So You Think You Can Dance Roundtable 14×04 “New York Auditions #2”

So You Think You Can Dance 14×04 was a fantastic finale to our auditions round

So You Think You Can Dance continued to bring it’s A-game in the fourth episode of the season, with the final round of auditions introducing us to yet another batch of incredibly talented and versatile dancers. More aired auditions went on to the choreography round this time, a welcome change from the all-or-nothing trend this season. With The Academy just a week away, it’s time for Vanessa, Nigel, and Mary to start narrowing down our dancers to the best of the best.

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This week brought us a host of new dancers with a variety of backgrounds. We met Magda and Kiki, a pair of talented cha-cha dancers who are not together, thank you very much. We also saw Zachary Downer, an incredibly flexible dancer, Ramita Ravi, who showcased her Indian culture through a beautiful combination of Bollywood and contemporary style dance, and Arielle Disciascio, who brought our first tears of the night with her story of her mother’s battle with cancer and her beautiful dance. Our second round of waterworks was brought by Romainson Romain, a sad dancer who is currently mourning the loss of his cousin. Ballet fans loved the enthusiastic ballet dancer Claire Rathbun. And last but certainly not least was Lex Ishimoto, who with his impressive double swipe was possibly the best audition of the night!

Here to discuss the final round of auditions is our roundtable!

Austin (@theaustinmayor) – Dancer, choreographer, and teacher
Janine (@J9DH) – Mom of 2 and fan of talent shows like SYTYCD and American Idol
Terry (@rockinchick66) – Asset Manager by day, Wife, Kitty Mama and SYTYCD super fan by night!
Tracy (@tjohn68) – Dance fan, TV fan, Superhero fan
Kiamesha (@SimsKdsims96) – 21-year-old who loves writing, reading, music, and animals.
Brandon (@indigo_15) – Writer, dance enthusiast, lover of pop culture. Supporter of imaginations running wild.
Shana (@mrthnsufferings) – dancer, tv addict, and writer

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1. Who was your favorite dancer?

Austin (@theaustinmayor): Lex Ishimoto! And he’s in Shaping Sound?! I think he will be top 10!!

Janine (@J9DH): Zachary Downer was my favorite dancer from NY Auditions #2. The combination of power, grace, determination and strong technique was unmatched last night. His Mom is also adorable!!! I love her enthusiasm and unconditional support/love for her talented son!

Terry (@rockinchick66): Lex Ishimoto is so awesome! Great musicality and technique all wrapped up in a great personality! His choreography was so original too!

Kiamesha (@SimsKdsims96): I have no idea how to choose so I’m gonna list them all. Firstly, the ballet dancer. She’s beautiful, has great control, technique and a UNIQUE style. Secondly, the dancer who did the African style dance. It was so strong and masculine and was stunning. Lastly, was the very last audition for NY. It was incredible enough said.

Brandon (@indigo_15): My favorite dancer of the night was Lex Ishimoto, who I thought was extraordinary and one of the most unique dancers we’ve seen so far. There were several moments during his audition that made my jaw drop and had me cheering at my TV, and by the time he was finished, I wanted to re-watch him again and again. I can easily see him going deep into the competition, especially if he’s reasonably adept at other styles.

Shana (@mrthnsufferings): I’m torn between Lex and Zachary. Seeing as how Lex already has working with Travis Wall on his side, I’ll go with Zachary and hope he gets hired by Ailey — and soon.

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2. Which was your favorite dance?

Austin: A tie between Zachary Downer and Lex Ishimoto! Both were amazing!!

Janine: Zachary Downer’s dance was also my favorite. I loved his choices and felt his routine perfectly matched the power and intensity of the music. I also feel as though he seamlessly blended genres of dance better than others in this episode who attempted to do the same.

Terry: It’s a tie between Lex Ishimoto and Claire Rathbun! They’re both so good I can’t pick one over the other!

Kiamesha: My favorite dance was the ballet dancer. It was beautiful and UNIQUE.
name: words

Brandon: My personal favorite dance of the night was Lex, although I also really liked Claire Rathbun, Ramita Ravi, and the ballroom duo Magda and Kiki.

Shana: Ballet is my first love, so I’m going to have to go with Claire’s audition. There were some small technical issues that could have used improvement, but any time SYTYCD actually bothers to show decent ballet, I have to represent.

