Ballroom With a Twist

Just got back from the Community Arts Center. We went to see "Ballroom With a Twist," a production directed & choreographed by Louis van Amstel of "Dancing With the Stars" and "So You Think You Can Dance" fame. It featured various ballroom routines performed by a dozen dancers. They did jive, quickstep, samba, rumba, cha-cha, and others I recognized from watching SYTYCD but couldn't quite name. In between numbers, David Hernandez and Trenyce of American Idol (seasons 7 and 2) came out to sing a few numbers and (attempt to) banter with the audience.

Highlights:
1. Allison Holker of Season 2 of SYTYCD was one of the dancers! Season 2 is one of my favorite seasons (along with Season 3... oh Pasha, how I miss you), and I still watch it from time to time. So seeing her on the playbill made me a little excited. I don't get starstruck, but in this case, I was thrilled. She even performed a few contemporary solos, and they were honestly the best part of the show.
2. When they announced David Hernandez, the girl next to Matt literally squealed. I mean, really? You're going to squee over a 12th place finisher?
3. While Trenyce was getting her Whitney on with a cover of "I Have Nothing," a woman in the row in front of us started clapping at the end of the first chorus. I'm not sure if she thought the song was over, or if she was just overcome by Trenyce's fierce gutteral intonations (girl was full-on growling by the end of the song), but I suddenly got the church giggles and had to plug my nose to prevent snorting.
4. One of the dancers kept referring to us as "Williamsport... Pennsylvania," like we didn't know what state we were living in. And she had this really dramatic pause after Williamsport, when she was clearly trying to remember where the hell she was.
5. One dancer had some amazing high kicks that reminded us of Benji Schwimmer. And then we were sad that he wasn't there.
6. Trenyce and David came out to talk to the audience and kill some time during the second half. They asked if anyone had any questions for them, and the spontaneous clapping lady in front of us shouted out, "ADAM!" I guess she was referring to Adam Lambert, the most recent winner of AI. Which has fuck all to do with the show tonight. She was clearly on something. They ignored her and proceeded to ask each other what they had in the works so they could shamelessly plug their upcoming projects.


The second half was better than the first, full of sexy sambas and a great group finale. Considering our tickets were free (yay for student tickets from Penn Tech), I would say it was a great way to spend an evening.

And I am really looking forward to this weekend. I got the whole weekend off from work, so Matt & I are headed out of town. We booked a last minute hotel room and decided to spend this weekend relaxing, just the two of us, before our families gather for the holidays. We didn't plan it this way, but our anniversary happens to be coming up, so it's kinda good timing. So I hope y'all have a great weekend, because come 5 pm tomorrow, I'm disappearing until Monday!