So You Think You Can Dance Season 9 Episode 3 Recap: Atlanta Auditions
Jun 06 2012 10:26 pm ET
Georgia had a lot to live up to with last season's winner Melanie coming from the Atlanta auditions. Along with Nigel and Mary was Debbie Allen. As always either you're straight to Vegas, choreography, or rejection. Right before we jump straight into the laundry list of contestants, I have to point out the knock-off Cat Deeley on day two. That was kind of eerie to see.
Day One
Audrey Case - Our first contestant can fart with her neck and lick her elbow. While we didn't see her elbow trick her contemporary routine was strong. She knew exactly how to control her legs, but she also mugged for the camera without being too cheesy. She did these extensions with her neck that I realized that she must have learned to fart with her neck by accident when she flicked her shoulder too fast. She was warned to be versatile in the future but headed to Vegas anyway.
The Crew Dragon house Part 1 - The three live in a house with too many people (I’m assuming also part of the crew), but since they were all dancers they apparently gel. Boris was first and danced hip-hop to piano. It was interesting to watch because of his contorting abilities, but his bag of tricks came off really limited. I'm not sure if he really deserved a standing ovation. If you took the piano out, it was all the same.
Joshua Alexander - The singer/dancer had a lot of content and body rolls in his audition but I wonder if he could only do those moves with the help of socks. He was good, don't get me wrong, but I think the socks are like a booster seat. His hand motions were wonderful and his turns were perfectly centered. He easily was handed a ticket and Debbie was roused up.
Following Joshua was a cavalcade of successful dancers including a girl with Tourette’s, a guy who lost his mother, and other “personal issue” fighters. Since we never got their names, I'm worried about seeing them in the Vegas rounds. That or I just switched to The Glee Project for a minute.
Tim Conkel - The smiling karate instructor was a ten-time national champion, who claimed to dance because he wanted to get a "girlfriend" but from his high voice and his Selena Gomez book bag, I was left confused. Luckily for Tim, his acrobatics were amazing enough to cover up some basic breaker from Youtube choreography; he lacked the in-between. He was sent to Vegas after admitting to demonstrating seven days of ballet lessons.
Jackson Alvarez - We got another power dancer, but he had some good in-between, the best was the part where he looked like a raptor. Turns out that he was a line-dance instructor that taught the "Wobble" apparently ATL all knew the Wobble and we had an impromptu line dance party. He was sent to choreography while Cat learned how to wobble. The only other reason why we learned about him was because of Janelle.
Janelle Issis - As part of her Palestinian culture, she's been belly dancing since she was four. Then we watched old men gawk at her. She had a lot of hip control and was really good with her scarf. The dance stopped Nigel's heart a bit. She claimed to know other styles, but was sent to choreography anyway. Of the group of people that claim experience, I would have believed Janelle for some reason. Janelle excelled in choreo with Jackson and both advanced.
Danielle Dominguez - Danielle represented the dancer with supportive parents, piercing eyes, and bacon obsessions. Wait, what? We were given a montage of her eating bacon and then throwing bacon in the air. I need an animated gif of that stat. Nigel then called Mary and Debbie fat by suggesting they should try the bacon diet. Her mother was both a literal and figurative cheerleader for her daughter. The dancing was a "weird" but good, where I could imagine someone like Sonya Tayeh choreographing for her. She was sent straight to Vegas.
The Crew Dragon house Part 2 - Andre and Cyrus followed Boris' audition starting with Andre, though I would be shocked if the three didn't audition at the same time. Consider the fact that three friends would stand in an audition line together. Andre had really strong bone breaking abilities tied in with his isolations that differentiated himself from Boris. Cyrus was last and was sweating profusely from the pits. His robot was different, but cooler. His lean was clearly non-harming but a great visual. I'm surprised that he was allowed to dance on the stairs to the judges' table. Cyrus was the best of the three and along with Andre was sent to Vegas. I still think this Dragon house Crew will struggle outside of their own genre and they should have been sent to choreography.
Day Two
Courtney Kirby - Courtney brought her grandmother, a dancer back in her day, who was her biggest fan. Her grandmother took the initiative and sat in Nigel's chair as the two flirted a bit. Luckily for her grandmother, Courtney was great and picked some really epic music. I loved the whole thing because of how she emphasized the hard hits of the music. I'm surprised that Nigel suggested choreography for her, but both Debbie and Mary sent her to Vegas.
Asher Walker - Asher is our least likely to become a hip-hop dancer who learned to dance via watching videos online since he didn't really have a community to find. He also wanted to be a backup dancer for Justin Bieber. First Selena Gomez, now Biebs? His breaking style had really good comedic twists, but he also covered a lot of ground and got some really nice air in his leaps. He had power and that's something I love for breakers. He was yet another Vegas traveler.
George Lawrence II - The track runner turned dancer sounded like he didn't have a supportive father. The first thing I noticed was that not only did he have control, he was dancing without any form of socks and was still hitting perfect shapes. The rest of his dancing left me speechless because of how powerful the moves were. The judges loved him as much as I did and was given his golden ticket. Abigail Ruz, Calvin Turner Jr., Aubrey Klinger followed in the montage of contemporary dancers, weird how we were given names for them.
Brittany Hortner - The auditions took a turn for the worst as Brittany couldn't remember her own lines. She comes from a town that loves chickens. There's a bit of an air-headedness to her that's really endearing. Her dancing was good, even though I've been inundated with contemporary dancers tonight. Where are all the ballroom/Latin dancers? I would have loved her more if she actually used the chicken strutting into her routine. The judges saw room to grow and sent her to choreography. Brittany outshone her partner Dion.
Damon and Dion - The two claimed that they were doing a tribute to the Les Twins and the producers found the video that actually used the words "inspired by." The dancing wasn't bad but they seemed funnier than they did powerful. It got better when the dubstep kicked in, but I still thought the two could have been better with timing. That final shushing moment was done a bit too early. They were sent to choreography. Dion was paired with Chickentown Brittany which I found to be a bit of a disadvantage for Brittany. Dion was rejected, but Damon was accepted.
Join us next week in Salt Lake City.
Michael Pascua - TVLatest.com
Michael Pascua's Twitter:
Follow @MichaelPascua
TVLatest's Twitter:
Follow @TVLatest
Want to join our team of writers? Have a look HERE!