Well hello, once again! I thank you all for being so patient with me, we are fully in our beautiful new home and getting settled. Now that we have our UVerse cable installed (love it), I won’t be missing ANY more episodes of this season’s SYTYCD (whew)!

I’m so behind I don’t even know who was eliminated last week. Oh, Cristina. Sorry, doll, I liked you.

First up is AdeChike with Lauren doing a nerdy hip-hop. Very hip, cute and fun. And what’s THIS? Sexy nerds–right up my alley. Hip-hop with a gigantic measure of personality and hot chemistry mixed right in. A perfect recipe in my estimation. I wanna get up and move myself, I am enjoying this so much. Judges luh-huv it. A good sign for AdeChike, as it seems that he has finally “shown up” to the party. This is a great piece from choreographer Dave Scott, must get a mention in for him.

Next is Ashley and Ade doing a piece from newcomer Dee Caspary. The piece is very fast and flowy and has a lot of power. It seems to have all the right elements, but I still feel it’s missing something. Like it’s too fast the whole way through. There is a short pause, but for me it’s not enough give and take in the dynamics. Dee was true to his word, she does practically no movement without help from Ade. I watch it again just to be sure that I’m not missing something, and it still bugs me a little. Masterfully danced by the both of them, but possibly just too rough and tumble for my tastes and hard to digest visually. Judges love it, now I feel bad. Oh well. Purple breezes and glasses of scotch.

And oh, it’s been so long I forgot–SOLOS! Billy’s up first with amazing purple stretch jeans, amazing flexibility and a love to just get it all out there. Well done.

Robert is up next (wow, what a story with his mom, huh?) dancing a Sonya Tayeh jazz number with all-star Courtney. Sonya’s goal is to show America how wrong they were to put him in the bottom last week. These two are in great synch with each other; when they do the moment where they jete together, it’s perfectly in time. I don’t quite get the ferocity from Robert that Sonya really wanted from him, but they looked really go together. His main note is to study ballet. I take this moment to note that they actually don’t ever dance ballet on this show. Hmmm. Not exciting enough? What about traditional Russian dancing. Was THAT exciting enough? Just sayin’, is all.

Jose’s solo is up and he uses one of my fave super soul classics, James Brown’s “Super Bad”. And it’s the original, no sampling here. You go, Jose. He’s a cutie and his solo rocked.

Tapper Melinda’s inspiration is old time hoofer Dr. Harold Cromer whom she has studied with for a few years. It’s really fun to see a youngling studying with a true seasoned pro. She’s got to show her sexy side with a Salsa by Fabian Sanchez and with Pasha. Right out of the box she’s got the hotness, but her heel gets stuck in her dress and even though she has to get it out, she doesn’t miss a beat. Love the stuff on the floor. Ok, this is hot stuff and super super good. She’s really enjoying her self and who wouldn’t dancing with the Pash?? But wow, she gets crushed by the judges. What am I missing here? Plus, Adam Shankman and Mia Michaels both say that she should have been let go last week instead of Cristina. This really frustrates me and I’m going to move on now.

Kent has is solo next. He’s a super cute ball of energy, but it’s too much reaching out and up for me in the solo.

Alex comes out of the gate with his sheer perfection solo to music from Planet of the Apes (odd, but so right) and I have to rewind it twice. Love this guy, because not only has he got the chops that can’t stop, he has the emotion there and ready to go when its needed. Sigh.

Next Lauren and Neil are up with an Joey Bowling Broadway number, and I’m looking forward to this. Broadway always needs a huge amount of chemistry, a lot of back and forth between the couple and they had it, just not in spades. Mia points out that as an athletic dancer, Lauren needs more femininity, and I would agree with her. Just a little more sauciness. And yes, the dress broke, but then we’re just watching the dress and not her. I enjoyed the dance, though, Joey gives good Broadway.

Ashley gets her solo next, and I don’t quite get her first count of 8 because she barely moves. But then she’s gone and all over the stage. Powerful, but I don’t get her as a dancer in this infinitely short amount of time. Right about now is when I say that I think they should get rid of solos all together and just keep the dance for your life. It is really tough to find just the right combination of elements to please everyone yet show off the best of your abilities in 20 seconds. Give em a break.

