A little more on Season 3 auditions

 

We have the word from So You Think You Can Dance Canada judge Tre Armstrong, who Tweeted this morning, "just got back fr Montreal auditions for SYTYCDC & DAMN! the talent is hype."

So it bodes well for the season, I think, and you can now add "hype" to your lexicon of SYTYCD terms for good dancing, along with buc.

And speaking of Montreal, sounds like Mia Michaels was still there Monday evening. She Tweeted about a "cozy snowy eve in Montreal ... loving my life."

I'm going to take that as a sign that she liked the dancing, too.

Give it up for the choregrapher

Writing for a daily newspaper, especially these days, is always about being succinct.

But I unintentionally left something out of my Sunday story about the dance drama Nureyev, which stars Nico Archambault and airs Tuesday night on Bravo! at 9 p.m.: the name of the choreographer.

He is Matjash Mrozewski, a former National Ballet of Canada dancer who has choreographed for ballet companies all over the world, including Stuttgart Ballet, the Royal Swedish Ballet, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, the U.K.'s Royal Ballet, Houston Ballet Theatre and plenty of others, as well as for film. In other words, he's no slouch and he certainly deserved to be mentioned in my article.

If you missed the Nureyev story, you can catch up here.

That's Matjash choreographing National Ballet dancers in 2003

in a photo by Star photographer Vince Talotta. 

Other stuff I learned from Twitter today

American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert is apparently rethinking how he presents himself onstage after the kerfuffle over his American Music Awards performance a week ago Sunday.

(I was going to post a video, but I can't find a good version on YouTube right now. If you took a holiday from all media last week and missed it, Adam kissed a guy and simulated oral sex onstage and ABC got their knickers in a twist.)

Posting on Twitter Monday, Adam said his "AMA performance was a one time event. Goin in a new direction now. Focus back on the music. Don't worry friends: I'm still gonna be me. Always. W/o apologies. Just gonna experiment differently w how I present myself."

I can see how that would have its benefits in a sometimes homophobic world, but I hope he doesn't lose the nail polish and the guyliner and the swagger that made him so entertaining to watch on American Idol last season. Kris Allen who?

Keep those comments coming

For Digby, who wondered what happened to the suggestion that Paula Abdul would soon fill a judge's chair on So You Think You Can Dance: I don't know. But I am scheduled to be part of a conference call on Tuesday at 1 p.m. with Nigel Lythgoe and Carrie Underwood, and I will endeavour to ask him that very question. I'll report whatever answer I get here.

Stalking Season 3

I've been surfing around the web looking for news out of the So You Think You Can Dance Canada Season 3 auditions in Montreal on Saturday. So far, I know that it was cold and that choreographer Mia Michaels was there.

Did another Nico, Vincent or Jayme Rae come out to the Palais des congres? We'd never know at this stage anyway. Partly because the best moments of the auditions get saved for the CTV broadcast (we don't know when it's going to air in 2010 yet) rather than shared with the media. And partly because, who among us is farsighted enough to pick out the next winner or finalist at this stage of the game?

Well, maybe judge Jean Marc Genereux is. He told me when I interviewed him earlier this year that he knew from the moment he saw Season 1 winner Nico Archambault do choreography with Blake McGrath during the auditions, "if this kid gets the right choreography, he will be an amazing star."

He felt the same way about Arassay Reyes, mind you.

She was the Cuban-born contemporary dancer who partnered with Nico in the top 20. They had some breathtaking routines, and I was convinced she would make it into the Top 4 with Nico, but she was voted off just a couple of weeks before the finale. 

All of which makes me think it's a mug's game to try to predict who ends up in the finals each season.

I'll go this far when it comes to the current season of the U.S. show. Unless they end up with some disastrous bit of choreography or completely unsuitable partners, I think Ashleigh and Jakob will be in the final four. 

But I also thought Kim Gingras had a lock on final four in Season 2 of SYTYCDC and look how right I was about that!

To tide you over until there's more SYTYCDC news, here's CTV's own story about the Montreal auditions.

And you can watch a clip of Jean Marc and fellow judge Luther Brown debating whether Toronto or Montreal has better dancers here.

Catching up with Nico

 

He won So You Think You Can Dance Canada; these days, Nico Archambault's life could be subtitled So You Think You Can Multitask.

