I’ve been waiting since September for this past Wednesday evening. It was the second and final night of the So You Think You Can Dance Tour 2012 at the Beacon Theater in NYC. The tour stopped in the city last in 2010 with the season seven top 10 as well as some all stars. This year, with only the season nine top 10, the show was another fantastic SYTYCD evening.
I freely admit that one of the major reasons to hit the tour this year, besides seeing some of the incredible dances from this year’s competition was the fact that new dances were created for the tour AND the incredibly hot and talented Cole and Chehon were on the tour. Everything about the evening exceeded expectation.
The night opened with one of Christopher Scott’s group numbers that opened one of the episodes. The LXD-flavored piece was a great start. From there it was a great mix of favorite dances, both group dances and couples. The works created for the tour were wonderful and combined great with the familiar pieces.
The evening hit everything I wanted to see, including four Mia Michaels numbers (among those were Cole’s take on “Addiction” and Chehon’s version of “Bench Dance”) … Cole did his Paso Doble … Cyrus and Eliana did their robot/ballerina number … Matthew (who I think was there as a fill in dancer since he was not top 10) did the Titanic inspired dance … Chehon and Eliana paired up for the suitcase dance … Eliana paired with George (rather than all Star Alex) for “Bang Bang.”
Something that happened in this tour that was different than 2010 was the transitional elements. Dance were strung together into similar themes. The four Mia Michaels numbers were stung together, for example, and the transitions were often as stunning as the dances. “Addiction” sequed into “Bench Dance” with the Bench dancers coming in behind “Addiction” and once “Addiction’s” original choreography was complete, more was added that allowed the characters of both dances to interact before the “addiction” dancers exited and the true “Bench Dance” began. This happened time after time with excellent results.
There were original solos as well for each of the top 10, as well as Matthew. These were excellent showcases to see the dancers in their original genres.
I ended up sitting just behind the light board, which sort of added to the evening. I noticed that the boards buttons were labeled with the program for the evening, which was cool (this show really needs a Playbill as a good record of the night). The board operator was also fun. We chatted a bit at intermission and at the end of the show. He was fun, occasionally mirroring the choreography that happened on the stage.
I hope a future SYTYCD tour comes back to the city, maybe not skipping a season next time. I know I’ll be there enjoying it.
Check out Flickr for a few more images as well as a video of Chehon’s solo.
