House Music Blog TheFreshpage.com features all the latest news, videos, cd reviews and releases, dj articles and music downloads in the electronic music arena.
Without a doubt one of the best tracks 2007 will see. David Vendetta is another stellar dj/producer put out by the city of amour - Paris! What is it about this city which instills such incredible artistic freedom? David Guetta, Bob Sinclair and now David Vendetta. Stay tuned as we do a featured artist expose on David Vendetta.
Tiesto Concert Review by Cory R: Being the number one DJ in the world 3 times over makes you think a little bit on how the tour ever decided to hit our city. But on the evening of August 24th, 2007, “The Elements of Life” encompassed downtown Edmonton. For the FIRST time EVER, the Shaw Conference Centre hosted a DJ event of this type. Read more: DJ Tiesto Concert
So here we go with the top 20 strutting their stuff for 2 hours. British host Kat Dealey starts the show which is a bit rough to start as it’s obvious that they are nervous being on the stage in front of national tv for the first time. But this is it, and the prize is substantial at $250,000! Frankly we’re surprised some hip-hop artist hasn’t teamed up with the show to make the other part of the prize be a backup dancer in one of their videos. Can you imagine the free publicity they would get? Ciara? Are you out there? Nevertheless, this is going to be our most in depth review to give you guys background on the dancers. The following dance review blog entries will only mention the highlights and include a clip or two. Who has time to read more these days?!
Judges
Dan Karaty: hip hop choreographer
Mary Murphey: ballroom specialist
Nigel Lythgoe: executive producer
The way it works tonight is that the top 20 are put into couples and dance to win America’s vote. Thursday night the bottom 3 couples do their solos and one guy and one girl are dismissed by the judges. This is it, no more practicing and perfecting your own style, from here on end they will be molded by the top choreographers in the world and only one will shine at the end surpassing this intense pressure. Can you imagine that pressure? That’s what makes this show so damn exciting.
1st couple:
Jamie - contemporary dancer.
Hok - Hip-hop, bboy.
Choreographer - This is a hip hop routine by Shane Sparks
Song - Eva (tambourine).
Our opinion: A lot of choreography here, but it doesn’t really strike a chord with us.
Judges opinion: Dan gives good praise as does Mary but she knocks Jamie. Nigel does praise Jamie and we think she deserves it as it’s not her style and she did stand out.
2nd couple
Anya - 25year old ballroom dancer.
Danny - 20 year old adopted brother of Travis, contemporary dancer
Choreographer - Tony Meredith choreographer doing Jive routine
Song - Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne.
Our opinion - this looks like some weird ballroom routine…didn’t really like it.
Judges - they give serious praise to their dancing, saying they made it look easy.
3rd couple
Lacey - little sister of last year’s winner Benji. Ballroom dancer.
Kameron - freestyle dancer (hip/hop, contemporary)
Choreographer - Mia Michaels doing intense contemporary routine
Song - Dancing by Elisa.
Our opinion - very powerful, this routine kicks ass from the moment it starts. Complicated and brilliant!
Judges - Dan & Nigel knock Cameron but Mary mentions hair raising experience.
4th Couple
Sabra - 19year old contemporary dancer
Dominic - 21 year old break dancer
Choreographer - Doriana doing disco routine.
Song - Donna Summer’s No More Tears
Our opinion - very technical dance which is pretty demanding but they did it well.
Judges - Dan knocks it a bit but Nigel and Mary give quite a bit of praise especially for Dominic who has never danced with a partner before.
5th Couple
Ashlee - 19 year old contemporary dancer
Ricky - 25 year old contemporary dancer
Choreographer - Alex Desolow doing Argentine tango Routine
Song - Trio Fredrico’s Sentimento
Our opinion - decent dancing, and even no real connection between them, they are captivating. Ashley may be a bit too tall though.
Judges - mention no connection between them and Nigel also points out her long legs.
6th Couple
Sarah - 22year old hip hop dancer
Jesus - 23 year old contemporary dancer
Choreographer - Wade Robson doing free style routine
Song - The Triplets of Belville - Cabaret Hoover
Our opinion - extremely unique choreography but not always on time. Very challenging, pretty impressive and it worked overall.
Judges opinion - they loved it and pointed out the cool choreography and quick music.
Standout routine due to the amazing choreography, music and dancers
7th Couple
Jessi - 24year old hip-hop/contemporary dancer
Pasha - 27 year old Russian ballroom dancer
Choreographer - Tony Meredith doing smooth waltz routine
Song - Norah Jone’s Come Away With me
Our Opinion - Jessi is one beautiful girl and she stands out. Pacha just doesn’t do it for us, but maybe it’s his ballroom style.
Judge’s Opinion - They loved it and praised the technicality of them.
8th Couple
Faina - 21 year old Russian ballroom dancer
Cedric - 22 year old hip hop dancer
Choreographer - Shane Sparks doing hip-hop routine
Song - Lloyd’s Get It Shawty
Our Opinion - Cedric rocks it, but Phaena can’t pull it off at all, at least she looks hot though.
Judge’s Opinion - mention no chemistry between two and Cedric’s incredible fluidity.
9th Couple
Lauren - 18 year old contemporary dancer
Neil - 19 year old contemporary dancer
Choreographer - Alex doing salsa routine
Song - Mazerati 5’s Friday Night Rhythm
Our Opinion - granted difficult choreography and not their style, the moves were just not popping.
