‘So You Think You Can Dance’ premiere review: Meet Taylor Ward, Armen Way, more
“So You Think You Can Dance” fanatics, bust out your best moves, shout “cue music” to your buddy in the next cubicle, and scream so loud that you get a noise complaint filed against you, because the new season is back. This remains pound-for-pound the best reality competition on TV, and for a few simple reasons: The judges are fun, but also still honest. They take what they do very seriously, and respect everything that the contestants are doing and putting into this. Also, the show makes a point to encourage almost everyone, never makes fun of a contestant, and focuses almost entirely on good performances.
As a matter of fact, this week’s season premiere had nary a bad dancer in the group. Everyone who is listed below is great in one way or another, even if not all of them were given a ticket straight through to Vegas. We’re only one episode in, and the hooks are pulling us in.
Straight through … to Vegas!
“Fik-Shun” – We’re calling the first auditioner by the name that he actually wants to go by, but let it be known: His moves firmly belong in the nonfiction category. They’re real, crazy-good, and almost like human jello. We’ve seen a few of them before, but that doesn’t make them any less cool. We were honestly concerned that they would pull the whole “can you do other styles shtick?”, but it didn’t happen. Hoo-ray!
Malece Miller – Best honest: Didn’t you know that Malece was great from the moment that she proclaimed herself to be from Salt Lake City? This needs to just be re-named “the place where great dancers are from.”
Paul Karmiryan – Okay, we have to ask the obvious question: Is it really fair for a winner of an international version to appear on this show? We suppose that it’s not in the rulebook, then it’s okay, but this guy clearly is going to last for a pretty long time this season.
Elijah Laurant – “So You Think You Can Dance” has three sorts of acts: The great dancers, the goofballs, who just want airtime, and then the experimental performers who are trying to say something. These are people that you never know if they will be good or bad, but Elijah was in a word “fantastic.”
Armen Way – There’s no way in a trillion years we’re ever going to remember his real last name, so this seems like a far better idea. What a crazy story this dude has: He’s a rapper in another language, and a dancer in this every one. Not the best ballroom performer of all time, though, and his partner actually stood out more than he did.
Advanced via choreography
Taylor Ward – This is the definition of guts, and shows why in the world people choose careers in dance: Because they freakin’ love it. There’s not that much money in this, and the fact that she dislocated her leg (though the show almost set it up to be even worse than this) and still went out to perform is pretty darn incredible. She was still fantastic, in spite of the injury.
Eliminated in choreography
Morris Isby – This guy is certainly confident, no? We guess that we would be, as well, had we won as many separate competitions as this guy has over the years. The truth is that there were more twists and turns here than a piece of Twizzlers, and this guy at first looked like he was going to go far. Unfortunately, he just couldn’t nail the moves in choreography.
Eliminated outright
Eric & Lorenzo Chapman – This felt like the sort of performance that would be labeled “inspirational,” and the guys would have no real shot of advancing to the live shows. Sadly, it was true , but we still loved how they found a way to inspire others. They likely even knew that they would not advance, but it was a platform for them. That alone is very much a good thing, no?
What was your take on the “So You Think You Can Dance” premiere? If you want to check out even more news pertaining to the show, you can do so over here.
Photo: Fox