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3. There has been a lot of twitter discussion regarding Vanessa Hudgens’s skills as a judge. How do you feel she is doing in the role? What is she doing right and what could she improve on?

Austin: I think she’s doing great as a judge. She is giving good criticism and her bubbly personality is a great addition to the judging panel! One crazy, one bubbly, and the other is Nigel haha! I really don’t think she has to improve on anything tbh!

Janine: I enjoy watching Vanessa Hudgens judge and feel she uses accurate adjectives to describe the skill and emotion portrayed by the dancers. I usually agree with her assessment. She is also fun and interacts well with Nigel and Mary.

Terry: I really like her personality and she’s a breath of fresh air. She hasn’t really given a lot of constructive critiques but it could just be because she’s new at judging. I think as the season progresses (and maybe when we hit the live shows) she will actually give critiques instead of just praise to the dancers.

Kiamesha: I think she is doing a great job but I wish she would give more
depth to her advice.

Brandon: I think Vanessa is doing a pretty good job. It doesn’t seem like she has much technical knowledge when it comes to dance, which I’m okay with (at least, for now). Her critiques tend to mirror what I’m thinking as an average viewer, someone who likes, appreciates, and is excited by dance, but doesn’t know much about the technical side of the art. I’ve found her to be very likable, and feel that in just a few short weeks, she’s proven herself to be a much better fit for the judging panel than Jason Derulo ever was, so I don’t have any complaints so far.

Shana: Yeah…about that. I feel like she’s done a great job of filling the meaningless banter role that Jason Derulo left behind, and that’s not exactly a good thing. Vanessa’s definitely an improvement — don’t get me wrong — but she’s still kind of yikes. I like that she’s enthusiastic and supportive, but I wish she’d mix some real critiques in with all of the happy, peppy fangirling. As of right now, it’s just too much. I think the youths would call it “extra?”

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4. Do you agree with the judges on tonight’s auditions? Many seem to disagree about Ramita Ravi being sent to choreography, what are your thoughts on this?

Austin: The only thing I didn’t agree on was when Nigel said choreography to Arielle Disciasco…like come on, she has incredible technique and she performed very well! Regarding Ramita, I agreed with the judges to send her to choreography. She has technique and she has trained in other styles.

Janine: Ramita Ravi seems to be very skilled as a dancer. I think it was evident from her routine that she was quite skilled even though she may not have incorporated many “wow” moves into her routine. I think she should have been put through to the Academy over many other dancers, including Arielle Disciascio.

Terry: Overall I agreed with the judges on tonight’s auditions. I think Ramita Ravi should have been sent to the Academy right away as she said in her package that she has experience in other styles. Indian dance is hard to do and she did it beautifully. I think she’s one to watch!

Kiamesha: Not sure we’ll see how it goes.

Brandon: I loved Ramita Ravi’s beautiful fusion of Bollywood and contemporary, and thought she was more than good enough to go straight through to The Academy. The fact that she didn’t, and was sent to choreography instead, baffled me. I spent the rest of the episode hoping she’d make it through Mandy’s choreography okay, because this competition needs someone like her in it.

Shana: I can definitely see where they were coming from with sending Ramita to choreography. Her solo, while interesting, still wasn’t the best of the contemporary and was probably difficult, even for these experts, to judge based on the classical Indian side of it. The only thing I didn’t agree with was Nigel and Vanessa’s actual encouragement of the likes of that Peter guy. You want more people to come out here and try that? Really.

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5. As we head into The Academy, it’s time to start narrowing down our dancers. Of all the auditions that aired, which three dancers do you see going the furthest?

Austin: Oh wow! Tough one… Lex Ishimoto, Mark Villaver, and Alexis Gilbert!

Janine: I can’t narrow my list to 3!! I think either Zachary Downer or Darius Hickman (I can’t see the show keeping both) will go far, Koine Iwasaki, and Lex Ishimoto,. I also think Inyoung “Dassy” Lee and Jensen Arnold have great potential to go far, but Jensen will need to be focused and work harder than she did for her audition.

Terry: Ooh. It’s really hard to narrow it down to 3 because there are so many amazing dancers this season. Okay, here I go. Chaz Wolcott, Inyoung (Dassy) Lee and Lex Ishimoto! They all really stood out to me and all have great personalities!

