Sunday, September 30, 2007

Rochester Part One: The Show

Our Rochester trip was a blast! I had a lot of fun and so did Rob, which is surprising when you read all about what we did. I'm going to blog the trip in parts so that there aren't so many pictures to upload all at once. However, the next few posts are going to be very photo heavy. You've been warned!

We left Toronto with time to spare before the show, arriving in Rochester at about 5:30. Sadly, some of the 'excellent' time we made driving to Rochester was eaten up by getting lost in Rochester while trying to find out hotel. I'd used Google Maps but there was some sort of glitch and the instructions were entirely wrong. After hoping to stumble upon our hotel while driving around downtown - but failing to do so - we stopped and asked for directions and were set on the right path. We got to the hotel, checked-in, freshened-up, grabbed a quick bite to eat at the hotel restaurant and then headed off to the SYTYCD show. In case you're unfamiliar with how this works, after the end of filming the season the dancers who made the Top 10 with a couple of 'guests' from the other 10 in the Top 20 go on a very fast, one show in each city tour where they perform the audiences' favorite (as determined by show producers) pieces. The Toronto show was sold-out before I could get tickets and so - to Rochester.

As we approached the arena, I was getting pretty excited at this point, gotta say. We bought the program and grabbed our (cramped) seats. We were definitely not in the biggest demographic for the show. The arena was filled with mostly girls and a few boys between the ages of about 7 and 17 accompanied by their parents. Rob said that he'd never felt so old. Still, I nearly lost it with all the little girls when the lights when down! The show was fantastic! They had some prerecorded stuff put together from Nigel and Cat that was played on a couple of big screens but the focus really was on the dancers, who also MC'd for each other. Because of that, it had a kind of concert feel rather than a show feel. There weren't really any sets, the costumes were the same as used on television. I guess, given the short run, keeping the budget low is a financial necessity. Dominic was the biggest ham when MC'ing and he actually did a bit more of it than any of the others. When the performing started - I was impressed. The choreography wasn't new, so some of the pieces that I loved for their originality weren't as exciting this time through but it was great to get to see the whole piece and not just what the camera presented you. I found this particularly relevant with the large group numbers. The duets were also very high quality. I expected the intensity to have dropped, now that they aren't in competition but the energy for the performance was really very high. I admit, everyone danced like they were a bit more relaxed and maybe having a bit more fun but it really only helped the quality of the performance, in my mind. Due to a bit of miscommunication, Rob and I had left our zoom lens at the hotel - so I didn't get very many pictures of the show. The 'special guests' were Anya, Shauna, Jesus, and of course, Hok. For those who watched this season, they performed: Mia and Joe, The boardroom number, Two Princes, Butterfly and Hummingbird, The Matrix, Triplets of Belleville, Benji's choreographed swing piece (danced by Sarah and Pasha), Dmitry's choreographed Samba (Hip Hip Chin Chin with Danny and Lacey), The Lion King, You Can't Stop the Beat, The Black Mask Piece, Pasha and Anya's Samba, The Angel and the Devil, Cameron and Lacey's duet to Mia's piece, The Transformers Piece, Anya and Danny's Waltz, Pasha and Sabra's Quickstep, one new breaker piece, as well as each dancer in the Top 10 performing their best solo. There were a few others but I can't think of them right now. I have lots that I could say more technical about the dancing and the choreography and everything but I think I'll wrap up for now and save the details for a 'dance audience'.

Talk to you soon,

B.

P.S. If you can believe it, I thought this would be a post where I didn't have too much to say! Ha!

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