Interestingly enough, Billy Bell’s inspiration is Legacy from season 6. Wow, that is actually super cool that a dancer who moves like Billy was inspired by a breaker who moves like Legacy. Neato. Billy and Katherine do a contemporay by Stacey Tookey. This piece is a great balance of dance and emotion through dance and connection–which they had the most of at the end moment, as Nigel pointed out. Katherine was there for him 100% of the time (damn she’s really good) and he didn’t quite match her with being there in the moment. Technique, check. Emotion,

Robert’s solo is next to Ray Lamontange, who I adore. His solo hit me in a good place (where would that be you ask), and I just was able to sit back, watch and enjoy. He’s really gorgeous to watch dance like that alone. Ahhh.

Jose’s influence was Bruce Lee, and this is not the first time I’ve heard a breaker talk about Bruce as an influence. It has been said that Bruce’s fighting style was the basis for the creation of break dancing. Jose gets to do a Samba with Anya (and Dmitry Chaplin, welcome back), and here we go. Right away he looks like a solid partner with the catch off the table. The arms aren’t quite there but he’s pretty darn good for a B-Boy doing frickin’ samba. And he loved dancing with pretty Anya. I actually couldn’t take my eyes off him. The judges echo my sentiments. Whew, I’m not completely crazy, huh.

Melinda does her tapping to Alicia Keys and I’m really not sure what the judges were talking about her musicality. Sounds perfectly fine here to me. I liked it.

Kent gets to tackle a jazz piece by Mandy Moore with Allison. Kent’s lesson is to be a MAN. While he held is own with Allison in the choreography, there was no sizzle between the two of them. Allison is such a hottie tottie and and she was right there for him, but he wouldn’t bite (to her, that’s to say; he loved to play to the audience). And the song is Heartburn for gawd sakes! Burn, baby burn!

AdeChike supposedly raised the roof with the dance for his life last week and I’m looking forward to this solo. Strength, power and beauty. That coupled with gentleness is what gives this guy his swag.

Lauren. Here is a gal who knows how to pack everything needed into a 20 second solo. Technique, passion, leaps, new stuff, emotion, audience connection, connection to the song, restraint. Pure satisfaction.

Alex’s NappyTabs hip-hop number with Twitch is probably the most anticipated tonight, since guys are rarely put together at this stage of the show. And I have to sincerely say, this is THE MOST enjoyable number of the entire show for me, I’m practically yelling at the screen “yeah!” at the top of my lungs. Excellent work done by Alex, I would have never known that he had no experience with hip-hop. He had the moves down, and was perfectly in synch with Twitch, and great chemistry with him to boot. The whole concept was a home run with the song “Outa Your Mind”, the story with the shrink/patient, the NappyTabs moves, throwing in Alex’s ballet, on and on and on. Amazing. Alex has sealed himself as my early front-runner favorite on the show. Early prediction, he could win it!

Whew! That was a whirlwind. Who will be in the bottom and who will be safe? We’ll find out tomorrow!

Was there ever a more iconoclast dance movie than Saturday Night Fever? Ok, let’s narrow it down to contemporary dancing (yes, yes, I know about The Red Shoes). Probably nope. Just take the poster for instance:

The pose, the suit, the icon.

Saturday Night Fever was originally seen by Paramount Pictures as this little nothing of a vulgar movie with bad language, nudity, and even a rape scene. Plus, it was doomed by the waves of “Disco Sucks” moving across the US. In the VH1 documentary on the movie, the producer of the movie soundtrack talks about having the masters to the album in the trunk of his car, driving down Hollywood Boulevard and reading the “Death to Disco” bumper sticker on the car in front of him. But then, movie producer Robert Stigwood did something completely unprecedented and brilliant. He released the Bee Gee’s single “More Than a Woman” from the soundtrack a full month before the movie was to be released (of course, this happens all the time now). It hit number one, and paved the way for the movie to follow.

Even greater story than that is a fascinating tale about how John Travolta was shown the original cut of his now famous solo dance on the floor with the colored lights. He was dismayed that it was pretty much all in medium and closeup shots and you missed all the hard work he had done on the dance. He sat down with the editor and helped him re-cut it from scratch, to show everything and really feature those disco moves he did so well. Thanks John, because now we can see this:

Pretty damn amazing, and iconic. Here’s to the genius of Saturday Night Fever!

**SPOILER ALERT**

The night opened with a sexy Top 18 (why not 20?) super hot group dance choreographed by Kelley Abbey and set to “Scared of Me” by Freddie le Grand. My husband even walked by and was distracted by the stockings and garters. “Ooh, those are hot.” Add a red chair to any dance and I’m a happy girl.

