Cleveland Newspaper Review
Review of Cleveland show.
So You Think You Can Dance Tour delivers same energy, fun in person
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Julie E. Washington
Plain Dealer Reporter
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Julie E. Washington
Plain Dealer Reporter
Sultry Latin footwork, funky hip-hop moves and passionate solos brought the sold-out crowd to its feet repeatedly during the So You Think You Can Dance Tour 2006.
The top 10 dancers from the Fox television show - including winner Benji Schwimmer - performed routines from the program and new dances during Friday's show at State Theatre at Playhouse Square.
The mostly female, mostly under-30 crowd roared as their favorites were introduced. Each dancer displayed his or her personality in the opening number: Sexy Dmitry Chaplin bared his chest, Ivan Koumaev wore a single silver-spangled glove, Heidi Groskreutz made her fringed flapper dress shimmy, Allison Holker did spins and Ryan Rankine wore one pant leg rolled up.
Natalie Fotopoulos, Travis Wall, Martha Nichols and Donyelle Jones made up the rest of the cast.
Each week on "Think You Can Dance," pairs of dancers learned new choreography for hip-hop, jazz, interpretive and other dance forms. The television audience voted to keep their favorites in the competition.
A large monitor on the stage displayed wacky moments from the Fox television show, as well as highlights from the contestants' performances.
Dancers performed short routines as a group, in pairs and solo.
A highlight of the first part of the evening started with Koumaev and Nichols doing a funky hip-hop routine that expanded to include nearly the entire cast. Everyone, that is, except Schwimmer and Wall, who appeared for their own dance dressed as geeks.
The crowd loved seeing Schwimmer and Jones perform a popular routine from the show. The hip-hop moves, to a song called "2 Much Booty in the Pants," included lots of playful moves highlighting the dancers' rumps.
Schwimmer, noting that he and Groskreutz are West Coast swing champions, offered a fun, fast-moving swing routine with an exciting ending that put the crowd on its feet.
Groskreutz's salsa solo called for fast footwork and showed off her shapely legs. Holker infused her interesting contemporary solo with intensity and quirkiness.
Fans also rewarded hip-hop specialist Koumaev at the end of his inventive solo.
Holker and Koumaev performed a sultry Argentine tango, accented by Koumaev's angled hat that covered his eyes.
Wall choreographed a passionate interpretive dance for himself and Fotopoulos, then reappeared to do the pasa doble with Groskreutz. The pasa doble casts the man as a matador and the woman as his cape; its dramatic ending had Groskreutz hanging upside down off Wall's back.
The So You Think You Can Dance Tour ably re-created the television show's energy and fun. There were probably many young dancers in the crowd who won't have to be prodded to practice anymore.
They've seen what can be achieved when talent and dedication meet
Labels: tour article
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