Sorry I’m getting this recap up almost a week late—we had some emergencies here at the house this week with one of my cats. However, I’m making up for it by including pictures! Not good pictures, because I had to take photos of the TV screen, but pictures none the less!

Charleston, NC

Day 1

We start off with the typical lame city intro montage which kind of looks like it takes place in a trailer park, and then it’s on to the auditions. Tyce Diorio is the third judge tonight.

Shiela Kaiser – a biological engineering student from Atlanta with an unsupportive dad dances a contemporary number in a hooded sweatshirt with little hearts all over it that looks like the kind of thing you buy at Baby Gap. The music sounds like Annie Lennox, but I don’t recognize the song. I thought it was ok but not amazing. Nigel says it was great, Mary starts the night off with a scream and makes me want to punch her. Tyce says that she just “gave dancers an education” whatever that means. A little more sob story about how she’s missing classes. Nigel makes a very lame attempt at humor with a question about can she use calculus to figure out roulette wheels as his way of telling her she’s through to Vegas.

Erin Mansour and John Tabakian – she says the is thirty but I’d have guessed a decade older. She’s wearing a red dress that would be more flattering on Minnie Mouse. This is some bad dancing. It starts off like a partner dance but all too soon she’s out in front doing some lame club moves while her partner wanders around behind her…oh god…she just did the Cabbage Patch. Cut to Mary saying “oh…my…god…” After a brief bit of sad attempt at dancing together again Nigel stops them saying he “can’t see any more of this.” Turns out that Erin is a dance teacher, but she says she’s only been doing ballroom for 8 hours. Mary gets pissed off Tyce says it’s an embarrassment and says he doesn’t understand why they are here. Nigel says John has to be more masculine but acknowledges that Erin is “hard to parner because she’s all over the place.” I’m not convinced it wasn’t a joke audition.

Space filler with bootie shaking and back flips, then a backstory about Jeremiah Hughes that starts off with shirtless pushups. He comes out onstage to his audition with his shirt all the way unbuttoned. It’s another contemporary piece and it turns out the guy can dance! He does some neat spinny jumpy things but something goes bad at the end when he lands off balance and has to improvise, which Nigel refers to as a “complete screwup” but says that aside from that he’s one of the best dancers he’s seen this season. Mary and Tyce like it but say he has some inconsistencies and polish needed in certain areas. Nigel agrees to send him to Vegas if he buttons his shirt, and he does a backflip of happiness.