Next come the start of the judges favorite dance picks of the season:

Lil’ C’s dance choice is Kevin, Legacy and Russell dancing a NappyTabs Hip-Hop to “Beggin” by Madcon. Even better the second time around, Russell ruled it (of course) and I really love that song.

Adam Shankman: Ellenore and Jakob dancing a Sonya Tayeh Contemporary piece to “Tore My Heart” by OONA & Dave Tweedie. Great choice and I remember him practically orgasming over it last time. This is just a great piece. Love the post at the ending.

Nigel Lythgoe: Derick K. Grant tap number with Philip, Peter and Bianca dancing to “Take the A Train” by Ella Fitzgerald. I love that three, let alone one tapper was in the top 20. Tapping is just a really great form of dance that is not appreciated enough in today’s dance world of extreme acrobatics and hip-hop. However, it doesn’t seem to translate to television the way other dance forms do. So sad.

Mary Murphy breaks the “rules” this time around, and instead of picking the Contemporary piece that Ryan and Ashleigh danced last night, she got them to choreograph a Jive routine themselves. She’d waited all season long to see them dance together and was disappointed they didn’t draw a ballroom style. Their Jive is definitely good, but not nearly as compelling as their contemporary piece from the night before.

Next, guest dancers the Groovaloos perform a street hip hop number. This is a fun, great piece and the breakdancing moves are stylin’!

Continuing with Judges’ Choice, Nigel picks the Dwight/Desmond Contemporary piece with Kathryn and Jakob set to the fabulous song “At This Moment.” Brilliant.

Tyce DiOrio picks the Bollywood number that Nathan and Mollee did wayyyy back when. Ah, the two kids back together. I think that this and their Can Can routine were their best things as a couple.

Then, unfortunately, is about a minute of confusion as quite a few things happened: Cat’s mic went on the fritz and we couldn’t hear anything, then three finalists came on the stage, and Cat is given a hand mic which she starts asking “where’s everybody else, ” and “what’s happening here?” Then we see Russell limp on under Ryan’s help, unexplainedly in pain and tears. He’s hurt his leg. Cat deftly assures him that they will get him help. Then, with pretty much no ceremony Ryan is named 6th runner up. They cut to his video package which really shows him off. I always really liked him, for his dancing and especially for how much he loves his wife (awwww).

After the commercial, Adam Lambert comes on and we don’t get an update on Russell. Adam really smokes, and I talk with my husband about his really hip look, which he dubs “Rockabilly/Metal and Billie Holiday mixed with Freddie Mercury.” I love my husband, he’s so with it.

The five finalists come back on stage, Russell on a stool. The 5th place dancer is named: Ashleigh. Her video package is super hot and I for one am glad she overcame her illness to get back into dance.

Next Shankers picks the Ellenore/Legacy Travis Wall Contemporary. I didn’t care much for this the first time around, but seeing it again in a new unit of time endears it to me more. Very innovative, and as Adam said, had risk, danger, chemistry out the butt. He predicts an Emmy award for Mr. Wall.

Ms. Debbie Allen picks the African Jazz piece choreographed by Sean Cheesman for Noelle and Russell. Because Russell is injured, they go to the tape of the dance. Too bad for Noelle, she doesn’t get to do this again. I really loved this piece when I saw it the first time (the Frog Dance, it’s called), and the bit where they clamp onto each other, Noelle’s head down between his legs and flip end over end over end was amazing. Love it.

The four remaining finalists are on stage and they announce the 4th runner up: Ellenore. Her video package just reminds me how original she is, very unusual and quirky dancer. The dance world needs more of her.

After the break, Lil’ C makes his next choice, one the dancers had to “wring themselves dry” for, a Tyce DiOrio Contemporary way back from “Meet the Top 20″ and Nathan, Jakob, Channing and Ariana. This piece is good and each dancer shines in it. But with the four dancers shooting across the stage constantly and jumping up on each other all the time I found it a little hard to focus on.

Next Mary picks the red hot Hip Hop NappyTabs choreographed for Kathryn and Russell from the previous night. Smokin, I mean really. This, of course, is from tape as well.

We’re back from the commercial break, and Mary J. Blige takes the stage, looking absolutely classy. She performs “I Am.” This was really good, but why do they need clips of her videos in the background is more than I know. Hate that screen. H-a-t-e. Got it Fox? Good.

