As a part of their 40-stop tour, Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance came to Boston, more specially&-Boston University’ s Agganis Arena.
On Oct. 11, thousands of eager dance fans, such as myself, gathered to watch some of their favorite dancers perform live. The performance contained some of the season’ s most popular routines, in addition to some impressive dances that were choreographed specifically for the tour.
Audience members had the opportunity to watch contestants from season seven&-as well as “All Stars’ winners of season six. Season seven differed from the show’s previous seasons in that Fox brought back “All Star” dancers, the best of past seasons, to perform alongside the season seven contestants.
“I thought having the all-stars was beneficial,” said Alyssa Sarkis, a School of Education freshman. “It pushed the dancers so much more than they would have otherwise. They had to dance up to the level of the All Stars which is no easy task.”
The dancers proved their level of professionalism and seemed to impress the audience during the “Boogie Shoes” routine danced by contestants Billy and Lauren. According to Casey Nulph, a freshman in the College of General Studies, “the song ended up cutting out and they continued to dance the entire thing perfectly.”
Although you certainly do not have to be a dancer yourself to be pleased by the performances, those who dance can appreciate just how difficult dancing at that level can be.
“As a dancer of 14 years, I know the difficulty of completing a dance without music. This was really cool to see and showed the true talent of these dancers,” Nulph said.
“It’s my favorite show, especially because I am a dancer. I love that they have to master different styles and prove their versatility,” Sarkis added.
One of the greatest benefits of attending the tour is having the chance to see some of your favorite routines once again on stage&-a major improvement upon re-watching the dances on the Internet. Lois Alksninis, a freshman in the College of Communication, said, “I loved seeing some of my favorite routines from the show, like the sad clown routine and the routine with the business man and the homeless man.”
“It’ s so different to see it live. There’ s more emotion involved than when you watch it on the TV,” added Sarkis.
Cassie McGrath, a freshman at Northeastern agreed.
“This is the second time I’ ve been to the tour. [I like coming] because they bring it to life more than the television can.”
The So You Think You Can Dance winner may not necessarily be “best’ dancer according to the judges. Instead, the show’s chosen winner is America’ s “favorite’ dancer. Thus, the show is very much a popularity contest with the likable dancers having an advantage. And viewers definitely do have their favorites who they can support by voting via phone. Even at the tour, audience members had signs that they held up proudly to show their admiration and support for their favorite dancers.
Sarkis said her favorites were Lauren and Kent because “[Lauren is] very versatile and charismatic and Kent [has a] great personality and you can really tell that he puts his heart and soul into his dance…You can see that dancing is their passion and that [the dancers] are really grateful to have this opportunity.”
The contestants make an effort to connect to their fans by sticking around after each tour performance to meet audience members. Nulph, who has taken advantage of this opportunity, said, ” I’ve been to the show all five seasons they have gone on tour and have met with the dancers each time…after the show and got to talk to each of them personally.”
Although the tour is a great way for fans to relive the previous season, it is also a clever way to gain viewers.
“I’ ve never seen the show or been to the tour, but this was so cool that I will definitely start watching [the show] now,” said Amanda Zipf, a freshman at Northeastern.
Shannon Fay, a sophomore in the College of General Studies and Agganis Arena employee, said, “I would’ve bought a ticket myself if I hadn’ t been working here tonight. It’s the first show I’ ve seen. I love Kent…my favorite dance was one of Travis Wall’ s routines.”
Sarkis, who has followed the television show since its first season, was not new to the tour, as she had also seen the tour performances for seasons three, four, and five. And season seven’ s tour did not disappoint; it ” definitely lived up to [my] expectations.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
