by Vanessa Stewart on June 19, 2009

Americas favorite dancer, basics of sytycd, Mary Murphy, Nigel Lithgow, so you think you can dance, sytycd, sytycd season 5

If you’re new to So You Think You Can Dance, here’s a little course to catch you up-to-date. First off, I know that’s a stupid and rather long name for a show, but once you tune in, you’ll fall in love with the dancers and forget about that silly name. This season marks the fifth search for America’s favorite dancer. Because this is the fifth season, the competition is fierce.

Thousands of professionally trained and self-trained dancers flock to tryout for this show. Auditions held all over the country weed out the good from the best. Typically, a dancer performs once in front of the shows two standard judges, Nigel Lithgow, SYTYCD producer and dancer, and Mary Murphy, ballroom expert. There will always be a guest judge, usually one of the choreographers or someone like Debbie Allen. The dancer will either be sent straight to Vegas for the second round, sent to choreography or sent home. Dancers sent to choreography can show off their range of skill by learning a short choreography by one of the season’s choreographers in a few short hours. Then, the group will perform in front of the judges and either move on to Vegas or go home. You’re getting the idea now. In Vegas, all the dancers go through rigorous routines to find out who will be the Top 20 dancers, chosen ultimately by the judges (not by votes like American idol).

The producers pair the 20 dancers by stature to create the best couples, ie, the shortest guy will usually be paired with the shortest girl, etc. These determined couples will then dance together for 5 weeks, picking a dance genre from a hat each week. They could pick Fox Trot, Paso Doble, Hip Hop, Krump, Salsa, ChaCha, Contemporary, Jazz, etc. Every Wednesday, the dancers dance for America’s votes and every Thursday we’re treated to a group dance. The bottom three couples (who received the least amount of votes) dance “for their lives” with solo performances. The judges then pick which two dancers will go home. If a couple goes home, nothing changes. But if one dancer from two couples goes home, the two dancers left will be paired up, which can produce some interesting pairs.

When 10 dancers have been eliminated, the 10 dancers left will then pick a dancer and a genre out of the hat for the following week. At this point, we can determine which dancer’s can really dance and which dancer’s partners have been a crutch. The judges cannot save anyone after this point, either. It’s all up to America.

The choreographers hail from the very best in their genres. You’ll get to know Napoleon and Tabitha, Mandy Moore and Mia Michaels, Wade Robson, Shane Sparks, Lil C, and many more.  Each week, we’re treated to original dances. You’ll soon learn some choreographers tailor dances to the dancers and some only care about his/her choreography (*cough*Tyce*cough).

Even though the judges can be over the top, there’s no snurky Simon, or prozac Paula to take away from the dancing. And even though the judges will show favoritism, America usually gets it right in the end!

Quick season recap:

Season 1: I really have no idea; I was seriously missing out.

Season 2: Ok, starting to get familiar: Winner, Benji, the infamous bench dance.

Season 3: Totally hooked! Winner, Sabre, the conference room table dance with Sabre/Neal.

Season 4: Obsessed. Winner, Joshua and Katie. (Katie was so good they included top male/top female so Katie could win, too!) Joshua and Katie never messed up once. But then there was Twitchington, Chelsea/Mark’s Bleeding Love and Courtney/Gev. The talent was insane.

Season 5: Just started and I’ve committed to letting you know the best and worse each week here at Metroglow. Tune in every Friday to hear my expert analysis (and by expert I mean, no dance experience at all).

So You Think You Can Dance airs every Wednesday/Thursday on Fox. Check your local listings at fox.com/dance. We’ll see you next week!

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