So You Think You Can Dance Tour Review Grand Prairie, TX Oct. 10, 2008

On a beautiful night in Texas hundreds of excited So You Think You Can Dance fans flocked to the Nokia Theater in Grand Prairie, part of the greater Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex. It was my daughter's birthday gift so I spent plenty of money to get us fantastic seats. Being an old, inexperienced concert goer I had no idea how to buy a ticket at face value from Ticketmaster so I spent a small fortune buying tickets off eBay. But how to buy tickets reasonably for a show that sold out in 43 minutes is for another article.

The show was as wonderful as we hoped it would be. First, we were glued to the season and loved the quality of dancing and choreography from such names as Mia Michaels, Napoleon and Tabitha, Mandy Moore etc. so we loved the fact that we got to see favorite dances again. There was The Door, The Bed, Prison Break, Bleeding Love, The Briefcase, etc. I didn't always catch the name of the dances because the woman behind me kept screaming "Woo hoo. . . . . . I love you, Will!" She must have worn herself out because she calmed down later.

What I loved about the presentation was that the dancers were the MC's much like Cat Dealey is on the show. A particularly good job as an MC was Comfort. She looked fabulous, was polished in her introductions and thrilled us with her Hip Hop. Again she was touted as the best Hip Hop Female Dancer ever to be on the show.

Much fanfare was made about the three Texas residents: Joshua, Katee and Chelsea T who was also part of the group possibly because she is from Dallas. Cast dances showed 12 dancers but listed above is 13 so we wondered if more are on tour in case of injury or illness.

The screens were positioned on either side of the stage so that your eyes were indeed busy looking back and forth. Seeing everyone together on the stage is thrilling because you don't get much of that on the TV show. I like to see facial expressions on the screen particularly in dances like the one with Joshua and Katee where he has this letter and is going to war.

I particularly enjoyed the bios on the cast. They showed funny little facts that made us laugh like Twitch was nicknamed Boo Boo when he was a little boy. Then there was Gev, quite hilarious as he appeared in various women's costumes to try and spend more time with Courtney.

Many of the dances got standing ovations. The front row people never did sit down and cameras were clicking like crazy. No one put a stop to any of it but it wasn't a nuisance because we were further back

After the show we sat in the car talking and waiting for our turn to get in the exit line. We waited so long that we decided to go another way where there was an exit on the opposite side of the theater. We passed a group of people, maybe 40 or 50 at most, just standing, talking and sort of in a line. Wonder what they are waiting for said my daughter. We were so clueless. They were waiting to meet the cast! I had no idea you could do that but I learned on the forum that it was an hour and a half wait.

Here's what I picked up from the forum. To go there the link is http://www.fox.com/community/ then click on Go to Message Board beside the SYTYCD icon.

Click on Houston Tour Review . To find it you may have to click on "Start Reading" in the left column because more posts are continually added. Here's what was said by babybrown98:

Besides Mark, and Kherington....EVERYBODY ELSE was like 14 inches SHORTER than what they look like on T.V. as well as the stage! I'm 5"2.5, and all of 'em except Mark and Kherington were like either 1-2 inches taller than me, or shorter than me. Will, Joshua, Chelsea, Jessica, Thayne, Gev, Katee, and Comfort were almost eye to eye. Twitch was like 3 or 4 inches taller, Kherington was like 2 to 3 inches taller, Mark was taller than all of em! LOL

Now Courtney and Chelsie were lil itty bitty people. Maybe an inch or 2 shorter than me.

The sad news is that Joshua dropped Katee during their "Hometown Glory" dance right after their assisted run. Joshua slipped on the floor and Katee fell on her back. You could hear it crack. Katee's face looked in pain. You can read about it on the Message board. This news was posted Oct. 12 but the accident happened in Dallas, Oct. 10

Update: Here's the link to watch the dance on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12WOhza6ucg It didn't seem as much like a "drop" as it did a "slip" on the floor which probably happens from time to time. They danced right through it like real troupers.

I may have more to add later and will update this article as needed.