I've already talked here about him dancing with Janet Jackson in the video for the single "Make Me" and on the American Music Awards last week. (I just found out last week that Nico turned down an audition for her brother Michael's This Is It comeback shows.)

And if you've read today's Star, you've seen the story about Nico starring in Nureyev, which airs Tuesday at 9 p.m. on Bravo!

That's not his only acting job. He's already wrapped up filming on Vacation With Derek, based on the Family Channel comedy series Life With Derek. He plays Jesse, a dancer who works as a waiter at the lodge where the Venturi and MacDonald step-siblings go for a vacation.

"It's my beginning as an actor. I play one of the lead roles," Nico told me last week, adding it's the first time he's said more than three words in a production. 
"On top of that, they hired Street Parade (the choreography company he runs with fiancee Wynn Holmes) to take care of the dancing part of it."
Nico says he is the love interest of one of the main characters in the movie and has a kissing scene.

It's scheduled to come out in 2010.

And, speaking of Street Parade, they're choreographing a musical theatre production happening in Montreal in the spring.

Called Le blues d'la metropole, it's based on the music of the 1970s Quebec rock band Beau Dommage. 

"There's a lot of dancing in it," Nico says. "It's another great opportunity, the first chance for us to give it a shot, to see what we’re worth at staging a theatre show."

And if that isn't enough, he's still involved with the rock band Pinup Saints, although more as an artistic director these days than a performer.

"I'd like them to get to be known as a band and not as Nico's side project," he says.

He will, however, join them onstage at their New Year's Eve show in Brampton.

And there's one more project, something that's close to Nico's heart.

He has designed a T-shirt for the label TXT, with some of the proceeds to go to PREVnet, an anti-bullying organization. 

Nico was bullied all through high school, partly because of the dancing (he started when he was 7), partly because other students thought he was gay, partly because he was a loner and a dreamer, "always in my head."

"I was lucky, I had an amazing family that was really, really supportive," he says.

He thinks it's important for kids who are being bullied to keep doing whatever they love and not try to please everyone. 

"As you evolve as a person, other people who share the same goals, interests and common passions will come along and join you."

You can find more information about the project at www.txtcarbon.com. 

(The photo at the top was taken after a taping during Season 1 of So You Think You Can Dance Canada.)

 

Rexy is still sexy

I know how Rex Harrington, National Ballet artist-in-residence and So You Think You Can Dance Canada guest judge, spent at least part of his Saturday afternoon. He was at the Four Seasons Centre autographing "Sexy Rexy" boxer shorts before the mixed program matinee. 

No lie, the shorts are white with Rex's handsome mug on the front and the words Sexy Rexy on the behind. No idea what the asking price was, but apparently it's a fundraising endeavour for the ballet.

Here's where I have to admit how much I suck. I did not have my digital camera with me and my BlackBerry doesn't take photos. Otherwise, I would have had my photo taken with Rex and posted it here. He was such a marvellous leading man with the National Ballet. I was privileged to see his last performance in James Kudelka's The Four Seasons. He was delicious as Rothbart in Kudelka's Swan Lake. And there was one pas de deux he danced in The Merry Widow with Xiao Nan Yu that brought tears to my eyes. 

It's always a treat for me to see him on the judges' dais at STYTCDC.

And I have to say that he's still looking very sexy.

Anyway, I would have told him some of this, but I was doing the polite Canadian thing, waiting my turn to say hello, and he slipped away before I had the chance. Like I said, sucks to be me.

Here's a video of Rex in The Four Seasons. Enjoy.

Oh, and it's not a reality show, but I really enjoyed the ballet's mixed program, particularly Aszure Barton's Watch her, which was brilliant.

When Nico Met Janet

There's been so much attention paid to how the American Music Awards ended that maybe you've forgotten how they began: with Janet Jackson doing a medley of her hits accompanied by some hot dancers, including a couple of Canadians.

Yeah, I'll admit it, I was way more interested in seeing Natalli Reznik and Nico Archambault during that number than Janet. In case you don't know, Montrealer Nico won Season 1 of So You Think You Can Dance Canada and Natalli (who's from Toronto) was in the Top 4.

