So You Think You Can Dance Tour - HP Pavilion, San Jose, 9/25/08

I've decided to suspend my extracurricular efforts and focus on finishing my recap of the So You Think You Can Dance tour stop in San Jose because who else can bring you what I bring you?

Except owing to my currently hectic schedule and my terrible skills at pointing and shooting (new-fangled technology my butt), don't expect a whirlwind of insight, hilarity, or media.

Oh just kidding, here's one of my better shots:





Anyway, on the way in, I saw Katee's dad wearing his "Katee's Dad" t-shirt headed towards the back of the arena, and once I got inside, I saw Katee's mom standing by the escalators, talking on her cell phone and looking very stressed -- she was probably in the middle of coordinating the ~600 members of Team Katee, suspecting which was enough for me to leave her to her mammoth task without running up to her screaming "YOU'RE MRS. KATEE'S MOM OMG" and then possibly finding out that I approached the wrong Japanese lady.

But it was hard to mistake Team Katee; here are just a few of them before the audience finished coming in:




Here are a lot more of them after one of her routines:




And here, human civilization should be scared:




Oh, and for the record, if you can afford and are willing to pay for front row seats to a dance performance, I'd absolutely recommend it. Being able to feel the wind from Will's turns or Shortney's big-hair–flipping is well worth the premium price -- even if you don't like a particular routine, you're still close enough that you're filled with its raw energy.

The set list after the jump!


(boldfaced = me like it)

1. Group - "Elevator" (Shane Sparks)
   
   
   
   
2. Joshua & Katee - Rumba Samba
   
   
3. Kherington & Twitch - Hip Hop
   
   
4. Courtney & Will - Hip Hop
   
   
5. Jessica solo
   
   
6. Chelsie & Gev - Jive
   Fast!
   
   
7. Katee & Joshua - Contemporary (Mia)
   The assisted run was a little less awesome than I hoped because I was sitting stage right, and Joshua and Katee basically ended up running away from me.
   
   
   
   
8. Will solo
   Sadly, he did not reprise his James Brown routine, over which I would've plotzed.
   
   
9. Mark & Courtney - Jazz AKA Mirah "The Garden" Sonya miscellaneous google bait
   
   
10. Katee & Joshua - Broadway
    Alas, I anticipated hotly throughout the entire routine but no a single pot stirred.
    
    
11. Gev solo
    His solo was sort of a mashup of the first one he did on the show (with his WHOA floor move, and the front somersault that scared Cat), though he prefaced it with a pretty rad piano-playing mime.
    
    
12. Will & Jessica - Contemporary
    
    
    
13. Comfort & Mark - Hip Hop
    Sometimes seeing a dance live gives you the deeper insight into how choreographers construct their routines, and with this one and the forgettable Kherington/Twitch hip hop as two data points, I concluded that NapTabs choreograph for a camera. Which is to say, if you sat in the middle, you'd be given the best view. Do they mostly choreograph for music videos?
    
    
14. Kherington & Twitch - Contemporary AKA The Bed
    The mood lighting was aimed right in my line of sight, so I spent all of my time squinting at some bouncing silhouettes. Good job, lighting folks!
    
    
15. Chelsie solo
    
    
16. "Five Guys Named Moe"
    Yay! ^_^ Joshua literally came out of nowhere at the beginning.
    
    
    
    
    
17. Kherington solo
    The song she danced to had so much bass it shook my pants. Other pants-altering phenomena possibly caused by her shapely shapeliness.
    
    At this point, we had an extended interlude where most of the dancers got to catch their breaths while Gev was put into women's costumes from around the world in lieu of comedy. Courtney was the emcee for most of this bit, and she provided the best part of the whole routine, albeit inadvertently. Gev played the clueless and annoying guy and inevitably got on Courtney's nerves and she'd yell at him, "Off!" Except imagine her saying that in her Lawn Guyland accent: "Oowoff!" By the second time we heard her charming Turnpike Lilt, a bunch of people in my section echoed her "Oowoff!" and I wouldn't be surprised if she heard us.
    
    
    
18. Thayne & Chelsea - Cha Cha
    
    
19. Joshua & Twitch - Trepak
    
    
    Right, so this was the routine that sent Josh and Twitch to the hospital for exhaustion, and here we are, both guys already having danced four numbers before we get to the Trepak, and all before the intermission.
    
    
20. Courtney & Mark - Viennese Waltz
    
    
21. Katee & Joshua - Bollywood
    
    
22. Group - Bollywood
    
    Intermission
    
    
23. Group - Contemporary (Mia's Mad Circus)
    
    
    For different reasons than NapTabs', the carnivalesque was a lot better on TV because some of the angles played much more dramatically than they did live, e.g. the minions circling an exultant Evil Ringmaster Mark. Then again, at its conclusion, Jester Gev totally went nuts with the breaking, which was AWESOME.
    
    
    
    
    
24. Katee & Twitch - Contemporary (Mia) AKA The Door
    
    
25. Comfort solo
    
    
26. Chelsie & Joshua - Argentine tango
    
    
27. Katee solo
    
    
28. Comfort & Twitch - Hip Hop
    
    
    They wore Kanye glasses! During the season, I had the hardest time enjoying this one -- of Comfort's hip-hop routines, I liked the one she did with Mark the best -- but live, it was something else in a way that I can't pinpoint. Just like the NapTabs routines, Dave Scott's number was choreographed so that someone who watched it head-on (as opposed to someone sitting in the wings) had the best view, but Comfort and Twitch brought enough energy (and wore something other than cheap homemade sci-fi duds) to reel me in.
    
    
29. Mark solo
    "Bohemian Rhapsody," revisited!
    
    
30. Gev & Courtney - Cha Cha
    
    
31. Katee & Will - Pas de Deux
    
    
32. Courtney solo
    
    
33. Group - Broadway
    They threw fake paper money to the lucky few sitting front-row center, and once it was done, the cleaning crew swept any remaining bills off the stage so that any fans in the floor area could run up and grab them. I had too much dignity (I'm too old and am loathe to get out of a chair when comfortably seated) to do so, however.
    
    
34. Twitch solo
    Here's Twitch coming in for his landing before getting into his solo:
    
    
    
35. Katee & Joshua - Contemporary (Tyce)
    
    
36. Chelsie & Mark - Hip Hop AKA Briefcase
    
    
    
37. Joshua solo
    
    
38. Kherington & Twitch - Viennese waltz
    
    
39. Katee & Joshua - Hip Hop
    
    
    
    
40. Group - "You Can't Stop The Beat"
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

Indie rating: Fuck Buttons - "Sweet Love For Planet Earth"