They spared us most of the Britney-imitation during this second episode, although we do see some REALLY BAD outfits. One guys is so bad that Nigel makes him go buy new clothes before the afternoon round. If someone had a unique routine or even shows the hint that they can dance, the producers generally let them through to the afternoon round. Both a guy doing a dance routine on roller skates, and another one doing a routine on stilts get the benefit of the doubt and go on to the afternoon. Those producers can really spot a good thing, because these guys actually can dance. There's a guy who had me at "hello" who does the Donald O'Connor move of climbing up the wall and flipping over - I LOVE THAT. The show also gets their own thrill showing us two loving couples (one married, one engaged) who blabber on about how much chemistry they have dancing together, only to have their love torn apart when just one member of each couple makes it through at the end. Then, Lauren's there to greet them at the studio door to ask how it went, camera zooming in on the rejected partner, just to see if they can mask their disappointment and pretend they are actually excited for their mate. If either of these people who made the cut win in the end, let's see how long these relationships last.

And once again, we have our fatty moments. We see that fat guys can sometimes dance. "Big Papa" (who's not all THAT big - I've seen bigger) makes the cut, leading Nigel to blurt out in his Britishness, "You don't have to be a skinny rake to dance." Funny, but just a moment before, we saw a female elephant on point shoes pretending to do ballet. The amount of weight that rested on the toes of those shoes was really phenomenal and probably painful. We have yet to see a fat girl make it through to the next round. Remember, fat guys can dance. Fat girls should go on a diet.

So, next week, with the initial round over we're off to Hollywood with 50 dancers who will be put through the paces by 5 choreographers as we begin the process of whittling down the performers to the final few. Oh wait, but we're already in Hollywood. I'll see you there.

Posted by on July 30, 2005 3:05 PM