‘So You Think You Can Dance’ tour comes to Sands

The excitement and live action of the hit television show “So You Think You Can Dance” was brought to Sands Bethlehem Event Center on Nov. 2 as part of the nationwide tour.

The “So You Think You Can Dance” tour is making more than 70 stops across the country with the top 10 dancers from season 11. The dancers performed the most popular routines from the television season, along with a few original routines choreographed specifically for the tour.

Maxie Ackerman, ’16, who attended the show, said she enjoyed seeing her two favorite dancers: Rudy Abreu and Emilio Dosal. Sofie Coopersmith, ’16, said she enjoyed seeing Ricky Ubeda because of how versatile he is in his dancing.

“He always has a positive attitude, and every time he dances it is breath-taking to watch,” Coopersmith said.

A few dancers who were in the top 20 were invited along to come on the tour. Coopersmith said she was happy to see Carly Blaney on the tour as well.

“She was lucky enough to go on tour, and after seeing her dance live it is evident that there is a successful dance career in her future,” Coopersmith said.

The dances consisted of a solo performance by each of the dancers, along with duets, and small and large group numbers. The evening closed with a solo by the season 11 winner, Ubeda, followed by a high-energy group number with all of the dancers.

Around 54 dances are performed on the tour. Jessica Richens, a 20-year-old jazz dancer from Yorba Linda, California, who placed third on the show, said the dancers rehearsed intensively for 12 days before the tour began.

Ackerman said her favorite routine was “Bang Bang” because it was the most energetic of the dances. Coopersmith said she also enjoyed this number because of the theatrics and high energy, and that she could tell the dancers had fun performing.

Coopersmith said she liked the all-male piece “Wave” because the dancers expressed their emotions during the dance. She also really enjoyed Valerie Rockey and Ubeda’s duet.

“I liked the piece with Valerie and Ricky with the bench,” Coopersmith said. “This was one of my favorite couples throughout the whole season, and it was just a fun, flirty number that really worked for them.”

Richens said the tour features a storyline that is incorporated in the transitions between dances. There was constant entertainment, even when the dancing stopped. Between numbers, occasionally a video featuring a judge or a choreographer would be played on the screen above the stage. They would discuss their favorite moments from the season or teach the audience a simple dance step they can easily learn and try for themselves at home.

When there was not a video playing, the next dancers would simply come on stage once the previous dance was finished. The entrance for the next dancers was incorporated with the exit of the dancers who had just performed. These transitions were cohesive and flowed well, while allowing for a performer to constantly be present on stage.

“I liked the tour more than the show because the dances were right in front of us and there really weren’t any breaks,” Ackerman said.

Many of the popular routines from the season were diversified with added music, remixed songs, and additional choreography. The music choices also featured many popular songs, such as “Get Low” by Dillon Francis and DJ Snake, and “Happy” by Pharrell Williams.

An assortment of props were brought along on the tour, such as benches, chairs and a platform with stairs leading up to it. Above the stage was a massive screen that would display graphics and colors related to the dance being performed, acting as a backdrop to better tell the story the dancers were portraying.

The tour paralleled the show because it featured the same dancers and many of the same routines. Richens said what makes the tour differ most from the show is that the dancers have the opportunity to perform live for the people who are watching them, and this creates a more fun and less competitive environment for the dancers than the show does.

“Sometimes things get lost in the TV just because it’s a different medium than seeing things live, and I feel like people will be able to see all of our passion and how much we love dance when they come to see us live,” dancer Casey Askew said. “I feel like a little bit of that is lost in the TV with all the camera angles. The show is just really us dancing, and I think the best part of it is there’s no fancy things like how the TV added another layer to it, and this is us dancing more for people who want to see us.” Askew is a 19-year-old contemporary dancer from Seattle, Washington, who placed in the top six on the show.

“One of the things I enjoyed most was seeing some of my favorite dances for the season being performed live,” Coopersmith said. “The dances look amazing on TV, but there is just something about seeing them live that makes it so much better.”

Before warming up and practicing prior to each show, the dancers would watch the video from the performance of the night before, and then critique it and make any necessary corrections. Askew said this has caused them to not perform the same show two nights in a row, and they perform a show every night while on tour.

“It was definitely awesome to see these dances that I loved on TV come to life in this live performance,” Coopersmith said. “I have watched a couple seasons before this, and this was the first tour I had been to. One of the things that was surprising for me was having a new appreciation for some of the dancers who were not my favorite on the show, but they were incredible.”