There’s time for one more judge’s pick, and Nigel goes back to “Meet The Top 20″ show and Wade Robson’s piece to the fantastically fierce “Comanche” by the Rebels. This is my absolute favorite group number of the entire season, it just combines so many elements that I adore. Thank gawd they played it again. 60′s style dance, dancers having sound while they dance (“shi-kah!”), girls in satin skirts slit up to their coochies, guys dancing tough as nails, hot and loud sax (yes, I said SAX), clapping, snapping, dance fighting, posing. Do I need any more??????

Ah, pause for a moment. While I watch the screen. OMG. Kathryn is just named 3rd runner up! I really don’t believe it. I really thought she was going to take it. Oh!! Wow, this is a complete surprise for me. After her video package she’s crying and her voice does NOT go up, good girl!! She’s beautiful, beautiful, beautiful and I wish the best things for her.

Ok, recover after that moment.

After the break, Jennifer Lopez reclines in a large silver stiletto on stage. Pretty neat. She calls–SANTA! Very cute. And I love her rhinestone tights. She looks fab and dances great and is probably lip-synching. Who can blame her with all the dancing?

Now it’s time to get down to business. Jakob and Russell come on stage. Well, Russell with Jakob’s help, that is. A few words about the show, dance and America winning as well as the winner of the show. We get to see a video package for both Russell and Jakob. They are really great to look back at, and we get to see Jakob do that amazing jete another 5 more times. Pure Poetry.

The boys look happy and anxious as we come back, and Cat starts her patter. The envelope snaps open. America’s Favorite dancer IS: Russell Ferguson! And BOY is he happy and grateful (and shirtless). He thanks everyone  and says that he has dreamed of this since he was born (“I came out like–what!”).

Well he deserved it. And I picked the winner! Woo Hoo! Well, I know I said that Kathryn would probably get it, but I wished in my heart it was Russell. Yea for America, you voted well.

LONG LIVE DANCE!

Until season 7 of SYTYCD, I’ll be here continuing Dancemomma coverage of dance around the world. Goodnight.

(Images courtesy of FOX Television)

Doing some more studying the lovely Isadora Duncan, I discovered something new for myself. Isadora actually brought dance into the 20th century as true, pure, high-art form. Until that time, dance was either done in toe shoes, restricted in movement by technique, or on a vaudeville stage (or even possibly bar room).

“I have discovered the dance. I have discovered the art which has been lost for two thousand years.” Isadora Duncan

In 1909 Isadora moved to Paris and started a dance school where the mode was to dance barefoot with loose hair and dress in flowing scarves and Grecian-like tunics. She brought actual primitive, improvisational dance to the forefront–countering rigid ballet styles that she found to be “ugly and against nature.”

At the core of her technique was using the solar plexus and the torso (we would say “center” or “core” these days) as the point where all the body’s movements to come from. With this basic idea Isadora is said to have invented what is known as “Modern Dance.”

“Dance is the movement of the universe concentrated in an individual.” Isadora Duncan

Through her dance she demonstrated her defiance of the time and expressed her thought, opinions and feelings with poetic imagination and enthusiastic humor. Isadora sought not only to raise dance to a sacred art form, but to find poetry and beauty in everyday movement and life.

As a dancer who does a lot of improvisation and what I call “dancing from the heart,” I thank Isadora for her gift.

“My motto–sans limites” (without limits) Isadora Duncan

“I do everything I know how in a dance.”  Twyla Tharp

Twyla is a really interesting gal, and I love it that she speaks about giving everything in a dance.  If you do something halfway, your communication can’t come through.  You’re left with the audience thinking the dance was “nice”.

Twyla was also the first choreographer to do fusion dancing, combining elements of ballet and modern dance into what is known as a “cross-over” ballet.  I am always a fan of combining the best of both worlds, so to speak, and am amazed when someone can fuse, for instance, hip-hop and good old broadway jazz (as the Jabbawokeez did on Dancing with the Stars the other night–nice).

One of Twyla’s more recent and widely known shows is Movin’ Out, featured on Broadway, combining classical and modern techniques and done with the music of Billy Joel.  An extremely clever and popular combination. She won a Tony Award in 2003 for her choreography of Movin’ Out.

I dug and found the original cast performing on the Tony Awards in 2003.  I would definitely say the dancers don’t hold anything back when they perform: