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Reality TV Recap

'So You Think You Can Dance' Detroit auditions recap

Aired Monday, May 13 2013 at 7:24am EDT on

So You Think You Can Dance's tenth season is underway, and this time around, we're in Detroit for some more amazing (and amazingly bad) auditions. You ready? tWitch is on hand to help out Mary and Nigel with judging duties.

Host Cat Deeley and judges Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy

© Fox / Adam Rose

Cat Deeley and judges Nigel Lythgoe & Mary Murphy

First up, it's Jade Zuberi, a street dancer who plans to "take the audience for a ride". He's got some pretty good moves, moving in stop motion and pulling out some moves that even tWitch is impressed by. It's extremely fluid and skilled, but I'd need to see how he actually did with some choreography. There's no questioning his talent, though.

Jade gets a standing ovation from all three judges, with Mary pretending to bow down to him. Nigel didn't want it to stop, admitting that he was "engrossed" with every movement. Mary agrees, calling him a "star" and praising him for making her feel every bit of the music. tWitch has always watched the show, but this is by far one of the best auditions he's seen. Quite high praise. He gets a ticket through to Vegas without hesitation.

Next up, it's Amy Yakima, who's been dancing since she was three. She even got her dad to take a jazz class, and gets him to come down on stage to give a little performance of his own. It's embarrassing in the way that only parents can be, but bless his heart, he totally goes for it. As for Amy, she's a pretty good contemporary dancer (admittedly not my favorite genre, as you know) and definitely has a lot of passion.

Amy also gets a standing ovation from all three judges, with Nigel joking at how "relieved" he was that she's so good. He particularly likes her extensions and doesn't have anything bad to say about her performance. Mary thinks she was "absolutely spectacular" and makes it look effortless, making the hair on Mary's arms raise. tWitch didn't understand the French lyrics to the song, but he still felt the emotion of her "incredible" performance. It's Vegas for Amy, obviously.

Morgan 'Mo' Williams dedicates his contemporary performance to his recently-deceased grandmother, and does quite a lot of twirling and leaping. He's quite light on his feet and obviously really strong - almost too powerful on occasion - but you can tell he really loves to dance. Mary gives one of her signature shrieks and when Nigel offers him an opportunity to go through to choreography, Mary says it's over her dead body and instead gives him his ticket to Vegas.

Moving right along, it's time for a new style of dance called Detroit Jit. If you don't know what that is, don't worry, no-one does - but you're about to! One of the jit guys calls it "fast feet, fast arms and a lot of attitude". Hey, I can get down with that. It's like an updated street version of the Jitterbug. I get it.

Will Sysko Green is a Jit dancer, and he's ready to bring the style to the masses. There are a lot of elements of breakdance in his performance mixed with some energetic bouncing and pulsating movements that go perfect with his Mortal Kombat music selection. It's good, but not all that powerful, unfortunately.

After finishing, he reveals to the judges that he's also good at "hip rolling", so Mary goes to sit on the stage as he basically gives her a lap dance. It's embarrassing even to watch on TV, but Nigel's getting a kick out of it, anyway, and Mary walks away shrieking, "Is there a medic in the house?!" He's through to choreography, but in the meantime, I'd like to suggest that he consider a new nickname besides 'Sysko', for obvious reasons.

After tWitch gives a little performance of his own, some random mess of a kid who clearly is doing this for comedy comes in to do something he calls hip-hop but is really just a lot of flopping and flailing around. His name is Garrett Frye and he's an absolute waste of time. Not to mention he's "dancing" to a Chris Brown song, so he's automatically ten times worse.

tWitch says it was "super entertaining", though in no way good enough for the competition. Mary notes that he's like the weirdo you see dancing in a corner at someone's wedding. Nigel hopes he continues dancing on his own time, but tells him to hit the pike, so to speak, and that's it for day one of the solo auditions.

During choreography, Sysko is let go when he adds some freestyle moves to the routine. Nigel is far from happy and points out that his partner could fall and be hurt if he doesn't do every move as taught to him. It's the end of the line for him, though he didn't seem to be doing too well prior to that.

Hey look, it's our first tap dancer this season! Tyrone Cobham Jr is a fantastic tapper, really joyful and emotive - plus incredibly skilled. It seems quite effortless and I really like watching him, for sure. His performance gets him a standing ovation from all three judges, plus loud chants from the audience.

Nigel notes that people appreciate tap dance, and calls him one of the best tappers they've had on the program. Mary thinks it was the best tap performance from all ten seasons, in fact, because he has a "magnificent" stage presence and seems so relaxed and cool. tWitch wishes he could be as smooth in everyday life as Tyrone just was on stage - he made music with his feet. It's straight through to Vegas for him, without question.

After a little medley of successful auditions, including one with a 'Gangnam Style' dancing grandma, it's time to turn up the heat. A group of male exotic dancers has hit the stage, and first up is Darryl 'Smilez' Harrell. He does some crumping moves that are... okay, but nothing too special. But before he gets some feedback, the whole crew is seen individually.

DeFonte 'Prince Charming' Thomas is the last of the group to go, and he starts by lying flat on the ground before getting up for some standard pop and locking and waving his body around a lot. Maybe that works in the strip clubs (I don't see how, but let's go with it) but it's certainly nothing to call home for, to me.

Nigel brings the whole crew out on stage before splitting them up. Smilez and Prince Charming step forward and are put through to choreography while the other three are sent home. They seem like a tight group, though, as the ones who are unsuccessful thank the judges for their time and pat their friends on the back. After choreography, Smilez is sent home but Prince Charming gets his Vegas ticket.

Well, that's it for this week. Next week, we head back to Los Angeles and also to Texas, where Minnie Driver will join the judges. Isn't that exciting? We'll see you Tuesday, May 28 at 8/7c.

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