So You Think You Can Dance Canada: Semi Finals!

Alright...right off the top I’m going to tell you, there will be names missed and spelled wrong all through this post. The show moved really fast tonight and even with the magic of PVR, it was hard to grab all of it.

So we’re starting out with nearly 200 dancers here in the finals. Our judges through finals week are Jean Marc Genereux, Tre Armstrong, Blake McGrath and Luther Brown.

Everyone’s nervous and doesn’t know what style is coming first. Emmanuel gets pissy about appropriate footwear. Cue eye rolling.

The dancers are brought into the theatre to listen to the judges usual over-metaphoring and ‘bring its’. And we’re off to learn some Hip Hop with Luther.

Have you ever noticed that choreography involves a lot of sound-effect-ing? Odd. (Especially with Blake! I don't think I heard an actual "word", say like a dance step or something helpful... but lots of BAM! and WHAM!)

Over a quarter of the dancers are eliminated over the course of this round. Emmanuel Sandhu, Allie Bertram, the ballet dancer, Nicolas Archambault (love), Francis Lafreniere, Danny Arbour, Izaac the medieval knight, Taylor the aspiring model, Jared Cox (I think that was his last name) and Juliet Irons are all through. Tiger Son is out and cries like a slapped kitten. (Come on now, no one knows how very hard it was for Tiger. It was really. really. HARD!) Sara Liang is out ‘cause she didn’t really dance at all. TK, the rubics cube guy, Meaghan Wegg, the Circus performer and Tiffany Anderson are all out.

Time for Day 1 Dance for Your Life!

Natalli Reznick dances and I get a little out of breath just watching her. She’s through to the next round. Jade Anderson seems to be a master of the ass-roll/shake. The judges like his personality and keep him for the next round. Ferdinand Topel’s personality doesn’t help him enough and he’s out. Tyrell Witherspoon is dancing for his dead mother to ‘Walking in Memphis’....awwwww... Doesn’t work out for him, he’s gone. Joey Bothwell... I can only repeat Blake’s sentiments; “We asked you to dance for your life and it looked like you were dancing for a free dinner”. Hee. See ya. Shawn Fraser, Paul Koos and Arassay Reyes are all through while Achmeal Samajuste (?), Pardis Starchini (?), Candace Simpson and her brother are all out.

It’s Day 2 and we’re starting out with Tre Armstrong’s disco!

First up is Jeremy Tran Hu. He doesn’t do well and is asked to Dance For His Life. On his way out he says “I’m not good in choreography...I won’t be able to do it”. Dude, you're on the wrong show. He ultimately makes it through to the next round.

I can’t tell who all is in the next group of dancers, but they’re so good the judges are all up dancing and send them all through.

Kaitlyn Fitzgerald, Shane Simpson, Graham Goodall, Jesse Catava, Tatiana Parker, Romina D'Ugo and Mira Schwartzburg are all through. Tianne Lin Trong is through as well, but she’s injured her ankle so she’s going to have a tough go for the rest.

DJ Dove, who hit every audition trying make it through is downed by the disco. Fly away home now.

Emmanuel Sandhu and his ego have to Dance for His Life - he makes it through to the next round.

Hey! It’s Jeremiah Hughes! He’s the guy who auditioned in the US, made it to Vegas and threw a hissy fit! Is it evil that I’m kind of hoping for another hissy fit? None so far, but he has to Dance For His Life and will make it through to the next round.

Others that make it through on DFYL are Dario Milard, Miles Faber, Julia Harnet, Kevin Howe, Mike Condissomething, Jared Potts, James Jones and Justin Jackson.

For the second half of Day 2 we’re doing the Foxtrot with Jean Marc and France. To start us off on a creepy note, Jean Marc does a weird pelvic thrust that I never need to see again. (His wife must have a really good sense of humour.)

Okay there are a lot of names and dances...some are good, some are not so much and some are lousy. Going straight through to the next round are Lisa Auguste, Joey Matt, Hania Vaza, Mira Schwarzburg, Caroline Torti, Vincent Olivier Noiseaux, Pierre Bouttiez, Kaitlyn, Tianne Lin Trong, Ricky Cooperman, Ashley Irvin, Danny Arbour, Kevin Mylrea, Denitsa Ikanamova, Allie Bertram, Francis, Claudia Primo, Nicolas Archambault (love) and Chloe Schultz.

In a cruel twist of fate, the dancers aren’t going for some much needed rest, but being separated into groups and given random songs with which they’ll have to choreograph a dance routine to. We’ve now found ourselves in the whiny bitchfest portion of the semi finals!

Group 1 doesn’t pull it together at all. Izaac, Jared and Juliet are sentenced to Dance For Their Lives while everyone else is through.

Aside from Group 1 they make it look like all the rest are really good and everyone is staying. Group 10’s performance is awesome and the judges love it. JM fucks around with them a little bit and really freaks them out...it’s pretty hysterical ‘cause everyone bought it. (I totally bought into it - that was just MEAN!)

All 3 dancers that were sent to DFYL are staying.

The final choreography round is contemporary with Blake. Half of the remaining dancers will be cut this round. It looks like it’s a struggle for a lot of them.

Staying this round are

Denitsa, Joey Matt, Nicolas (love), Emmanuel (he’s starting to look a little humbled), Natalli Reznick, Chris and Jesse.

Jeremiah’s out and yet, no hissy fit. Disappointing. Tianne Lin Trong is also out which is probably for the best...her ankle looks really gross.

We’re now to the final solos. There will be no critiques here, so apparently that means we don’t need to see any of the dances. There’s a short montage and we get straight to revealing the Top 20.

Emmanuel Sandhu is.....OUT!!! I really thought his tricks were going to sneak him through. (Did you see the look in his eyes when Tre first said no, like "Are you freaking KIDDING me? You're saying NO? To ME?) Those judges...smart folk (I reserve the right to retract that statement at any time). He’s crying like a little girl with a skinned knee.

Alright, done gloating.

The Top 20 Dancers are: Arassay Reyes! Dario Milard! Lisa Auguiste! Allie Bertram! Lara Smythe! Jesse! Kaitlyn! Vincent Olivier! Tamina! Joey! Caroline! Kevin Mylrea! Izaak Smith! Romina D'Ugo! Bre Wong! Miles Faber! Nicolas Archambault! Natalli! Danny Arbour! Francis!

So that’s it for the semi finals! While I appreciate getting on to the competition quickly, I almost wish this was spread out over two episodes. It was really fast and hard to follow well.

If any of you want to point out my spelling mistakes or missed names, please do so in the comments! I’ll edit the post to add in whatever help you guys can offer.

First competition show is next Wednesday. Look for a new SYTYCD Canada post then. We’ll post other various interesting tidbits throughout the week, so come back often!

I'm picking my early favourites much sooner than I have in any other season: Nicolas Archambault and Arassay Reyes...! They both just make me happy. I also feel pretty good about Kevin Mylrea, and am curious about Natalli, once we get her to move past the heels/leg warmers/hoodie look...

Cheers!