So You Think You Can Dance - How The Midwest Was Won

Auditions - The Midwest: Milwaukee, WI - Ep. 404

Judges in Milwaukee, WI: Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy and Napoleon D'Umo & Tabitha D'Umo

Since there is only one more city left to audition and they need to fill 2 hours of television, they first show a few other auditions from previous cities that we never got to see yet.

Michael Kim was another one of those robotic dance guys (there seems to be a lot this year) and while it's neat, I'm already starting to get tired of it. He gets sent to choreography:




Katie Shean and her friend Natalie Reid seem completely bubbleheaded in the interviews but Katie's dancing was pretty sweet and Natalie had this nice eccentric style that is really fascinating to watch. Both make it through to Vegas:




From D.C., Janette Manrara and Romulo Villaverde tango with a couple of awesome flips and throws and arobatics thrown in. Circus tricks more like it. Really incredibly neat! Though only Janette makes it through to Vegas. WHAT?:




They finally hit Milwaukee where the two new Hip Hop choreographers join the judging panel and the Midwest auditions finally begin!:

Bianca Revels taps her way to the next step. Has there been a tapping dancer that made it to the finals? She's quite good and entertaining and again, maybe due to bad stereotypes on my part, but I didn't expect her to tap and to do so well:




Evan Kasprzak "Fosse"'s his way onto the show and maybe it's the combo of my love for Fosse, his choice of music, the fact that he looks like a skater boy, and the fact that he can twirl and shuffle his way around, but I totally loved it:




Kourtni Lind and her mom look identical and seem to have a slightly weird close sister relationship with her mom, and Kourtni seems totally flaky in that arts student way, but she's also incredibly talented in that dance student way, with a powerful dramatic performance that probably had an entire thesis behind it:




Tom Kozai looks like he's going to be a joke and there's still a rough unpolished feel to him that he plays up comically but he also has some incredible moves and hits the beat pretty well for a white guy!:


Tom doesn't make it through but there were some pretty neat moves in there!


Suzie Garcia is quite the hot (high school) teacher and Shakira's it up, shaking that bootee (high school teacher? really? I'm sure the boys are paying attention in HER class) but the judges are on the fence since Suzie also shows some weakness by trying to throw in proper dancing into the mix but makes it to Vegas through the choreography:




Rebecca Hart is a lovely contemporary dancer who reminds me of the cuteness of Brittany Snow (Hairspray, American Dreams) and while she auditioned a few weeks ago in LA, she's apparently improved vastly, toning down her competition style dancing and showing herself through her dancing that she gets a ticket to Vegas!:




Brice Casimir does some intricate little moves but I didn't like it at all so I'm glad Nigel called him out on being too closed off in his dancing. They let him through the choreography but doesn't make it:




Cooper Zamorano is kind of like the black haired Travis Wall. And you know how much I love Travis Wall! I may have just found my new Travis/Neil/Pasha! (ha, Nigel mentions the Travis Wall similarity):




Yasenia Gomez tried out last year but didn't make it through, this year she's lost 50lbs and starts off dancing pretty great but then injures herself. It's sad to see but I love her spirit! Plus her hair is pretty cool!:




Philip Courter, a friend of Yasenia, gets a bit emotional for her sake but it's after his really cool dance routine. He looks a bit nerdy but his performance was so cool!:




Raymond Love dances with a partner but Nigel stops him, tells him to gain some emotion for the performance, and in his second try, it seemed pretty damn good, with some wicked choreography but the judges are split when a whole weird discussion on his lack of emotional connection with his partner erupts between the judges and Love. I'm not sure what the brouhaha's all about because I saw less emotion from last years Danny so I don't know why Love is getting a lecture (unless Nigel is trying to avoid last years mistake of the disconnect Danny made early on?). In the end, he doesn't make it through the choreography round.:




Lizz Plott is the second tap dancer of the night and she's awesome too. And SHE also doesn't look the part, with a routine that I did NOT expect from someone who looked like her:




Finally, there's a special audition to end out all the initial auditions, and it's Travis Wall! In Drag! And he (she?) is still kicking those legs up high and pretty incredible with his body and those moves!:




I knew I loved the Midwest! We got quite a few memorable dancers including Kourtni Lind, Rebecca Hart, Cooper Zamorano and Evan Kasprzak (uh, how do you SAY that name? Cause I'm GOING to have to learn!) from Milwaukee. Seriously, I need to move to the Midwest. Maybe it's the water or something (granted, don't we (in Toronto) kind of share the same water?) but love those Midwesterners. All so hot looking AND polite! What's not to love? And now we can see a LOT of them CAN dance!

The Next Episode: Viva LAS VEGAS BABY! It's callback time!

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So You Think You Can Dance - Season 4:

Auditions:
Charleston, South Carolina and Washington D.C. - S.C.D.C. The New Electric (Boogaloo) Term!
Salt Lake City and Dallas - Yeehaw Utah!
Los Angeles - It's Time To Put On Those Dancing Shoes Again Kids!

So You Think You Can Dance - Season 3:
Live Tour - Toronto, Pasha's Solo Video, Neil's Solo Video
Finale - Winner Result
Top 4 Performances - Finals
Top 6 Performances, Top 6 Results
Top 8 Performances, Top 8 Results
Top 10 Performances, Top 10 Results
Top 12 Performances, Top 12 Results
Top 14 Performances, Top 14 Results
Top 16 Performances, Top 16 Results
Top 18 Performances, Top 18 Results
Top 20 Performances, Top 20 Results

For So You Think You Can Dance Season 2:
Favorite Video Clips
Song List
Live Tour 2006 - Toronto
Live Tour 2006 - Buffalo, Pics, More Pics