For those that haven't seen it, here is the lindy hop segment on this Tuesday's episode of "So You Think You Can Dance." The brief video clip has everything I could ask for:
- Choreography by a superstar in the lindy hop world -- the fabulous Carla Heiney
- Authentic lindy choreography with swingouts, charlestons, and BOUNCE
- Genuine swing jazz: "I Want to Be a Rugcutter" by the fantastic Boilermakers Jazz Band on their album "You Do Something For Me"
- An effusive shout-out from judge Mary Murphy to Frankie Manning! (I tear up every time I get to this part)
- Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe expressing real regret that it has been three seasons since lindy has been on SYTYCD!
And to top it all off, dancers Ryan Di Lello and Ellenore Scott really nailed it! Whew.
My hope is that this means that lindy will become a regular part of the dance styles featured on the show from now on!
Hit the jump for my friend TinyMich's awesome recap of the routine from Yehoodi's discussion forums...
Excerpt from TinyMich's always excellent SYTYCD recaps on Yehoodi.com:
Ell and Ryan – he’s a total perfectionist, she’s fun and quirky. THEY HAVE THE LINDY WITH CARLA! Omg dude, if I actually got to *pick* which couple I wanted to see doing it, they would have been my #1 pick for SURE (with Russ & Noel maybe second). This is going to be SO GOOD.
Preshow is all “oh, we have to do so many tricks, cartwheels, flips, jumps, throwouts, wah wah” (including sweet circle slide!), and I spare a second to hope that it isn’t going to be one of those trick-intensive routines with no real dancing in it at all, but then the routine kicks in and I don’t have to worry about it any longer.
The opening’s very very cute – we see four couples in silhouette against a lit backdrop, and then one of the couples – Ry & Ell, natch – starts moving, and instantly I’m SQUEEING, because they are doing it SO RIGHT!
Within about 10 seconds I’m sure this is probably the best lindy hop that’s ever been done on this show, maybe even better than the one on the Swedish show. Both of them have great posture – piked, knees bent – and the exact right sort of bounce down into the ground that usually takes beginners ages to learn. Are they pro-quality? Of course not – there’s a bunch of noise in the lead arm, a number of the tricks are slightly imperfect (they do a pancake flip, and Ryan’s arm gets in the way on her descent, so it’s not close to as wonderfully clean as Jake & Ash’s was last week; later they do one of those hustle-y spreadeagle spins and either Ryan isn’t holding her in the right place or Ell lacks the core strength to hold herself up, because it’s sort of collapsed), and they sometimes don’t hit the breaks in the music as *exactly* as you could tell Carla’s choreography was intending for them to hit. But there are great charlestons, with lots of energy and purpose in the arms, and the travelling turning charlestons travel so cleanly across the floor, and Carla also threw in a bunch of great classic moves (hacksaws, sailors) which they totally do right by, and did I mention their POSTURE was so impressive, and there’s one bit where they do body rocks and Ellenore’s finishing pose is as perfect as I could ask for it to be, and even the SWINGOUTS are pretty decent! All in all I couldn’t be prouder and I feel like I couldn’t have asked for a better representation on the show. (I also promise to not recap any other routine nearly as lengthily this one.)
Thanks, TinyMich!
[Video clip of Episode 17 of SYTYCD used under Fair Use provision of US Copyright Law. No copyright violation is intended. Please don't sue me, Fox.]
