Tuesday was a tough night for tap dancers. Three of them -- the first three ever to get that far -- had just made the top 20 of "So You Think You Can Dance." Now two of them are gone; here's the story I sent to papers:
For years, tap dancing – a vibrant
American art form – seemed invisible on American TV.
Even “So You Think You Can Dance,”
which ranges from ballet to Bollywood, ignored it. “They never
really had a tapper,” said Bianca Revels, 20, who auditioned each
year.
Now tappers have lots of attention –
not all of it cheery. Three of them reached the show's top 20; on
Tuesday, two of them three were ousted, short of the top 16.
“It's definitely a bummer,” Revels
said today.
Phillip Attmore, 25, the other person
ousted, was also bummed. Each week, couples pick a random style and
are assigned a choreographer. This week, he said, he and Channing
Cooke drew samba and had “a really difficult routine – not just
in the style and the steps, but in the lift.”
That last part is a key factor this
year: In many of the duos, the man and the woman are about the same
size; lifts can be iffy.
“Channing is not a large girl, but
she is muscular,” Attmore said. “We were a little
out-of-proportion together …. We pulled it (the lift) together
better than we thought we would.”
Judges said the struggle was too
obvious and sent him home.
That leaves Peter Sabasino as the only
tapper. For brief bursts, viewers have seen the joy of tap.
For Attmore, from Pasadena, that
started with seeing “Singing in the Rain” several times, then
going to a dance class. “I decided that I wanted top be a performer
at the age of 3.”
For Revels, from Detroit, that started
with her mother playing old-style music all day. “I would try
dancing around and had no rhythm. My mother decided to do send me to
dance class.”
The Detroit area has made an impact on
the show lately. Evan Kasprzak reached the final three this summer
and his brother Ryan had strong auditions. (Both can tap, but focuses
on their Broadway moves.) Also, Sonya Tayeh has become a favorite
hip-hop choreographer.
Revels moved to California two years
ago. “Detroit is kind of a hard place to emerge from,” she said.
“We had 'Hitsville USA' (the Motown Records home), but that was a
long time ago.”
So she went west to study acting and
singing. “I'm hoping to be the next Halle Berry in a few years.”