Dance translates

I love dance. It’s a great example of how art translate through any language. It just was on my mind today, and I thought about those great moments, when you have the perfect blend of choreographer, dancers, story, music, and emotion to make a really great piece of work.

The great thing about television, is that seeing these performances is easy. Some amazing dance moments have happened on the show So You Think You Can Dance. Who would have thought a show that looked like American Idol for dancers would produce performances that I personally won’t ever forget. Some pieces were emotional, some were relevant to important issues like violence and abuse, some where romantic, and some were just down right FUN. But they all have one thing in common, and thats talent, and memorable performances. So I wanted to share my top 12 performances from SYTYCD. Enjoy.

#12 Cabaret Hoover
Wade Robson is just a cool choreographer.. case and point: this routine. Just a fun piece that has been etched in my brain for life.

#11 Tranji
Can you say “good fun”? This is it. Great moment where 2 great dancers got to do a hilarious hip hop piece together. Keep in mind, benji is a swing dancer and Travis is a contemporary GENIUS.

#10 Ramalama Bang Bang
Best group performance ever on the show (by popular opinion anyway). This video is from the 100th episode special, they brought back former dancers and the man himself, Wade Robson, danced with them. Zombies are always great dancers somehow..

#9 The Garden
Mark and Courtney just made this a cool piece. Mark is one of my favorite dancers on the planet (you may have seen him on Glee recently in the Brittany Britney episode) he is unique and quirky in his movements. Typically, I don’t like Sonya as a choreographer, but this suited him well, memorable piece.

#8 Fix You
Travis Wall has turned into a brilliant choreographer, this piece is one of his best. About trying to help his morhter through illness, very well danced by Allison and Robert (who dressed like Travis in the piece). My mom cannot watch this without crying.
Can’t embed this video, but you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnguqsMQmg4&feature=related

#7 The Boardroom
Neil Haskell (my most favorite ever) and Sabra Johnson performed a Mandy Moore jazz routine that proved gymnasts can be great dancers.. and do some pretty spectacular things with a table. The sheer strength and control it takes to do some of those moves are just flat out impressive, add the clever choreography, and the great personalities dancing it, this is just an all around great dance.

#6 Time
The wonderful Neil Haskell, and the gorgeous Lacey Schwimmer dancing to a piece about finally seeing a loved one again after theyve passed on, emotinal story, well danced, beautiful moment.

#6 Collide
Lauren and Kent are two great dancers. If I could steal someones ability to dance (like in the Little Mermaid, ya know?) it would be Lauren Froderman. Or Lauren Gottlieb, but whatever. This piece is about young love, first love, love period. It’s really stunning if you open your heart to it. This is the kind of dance that can stir a memory, an emotion, a feeling out of you. I also included it because I realize, I have nothing of laurens on here, and she deserves to be on this because she is a stunning dancer. She just wasn’t given any really earth shattering pieces of work to perform. But if you appreciate dance, youtube her, watch some of her performances. Watch Collide here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-2yaqxcVzM

#5 If It Kills Me
Mix Jason Glover, my favorite Jason Mraz song, and Travis Wall choreography, what do you get? Perfection. Oh, jeanine is pretty stellar too, she won. Very cool piece, Travis has turned into a real artist and story teller with his dances. Great piece.

#4 Out of Your Mind
Alex Wong, who is an impecable ballet dancer, took on hip hop with All-Star Twitch, who is a great hip-hop dancer. This dance is one of the greatest things I have ever seen. It came out of no where. Alex is a technically trained ballet dancer, that is as far from hip hop as you can get. Everyone essentially expected a trainwreck out of this dance. What was produced was one of the best hip hop performances i have ever seen. With humor and really great movement. Exactly why Nappytabs are the best in the biz. I still flip out watching this. What makes it more interesting is, shortly after this performance, Alex had to have surgery and couldn’t compete. sad given his talent. Embedding is not allowed on this video, but click the link, you will not be sorry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V0aNyY_ei0&feature=related

#3 Fallin’
Adechike danced this, choregraphed by Tabitha and Napoleon. I’ll never forget the commited performance he gave, theres a difference between acting a part, and immersing yourself in a story. Adechike did the latter, the tears at the end of this piece were real, and if you saw the episode, you know how long it took him to come down from that. Raw, powerful, awesome.

#2 Bleeding Love
Again, Mark. Chelsea Hightower, who some of you may know from DWTS did an emotional dance that got them nominated for an Emmy in 2009.

#1 Addiction
Kayla and Kupono danced to this, choreographed by Mia Michaels, simply put, it’s about struggling with an addiciton. But you really didn’t need someone to tell you that for it to resonate. This is my #1 because it is the PERFECT blend of emotion, strength, performance, technique, music, art, story, etc. It just is everything dance is supposed to be. If anyone ever tops this, I’ll be shocked, but a happy camper, because I’m always ready to be wowed.

I wish I could make this a longer list, but 12 seems to be a good cap, but I will mention the Two Princes dance, done by Neil and Danny on the last performance of season 3. Probably the coolest, fight to the death kind of dance I have ever seen. And can I just say Neil sold that piece? Watch the video, he was in character all the way down to his fingertips. I’ll also mention Lauren and Pashas argentine tango, that girl turned into a ballroom diva FAST. Billy and Ade had a great dance with Mad World as well. Also worth noting is Lacey and Kamerons very first dance together, aptly titled “Dancing”. That was a pretty great piece to start a season with. Jason and Caitlin had an incredible Baliwood dance. I was also a fan of Jason and Kaylas zombie hip hop. I could go on for days with this, point is, anyone that has ever graced that stage is a gifted dancer, and we are lucky we have been able to watch them all dance and grow in front of us.

[Note: I'm sure someone will ask about certain pieces that aren't on my list. It's my list, so my choices. Most noticably left out was the dance about cancer that Ade and Melissa performed. Honestly, it was a great topic, but for whatever reason that piece didn't resonate with me. For anyone interested in a great dance showing the struggle of cancer, youtube Ade and Melissa. It will come up.]

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