Here's Nico right next to the star herself (the photo is by Matt Sayles of the Associated Press). He's the tall guy on the right (no pics of Natalli on the news wire, sorry):

I had a chance to ask Nico about dancing with Janet when I interviewed him this week about playing Rudolf Nureyev in the dance drama Nureyev (airing Tuesday, Dec. 1, at 9 p.m. on Bravo!).

Here's what he had to say:

"I didn’t audition, I didn’t know they were looking for new dancers. On my birthday (he turned 25 on Oct. 18) her choreographer Gil Duldulao gave me a call.

"He said, 'Hey, it's Gil, we want to use you for a video. Are you available to come to L.A. next week?' At first I thought it was a joke. It turns out it was true. Next thing I knew I was in L.A. rehearsing."

You can watch the video here.

Janet and Gil must have been pleased, because he got to stay for the AMAs.

I asked him how the gig compared to other work he's done. He said the process was the same, except that "dancing for Janet I felt a great deal of pressure. She has had some of the best dancers in the industry dancing for her since the beginning.

"Everybody who has danced for her is a legend now in the commercial world of dance. I had to do a good job."

It looked pretty good from where I was sitting. Did you see the performance? What did you think?

The Death Star returns

In case you missed it in Hot Box (which runs in the Star on the TV listings page on weekdays), Fox has announced that American Idol will return on Jan. 12 and 13. In honour of that event, here are...

Top 3 reasons why Ryan Seacrest kind of doesn't suck

1. He can take a joke

He took the mickey out of himself in the Judd Apatow movie Knocked Up, sending himself up as a complete narcissist with a profanity-laced rant when Jessica Simpson keeps him waiting on the set of E! News.

You can see it here, but be warned, he drops the F-bomb (and I have no idea why the clip is in B&W).

 

2. He can be spontaneous

Do you remember the moment when Bikini Girl came sashaying onto the stage in last season's American Idol finale? I do because I can't stand her. Ryan took one look at her freshly enhanced breasts and deadpanned, "I'd ask you what's new, but I think I know."

I'm not posting a clip. I don't want to give her any more publicity than she's already got. And I hope, hope, hope she doesn't audition again this season.

3. He can have fun with pop culture

I'm not sure if you saw the clips my colleague Malene Arpe posted on her Stargazing blog of Ryan doing readings from New Moon on his radio show. They make me laugh. Here's the most recent one she posted.

More About Adam

Yeah, I know, the fact we're all still talking about Adam Lambert's American Music Awards performance just proves his point about double standards for gay men.

The latest talking point is that CBS blurred Adam's kiss with his male keyboardist when they aired the AMA clip on The Early Show on Wednesday, but showed Madonna's smooch with Britney in all its pretend-lesbian glory. CBS claimed it showed the girls' kiss because it has been more "widely disseminated" than Adam's, which sounds like weasel words to me.

But as I was googling for new stuff about Adam, I came across a column by Jennifer Vanasco on the website pridesource.com castigating Lambert for hypocrisy. Vanasco points out that Adam told Out magazine he didn't want to make a big deal of his sexual orientation during American Idol, but "when you wanted to make a splash in public, when you wanted to get noticed - suddenly you were all about gay sexuality."

It's certainly food for thought.

A friend of mine thinks the whole performance was orchestrated by Adam's record company for the publicity and that it wasn't Adam's choice alone to get raunchy onstage. More food for thought.

SYTYCD Top 10, Season 6 (spoiler alert)

When I posted this earlier Wednesday night, I didn't bother explaining that I was blogging as I was watching the So You Think You Can Dance results show. So now you know. If you scroll down below the observations, you'll see photos and brief descriptions of each of the top 10 dancers. If you're one of those people who PVRs and watches the results later, don't scroll down:

No surprises so far: Ashleigh and Jakob made top 10; Victor and Karen are in danger.

More to come...

Okay, I'm two for two: Nathan and Mollee are bottom three. I'm pleased that Kathryn and Legacy are safe.

...

Hmmm, Ellenore and Ryan are the third couple in trouble. I'm not all that surprised, but I do think they danced better overall than Noelle and Russell on Tuesday night, and I'm saying that as a huge Russell fan.

To be continued...

Solos so far: Victor and Nathan seemed about even to me. Karen's seemed a little heavy on the sexpot and Mollee's seemed a bit desperate: an awful lot of tricks, to use one of Tre Armstrong's words (the So You Think You Can Dance Canada judge).

