May 31, 2012|By Amy Watts
Sam's flexibility is there and her extensions are lovely. Nigel says that she needs to connect the movements better, instead of it looking like she's just moving from exercise to exercise. Mary says she's good but there's something holding her back. When Mary starts asking about her family support, I start shouting at the TV, "Make her cry! Make her cry!" I hate when the show stoops to this kind of emotional manipulation. Show me the good dancing. Anyway, she's through to choreography.
Oh, here's a guy with a mustache. There's nothing more to say about him because he appears to have invested most of his personality in the hair betwixt his nose and lips. Oh, and he surfs. If he doesn't wax his mustache with the same wax he uses on his surfboard I will be inconsolable.
His name is Caley Carr and he seems pretty happy with his life, so I should stop being snarky and just let him be his own happy self. He's tap dancing to Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" and it works surprisingly well, although sometimes he's a little unfocused for my taste. Jesse says, "You have a mustache and you surf and you tap. [Yawn] What a cliche." Jesse likes his personality, Mary likes his confidence, and Nigel puts him through to choreography.
Megan Branch has driven in from Arizona with her mom, who's been supporting Megan's dance career since age 3. I like how even though Megan is classically beautiful in a very delicate way she comes right out of the gate with very aggressive posturing and choreography. Mary's a fan and Jesse talks about how beautiful she is, then Nigel calls her a "little firecracker." She's through to Las Vegas.
Montage of happy dancers going through to Las Vegas.
And now we see a guy who's had extensive martial arts training going back to childhood, but what he really wanted to do was DANCE -- break-dance to be specific. So, how does Cole Horibe dance? It's not so much break-dancing as contemporary, so maybe he's changed his focus since he started. Some of his moves very much remind you of some of the more elegant fight choreography in martial arts films of the last couple of decades.
Nigel asks if he did well in martial arts competition and he apparently won a silver medal in the Junior Olympics. Nigel also asks if he's studied any other styles of dance and Cole pretty much lists every style they've ever done on the show, except for Russian folk dancing, so I think he'll be OK. He's getting his ticket to Las Vegas.
This next dude is a circus performer and lives in a loft with his other circus performer friends. His specialty is some sort of wheel that he stretches out on and does tricks with. Thanks to the magic of Google and Wikipedia I can tell you it's called a "Cyr wheel." David Matz may be performing with his wheel, but he's clearly had some sort of training based on the graceful little jump he starts off with. And, yeah, the wheel is kind of a gimmick, but this guy has some talent -- I hope they at least put him through to choreography.
Jesse says, "It's amazing what you can do with one of Cat Deeley's old earrings." HA! Jesse thought it was really cool, Mary describes it as "mesmerizing" but she's not sure if he did enough dancing for her to decide if he can do other styles. And they do put him through to choreography.
This next kid immediately wins me over with his Fabio on the romance cover pose after commentary on his unbuttoned shirt. Stephen Jacobsen is doing contemporary ballet to "Dream Lover" and not doing it at all well -- it's so, so bad. The kid may have the body for dancing but his choreography is lousy.
Nigel rightly calls him out on the choreography, and points out that his training is evident. They give him a second chance and he busts out his classical ballet training and he's amazing. This, kid; do this. Don't fight your talent and training. He gets his ticket to Las Vegas.
We get a brief montage of dancers who are returning to audition after having tried out for the show before -- one young woman has tried out five times before. And our next contestant tried out before in Season 4, with "exhibitionism" as his style.
Jonathan Anzalone is back and bald and doing some frankly generic b-boy moves. There's also something about the tank tops and shorts, combined with the black athletic shoes that's giving me a strong aerobics instructor vibe.
Nigel asks Jesse if he's ever seen anything like that and Jesse answers that even if this show doesn't send him through to Las Vegas he'll get there anyway. Nigel says that it was more of a contortionist act than a dance routine. And then there's a whole bit about Jonathan dancing with women and a hapless woman named Angelique gets dragged up on stage to dance with him and there's just a lot of stuff and nonsense, the upshot of which is that I would totally drink with Angelique. But Jesse goes and puts a bill in Jonathan's shorts, so that's the show's punchline.
