SYTYCD 9 -- The New York And Dallas Auditions

I haven't watched So You Think You Can Dance for awhile. Usually there's something else I'd be watching the same time it's on, but I thought I'd start watching again. The nice thing about this show is they keep the freak shows to a minimum and on this episode two people who initially came off as being a couple of freak shows were actually incredibly talented dancers.

I missed the first twenty minutes of the New York auditions because I fell asleep waiting for it to come on. When I woke up a contestant named Austin Freeman was about to perform something he calls the Wiggles dance. It looked like what you'd do if you'd have stuck your finger in a light socket. He just basically stood there and made his body spasm. Needless to say he got rejected.

Next up is Shafeek Westbrook who loves to flip over everything. He's very agile. His freestyle impresses everyone and he's given a golden ticket to Vegas.

Leo Reyes told his story before performing and for some reason it had me rolling my eyes a bit. While I have every sympathy for his mother trying to commit suicide, would you really say to her when you find her that you can't die because you haven't seen me dance on stage? Wouldn't you beg your mother not to leave you because you love her and don't want to lose her? It just seemed like a really selfish thing to say. It was more about himself being on stage than any genuine feelings for his mother to get her to not leave him. Anyway, Leo is a good dancer and he gets sent on to Vegas.

The last performance we see of someone getting the golden ticket to Vegas is Shehon who is from Switzerland and he's a ballet dancer. He's also a very good dancer.

After that it's on to Dallas.

Bree Hafen a 29 year old mother of two is the first to perform. 29 seems a bit old to try to start a dance career. She says having her children gave her the confidence to come and try out for the show. She's a very good dancer and gets a golden ticket to Vegas.

Before we see Stepheon and Hampton perform, their pre-performance interviews make them seem to be part of the freak shows that turn up at these auditions. Hampton says his style of dance is Exorcist Dance and Stepheon says he's a zombie. So you really didn't know what to expect from these two. What you didn't really expect was how good these two were.

Stepheon dances a really creepy dance. He's contorting himself and crawling all over the stage. And he really freaks you out when he rolls his eyes back in his head. But as strange as he is, he's also good. He gets a golden ticket to Vegas.

Hampton dances next. He claims he cleanses people when he dances. He moves amazing. He makes both Mary and me cry over his performance. The judges say he's a genius. He gets a ticket to Vegas.

I do have to wonder who both Stepheon and Hampton will do if they make it on the show and have to do all different dances. They're great at what they do. They've created these very individual styles for themselves. If they do other dances they may lose the individual dance personalities they've developed.

Daniel Baker is a ballet dancer from Newcastle, Australia who is leaving the San Francisco ballet company and hoping to make it on the show so he can learn all different types of dances. He gets a golden ticket to Vegas.

At first, Sam Shreffler seemed like he might be one of the freak show, but when he revealed he had Autism I felt bad for thinking that about him. He calls his style of dance Lyrical Freestyle. While he gets rejected, all the judges are impressed by what he's done and tell him to keep on dancing.

Von Kipper is a contestant I wish they hadn't showcased and I felt like they did because he trashed the show and they wanted to tell him good that he wasn't good enough to be on the show. Von says the show crushes people. They show footage of him crawling around on the grass dressed as a hampster. Von claims he doesn't want to be on the show. He trashes the show for encouraging Sam to keep dancing. They, in turn, trash his audition and reject him. He claims his confrontation with Nigel threw him off. I thought Von had a point that they didn't have to call him on what he said in his pre-performance interview. They could have just ignored it and let him perform, not calling him out on what he said. They could have also kept this nasty audition off the show all together and used someone else's audition instead to fill the time.

Finally, Jarell Rochelle performed. He told them his mother is going blind and he wanted to go for this while his mother can still see him dancing on stage. The judges let the mother sit in Nigel's seat so she could see him dancing. His story didn't bug me as much as Leo's. Leo's just seems kind of false and phony with him claiming to tell his mother she can't die until she sees him dancing on stage. Jarell wanting his mother to see him dance before she loses her sight just seems more believable. He's a good dancer and he gets a ticket to Vegas.

And that ends the first week of auditions.