Summer Hummer 2012 Update #7

What a NIGHT!

Allstar Prelims!

Justin Sauer
Dave Damon
Kevin Balcon
Cameron Crook
Joe Mahoney
Chris Lo
Reginald Beason
Michael Diener
Rome
Warren Pino
Ben Hooten
Rob Jackson
Stephen White
Kris Swearingen
Alfred
Chris Dumond
Steve Hall
Steve Hunt
James Hchchch

Connie
Blandine
Kelly Hull
Estelle
Jen Diener
Ann Fleming
Chevy
Melissa Greene
Dana Simonetti
Kay
Sabrina
Kim Filippo
Virginie
Lara Deni

Rising Star!

Reginald Beason and Lara Deni
Stephane Schneider and Abi Leggette
Will and Jill – new routine! “Change The World,” in teal chiffon, sweet smooth little thing.
Chris Lo and Estelle – new routine! “Je me Lache” (personal fave song of GB and myself), black and white, both in vests with silver emblems; quick snappy fun choreography. Estelle is a rare beauty, with a heart as beautiful as her face. She told me afterwards she was terr-ri-fied. Extremely extremely scary. But fun. Sort of.
Rome and Chevy! Dancing, for the first time out of Juniors, their wonderful wonderful routine debuted at last year’s Open – “Dog Days are Over” (MAN I love this song!). Rome has been away for six months? nine months? teaching skiing, hasn’t danced at all. I was told that they only decided at 3pm this afternoon to dance. They KILLED the routine. Chevy suddenly looks very much not a Junior. And – funniest thing – smack in the middle, in a break, exactly on the beat, her shoe flew off into the air and across the room. Hilarious!
Daria and Donnie

Juniors!

Josh and Anyssa
Chris and Nicole,
and the ridiculously adorable Hull twins Ian and Emily, 7 years old, dancing the routine they debuted at last year’s Open *completely* differently than they did a year ago. What a difference a year makes when you’re seven.

Classic!

Sean and Courtney
Blandine and Seb
Arjay and Jen (she’s not been dancing – knee injury – so this was their first time back with their great sexy “Moves Like Jagger” – Jen says there are still things she can’t do with the knee so the routine had to be modified which was frustrating. Still looked awesome.
Kris and Rebecca
Jordan and Tatiana, and
Maxence and Virginie

SUCH GREAT ROUTINES, every one of those above. And now, after a year of dancing them all over the world, these routines are all extremely tight and powerful. No clue what the judges will do – they’re all so good.

(Judges were Donna Roesel, Steve Nereen, Michael Kielbasa, Ben Morris, and Chief Judge Maira Pineta)

Champion JJ Finals! Oh man, were these fun. Guys picked a girl out of the bowl (held by Yuna in a stunning full-length turquoise dress. Yuna is strikingly gorgeous with a face meant to be on the cover of magazines. She should model. Seriously.)

Maxence and Yenni, to “One Love” and “Take a Dirty Picture” – Yenni did a series of pirhouettes then, still on one leg, dropped into a splits between Maxence’s legs to hit the break. She is so extremely graceful! Impeccable technique.
Michael Kielbasa and Tatiana, to “I Just Wanna Know” and “Dance Like Michael Jackson.” Complete with moon walks. Tatiana stood in front of Michael, arched all the way backwards into a full back-bend to the floor, went threw his legs head first, and came up standing behind him. Seriously?!?
Greg and Jess to “Gimme One Reason To Stay Here” and “Rabiosa” — and this crazy great song started up and BAM! Jess was IN HER ELEMENT! She’s Cuban and Pitbull is Cuban and this song is Cuban and Jessica, so funny and full of life and spirit, simply went nuts dancing her heart out, whipping her gorgeous head of hair all over the place, whipping that gorgeous body of hers over-around-under-beside-all up and down her happy partner Greg (who held his own! he looked great when I looked at him for 1/30th of a second one time.) She had the whole ballroom jumping in their seats, clapping along. What a dance!
Arjay and Sarah, to “Frontin” and Titanium. What great songs! Oh man, Arjay and Sarah together? So so so smooth! They skated. They slid around the floor without moving anything but feet. So quick! subtle! detailed! understated! witty! So smooth!
Brennar – make that Private Goree – home for a visit, drew – guess who? Torri! yaaay! They looked SO delighted what a joy to watch their love for each other and their amazing dance connection. “Powerful Stuff” and “Scream.” This could have been a routine, the impromptu choreography was so superb. They are beautiful together.
Royston and Lemery, “Sexy and I Know It” (acoustic version) and Robert’s beloved “Up The Lazy River.” Okay we all know Robert can win a Jack and Jill. But Lemery dang! She gets exponentially better from one comp to the next. She’s progressing as fast as Ian and Emily Hull from age six to age seven. Lemery can do ANYTHING and she does it gorgeously, cleanly, powerfully, and with style. She – they – were fabulous!
Jordan and Deluca to two GREAT songs, “Shoop” and “Back In Time” – they’re both so good, so damn good, so quick, funny, hip, sexy, funky, and understand the dance. And they both knew *every word* to Shoop. These two dances were crazy great. Complete with Jordan surprising her by sliding off her shirt (Jen had a layer underneath. Fortunately. Or unfortunately.) (Oh, he started their dance by sliding all the way across the floor to her on his belly. And then sliding away. And then back again.)
Ben and Tessa, “We Found Love” (acoustic) and Ben’s choice, the sweet oldie “Don’t Know Much About History”

and the all-skate to “I Can Only Imagine”

What a show! Such entertainment! I could watch these guys forever. They are so. damn. good.

Last night’s social dancing – everyone agrees – was off-the-charts great. Tonight is even better because all the routines are finished and everyone is psyched to PARTAY. It’s crazy down there in the ballroom, just crazy fun.

This is a great comp!