Kiamesha: The hip hop dancer will definitely go far because of his training.

Brandon: In no particular order, Inyoung “Dassy” Lee, Kaylee “Impavido” Millis, and Lex Ishimoto. If Dassy can do other styles, and Impavido and Lex continue to impress beyond their initial auditions, I can see any of them going all the way. Of course, there are almost always surprise contenders who sneak in under the radar and blow everyone’s minds, but for now, those are my three.

Shana: Oh, this is tough. Since SYTYCD *usually* aims for variety, I’m going to pick my three based on some combination of that aesthetic and some wishful thinking: Darius Hickman, Chaz Wolcott, and Claire Rathbun. Boom.

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6. Do you think the So You Think You Can Dance judges have a tendency to favor contemporary dancers? Many fans have observed on twitter that contemporary auditions seem to be more likely to go straight through to The Academy. What are your thoughts?

Austin: Hmmm…no I’d say it’s pretty equal! A lot of hip hop dancers and ballroom dancers make it straight to the Academy too. If anything, I’d say tap dancers have it hard because it doesn’t show your amazing legs or your flips and tricks that you may have or can do!

Janine: I think contemporary dancers must naturally be able to follow choreography, so it makes sense there will be more go straight through to the Academy. I don’t think they are favored, though. Many dancers from other genres have gone straight through to the Academy.

Terry: I do think they favor contemporary dancers but I understand why. Obviously you have to have a lot of technique and have the ability to follow choreography to be a good contemporary dancer…

Kiamesha: I think they have their favorites but are still willing to give everyone a shot

Brandon: I think the judges assume that anyone who is a strong contemporary dancer would have little problems with Mandy Moore’s choreography and has likely trained in other styles, and that it makes little sense to send them to the choreography round. However, we’ve seen dancers from past seasons who were exceptional at one style, but struggled with others, as well as dancers who excelled at several styles, so I’m not sure how fair it is to send dancers through to The Academy or choreography based solely on their chosen style.

Shana: I can definitely see the trend toward favoring contemporary dancers, but I don’t know if that’s the judges’ fault or just the “trend” in general. I mean, waaaaaayyyyy back in season one, two of the top three dancers specialized in jazz, not contemporary. I think that SYTYCD has made that particular style popular and “in” by showcasing great choreographers like Mia Michaels in the early days, and now they’re stuck reaping what they’ve sown. To keep ratings up, the series has to highlight whatever it is that the people want, and the people seem to want a particular type of “ooh, lines and reaching” contemporary number. I think Nigel made some sort of comment about that a few seasons back?

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7. If every winner from every season of So You Think You Can Dance were to compete, who do you think would win?

Austin: Lets say hypothetically that it was Street vs. Stage. I say Fikshun and Chehon would tie for the win!

Janine: Wow – that is a very tough question! I think either Melanie Moore (S8), Ricky Ubeda (S11) or Amy Yakima (S10) would win.

Terry: When I was researching the winners I was shocked to see that Fik-Shun didn’t win! Anyhow, I can’t just choose one so I’m giving you my top three (in no particular order): Lauren Froderman, Benji Schwimmer, Gaby Diaz

Kiamesha: I’m not sure but I think that would be a different opportunity. We should call it SYTYCD: Spotlight.

Brandon: That’s a hard question to answer. I think a strong case could be made for Ricky Ubeda, based on how well he coped with styles outside his own and his popularity among fans, though I also think Sabra Johnson, Jeanine Mason, Melanie Moore, and Fik-shun could give him a run for his money.

Shana: DukeMed would certainly win a lot of my time and money for its services in reviving me…If I had to pick an actual dancer, though, it would probably be Ricky Ubeda. He and his toes were iconic.

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Final Verdict: A strong final audition episode has us so excited for this season, we may just be smiling bigger than Vanessa Hudgens

The first four episodes of So You Think You Can Dance have brought us so many emotions. We’ve laughed, cried, and cringed our way through auditions – but things are just getting started. With so much talent already showcased, we can’t wait to see who else we meet at the Academy, and we are dying to see whether our initial favorites are going to make it through. If these auditions have proven anything, it’s that the show we love really is back, and it might be better than ever.

So You Think You Can Dance returns next Monday, July 17 at 8/7C on FOX.