The top 12 finalists of FOX’s reality show “So You Think You Can Dance” performed at the MAC on Saturday night, one of the last few stops on a 30-city tour. The tour gave fans a chance to see their favorite dancers perform dance routines from the competition as well as entirely new routines.
“So You Think You Can Dance” is a FOX reality dance competition. The Emmy award-winning show was started in 2005 by Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe, two of the minds behind “American Idol.” In his pre-recorded introduction of the show, Lythgoe called the program “America’s favorite summer series.”
The audience was mostly female. The few men there looked to be bored dads with their seven year olds. The pre-show included commercials for sponsors such as Libman Mops and Just Dance 4. It’s safe to say that this was their expected demographic. Of course, not only little girls went with their parents. Danielle Febus of Hackettstown is 27 and attended the show with her mother. She said she was attracted to the show because she used to dance.
Many attendees had dance experience. Sue Suozzo of Ocean Township has been following the television series since the beginning. She used to coach gymnastics and cheerleading in addition to choreographing school plays. Suozzo said that she loves the show because, “It gives a great opportunity to young people to share their talent.”
One of those young people is finalist Amelia Lowe, a native of Butler, New Jersey. The 18-year-old has been dancing since she was three. In an interview with FOX.com, she described the rehearsal process as being very intense. “Not only are you doing dances that you’ve done on the show, but you’re doing new ones,” she said.
Occasionally, the audience would recognize a dance routine as one of their favorites and they would applaud in the beginning of the dance. However, this was not a rock concert. Applause was reserved for the end of performances. Early on, a dancer did a backflip and the casual viewer might think that was worth of applause. Oh no, the only thing worthy of mid-performance applause was when one of the males would catch a female. There is something particularly impressive about being able to hold a girl up with only one hand on her calf.
So why would viewers pay to see people they can see on screen every week? Aside from the obvious thrill of seeing thier favorite performers, they also get to see more dancing. Female winner Eliana Girard explained to FOX.com, “Watching the show on TV it is awesome because we get to come into your living room. But the thing is with the camera blocking, you only certain visuals. So you’ll be able to see certain things you didn’t get to see on TV.”
Like in the show, each dancer had their own time in the spotlight. In between group numbers, the audience saw a video recapping the finalist’s time in the competition followed by a solo performance, usually in their specialty.
Olivia Cheek, 14 and a dancer, was excited to see her favorite dancer. “I like Tiffany. She used to dance at a convention I went to so I like her,” she said.
The crowd favorite, by far, was Cyrus “Glitch” Spencer. The mohawked dancer had the most unique dance with his dubstep routine. The applause and screaming was deafening and for a moment, it almost seemed like a rock concert. That is not the most common thing for a dancer. Eliana emphasized, “It feels incredible to have a tour that is just about dancers. Because it is true, that when you have a tour, it is usually about a singer and has one main person, but this show is about all of us.”
The show was filled with many fans, but there were also some newcomers. Devon Seelig, a University of Vermont freshman, had never seen the show before. “My friends had an extra ticket,” she said. “[The show] is pretty nice.” Seelig said she was really glad she came out to the event.
“So You Think You Can Dance” is expected to return for a tenth season this summer on FOX.
PHOTO TAKEN by Jim Reme
