Tag Archives: so you think you can dance

#SYTYCD Book Pitch – Season 9 Week 8 (@DANCEonFOX)

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It’s Final Four time! I can’t say I’m in love with this top 4, as only one of my favorites is left standing (and since there will be two winners this season — one guy and one girl — I really wanted one of my male favorites to still be in it), but there were still some awesome routines last night.

Interestingly, I guess if you go by the routines I’ve picked for these book pitches, Chehon actually is one of my favorites, because I’ve selected his routines several times. But my heart still misses the ones who were eliminated.

I don’t know if we’ll see anything new next week in the finale — probably a new group routine, but normally the finale is an opportunity to revisit season highlights. But I’ll probably do a final pitch next week, even if it is a dance from a prior week, just so I have an excuse to do one more.

Anyway, here’s my pick for this week.

Song: Leave from “Once”

Choreographer: Stacey Tookey

Dancers: Chehon and Allison (Season 2)

Pitch: A boy and a girl grow up together as part of a small colony on a remote planet. Finally, as teenagers, they admit to the growing attraction they’ve both been feeling. But no sooner has their young romance blossomed than a ship shows up to take the girl’s family back to Earth, a plan that had been in place since before she was born. By the time the ship makes it back at relativistic speeds, everyone who remains back in the colony will be long dead. The girl is forced to make a choice: Stay with the family she relies on, or the boy she could love?

Suggested Author: Diana Peterfreund

What did you think of the final four’s performances? Did any of the routines particularly inspire you? And who do you think our two champions will be?

Past Pitches:

“Counting on You” Music Book Pitch

Week 6 & 7 Book Pitches

Week 5 Book Pitch

Week 3 Book Pitch

Week 2 Book Pitch

Week 1 Book Pitch

The original SYTYCD Book Pitch post

#SYTYCD Book Pitch – Season 9, Week 5 (@DANCEonFOX)

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I skipped this feature last week because all the routines were rehashes of old routines (which…not a giant fan of that, gotta be honest). Plus, one of the routines already inspired a book. If you want to see the re-interpretation, here you go.

But anyway, after the two-week hiatus and then skipping last week, I feel like I haven’t done one of these in forever. Fortunately, last night’s episode had several fantastic dances to pick from.

[Getting away from the point of this post for a second, I just want to go on record as saying that I. Love. All-Stars. Especially after my favorite dancer was eliminated last week, and I now don’t have a serious emotional investment in the competition, the main reason I was looking forward to this week’s episode was to see who they brought back as All-Stars. And oh my goodness. Kathryn McCormick. Jakob Karr. Brandon Bryant. Alex Wong. Yes yes yes YES.]

So there were a lot of fantastic and emotional routines last night, and the one I’m picking wasn’t necessarily the best one (although I really enjoyed it), but it’s the one that most screamed “story!” to me. And it doesn’t hurt that the All-Star was one of my top 3 guys to ever compete on this show. I could watch him dance every day for the rest of my life and never get tired of it. Seriously.

Song: Dancin’ Dan (Me and My Shadow) (Fosse Original Broadway Cast)

Choreographer: Spencer Liff

Dancers: Lindsay and Jakob Karr (Season 6)

Book Pitch: When a teenage outcast stumbles upon a spell to bring her shadow to life, she begins to plan the perfect crime. But when her shadow develops a conscience, her plot may be thwarted by…herself?

(I honestly don’t know how my brain went from that dance to “crime,” but there it is. My mind is a strange, strange place).

Suggested Author: This one kind of needs a creative genius because the concept is so weird, so I’m going to play the J.K. Rowling card. I may wind up regretting using a lifeline so early, but we’ll see in the coming weeks.

You know what other video goes really well with that dance? This one. 

If So You Think You Can Dance and Lindsey Stirling ever want to combine forces, I think the universe may explode, in a good way.

Week 3 Book Pitch

Week 2 Book Pitch

Week 1 Book Pitch

The original SYTYCD Book Pitch post

#SYTYCD Book Pitch – Season 9, Week 3 (@DANCEonFOX)

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Welcome to another week of book pitches based on last night’s performances on So You Think You Can Dance!

Last night was kind of a mixed bag, with several of the routines (including that of my favorite couple *sob*) falling flat. But there were some gems in the mix, too, and all my favorites lived to dance again next week.

This week, I actually have two dances for you, because the first one isn’t actually a pitch. Yeah, I know, that kind of defeats the purpose, but this dance made me think of a book that already exists. Granted, the costumes don’t really fit it, but the emotion in the dance certainly does. And it was super-pretty, so I wanted to show it to you.

Song: I Will Always Love You (Whitney Houston)

Choreographer: Stacey Tookey

Dancers: Witney and Chehon

Book: The Outlander series by Diana Gabladon, especially book 2, Dragonfly in Amber. This dance completely embodied the passionate and impossible love of Claire and Jamie to me.

Okay, now I’ll do a for-real book pitch.

Song: Wild Horses (Charlotte Martin)

Choreographer: Mandy Moore

Dancers: Cole and Lindsay

Book Pitch: Set in the 1960s, after her boyfriend is drafted into the army and is killed in action, a teenage girl struggles to overcome her feelings of depression and loss.

Suggested Author: Gayle Forman

What did you think? Were any of last night’s dances particularly inspiring to you?

Week 2 Book Pitch

Week 1 Book Pitch

The original SYTYCD Book Pitch post

#SYTYCD Book Pitch – Season 9, Week 2 (@DANCEonFOX @MyraMcEntire)

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Welcome to Week 2 of my new feature, where I come up with a book pitch inspired by a routine from last night’s episode of So You Think You Can Dance. These won’t necessarily be my favorite dances or dancers, just dances that inspire some sort of story in my mind.

But in case you’re wondering, this is my favorite couple this season. And as a bonus, if an author ever decides to take me up on one of these pitches (because goodness knows I’m not going to write them) and picks a dance with Matthew, and then if their book is adapted into a movie, it can star Ryan Gosling. Because seriously, Matthew looks like dancing Ryan Gosling.

I’m going to honestly be surprised if there’s not a Dancing Gosling Twitter avatar and Tumblr by the end of the season, complete with dancing “Hey Girl” memes.

But I digress.

Song: Hear Me Now (Dri, Lind & Lukka Mix) by Steed Lord

Choreographer: Sonya Tayeh

Dancers: Matthew and Audrey

Pitch: In a future where personal interaction has been banned and all contact must be virtual, a lonely young scientist creates a robotic companion to keep him company. But when she unexpectedly develops her own personality and desires, he realizes he may have gotten in over his head.

Suggested Author: Myra McEntire (She writes relationships so well that I think she could make this semi-creepy concept seem not so creepy)

So You Think You Can Dance airs on FOX on Wednesdays at 8 EST. And no, they don’t have any idea who I am.

SYTYCD Book Pitch – Season 9 Week 1

The Original SYTYCD Book Pitch Post

 

#SYTYCD Book Pitch — Season 9, Week 1 (@DANCEonFOX @jamesdashner)

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So this past Tuesday, I wrote a post of (fake) book pitches inspired by So You Think You Can Dance routines. And I was totally blown away by how awesome the feedback was. Turns out there’s a lot of SYTYCD fans among us bookish types! Not only was the feedback amazing, but it also became my most-viewed post and my highest-traffic day ever, all within 24 hours of the post going up. Now, I’m not expecting lightning to strike twice, but it seems to me that this dance+book thing is a thing that people seem to like.

So considering the feedback, plus the fact that I absolutely loved writing that post, I tried to think about how I could incorporate something like it into my regular blogging routine. And here’s what I’ve come up with.

Each week, on the day after the show, I’ll put up a post selecting one dance from the night before, and I’ll do a book pitch inspired by it, complete with an author I think could pull it off. It won’t necessarily be my favorite dance of the night, or the best-executed dance; it’ll just be the one that inspires me the most to come up with a story idea.

Although for this week, let me just state for the record, I loved this dance. Loved. I want Christopher Scott to come choreograph my life.

And then I’ll need someone to dance it for me too, because I’m woefully uncoordinated.

Song: Architect of the Mind by Kerry Muzzey

Choreographer: Christopher Scott

Dancers: Top 20

Pitch: A teen prodigy is pulled out of his high school classroom and thrown into a top-secret think tank with one mission: find a way to prevent the imminent end of the world.

Suggested Author: James Dashner

Were any of last night’s dances particularly inspiring to you?

So You Think You Can Dance airs Wednesdays on FOX at 8 p.m. EST.