme of the night: brothers and sisters.

Anna Dunn’s expressionist dance reminded me of a Jules Feiffer cartoon, “a dance to…” spring, life, etc. She transmits emotion, perhaps tries to hide her face because her body is doing the communicating. Goes to Vegas. Hope to see more of her!

Travis Prokopos embodies contradictions, his father coaches football, he dances awkwardly/gracefully… he needs to define his position on the dance floor a little better—we’ll find out in Vegas….

Evan Krapscak does a 60’s jazz routine with an extra flair that gets him to Vegas. He's given the “we’ll see what you can do with other styles” speech, but undoubtedly he is a kid with talent. Maybe a bit too old fashioned, even for a classic style… but we’ll see. His brother Ryan, who auditioned later, received the mercy of the judges and went to Vegas too. Seemed to be a really nice guy, don’t get me wrong, but did he really deserve that pass? And keeping up with the brothers and sisters theme, the same happened with twins Lauren and Lydia Guerra. Pink was better than blue but both got to go to Vegas.

Lots of sisters, brothers and twins went to Vegas! ...but I'm sure most halves of these pairs will stay in Vegas.

Today they’ll show more auditions (L.A. and Boston) and Adam Shankman will be judging. In the final clips we saw a teaser with Adam doing a girlie Mary scream with a ticket to Vegas spoof. A true Miss America crowning moment! What can I say, I love this show, I hate this show, I love this show…

Want to see more Jules Feiffer? http://www.jeanalbano-artgallery.com/feiffer/index.html