Saturday, September 20, 2008

So You Think You Can Dance Canada - West, East, Middle and Quebec

Auditions - Vancouver, BC and Halifax, NS - Ep. 102
Auditions - Calgary, AB and Montreal, QC - Ep. 103


I go away for 4 days and I miss pretty much all the rest of the Canadian auditions. Just like a Torontonian like me to ignore the rest of the country, eh? (To non-Canadians, the rest of the country hates Toronto because they think we ignore the rest of the country. Not true. We just don't care (joke)).

So maybe I was just being stereotypical but Vancouver dancers seemed a bit more relaxed, Montrealers were a bit more twisted and artistic, Halifax seemed nice... and uh..., and Calgary just HAD to have some cowboys show up to dance didn't they? And if I had to pick, I thought Montreal had the most good dancers of the bunch.

So there were a LOT of auditions to go through and finally there were montages of a lot of bad dancers but the show continued to prove that Canada can dance, with many many decent to great auditions, too many to mention individually, here's some of those that stood out for me (and that had pretty pictures attached and some with video links AND some Youtube footage!):

Vancouver Auditions
Judges: Jean-Marc Genereux, Paul Becker, Mary Murphy


First of all, damn, Paul Becker IS as cute as all his bios. But how old is he? He looks as old as the Jonas Brothers that he choreographed.

Again, there were more Asians auditioning than probably all of the US versions combined, though I'm not sure is there were any Blacks. Were there? My Vancouver friends and I have a running joke of counting every Black person we see in Vancouver since they claim diversity but coming from Toronto, it's a bit light coloured by comparison. (And a friends boyfriend is Black and notes it feels awfully lonely in Vancouver). Anyways, enough of the cultural politics and census. On with the dancing!

Kevin Mylrea (left) - Contemporary - Tongue tied and cute, I thought he was going to crash and fail but it was quite beautiful and we are off to a good start! (Video below)







Tyrell Witherspoon (left) - Contemporary - Cries about his mother who passed away but when it comes to dancing, there's nothing to cry about. (Video here)








Jolene "Joey" Bothwell (left) - Contemp - Video below.





Video here of Kevin Mylrea, Nicole Bowser, Tyrell Witherspoon and Jolene "Joey" Bothwell:


Natasha Gorrie (left) - Hip Hop - Mom taught Hip Hop, A little butch and she seems like she could beat me up but pretty impressive moves nonetheless. (Video here)

Tonya Wejr, Contemporary with some karat-ish kicks. Video below.

Only 22 from Vancouver made the cut on Day 1.

Emmanuel Sandhu, yes, the Canadian Olympics figure skater, is EXTREMELY cocky but uses his figure skating moves which is impressive enough for Mary Murphy.

Video of Tiffany Marie Anderson, Emmanuel Sandhu and Tonya Wejr:


Sara Liang and Zillion Wong (left), Ballroom - More Asians representin'! (Video here)









Tylan Fraser (left), Jazz Contemp - "Chicken Wing" - Cute! Unexpectedly good dancer!









Heather Morrison (left), Contemporary - Video below in Halifax section.

35 more dancers from Vancouver make it to Toronto's finals.






Halifax Auditions
Judges: Tre Armstrong, Melissa Williams, Dan Karaty


It's a MUCH smaller city with a MUCH smaller population so I'm sure less people tried out, and while the first dancers Francis Lafreniere and partner/girlfriend Claudia Primeau showed their stuff, there weren't as many noteworthy dancers that I remembered from the Maritime city.





Francis Lafreniere and Claudia Primeau(left) - Ballroom - HOT! (Video below in Ballroom Montage video in the Montreal section)

Stephanie Grant, Celtic Dancing - Don't love this kind of stuff but I guess for variety's sake, it was nice to have on the show. (Video here)

Allie Betram, Ballet - Finally, someone in ballet! (Video here or below).

Video of Heather Morrison, Troy Miller and Allie Bertram here:


Video of the Breakers from Vancouver and Halifax (Victor Van Tran, Ferdinand Tocol, Natasha Gorrie, Rachel Wainwright, Eric Malapad, Marie-Christine Emond) here:


Montreal Auditions
Judges: Jean-Marc Genereux, Tre Armstrong, Dan Karaty


Salut! Ca va bien? C'est Montreal! Finalement! Alors les danseurs sont un peu plus "cool" et "chic" avec beaucoup plus d'attitude. Mais en fin, les "Montrealers" peux danse! (I have no idea if any of that was gramatically correct and I have yet to figure out how to type accents on a Mac keyboard. Tips?)

