The summer’s phenomenal dance show made it back to Las Vegas last night and covered a week’s worth of grueling auditions to trim 200 dancers to 20. The experience was mentally, physically and emotionally daunting for the contestants. To those who’ve always thought it would be easy to get that far in the dance world, take note – even those who made the cut were worn out and looking forward to the month long break before the contest starts. Luckily for viewers, the month long break started a month ago, so we will be seeing the Top 20 perform next week.
The top 20 dancers in no particular order are: Comfort Fedoke, Gevorg Manoukian, Mark Kanemura, Katee Shean, Chelsie Hightower, Chris Jarosz, Susie Garcia, William Wingfield, Thayne Jasperson, Kherington Payne, Kourtni Lind, Jamie Bayard, Matt Dorame, Chelsea Traille, Marquis Cunningham, Jessica King, Joshua Allen, Rayven Armijo, Stephen “Twitch” Boss, and Courtney Galiano.
The Week of Auditions
The week of auditions was likely an eye opener for the young dancer in your family, mine was watching with goggly eyes when she realized that after a day of dancing, the dancers were broken up into groups and had to choreograph a dance to present to the judges first thing in the morning. She asked me how fair was that, considering they wouldn’t get any sleep and sleep was important.
Sleep is important, but this week of auditions accelerated the pressures that professional dancers experience from the emotional outbursts, the pure stage fright that sent some packing early and the exhaustion that led to mistakes.
Professional dancing isn’t about fair; it’s about endurance, grace, talent and obviously the ability to deliver under extreme situations. I don’t know that I agree with the judges and I can’t even say I have any favorites in the race yet, but there are some lessons to be sure to share with your kids.
Dancing is Work
Dancing requires a great deal of physical effort and coordination. My daughter just spent four months learning a routine for her dance recital with one hour of practice per week. These dancers were learning different styles of dance with just one hour of choreography and practice. Then they had to show how fast they could pick up on the steps.
Injuries Can Happen
A male dancer (sorry, with 200 of them I missed his name) ended up with a pulled muscle in his knee that locked his knee up. He was in agony and it showed. The other dancers were shocked by it and terrified that it could happen to them. The young man was sent by ambulance to the hospital and while he will be fine, he was out of the competition.
Dreams Can Be Left in Tears
The number of dancers left in tears when they were eliminated or selected really had my 7 year old thinking. She saw men and women alike crying over their defeat or victory. She empathized with their pain, but felt confident that we would see some of them next year. The fact that Twitch made it into the top 20 after not making it last year reinforced that idea in her head, yet disappointment is a fact of a professional dancer’s life and we’ve all felt that pain when we’ve wanted to do well and not succeeded.
Don’t Give Up
That was a message the judges sent over and over last night. Whether it was Mia Michaels or Debbie Allen, the choreographers all had a single message: don’t give up. Those 200 dancers made the cut from six cities and thousands who tried out. That they can only pick 20 makes it a competition, but the pursuit of a dream means trying and trying again. Some dancers will walk away with the determination to come back and some will flub it up and say they aren’t going to try again because defeat is too bitter a pill.
But any dream worth having is worth working hard for. Next week the live competition begins as the top 20 will perform and viewers will get into the voting for their favorite pairs, dancers and choreography. But no matter what happens or who wins, these 20 are the top 20 this year – now it’s time to see if they can go the distance.
So You Think You Can Dance is a great show to watch with your kids. You can engage them in conversation about a multitude of topics, including fitness and more. So if you haven’t checked it out, give it a shot.