New York might have its pizza, but Salt Lake City has its Crown Burger. (It’s #2 on the list and my personal experience will testify that it’s one of the best burgers out there. It even trumps a Double Double from In ‘N’ Out when you’re in the mood.) These particular cities (along with Los Angeles) are where we headed this week on So You Think You Can Dance. (That very well could be one of the strangest opening paragraphs this week on CliqueClack. But in my defense pizza, burgers, and dancing go hand-in-hand-in-hand. Well … except for the pizza.)
Hey! I know! Let’s stop going on about food and talk about one of the forms of dance I really don’t like in the least! And that form of dance would be … Broadway.
What don’t I like? It’s fakey. Showy. Goofy. Dippy. Over-the-top. (Yes … I know. It’s supposed to be over-the-top.) I have a hard time appreciating it. At least I can admit that.
But regardless of this fact, I do recognize this form of dance takes practice, concentration, stick-to-it-tiveness, practice, effort, blood, sweat, and tears … and more practice. And, in the case of Jess LeProtto and the performance he exhibited, he is indeed familiar with everything above necessary to execute Broadway superbly. I offer the video of his audition as proof:
Pretty spiffy, eh? It goes without saying the dude — even at 18 years of age — can follow a routine.
So riddle me this: Why in the world did Nigel & Co. relegate Jess to the choreography portion of the program to prove his worth? This was one of the most boggling things I witnessed this week. I saw others I thought should have been booted to that proving ground, but instead they were pointed straight to Vegas. Mind boggling. It’s a case of my inability to see what the judges see. Bottom line though is that he made it. No harm, no foul I guess.
And then there’s Krump.
In the case of this dance style, I’ll go on a bit about Brian Henry, Krumper extraordinaire. Now, I don’t care what you think about this mode of movement — the guy is good at it. Articulate. Tight. On a mission. And, good as he is, I wasn’t surprised he was sent choreography way. The thing I was surprised about was his advancement to Vegas. He didn’t seem as if he’d get the nod based on the structured group tryout. Surprise, surprise, however … he did. I don’t see him getting any farther than that, though. Catchy as his krumping was, I’d be willing to bet he can’t hold a candle to other contestants.
And then there was the Los Angeles auditions, where at one point Nigel noted that, in the history of SYTYCD, one of the days spent there was the most successful ever. And he was pretty dead on: it was pretty ridiculously successful. One of the hopefuls, Patty Ann Miller, offered a swell time for the judges:
It’s certainly shaping up to be an interesting elimination as we head to Vegas and the Top 20 next week.
Clacked by Michael Noble 
on Jun 03, 2011 @ 12:26 EST5EDT
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Poor Jess LeProtto, every judge is going to remember Ryan Karpasky and they will remember that no matter how many times they told America that Ryan couldn’t dance, didn’t deserve to be there, looked funny, etc. America continually REFUSED to put him in the bottom three so that the judges could then pretend to be sad and kick him off. The fact that Ryan brought joy to America with his dancing did not matter one whit to the judges. I think they will see Jess as the same kind of threat. They want contemporary dancers, hip hoppers, and, if Alex Wong hadn’t gotten hurt, ballet dancers. Broadway dancers, forget it. I’m reasonably sure Jess won’t make it out of Vegas.
I don’t care for Broadway in the least yet I’m curious about Jess LeProtto and where he and his style might go. I hope he goes through. It’ll be interesting to see where that’ll end up.
I always appreciate you helping me attach names to contestants. You may refer to above krumper as Brian Henry but to me from this point forward he will always be the guy that’s Krumping for Khrist.
I think that LeProtto will be undeniable and make it into the final 20. He will be a powerhouse in jazz, contrmporary and maybe hip hop. He will suffer in ballroom especially in pairings with tall women. I think he will really make it.
I love the Broadway style and I thought Jess was magnificent, and was also bewildered as to his treatment by the judges. I’m glad he made it through and hope that they will continue to see promise. And how cute was Patty Ann?!?! There were so many great dancers in LA — D.C., Hero, so many more. I’m surprised they even had choreography rounds! It was great to see some of the SYTYCD “family” in the audience. I’m such a geek about these people! I’ve noticed Mark (S04) dancing with Lady Gaga live and in several videos, and I once ran into Jakob following his season — what he was doing in a suburb between Baltimore and Annapolis I’ll never know — and followed him around the store like a stalker until I found the nerve to say hi and tell him that I voted for him every week. He probably thought I was creepy (I stopped short of asking for a picture), but I am such a fan of this show and I can’t wait to see who makes it to the top 20!