Last Dance

There were only one woman and one person of colour left on SYTYCD tonight (out of four - not bad in itself, but if you watched the whole thing, you know there were all kinds of issues this season). And with Jose gone, and Adechike voted off, I don't know if I'll watch the rest. Okay, I probably will. I do love the all-stars from previous seasons--Twitch, Ade, Comfort, Dominick . . . . Still, Adechike (who hails from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, by the way) had a rough road from the beginning with the judges - and he is an awesome dancer. He will, without doubt, go on to have an amazing career, maybe even with the Ailey company, which is what first inspired him to dance. He will be sorely missed, at least by me.

But last night, the performance that got me all choked up was Kent and Neil's piece, choreographed by Travis Wall. What they said on the show was that the story was about two "friends", but hello--am I the only one seeing a lovers' break-up here? Those two seem way closer than a couple of buddies. Either way, it was an incredible routine . . .

Neil Kent Travis @ Yahoo! Video

Links & SYTYCD

Here are Kiera Cass's answers to the self-publishing questions she was asked on Adventures in Children's Publishing. Please note that she just landed a three-book deal with HarperTeen for her second novel (whoa!!).

Check out the latest WAGW post up at Chasing Ray. We're talking about non-fiction we wished we'd read when we were teens.

Also, go read Ari's beautiful review of HIS OWN WHERE, by June Jordan.

I am going deep underground with edits this week, but I will leave you with this awesome video of Lauren Froderman and Dominick Sandoval from SYTYCD. The story is about a woman in an abusive relationship who fights back. Beautifully danced and one of my faves from Wednesday (next to Comfort kicking @$$ in the krumping routine!).

SYTYCD

Okay, I'm a huge fan of So You Think You Can Dance. It's one of the few shows on television that has lots of talented PoC on it. I have my favourite choreographers (Sonya!) and it was the first show that did a massive, mainstream Bollywood number (Katee and Joshua ROCKED) that had me out of my seat and jumping around like a fool.

I've had my problems with the way Mia Michaels handles some of her criticism (the two times I've taken exception happen to both be when she was critiquing the performances of black dancers), to be sure. At the same time, I have to admit she is a brilliant choreographer. And Nigel definitely grates on my last nerve with his ancient gender crap.

But I'm so excited about this season because there are so many dancers to love! Alex Wong, Jose Ruiz, Cristina Santana, and Robert Roldan, just to name a few of the ones I'm on the edge of my seat for. Here's one of my favourite pieces from last night, featuring some of my all-time fave SYTYCD dancers: