America’s favorite dance competition kicks off its 12th season tonight, with new judges, a new format, and the same level of amazing talent.
New Format
It’s time to dance again, and this season on So You Think You Can Dance, we’ll be choosing sides between Team Street and Team Stage. As a refresher: the dancers who advance in the initial auditions will be placed into two teams – the stage dancers, featuring those trained in styles such as contemporary, ballet, jazz or tap; and the street dancers, hopefuls skilled in hip-hop, animation or breaking.
As the auditions continue, the judges, along with each team’s all-star mentor (more on the mentors later,) will eliminate dancers until only the top 20 – 10 street dancers and 10 stage dancers – remain. When the competition goes live, the top 20 will be challenged weekly to perform a variety of styles. So basically, this will ramp up the competition in the early rounds, before settling back into the normal format for the top 20 live shows.
New Mentors
Team Street and Team Stage will each have their own mentor, in the form of a fan-favorite So You Think You Can Dance alumnus.
Team Street has the good fortune to work with Stephen “Twitch” Boss. Twitch may have only finished as the runner-up in season 4, but he has gone on to have the most successful post-show career. The fans adore him. He’s always welcomed back as an all-star. He’s appeared in the Step Up movies. He’ll be showing off his moves in a little movie called Magic Mike XXX. Oh, and did we mention he’s the DJ for The Ellen DeGeneres Show? No big deal.
Team Stage is fortunate enough to work with season 2 runner-up Travis Wall, who has proven his talents go far beyond just dancing. Not only has Travis returned as an all-star, and been named as one of the most technically-gifted dancers in the show’s history, but he has also become an absolute revelation as a choreographer. He’s received Emmy nominations for several of his outstanding SYTYCD routines, and has moved on to the big leagues.
Take a look at Twitch and Travis and the stage and street choreographers in action:
New Judges
So You Think You Can Dance has suffered a huge loss this year with the casual dismissal of beloved judge and Hot Tamale Train conductor Mary Murphy. We’ve covered in great detail all the many ways that Mary will be missed, but are we ready to face our new judges, Jason DeRulo and Paula Abdul?
They obviously bring their own talent and experience to the judges table, but everyone knows that it’s personality that makes a good judge. Jason has done a good job in his previous appearances as guest judge, providing sound advice and keeping us entertained. But while Paula Abdul has years of experience in the dance world, and certainly knows what she’s talking about, it’s just hard to actually make sense of what she’s trying to say through her nonsensical ramblings. Here’s hoping she is able to settle in and chill out as the season progresses.
Check out this preview to see how season 12 is going to be upping the ante:
