So You Think You Can Dance Canada: So it begins

(Hip-hop dancer Andrew Chung is interviewed at the Toronto auditions in a CTV photo.)

Watching the opening of So You Think You Can Dance Canada on Monday had me feeling patriotic. Hell yeah, we've turned out some excellent winners in the three seasons the show's been on the air: "gorgeous and powerful and unstoppable Nico" Archambault; "beautiful, passionate and spectacular Tara-Jean" Popowich; and Denys Drozdyuk, whom Leah Miller's voiceover described as "the most spectacular dancer on any So You Think You Can Dance world stage."

And now, we're told, "this season will top them all."

I'd say it's still too early to tell, but I saw lots of promise in this first audition show, filmed back in November in Toronto.

No one moved me quite the way Denys did in his first audition (in Montreal, not Toronto), but there were definitely some hot dancers on that Metro Convention Centre stage. Here's my list of favourites, in the order in which they appeared on Monday:

Jordan Clark, 18, Tottenham, Ont.: A real standout for both her dancing and her gorgeous curly red hair, Jordan was very athletic and strong but also sexy. Her dancing was rock solid technically but also wonderfully expressive. She got the first ticket to the finals on the show and a standing ovation from judges Tre Armstrong, Rex Harrison, Mary Murphy and Luther Brown. She sure looks like Top 20 material to me.

Joey Arrigo,18, Newmarket: This contemporary dancer made some beautiful shapes with his movements and was extremely graceful but also very athletic and lightning quick. Rex described him as "very strong, very masculine" and sensitive. Another well-deserved ticket straight to the finals.

Adam Lopapa, 18, Woodbridge: I've got a real thing for male dancers who are masculine and graceful at the same time, a sort of Gene Kelly vibe, and Adam fits that bill. He was a bit Fosse-esque, too, as he dipped and kicked and stretched with that fedora in his hand or on his head. It was clean, smooth and hot. Mary and Rex were chomping at the bit to put Adam on the Hot Tamale Train and the Sexy Rexy Rocket to the Stars respectively. At the very least, he got a ticket to the finals.

Jordan Davis, 22, Toronto: Best hip-hop routine of the Toronto auditions for me. Jordan had great personality and his moves looked effortless. He put a lot of humour into the audition as well, acting out a traffic jam at the top of the routine. "You had everything I think a hip-hop dancer should be having up there ... you can move, dude," said Mary before handing out Jordan's ticket.

Melissa Mitro, 23, Richmond Hill: This contemporary dancer really had to bring it since this was her fourth time trying out. She did, with strong, dynamic movements infused with passion. But Mary wouldn't hand over the ticket until Melissa explained why she didn't show up for the finals in Season 1. Sounds like Melissa's dance teacher made her choose between doing competitions and going on the show, so Melissa got her second chance.

Yara Vasconcelos, 24, Toronto: Originally from Angola, this samba dancer was hot, with beautiful legs, fast footwork and great hip movement. Jean Marc Genereux (who got to the auditions late because he'd been hosting a world ballroom competition) compared Yara to Latin dance great Julie Laird before handing over the finals ticket.

Andrew Chung, 24, Toronto: Could this be Andrew's year after making it to the finals in each of the past seasons? With three cities still to come on the audition shows, it's hard to say, but he certainly impressed with the fast-paced and inventive locking he did in this go-round. Jean Marc said Andrew looks cleaner and more confident. Back to the finals he goes.

Suzana Garcia, 22, Toronto: Suzana got to the finals via Blake McGrath's boot camp after the judges found she didn't go big enough in her hip-hop routine and wasn't precise enough with her moves. But I really liked her swagger.

A.J. Lopresti, 23, Ancaster: A.J. auditioned in Season 1 as a contemporary dancer but came back this season as a tapper. Probably a good choice since he doesn't have the lean physique of some of the other dancers, but he seems to have personality to burn and a pair of lightning fast feet. "Short and stumpy wins the race," quipped A.J., or least a ticket to the finals.

Esie Mensah, 25, Hamilton: Esie brought some diversity to the proceedings with a spirited African dance that was both fierce and graceful. She has a great pair of legs too. And she also has a ticket to the finals.

Jordon Bartley, 18, Woodbridge: This self-taught hip-hop dancer had no trouble with Blake's boot camp (which he took voluntarily since he already had a ticket to the finals), but how will he handle ballroom choreography? I guess we'll find out, but his audition was, to borrow Tre's words, pretty "hot" and "sick."

Aleksandra Jurevich, 25, Maple: This contemporary dancer took more classes before coming back to try again this season and it paid off with a ticket straight to finals. Her routine was gorgeous with great extensions, great transitions, and plenty of strength and confidence. 

Some other dancers sent to finals who were good but didn't knock my socks off included voguer Matthew Cuff; Brenner Smith of Glen Morris, Ont., the brother of Season 2 finalist Everett Smith; and Jennifer Abbey of Toronto. Her hip hop had swag, but she could have hit it harder. I couldn't help but wonder if she would have been sent to choreography instead had she not told the judges about how she was homeless the last time she auditioned and dance saved her life.

I was surprised that Kirstie Keenan, 18, of Bolton, didn't make it to finals after getting there last season. Sure, her facial expressions were over the top during her audition, but I liked her movement and her style.

That's it until next Monday at 8 p.m. on CTV when it's Vancouver's turn in the spotlight. I'll have the recap here. And don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/realityeo.

(A note to Bachelorette fans: two two-hour shows and recaps in one night was too much, so I'll have to catch up later this week.)

So You Think You Can Dance Canada premieres tonight

Good-looking, talented young dancers: that's what's in store on Season 4 of So You Think You Can Dance Canada, according to judges Blake McGrath and Tre Armstrong.

I don't know about you, but I can get behind that.

Blake and Tre stopped by the Toronto Star on Monday afternoon to chat about the new season, which premieres tonight at 8 p.m. on CTV. Why don't I just post the video and let them speak for themselves? (If it's a little shakier than usual in spots, it's because Tre and Blake were so excited they were banging the table that I was resting my elbows on at points.)

 

You can read the interview my colleague did with Tre about the work of her Tre Armstrong Give Back Foundation here.

And I'm going to give you a few more things to look at. I did interviews with Amanda Cleghorn, Jeff Mortensen, Jonathan Arsenault and Nathalie Heath of Season 3 when they were here filming the promo for Season 4, which has been airing on CTV for a few weeks now. Here they are:

 

 

  

And if you haven't seen it yet, or even if you have and just want to see it again, here's the fantastic promo, which was choreographed by Mia Michaels, with Season 3's Hani Abaza acting as her assistant.

 

So You Think You Can Dance at the MMVAs

First of all, congratulations to Blake McGrath, judge and choreographer on So You Think You Can Dance Canada, for winning his first MuchMusic Video Award.

The video "Relax" won Best Cinematography at Sunday's awards for Blake, with the help of director Kyle Davison, DOP Samy Inayeh and producer Cherie Sinclair. And the video was art directed by choreographer Mia Michaels, who has worked on SYTYCD in both Canada and the U.S.

The Video of the Year, Shawn Desman's "Electric/Night Like This," costarred the lovely and talented Kim Gingras, a SYTYCDC finalist from Season 2.

And I'm pretty sure that was Mark Kanemura, a SYTYCD U.S. Season 4 finalist and an all-star in Season 7, dancing with Lady Gaga during her show-opening number, "The Edge of Glory."

Here's Blake's winning video:

 

Don't forget, Season 4 of So You Think You Can Dance Canada premieres tonight at 8 p.m. on CTV! I'll have the recap and lots more content, including video interviews with contestants, as the season continues.

