So I Think I Can...

Judge, that is.

I love how those Australians who are addicted to So You Think You Can Dance have suddenly become overnight dance experts. Including me.

Tonight I was very seriously explaining to my flatmate in great detail just what it was about Jemma & Anthony's cha-cha which made it so blah when it suddenly struck me that I really have no idea about the cha-cha and I was talking utter bollocks.

Too funny.

I have to say though, I am enjoying the Australian version of this series much more than I expected. I adored the American series and thought there was no way the Aussies could match it, but so far I've mostly been proven wrong.

Some of those boys are just amazing... especially Jack, Rhys and Graeme. Anthony is good too but he's a bit too Hugh Jackman-ish for my liking. Henry I like sometimes. I liked seeing him work with Rhiannon tonight - they made a good match and brought out qualities in each other we hadn't yet seen.

There I go talking utter bollocks again.

I'm not a huge fan of the girls apart from Kate. She rocks. Rhiannon is growing on me... tonight I saw some improvement. Demi I really admire, but I'm in two minds. Jemma was great with Rhys but now she's treading on shaky ground. And Vanessa is a lovely dancer but that VOICE! Oh my goodness. How annoying. She needs a vocal coach, pronto.

As does Natalie Bassingthwaite. Talk about One Tone Tami. Every word sounds the same - nasal, monotone and annoying.

While I'm on my soap box, a word on the choreographers. Early on in the series I thought the choreography was pants. Absolute rubbish. The standard of "corrie" (I'm so down with the lingo...!) has improved vastly in the last couple of weeks though so I think the producers must have realised they needed to step that side up.

Having Kelley Abbey choreograph that gorgeous piece for Henry and Rhiannon tonight was fantastic... she is the closest thing to Mia Michaels we have in this country. And yes, I know Kelley has a jazz background and Mia has a contemporary background, but they both choreograph beautiful, evocative stories rather than just tricky dances, which is where they are so similar. I adore Mia Michaels work - she's amazing. How cool would it be if they got her over here to work with them?

Oh and one last thing. I really want to see more variety. Every week its Jazz, Hip Hop, Contemporary and maybe one of the ballroom genres. I want to see the Lindy Hop or African or Rockabilly or the Samba or even (and I'm channeling my inner Dirty Dancing geek here), the Merengue! I admit that throwing Capoeira in there was a nice diversion, but choreographing it to Brit-Brit was just weird.

Anyway.

That's my opinion of So You Think You Can Dance.

Now that I've successfully wasted twenty minutes of my precious line learning time, I must away back to the poetry of Wilfred Owen. "Gas! Gas! Quick boys!"

First day of rehearsal tomorrow morning for my new gig. FOUR different scripts to learn in 3 weeks. Yoiks. And tomorrow night is the dress rehearsal for the Mamet play I'm doing. Its going to be a hell of a busy week.

And my boys are still on a winning streak. Does two from two count as a winning streak? Who cares. We're top of the ladder and that hasn't happened in over a decade. Hurrah.

xo