Las Vegas Weekly

April 9, 2009 · 7:09 PM

So You Think You Can Dance to hold callbacks in Las Vegas

By Sarah Feldberg

There’s something to be said for the guilty pleasure of watching usually composed celebrities go completely out of their element to stumble through the jitterbug or tango on Dancing with the Stars. More than Us Weekly’s shots of Brangelina sipping Starbucks or Julia Roberts grocery shopping, the awkward twirls and dips remind us that even some of the pretty people have two left feet. Not everyone can be Usher, after all.

But if you’re after quality dancing rather than celebrity missteps, FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance offers more splits, flips and simply bitchin’ footwork for your viewing buck. On April 24 callbacks for the fifth season of the popular show will begin in Las Vegas at Planet Hollywood.

Starting with the show’s second season in 2006, Las Vegas has served as SYTYCD’s butcher shop, where dancers who’ve made it through the first round of auditions go to try their hand (or feet, rather) at tricky choreography and stay off the chopping block. When the fat’s been cut, the top 20 move on to the actual competition where they break into pairs and perform everything from disco to waltz to hip hop for the judges and audience, who call in their votes for the best couple.

Executive producer and judge Nigel Lythgoe will be on hand in Las Vegas to judge the dancers along with judge Mary Murphy and guest judges Mia Michaels, a contributing choreographer on the show who choreographed for Celine Dion’s A New Day; Debbie Allen, who starred on the 1980s hit TV show Fame; film director and choreographer Adam Shankman; and Lil C, a dancer and choreographer who has appeared in Madonna’s music videos and dance flick Stomp the Yard.

Season Five will premiere on FOX on Thursday, May 21 at 8 p.m., at which point the dancers who survived Vegas will get their chance to leap and shimmy through expert choreography on national TV. However, only one competitor will be named “America’s favorite dancer” and get to take home the cash prize that goes with the title. With a fat check in hand that winner will finally know he or she can dance. What a relief.

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