So You Think You Can Dance - Summer 2013

Back Row:  Jade, Malece, Jenna, Tucker, Paul, Makenzie, Haley, Curtis, Aaron, Jasmine H., Jasmine M., Alan     
Front Row: Carlos, Mariah, BluPrint, Brittany, Nico, Alexis, Amy, Fik-Shun

Like a certain Genesis song, I know "I Can't Dance", but these guys and girls sure can!

     Our favorite dancers all season were Aaron and Jasmine.  He was the tapper who didn’t even make it into the top twenty… until one of the guys who did had to quit due to an injury, so the producers asked Aaron to come back to the show, and he managed to make it into the finals.  And she was Cyrus’ old girlfriend with a wounded self confidence who began to realize her talent when she made it into the top twenty.  These two were paired together throughout the early portion of the competition, and no couple was better.  They were dazzling:

     Of course, they didn’t win.  Fik-Shun and Amy won.  They were paired together throughout the competition, and they were quite good as well, particularly considering that Fik-shun was a hip hop dancer taking on other styles for the first time.  This competition is never about the best dancers necessarily, only America’s favorite dancers (though they all have to be crazy-good to impress the judges enough to get into the top twenty).

     Here’s just a few of the more memorable people from this season from among the other dancers, judges, guest judges, choreographers, guest choreographers, or all-stars:

1. Choreographers Napoleon and Tabitha D'Umo, better known as NappyTabs, shared their new baby on camera this year (see the link here).
2. Choreographer and season 2 runner up Travis Wall choreographs and dances with winner Amy Yakima (Linked here).
3. This year had three tappers!  Runner up Aaron Turner, plus Alexis Juliano and Curtis Holland (see the link here)
4. Nigel Lithgow and Mary Murphy were the mainstays on the judging panel this year, and one of the best guest judges was Jenna Elfman.
5. Adam Shankman was still a guest judge on occasion, taking a break from directing those Step Up movies.  See him practice for the Dizzyfeet foundation dance this year here.
6. One of our other favorite dancers from this season was contemporary dancer Malece Miller.  In the clip linked here, she dances salsa with co-contestant and partner Alan Berkin. 
7. Cat Deely again did a great job as host, even if her outfits were usually on the outlandish side, to say the least.  Here, she poses with two of this season's hip-hop dancers, BluPrint and the short but very talented Jade Zuberi (see the link here)
8. Another favorite guest judge was the always funny Wayne Brady, and you should also check him out on the new season of Who's Line Is It Anyway?  (See the link here)
9. Travis Wall choreographed a moving number for contestant Tucker Knox and returning all-star Robert Roldan about two survivors giving each other a helping hand.  In real life, both of them had survived devastating car accidents (linked here).
10. Paul Karmiryan and Makenzie Dustman perform a tender piece (linked here).
11. Returning all-star Mark Kanemura shows he has a lot in common with Tim Burton on the creative front with some of the most outlandish yet intriguing dances of the season.  Here, he dances to the weird sounding "I Am the Best" by 2NE1 with contestant Jenna Johnson (linked here)

For more from this season of So You Think You Can Dance, see the following links:
http://www.fox.com/dance/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/11/so-you-think-you-can-dance-crowns-season-10-winners-video_n_3904097.html
http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2013/09/so-you-think-you-can-dance-season-10-winners-fik-shun-and-amy-talk-about-their-victory.html