It was funny halfway through the auditions that Tre noticed a lot of contortionists in Montreal. Probably due to Cirque du Soleil and the National Circus School headquartered in town. That must make the singles pool in town quite... exciting. (Though how come I never met any of them when I went to school there? Oh yeah, cause I was probably stuffing my face with poutine with the other drunkards).

Plus, just rifling through the photos of all the dancers (many who were not shown on the show), there were a LOT of cuties coming out of Montreal.

Nicolas Archambault (left), Contemp - Looks like a pretty but bad boy with some rough edges and dances pretty smoothly. Reminds me a bit of Kameron from SYTYCD S3. Love him already. (Video here)







Jeremy Tran-Huu (left) - Beat Boy - So odd. As Tre noted, Beat boys are always crazy.





Video here:


Katie Lee - Hip Hop - So cute! And yet totally groovin'!





Video here:


Justin Jackson (right), Tap - Who knew we had our own little Savion Glover or Sammi Davis, Jr. here in Canada?! Video here or here:


Tiger Son, Breaker - Whoa. Attitude and ANGER. That's what you get from someone named Tiger. The guy is pissed off with a regime back home, but dude, you're in Canada now. Chill. Amazing breaking but I'm glad the judges called him out on his angry face and attitude. Cause it was UGLY.

Video here:


Sami Elkout (left) - Hip Hop - Something adorable about the whole thing!






Video here:


Cody Bonnell (left) - New school Hip Hop - Is 18, looks 15, and is so cherubically cute. Reminds me of Ivan from S2. (Video here)








Dario Millard (left) - African Hip Hop? - Except for the humping the floor part, his movements were pretty damn awesome and weird but it all went well with the African beats. Video here or here:


Danny Arbour (left) - Video here or below:

Video of the Ballroom dancers from Montreal (Louis-Philippe Deslauriers, Danny Arbour, Anthony Grafton, Ryan Anderson & Valerie Yegorov, Christian Millette & Denitsa Ikonomova) here:


Calgary Auditions
Judges: Jean-Marc Genereux, Tre Armstrong, native Calgarian Sean Cheesman, Jeff Thacker (supervising producer of SYTYCD US)


Ashley Irvin - Contemp - (Video here)










Christian Millette and Denitsa Ikonomova (left) - Ballroom - Wow. Hot. Video above.









Anthony Grafton (left) - Video above.










Izaak Smith - Hip Hop - I really didn't expect him to be that good. Totally unexpected and terrific! Video here:


And that's it for the city auditions! Boy did they cram it in.

Next up, the finals in Toronto that will cut down to Canada's Top 20 on Wednesday, Oct. 1st at 8pm on CTV. Ironically, I'll be in L.A. watching the So You Think You Can Dance Live Tour (Season 4) for the US version so I'll probably be back on the Friday to report back.

For More So You Think You Can Dance:
Check here for the most Recent current postings and Latest News on SYTYCD


For more on So You Think You Can Dance Canada:

For More So You Think You Can Dance:
Check here for the most Recent current postings and Latest News on SYTYCD


For more on So You Think You Can Dance Canada:

Top 12 Performances, Results 12 to 10
Top 14 Performances, Results 14 to 12
Top 16 Performances, Results 16 to 14
Top 18 Performances, Results 18 to 16
Top 20 Performances and Results
Introducing Canada's Top 20

Auditions:
Toronto Week - The Cut to the Top 20
Vancouver, Halifax, Calgary, Montreal - West, East, Middle and Quebec
Toronto - Toronto's Best Foot Forward
The Judges, The Host, The Teaser, All Photos from CTV

So You Think You Can Dance - Season 4:
Finale
Top 4 Performances
Top 6 Performances and Results 6 to 4
Top 8 Performances, Results 8 to 6
Top 10 Performances, Results 10 to 8
Top 16, 14 and 12 Weeks Recaps by Vance again
Top 12 Performances, Results 12 to 10 - Guest Blogger Linz McC
Top 14 Performances, Results 14 to 12 - Guest Blogger Linz McC
Top 16 Performances, Results 16 to 14 - Guest Blogger Linz McC
Top 18 Performances, Results 18 to 16
Top 20 Performances, Results 20 to 18
Introducing the Top 20

Auditions:
Callbacks in Las Vegas - The Top 20 Revealed - What Happens In Vegas
Milwaukee, WI - How The Midwest Was Won
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

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