I've been trying for years to get tickets to
So You Think You Can Dance Canada, and for some reason this year the audience relations department finally decided they like my name.
My friends
Linda, Sarah and I have now been invited to no less than four tapings, and the season just started. So Saturday night we all dusted off our best 'jeans-chic'* outfits (as the email from the audience department suggested), and attended the top 20 performance show taping in Toronto.
My first observation after being herded like cattle into the studio was that, despite the expansive feel of the stage on TV, the studio is quite small. So small that even VIPs like us were only alotted standing room in the pit -- no seats unless you're
Dallas Green, or know someone special, it seems.
Our audience warmup guy
Josh quickly became my new favourite person, as he instructed us how to clap. Normally I'd resent someone who tries to teach me something I've been doing for years without instruction, but Josh is just that charming and charismatic that I wanted to make him happy with my clapping. Oh how I hope I made him happy.
The show got started, as you see on TV, with host
Leah Miller introducing our top 20 dancers, followed by our esteemed judges for the evening.
I literally gasped out loud, hand-to-heart, when
Ms. Leah announced
Mary Murphy as one of the night's guest judges. The fact that I was breathing the same air as the hot tamale train conductor was almost too much to handle. Throughout the show I'd look over to the Murph, to gauge her reaction. "Does she look like she's having a good time? I hope she likes Canada. She's very tanned. I like her jewellery. Why won't she look over in my direction?"
Mary Murphy is a hoot and a half, and just brings so much energy and joy to a room -- I can now say this first hand.
The other guest judge was
Rex Harrington -- aka
Sexy Rexy. Obviously anyone with that nickname is good in my books. My lust for him only strengthened when he exclained "Fuck me!" after messing up a contestant's name multiple times. You don't need to ask twice,
Mr. Harrington.
Rex also got quite the reaction when he candidly suggested "I'm going to be black by the end of this" after practicing some hip hop lingo.
("
CTV will not be airing that comment," was my immediate prediction).
You may be shocked to hear that
Leah Miller doesn't grate on my nerves nearly as much as she used to. I've perhaps learned to tune her out, I'm not sure. But seeing her in action, she gets the job done. Hits her mark, says her lines, complains about her uncomfortable high heels in between. She looked pretty damn fierce in her
Gucci dress though.
Tre Armstrong, lord love her, we quickly nicknamed the
Paula Abdul of
SYTYCDC. So many words come out of that woman's mouth, most of which make no sense, or have no meaning. But she says them so dramatically, in such emphatic tones, that she seems convinced she's making sense. She might be the only one.
Now onto the dancing -- most of it was quite breathtaking in person. The show opened with a fun
Luther Brown hip hop number by
Lauren and
Rodrigo, before
Lindsay and
Christian performed a
Blake McGrath contemporary number about touch.
Not having watched any of this season prior, I immediately decided
Christian is my hot male dancer of choice. I mean, he's pretty adorable, he worked that dance out, and he was shirtless in tight, shiny, skin-tone pants. Need I say more?
Perhaps the night's standout piece was a
Sabrina Matthews contemporary number about friends dealing with HIV/AIDS, performed impeccably by
Melissa and
Shane. I actually had goosebumps the entire time this performance was happening, and it earned a very well-deserved standing ovation from the on-air judges, plus the choreographers in the audience. Just beautiful.
Along the way there was a fun dance hall routine and a decent samba before the show ended on a high note with a comedic jazz number set in a movie theatre, choreographed by
Sean Cheesman and performed by
Jordan and
Joey.
The same way you could feel the energy and excitement as a good performance was taking place, there was definite awkwardness in the air during the few clunkers. Specifically, a Viennese waltz danced by
Teya and
Kevin, and a hustle performed by
Shelaina and
Matt just did not take off. They felt strained on the stage, and as an audience member I wanted to give them another day to practice, come back and try it again.
To the credit of everyone at
SYTYCDC, it only took about two hours and 15 minutes to record the two hour program. There were very few retakes.
Would I have liked to sit down? Yes. As we discussed yesterday, I'm getting older, and standing in one spot for more than two hours is hard on my joints.
But thankfully we had
Josh, of audience warmup fame, to entertain us between numbers and keep us from getting too cranky.
Josh made jokes. Some self-deprecating, which you know I like. He also pulled audience members onto the stage to dance. Sometimes he joined in with a booty-pop, which you know I like.
Not to put
Leah Miller out of a job, but we kind of agreed that
Josh might be a more charismatic and genuinely likeable host. Think about it,
CTV.
I watched the first couple numbers from the taping on TV last night (until after my hunky dancer
Christian performed), and should note that the dancing actually came off better in person. That's not to say it didn't look good on TV, but maybe it's like how standup and sketch comedy can sometimes seem a lot funnier when you're actually in the audience, as opposed to watching it on tape.
As far as show tapings go, however,
So You Think You Can Dance Canada is one of the most entertaining I've been to. Well worth the multi-year wait for tickets.
*We took 'jeans-chic' to mean 'beach-casual.'
