So You Think You Can Dance - Vegas Week Day 1 - Recap

Unfortunately, I'm kinda spoiled, so I'm writing this knowing who's "supposedly" in the Top 10 this season.

Yes, I love the drama on So You Think You Can Dance even for the ones who don't make it to the voting rounds, but I've spared myself the additional heartache by not investing too much on those who get cut.

So if you don't want spoilers, stop reading... and see you next week!

Vegas Week!

In tonight's two hour episode, we had 45 minutes for the Dallas auditions and 15 minutes for Nashville. Dallas gave us Robert Rolden - a contemporary dancer - and Nashville gave use Brian Gaynor - the dancer who wouldn't let is scoliosis stop him from doing the robot.

And then all of a sudden - it was Vegas Week!

Alex Wong and Billy Bell come back to the show with their first dances. Both are famous for withdrawing from Season 5 and 6 respectively, both happening last year. If the Alex vs. Billy thing does pan out this season, I guess you can call this battle one year in the making, spanning three seasons! I do hope it happens. I'm rooting for both of them, but I'm kinda favoring Alex since I love ballet.

Vegas Week also gave us Ashley Galvan - a lyrical dancer. I'll just take Nigel Lythogoe's word that she's good - because we did not even see her dance at all. Cannon *ahem* fodder.

The drama highlight however belonged to Adechike Torbert who made the mistake of being cute in Vegas. Instead of dancing contemporary in his solo - he did a tap dance! I think he was trying to show his versatility early, but unfortunately, the judges hated the tap routine and they doubted him during the hip hop and ballroom group choreography. The judges then asked him to dance for his life in a contemporary routine if he was to go on. Of course he cried while the judges were saying "no" - which helped him a lot I think - but he did a great job with his solo - and cried again during the yes's.

The judge/choreographer discovery of the season award goes to ballroom dancer Toni Redpath who Billy Bell called "Nazi Barbie". I love her! She's like a female Maksim Chmerkovskiy who's sole intent is to make he dancers cry. I hope we see more of her this season.

[SPOILER]

Aside from Alex, Billy and even Adechike, I am really loving the top boys this season like Kent Boyd and Jose Ruiz "Full Deck". Too bad we didn't get to see Robert Rolden shine, and he kinda looks like cannon fodder to me right now.

For the girls, really loving Lauren Froderman. The other girls are OK - but as usual, for me at least, it is so hard to stand out on this show if you are a girl. And with standouts from past seasons like Lauren, Courtney, Allison and even Comfort coming back - the girls are going to have to really step it up to catch the attention of this show's audience which are mostly young girls and gays. (Although the straight men that I know who do watch the show are very happy with most of the girls that have ever appeared on this show, so what do I know.)

One more twist for this season is that the judges will go to the contestant's houses to announce if they got into the show or not! Just like Big Brother! How exciting.

As I tweeted @dizzyfeet tonight: this season is incredible. I am very very excited.