SYTYCD?

I've noticed in my short career as a married woman almost every couple has something quirky their "into." For example, we have some fabulous friends who are into their pet skunk. Friends like these come in handy when you discover a ginormous skunk in your yard. My sister and her husband are really into Michael Jackson. They can both dress like him, dance like him and have a plethora of his lyrics memorized. My parents are into irritating their children. No lie, they delight in twitting us by getting common phrases wrong like "It was to DIE from!" when describing something wonderful. For Brent and I it's all things organization-related, the Thai food from King and I and the show So You Think You Can Dance?

When Brent and I were pre-marriage, Reagan introduced us to the show while the Nielsen family was vacationing in the Outer Banks. For us, it was one of those shows that watching once was all it took. The guy who ended up winning that season was a west-coast swing dancer named Benji and he was Mormon. The next season his sister Lacey was in the final four. Heading into this season we were ready with our recordable DVDs to capture the entire thing from the try-outs to the finale. By far, this was the best season to date.

We were both immediately captivated by Joshua, the hip-hop dancer who went on to win the whole thing. He came from a poor background. He quit football and cleaned dance studios to "pay" for his classes. He cried whenever he made it to another level of the competition. Others in his genre usually petered out when they were hit with a ballroom or contemporary number but he did the salsa in his tight pants like he'd been doing it all his life. He gave everything he had into every number he was given from Broadway to contemporary and we were continually blown away. Joshua literally MADE me pick up the phone and vote for him... he was just that good.

Imagine my excitement when Brent announced he'd gotten us tickets to the tour as a combined anniversary/birthday present. I'd get to see my favorite numbers LIVE and by the people who made them water-cooler fodder. The best part was that we'd be doing it together and only we understood how much this meant to the other. It was beyond amazing! Seeing the dances on TV from 5 different camera angles highlighted the entertainment value of the show. The tour highlighted the athleticism. I don't think you'd see the idiots with no dance background trying out every year who think they'd just "give it a shot" if everyone saw them in person.

Aside from seeing my favorite dancer, I saw my favorite dress: Kherington's white, biased-cut ballroom dress she wore doing the Viennese Waltz to A New Day with Twitch. I saw plenty from my favorite choreographers: Tabitha and Napoleon who have been working together for 12 years and married for 10. You can FEEL their commitment to each other in their pieces. I saw my favorite group routine: the Mia Michael's black and white circus-type dance. I even got to see Mark do his solo to Bohemian Rhapsody that propelled him into the Top 20 and yes, it's even better live. Of the many, many, many routines we saw these are my very favorites (nota bene: the videos are longer than the dances. The commentary by the dancers is worth a gander because you get a hint of their personality but skip the judges critique afterwards):

Joshua and Katee when they first caught our eye. It still makes me tingle when I see him go up over his toes:



Chelsea and Mark, Bleeding Love. This one got the biggest applause from the tour:


Twitch and Joshua's Trepak (love the smack talk):



I don't want to clog the blog but if you've never seen the show and you'd like more, I highly recommend those mentioned above as well as:

Mark and Comfort's Detention
Kherington and Twitch's Prison Break
Courtney and Mark's The Garden
Comfort and Twitch's Hip-Hop
Chelsea and Mark's Tim Burton's Wedding
Katee and Joshua's Lyrical
Katee and Twitch's Door

Heck, just come over and watch the whole season again with us! Unless of course, you think it's just to weird to get into.