FrogLenzen

Will Loftis is pretty well known in the dance scene. I know him because he has assisted often over the years on SYTYCD, notably for Sonya Tayeh. He may have also auditioned for one of the earlier seasons. i noticed SYTYCD alumni Teddy and Koine in the audience behind the judges. They were on tour with Maks and Val. Weird that they have the tour cast sitting in the VIP seats while Maks Val and Peta were nowhere to be seen.

1) Allison is a goddess and I can't wait to see what she does next. 2) She needs to calm down and not get so defensive about critiques. 3) DWTS has put themselves in this awkward position by adding jazz/contemporary to their dance styles. It's rare to have a pro that is legitimately qualified in both. It makes sense [to me] that when you include those styles on the show, it opens the door for a pro dancer with a forte in that style. The fact that you have a non-cha-cha by a jazz dancer and then a non-jazz by a latin dancer is what this show done to itself, and I expect judge comments between the two to be similar. (I don't think they were... but oh well) 4) I think Allison is absolutely right in that she was hired for this exact reason. She is here because she's an Emmy nominated choreographer, and I think the show wants her to do her thing. There is a reason why she was given a more able-bodied star than Emma, Sharna, and Peta. 5) If Allison thinks the judges should give her nicer comments, she's crazy. They're doing what they've always done to other pros like Derek, Mark, and Lacey. TPTB know exactly what they're doing, and I bet everything so far is exactly as planned. If Allison is taking things too personally now, I think she needs to be insightful as to what her narrative over the season is planned to be. Eventually she'll probably have a non-ballroom piece that Len hates but the other judges love, and later she'll probably have a non-ballroom piece that suddenly all the judges love. Allison's correct about why she's here, but her expectations are misplaced.

I can't get mad about whether they send people to Callbacks or to Choreography because they don't really show the full process of auditioning. Still, I thought it was satisfying to hear Mary Murphy say "well, when people are good at their style we send them through" about the Puppet guy. I was definitely geeking out whenever they showed past contestants on the screen. I'm in my living room shouting "THERE'S LAUREN! THERE'S CLARICE! THERE'S ELLENORE!" like a crazy person. Justine Lutz, deadpan girl, is my favorite girl so far. I thought she had the best audition choreography of the many contemporary girls we've seen this year. I also liked Dani's choreography, and I lost my cringe about her backstory when I saw her well put-together audition. Saw Alex Kessinger in a montage. She is the girl from Green Mile last year that I suspected they cut at the last minute to include Jasmine Harper per Cat's insistence. I expect her to make it all the way this year. Hailee's over-the-top personality reminded me of Amber Williams' original audition in Season 8, but I didn't think she had NEAR the technique/talent to back it up. We'll see what happens, but so far I'm not impressed. Was not a fan of the Joffrey girl, either. I'm convinced that they switched out her music for a different track post-production, because I didn't think her dancing went with Requiem for a Dream in the slightest.