So You Think You Can Dance

Last night I attended the live performance of the Season 5 top 12 dancers of So You Think You Can Dance. For anyone who isn't sure what this is, it's a TV reality show where dancers compete, and it's addictive. The tour came through Boston last night, and I bought cheap seats.

That may have been a mistake. My seats were on the floor at the Agganis Arena, which is designed for basketball and hockey. I couldn't see a thing except for what was on the Jumbotrons. Every time I looked towards the stage, spotlights shone in my eyes.

I dragged my younger son along (he had watched the season along with me this past summer). He's a big person, and I'm a big person, and the seats were the portable ones which, while padded, were designed for easy storage rather than comfort. Before the show, I bought a t-shirt, black, with the tour stops listed on the back and all of the dancers pictured on the front. I put it right on over the shirt I'd worn to work. I was wearing a long purple skirt, so I'm sure I looked ridiculous, but I didn't care.

We were surrounded by tweener girls. The five girls in the row in front of us looked like sisters. During the intermission, the older woman with them (Mom, I assume), bought them all t-shirts (the same one I had already bought for myself) and posed them for pictures. Oh, by the way, it said on the tickets that cameras were prohibited. Odd, everybody seemed to have them anyway. One of these girls yelled "I love you, Jeanine!" at a very quiet moment. (Jeanine is the dancer who won the competition this year.) I think the girl was more pleased than embarrassed, and I'm sure Jeanine didn't mind, either.

I'm not sure how many girls there were behind us - four or five, anyway. One of them kept yelling "I love you, Kupono!" He's the hot Hawaiian dancer. She has good taste.

The woman sitting next to me kept standing up because she couldn't see. After somebody behind us told her to sit down, she and her daughter left. I suspect they went upstairs to find some standing room with a view. One of the little girls from behind me came up and sat on the back of the seat at the end of the row. Nobody yelled at her to get down; maybe she wasn't blocking anybody's view. After awhile, I moved into the empty seat between us (where the woman had been) and found I could see a little better. I caught a few glimpses of the dancers. When I tried to take a picture with my phone, all I could see was bright lights, though.

The show was great. They did all of the best routines from the season - the one where Evan couldn't keep his eyes off Randi's ass, the Bollywood routine danced by Jason and Caitlin, the addiction piece danced by Kupono and Kayla, and my personal favorite, the breast-cancer dance done by Melissa and Ade. You can't watch this without choking up. At least I can't, and last night was no exception. When Phillip (the "popper", an untrained dancer who was tremendously appealing) did his solo routine, he got a standing ovation with the loudest cheering of the night. And there was a running gag involving Phillip, Jeanine, and the Russian folk dance that was one of the most poorly received dances of the season. They kept coming on stage and trying to perform the dance, and the other dancers kept chasing them off. Once they came on in some kind of medical scrubs, pushing a gurney (a prop for the next routine) which turned out to have the boom box with their music for the dance on it. Finally, towards the end, all the dancers ended up doing the Russian folk dance together.

After the show, we walked to Kenmore Square because there were so many people already waiting for the subway up by the Arena. When we got there, there was a mostly empty car on a train that was going all the way to North Station (so many Green Line trains stop at Park Street or Government Center, and we have to change for the Orange Line, which you can only do at Haymarket or North Station). We sat near some people who had also been at the show - we compared t-shirts.

It was after midnight by the time we got home. This morning I let myself rest until almost 6 instead of getting up at 5:30 as I usually do. I'm still a little out of it today. But it was worth it. I can never make myself do anything that takes me out of my comfort zone - like going out on a weeknight. This time, I went ahead and did something.