Ellenore's number was kinda quirky and Ryan was really playing up his physique, but I guess you would too if you had his body.

Well, what I saw as desperate the judges saw as Mollee fighting to stay in the competition. She and Ellenore are safe; Karen's gone. I had a feeling it was Karen's time to go.

And Victor's gone, too, which I expected. But Nigel wanted it to be Nathan. Oh, pressure.

Your Top 10 (in my best Cat Deeley voice)

Ashleigh Di Lello, 26,

a Latin ballroom dancer

from Orem, Utah

Ryan Di Lello, 28,

a ballroom dancer

from Orem, Utah

(yes, he's married to Ashleigh)

Russell Ferguson, 20,

of Boston, Mass.,

a hip hop/krumper

Mollee Gray, 18,

a jazz dancer

from Upland, Calif.

 
Jakob Karr, 19,

a contemporary dancer   

from Orlando, Fla.

Noelle Marsh, 19,

a contemporary dancer 

from Sanford, N.C.

Kathryn McCormick, 19,

a contemporary dancer

from Burbank, Calif.

Legacy Perez, 28,

of Los Angeles, Calif.,

a hip hop/B-boy

Ellenore Scott, 19,

a contemporary/jazz dancer

from New York, N.Y.

Nathan Trasoras, 18,

a contemporary dancer

from Downey, Calif. 

 

Counting down to the Top 10

Mary Murphy thinks Nathan and Mollee can can. I'm thinking they can't can't: that is, can't stay out of the bottom three on So You Think You Can Dance on Wednesday night.

Yes, they made like Energizer bunnies in their can-can routine and I have nothing but respect for anyone who can kick that high with a hurt ankle, as Mollee did, but the routine had no emotional resonance for me, despite some flashes of brilliance from Nathan. It could be the fault of the style itself. I love Tyce Diorio's work, but I'd rather see the can-can on the Moulin Rouge stage than the SYTYCD stage. But maybe that's just me.

And Nathan and Mollee's hip-hop routine? Meh.

I'm guessing Karen and Victor will also be bottom three. It's too bad, because their tango was really good, but the hip-hop routine, not so much.

As for the third couple in trouble, I really have no idea. I'm a little fearful for my two favourite male dancers: Russell and Legacy.

Legacy was brilliant in his jazz routine with Kathryn; I can still see him in my mind crab-walking across that stage at the speed of light. But he looked like a Dancing With the Stars contestant, all awkward and tentative, in the Viennese waltz.

As for Russell and Noelle, I agree with the judges: their contemporary routine was brilliant; their samba was nowhere near hot enough.

Jakob and Ashleigh have nothing to fear. For Ryan and Ellenore, I think it depends whether the younger viewers can relate to their Broadway routine and the Lindy Hop.

Just a few more hours and we'll know if I'm right or just talking out of the part of the anatomy that J.Lo fell on at the American Music Awards.

And another thing . . .

Speaking of the AMAs, I've been following the flap over Adam Lambert's performance (I kind of have to, since my full-time job is putting stories about this sort of thing in the Star).

So he kissed a guy onstage? Whatever. The simulated oral sex? I kind of wish he'd avoided that one. I'd like to see Adam become a huge star and not get pigeonholed as the guy who pretended to get it on at the AMAs.

What disappointed me most is that I didn't think he sounded that good. I was expecting something more along the lines of the American Idol finale when he tore it up with KISS and what's left of Queen. I think he's a much better singer than he came across as on Sunday night.

Nico as Nureyev

Got your attention with that one, didn't I? That's Nico Archambault, the winner of Season 1 of So You Think You Can Dance Canada, as Rudolf Nureyev. That lovely photo is by David Hou.

Nico is the star of a dance drama called Nureyev that's airing on Bravo! on Tuesday, Dec. 1, at 9 p.m. This is a not a biopic, so it's more of a case of Nico interpreting Nureyev than imitating him. He told me that himself when I interviewed him on Tuesday afternoon. But if you like to watch Nico dance (and let's face it, who doesn't?) I think you'll enjoy the film.

My interview with Nico and with director Moze Mossanen will be the basis of a story scheduled to run in Sunday's Star.

I'll try to share any tidbits of So You Think You Can Dance Canada news that I get here. The Montreal auditions for Season 3 take place Saturday. If you want to find out more, you can go to the official website here