Judge’s Opinion - No chemistry between them and movements were not meshing together.
10th Couple
Shauna - 18 year old contemporary/ballet dancer
Jimmy - 20 year old contemporary dancer
Choreographer - Tyce doing Broadway routine
Song - The Wiz - Ease on Down the Road
Our Opinion - terrible song and choreography. Looked like they didn’t practice enough, just didn’t work.
Judge’s Opinion - Dan and Marry praise it but Nigel thinks they didn’t do it justice either.
Standout routines of the night include: Sarah & Jesus as well as Lacey & Kameron. Enjoy the video clips below.
Stay tuned to this blog to get our week by week reviews and highlighted video clips. We have also created a video archive including these most recent clips and some of last year’s highlights at www.thefreshpage.com/freshlounge.html. (Please note, that you may have to click on the videos twice to see them as there is a glitch with myspace video clips).
So what’s the deal, are American’s that desperate for sob stories that they would put through a dancer even if she wasn’t that great? If you’ve heard of the movie American Dreamz, then you might know what we’re talking about. It’s a whitty satire about prefabricated white trash stories going successful and it even exposes the President of the United States going on the show to increase his public image (someone from the white house must have watched this movie because it just so happened that George Bush was on American Idol this last season - what a joke!). Nevertheless, dancer Olivia in this episode has a whole clip with her mother interviewed as well since she has breast cancer and her fate is in the air. Don’t mean to sound heartless (and seriously we’ve had a lot of amazing women in our lives who have battled breast cancer) but is this real? Does it need a whole 10 minute clip, when the show is about dancing? Along with this…do we really need to see the lives and stories of the crazies who are so desperate to get on tv that they will wear a yellow mask?
If any of the producers out there read this, please get over it. We are watching So You Think You Can Dance to see the lives and stories of those who have sacrificed their asses off to become dancers who can express them in ways so few can - with their movements. Nevertheless, this blog is not going to write a word about all the losers who get on the show to pretend that they really believe they are good dancers.
So some highlights include:
Lauren - man this girl can move and since she is the first dancer they to audition in LA they barely giver her any recognition. But take our word, this girl is going to go far.
Hokuto - was taken out last season because he didn’t have a work permit…but we don’t know…even his hip hop style is good how is he going to do well in Ballroom or Jazz? Just don’t see it.
Dominic - again sweet hip hop moves and not sure how he’ll translate into other forms but they put him through to vegas.
Lacey - sister of last season’s winner Benji looks like she is going to go far because of her powerful ballroom style…but damn, she better watch her facial expressions cause she looks like Popeye when she smiles!
Morgan - teen girl who looks like she has a gymnastic background. She’s in great shape and uses her body for full expression when dancing contemporary. Nigel watch what you say…we quote “You’ve got some wonderful things our choreographers would like to get a hold of!”
Philip - some serious sick popping and has hip-hop choreographer Shane Sparks on his feet! This guy has some serious raw talent, talent you can’t teach! Check it out below and remember we have all these video clips in our Videos section of our web site.
And so another season of So You Think You Can Dance has started on Fox. Last season was spectacular with choreography and dancing like we’ve never seen before on a prime time show. In fact, it was the highest rated tv show last summer and we have a feeling this season will be the same.
If you compare it to American Idol, episode by episode you are amazed at how talented these dancers are, taking on several different genres from Hip Hop to Contemporary to Jazz to Ballroom to even new flavours like Krumping! They have trained all their lives to get this opportunity and although you can take American Idol singers and run a whole bunch of post production computer corrections to fix the singing, you can’t do any such thing to the dancers on this show. This is pure talent, raw and life changing. You might be able to teach a monkey to sing well, but you won’t be able to teach him how to dance well if it’s not inherent to his nature. Dancing comes from the soul, and matches a mathematical beat or lyric in a way that is beautiful to watch.
With that being said, the first episode of Season 3 starts off with some terrible cheesy contestants who get far more air time then they deserve. We want to see the good dancers damnit, but Fox is convinced that the American public want to see the worst of the worst and see them ridiculed by the judges. We whole-heartedly disagree. Show us the raw talent before it’s manicured and choreographed for tv!
The first episode covers New York City with the three judges: Show creator, dancer, and lover of witty comments… the unconquerable Nigel Lythgoe. At his right side everyone’s favorite (well… almost) screaming Mary Murphy. Alongside Mary and Nigel is hip-hop choreog Dan Karaty. The way it works this season is that if the dancers are knockouts they go straight through to Vegas. If they aren’t they have to go through a round of choreography to see if they make it.
Highlights include:
Russian salsa dancers
Earnest “E-Knock” Phillips who pulls off some mad dangerous B-boy moves, flipping on and off the stage and producing a little splash of confetti. Unfortunately he fails to pull through to vegas in choreography stage.
Katie Watts and pupil Ashley Keegan who make it through to Vegas
Faina Savich sister of previous contestant who made if quite far. She has incredible ballroom technique and major sex appeal so she makes it straight through to vegas.
And then there is Jamal. A 6ft 250lb oager who makes us all laugh and surprisingly manages to pass the choreog stage. Check out this video clip of him here
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