Episode 6: 14 Dancers, and Mia’s Little Dog, Too

Why the title, you may ask? Well, for some inexplicable reason, Mia’s brought a fluffy little black puppy with her in the audience. You can't see it too clearly in the shot, but it seems to be a small black poodle. Altogether now, people – awwwww.

The actual show starts with us getting to see who was voted off the previous week. It’s not clear when this was shot, but it was certainly shot soon after the last performance show. It feels really odd – I keep going, oh yeah, that’s what happened last week, can we get to the dancing already? It’s hard to be too invested in watching Sandra and Jonnis leave. Lauren Sanchez’s attempts to draw out the tension feel even more artificial than this kind of thing usually does, and the whole thing’s just kind of boring. Watching this makes me really nervous about not have a results show in the upcoming season. I have no idea how they’ll handle it, but I hope they do a better job, because this method is not good. 

After about 15 minutes of this little goodbye pre-show, we can finally move on to the new performances. This week’s judging panel features Mary Murphy, in her first appearance at the judging table. Lauren Sanchez calls Mary a tough judge, and she agrees. Um, what? Hot tamale-train Mary Murphy? I wish. When Mary’s not being the “A+ for effort” judge, I really respect her. The show really benefits when she gives criticism, whether it’s constructive-but-supportive or constructive-but-harsh – so why we almost never get to see that, I don’t know.

Anyhow, back to the actual re-watch. The couples are switched up every week on Season 1, which I actually quite like. It means one of my favorite dancers is never stuck with one of my least favorite for 5 weeks straight, and no one can get carried for more than 1 week. In this episode, some contestants are clearly being carried – Jamile and Snow, our first couple, being a case in point. They do a quickstep, and it’s a bit like watching a Dancing with the Stars pro paired with a semi-decent amateur. Probably because it is a ballroom-pro being paired with a (ballroom) amateur. Anyhow, I now know enough about ballroom to appreciate how good Snow is – something I definitely did not know when I watched this for the first time.

The second routine is our first Mia Michael routine ever, although it’s not up to Mia’s current standard at all. If nothing else, every routine in Season 1 is under a minute, so that’s not much time for story telling. Or for much dancing, honestly. At any rate, Blake and Destini do a decent job – they dance it well, it just doesn’t feel as “lived” as Mia’s work usually does. Of course, the camera’s been spinning in circles the whole dance, so I may just be too dizzy to tell. Cameramen/producers – please use the “spinning camera” trick very judiciously. Please. It does get Mary’s first “woo” cheer ever – and it’s really more of a spoken “woo” than a screamed “woo.” Hurray for reasonable volume!!!!!

            The next two couples (Melody and Craig; Allan and Kamillah) both have Shane Sparks hip hop, and of course that means they are basically performing the same dance. It’s pretty meh both times – but I’ll admit I’m not the biggest fan of Shane Sparks’ choreography. Nick and Michelle also perform the quickstep; Artem and Ashle do another version of Mia’s choreography. Melissa and Ryan finish the night out with a really neat Alex da Sliva salsa routine, jam packed with lifts. It’s a decent dance, easily the best of the night – despite Melissa’s costume, which looks like a lettuce embellished with some sparkly garden snakes.

 

The Bottom Six: Nick & Michelle, Melody & Craig, Snow & Jamile

Where Are They Now?

I thought it would be interesting to have a little section for each episodes looking at what happened to the dancers after they were voted off the show. I refuse to spend more than 5 minutes on Google researching this, however, so if anyone has more information please let me know!

Jonathan “Jonnis” Tannis:

            I don’t know what he’s done since 2005, but it certainly isn’t showing up on Google. He’s apparently still dancing, because the only non-sytycd information I could find on him was that he choreographed the audition for the Phoenix Suncheerleaders in 2011. 

Sandra Colton:

Sandra, on the other hand, has been impressively industrious. She has her own website – www.sandracolton.com – has written and published a book called Book Me! How to Become a Successful Working Dancer in Hollywood, has been in music videos and gone on tours with major recording artists like Katherine McPhee and Rihanna. She’s even recorded a few songs herself. She also publishes a blog called http://dance365.wordpress.com/, which however, hasn’t been updated since April 2010. Still, not too shabby for the first girl to be eliminated! You can read more about her at any of her websites.