So You Think You Can Dance: The pay later plan (spoiler alert)

(The Season 8 So You Think You Can Dance top 20 in a Fox photo by Adam Rose.)

It was one of those impossible decisions on the first So You Think You Can Dance results show of Season 8. Who on earth were the judges going to send home on Thursday after some of the strongest dancers ended up in the bottom three?

Mitchell Kelly seemed at first like an obvious choice since an elbow injury kept him from performing Wednesday, but he was given the go-ahead for a solo Thursday and that solo was wonderful, full of deliberate, powerful movement.

So who then? Jess LeProtto, a Broadway dancer who moves like silk across the stage (and one of my favourite male dancers)? Tadd Gadduang, a B-boy who conquered African jazz on Wednesday? Robert Taylor Jr., so full of personality he stole the show in a jive (unpointed toes be damned)?

And on the girls' side, the unpalatable choices were Jordan Casanova, Clarice Ordaz and Miranda Maleski.

The judges' decision, it turned out, was no decision at all. In a SYTYCD first, no one got sent home on Thursday night. The pain has been deferred until next Thursday, when two couples will get the boot.

"I want to give America the chance to see more of you," head judge Nigel Lythgoe told the endangered dancers. Translation: he wants to give America a chance to vote out someone else the judges like less.

I think America got it more wrong than right this week, but it's not like there was any one couple who flubbed their routine on Wednesday. Everybody danced extremely well in one of the strongest first performance shows I can remember.

My least favourite routine was the Christopher Scott hip hop by Ashley Rich and Chris Koehl. It was well danced, but it was the least substantial piece of the night.

Individually, Clarice got outdanced by Jess in their Tyce Diorio-choreographed Broadway number, although the routine as a whole was terrific. And Alexander Fost got chewed up and spit out by Sasha Mallory in their Travis Wall contempory number.

Couples-wise, I could have pictured Ryan Ramirez and Ricky Jaime taking a hit over Ryan's smile during their lyrical hip-hop routine (as the judges wondered, why was she smiling so much if her character had broken up with Ricky's character?). I could also have seen Iveta Lukosiute and Nick Young losing votes for their quickstep, not because it wasn't danced wonderfully (especially by tapper Nick) but because it's the so-called "dreaded" quickstep.

But Iveta and Nick were among the couples declared safe. So were Melanie Moore and Marko Germar, who get my vote for cutest couple and who gave the most affecting performance of Wednesday night in a Travis Wall contemporary number about two statues that come to life. 

Also safe were Missy Morelli and Wadi Jones, who impressed in a Sean Cheesman jazz routine; Ashley and Chris; Caitlynn Lawson (who really held her own in a Sonya Tayeh jazz number, with Season 7 finalist Robert Roldan dancing in place of the wounded Mitchell); Ryan and Ricky; and Sasha and Alexander. 

The decision not to send anyone home wasn't the only surprise on Thursday. Host Cat Deeley announced that pop superstar Lady Gaga (who made her TV debut on a Season 4 show) will be a guest judge in a future episode.

The results show also included the world premiere of Gaga's new video for "The Edge of Glory," as well as a lip-synched performance by Keri Hilson of new single "Lose Control" and a performance of a Russian "gopak" dance, which seemed to leave the studio audience cold judging by the sparse cheers and applause.

I'd love to pontificate more, but jet lag is catching up to me. 

Given this week's results, next week's shows should be really interesting. You can tune in Wednesday at 8 p.m. on A for the performance show and switch to CTV Thursday at 8 for the results. And look for the recap here.

Reality Check returns

Hello readers, I'm back and raring to get back to my reality TV diet. In between the vacation laundry, I'm catching up on episodes of So You Think You Can Dance, so there will be a recap tonight, Thursday, June 16.

And keep watching this space for updates on The Voice and The Bachelor, and some video in honour of the premiere of Season 4 of So You Think You Can Dance Canada, which starts Monday at 8 p.m. on CTV.

Back to the PVR...