Sunday and Monday nights are no longer boring: Dancing is here! We’ve gotten through the audition process and now we’re into the meatier part of things. The performances and the eliminations.

From the start, anyone following the American version will notice the differences pop up like a sore thumb. Unlike the American version, there are no credits during the song (so how is a reviewer suppose to review I wonder?) The stage may look very similar but when portrayed via the camera, you could tell it’s a completely different set. The camera angles in general were strange and ineffective. From below they do nothing for the dancers. Gimme more angles from above, like those swinging all encompassing shots. I hope they fix that up before too long.

First to dance were JD and Rhiannon with a hip hop routine. Despite her pants’ tendency to fall off her hips, Rhiannon’s dancing demonstrates a maturity beyond her 19 years. Hilton and Courtney were next and he may have missed the lift but Hilton still outshone Courtney. After barely making it through the first round, I found that Courtney was a surprise choice in the top 20 dancers.

Hilton is already a favourite amongst Matt and Jason while Bonnie has definitely taken a shine to Courtney. Jason appears to be the only judge who is actually critically evaluating their performances while the other two simply remark on looks and give an overall impression on the routine.

what is with the open shirts with only skin underneath in this show??

Next up were Vanessa and Henry, dancing a salsa routine to “Don’t Hold Back”. I loved Vanessa’s confidence in the lead up: “If we get it, it’ll be excellent.” To start with, automatically there was too much coming from Henry, but not enough of it was directed towards Vanessa. It’s a salsa, he should be impassioned by her but he barely looked at her for the whole routine. I felt that Vanessa really shined in this as she’s more a ballet person. Not one of the judges had a bad thing to say about Henry (as he is a salsa/latin dancer) but while the execution of the moves was almost flawless, it still felt a little off. He could be seen singing along at some points and only really gazed longing at Vanessa at the very end of the routine.

The musical number was performed by Sermsah and Camilla, dressed as cat burglars while Shirley Bassey sung ‘Big Spender’. Again another lift didn’t succeed but it was still a brilliant routine that made me open my eyes.

The other thing I miss from American Dance is the fact that voting polls and numbers weren’t visible to us in Australia. Now we have to endure the constant bombardment of the dancers selling themselves as their numbers come up. Also the American dancers were nowhere near as hardcore about promoting themselves as Cath Deely mentioned how to vote for them. The Aussie contestants cheapened themselves by mucking around like drongos attempting to get us to vote for them. How degrading.

Rhys and Jemma were garbed all up in white and began a waltz without music which had an eerie feel to it. Celine Dion kicked in with ‘A New Day Has Come’ but was cut off terribly at the end. I have to admit, I am not used to seeing Rhys without so much eye make up. Where was his trademark eccentricity? This was Jason’s favourite routine of the evening and it was easy to tell why.

Michael and Laura danced a contemporary routine to Pink’s ‘Nobody Knows.’ Laura may not really be anything interesting to watch but maybe it’s because the other dancers have so much to offer whereas she doesn’t really have any unique skills. Another case in point, what is with the open shirts with only skin underneath in this show?? Or in Michael’s case no shirt. He has got to be the third male dancer showing skin. Now why aren’t the girls doing the same? ;)

The jive performed by Marko and Steph looked awesome, with the music and the punk outfits helping to smash the notion of your typical run of the mill jive. Stephanie seems to have developed a lot in a week but Marko was the one who nailed it. Kate and Khaly danced a jazz to a silverchair song where you could see that Khaly was out of his element but still did wonderfully well.

Then we come to my favourite routine: Demi and Jack’s “Boogaloo’, choreographed by Nacho Pop. That was the shiz! The only routine to make me clap out loud! Kassy and Graeme went last with a lyrical hip hop that was hot but seemed very short in length.

With all the dancers’ routines performed, they await tomorrow’s verdict… the first of this series. There is a lot of potential obvious in these guys and although not all of it came out this week, you can be sure it will.

Tags: So You Think You Can Dance