Breaking new ground in Canadian reality television again, I was given the opportunity to be the first to witness a So You Think You Can Dance Canada group performance on Wednesday afternoon. The performance was then taped for broadcast as part of Thursday’s results show.
I got to the Harbourside Studios at 3 p.m. on Wednesday and was immediately ushered into my seat in the bleachers. When I got there, the dancers were already on-stage rehearsing the group performance that was choreographed by Dance judge, Tre Armstrong.
For those who have been to a Dance taping before, the stage set-up was completely similar except for the fact that there were only about 20 other people on the floor and they were all crew members. The floor director was shouting instructions which wasn’t different from any of the actual tapings that I had been to.
In their first run of the performance, the top 6 dancers did a slow walk-through of the dance. The number was a step-dance set to Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” and was a throwback to guys and dolls from the 50’s. The way the dancers were dressed made it seem like they were all straight out of an Archie comic. Nico, Izaak and Miles were dressed like nerds, while the girls looked like lollypop girls. The interesting thing was that the guys started in the balcony (alongside the fans) and then ran down the steps to join the girls on stage.
Before the second run-through, the floor director said that host Leah Miller would be coming out. When the end came, I was shocked to see one of the MALE crew members dressed in a blonde wig and a tied-up t-shirt. It was pretty amusing. I deduced that this probably happened every week, but that didn’t take away from its comedic value.
The first major problem that I noticed during the dress rehearsal was the fact that at the end of it, the girls were supposed to rip the shirts off the guys. The problem was that all of the gimmicked shirts were not ripping completely off with Nico’s being the most difficult. This resulted in the wardrobe team having to come out at the end of every run-through to try and dummy them up again. The way that they did this was to have an open tear in the back of every shirt, making it easy to rip. At least that was the desired effect.
Before the next attempt at the dance, the floor director returned and announced that this time the rehearsal was “for camera blocking so that we all know what’s going on.” Right after she said this, Miles asked if they were actually going to rip the shirts off this time and I presume he was told ‘no’ (because I didn’t hear a clear answer from anyone).
I should point out that after every run, the dancers took a small break where they drank water. It was during this time that Tre would get back on the stage and offer tips that from my vantage point particularly focused on their theatrical performance and to be over-the-top so that the enhanced version would look good on television.
Before the fourth time through, the floor director returned and said that there would be no music for this one and that it would be “half-speed for lighting” and that the dancers would just be walking it through. She also said that Tre would doing the counts. The choreographer was then given a mic and she proceeded to do the 8 counts for the dancers (which I am pretty familiar with after I learned on how to dance on Reality Obsessed.
After the half-speed version, the dancers were told to go full throttle and Miles once again pointed out that if they did that, the shirts would rip. It seemed like he was quite concerned about this. In the opening sequence of the song, there was some interplay between the girls before the guys joined them on stage. Before the full out rehearsal, Tre talked to Allie and told her to keep the chemistry between her and Lisa valid (I presume referring to the fact that they are friends off-stage and should play off this). I think that the biggest lesson that I was learning by being at the dress rehearsal was that Tre made a much better choreographer than dancer.
The full-throttle version ended up being the last dress rehearsal before the audience was let in for the actual taping.
Since this was my first time at a Wednesday taping, while most things were the same, there were many differences as well. The major one being the audience. It was comprised completely out of kids from different Ontario schools. On this day, they were primarily from Stratford, ON. They added a completely different vibe to the venue as they were certainly excited to be there and who could blame them? Math class versus seeing Natalli dance is a no-brainer.
For the first take of the taped performance, Nico’s shirt didn’t rip off completely at the end. Before the second take, Tre once again seemed to be offering the most instruction to Allie and showed her how to ‘step’ harder.
In the same break before the second take, Nico’s shirt and Izaak’s pants had to be fixed.
After a long delay, it was time for the second take and right before the dancers went on, Tre shouted “I LOVE YOU MY DANCERS” which drew a smile from each member of the Top 6.
One of the things that I noticed about the group performance was that since each girl was paired with one of the guys, was it just a coincidence that Allie and Miles were put together. It was clearly easier for Miles to lift Allie up and I was sure this must have been a conscious decision by Tre.
After a clean second take, there was another break before the dancers had to do it again and during this break, it was quite amusing to see Lisa practicing how to take Nico’s shirt off.
There were five more takes that I saw, making for seven in total. I don’t know what I was more impressed by. The dancers for being able to do the same routine over and over again showcasing their impressive stamina, or the patience of the audience that was made up primarily of kids who still managed to keep their attention completely focused on the same routine they were seeing over and over again. What I do know is that I will never get the lyrics to “Hollaback Girl” out of my head again.
When I finally got a chance to see the group number on the results show, I definitely appreciated it a lot more than I did before. I never dreamed that so much work was involved. I was told that the dancers start practice for the group performance on the Tuesday morning immediately after the Monday performance show taping and that their first group dance rehearsal is 7 hours. So while I thought just seeing them do 10 or so takes of it for the dress rehearsal and taping was crazy, they actually had been doing it for the entire day before. This is especially insane when you consider that they also had to memorize the steps for their two couple performances on Monday and their solo.
No matter who wins the title of Canada’s favourite dancer next Sunday, I can tell you with full certainty that they will deserve it.
As for how I feel about Lisa and Izaak going home? It was the first results show that I was able to totally predict so I wasn’t surprised. What I was surprised by was how open and candid they were when I talked to them on Friday. Keep an eye out for that interview.
Thanks to the Dance team for giving me exclusive dress rehearsal access as I think it allowed us all a window into the show that has already made integrated itself as an integral part of Canadian culture.
Your Hollaback Guy,
Murtz Jaffer
