Season 7
Season 7 premiered on M-Net Series on Tuesday 14 September 2010, at 20h30. After the audition phase the Results shows were on Thursdays at 20h30, beginning on 7 October.
Entering its seventh season, So You Think You Can Dance showcases talented dancers skilled in everything from Hip Hop, Krumping and Popping to Salsa, Quickstep and Jive as they compete to be named America's Favorite Dancer.
Hosted by Cat Deeley, So You Think You Can Dance traveled across America to Chicago, Dallas, Nashville, New York, Los Angeles and Miami, in search of dancers who represent the best in America.
Those who shine during auditions are given a ticket to Las Vegas for callbacks, where they work with top choreographers to learn and then be judged on multiple styles of dance.
This season, the competition is the toughest it has ever been as the judges - Nigel Lythgoe, Mia Michaels and Adam Shankman - will pick only 10 dancers (five guys and five girls) from the thousands that auditioned to compete for the title.
During the performance rounds, one finalist will go home weekly. Additionally, the competitors will be partnered each week with a different So You Think You Can Dance All-Star dancer - former SYTYCD finalists skilled in various dance styles.
The Season Seven All-Star Dance Partners who will perform within their specific genres are:
Allison Holker (Season 2)
Anya Garnis (Season 3)
Dominic "D-trix" Sandoval (Season 3)
Lauren Gottlieb (Season 3)
Neil Haskell (Season 3)
Pasha Kovalev (Season 3)
Comfort Fedoke (Season 4)
Courtney Galiano (Season 4)
Mark Kanemura (Season 4)
Stephen "tWitch" Boss (Season 4)
Ade Obayomi (Season 5)
Kathryn McCormick (Season 6)
Last season's winner, Russell Ferguson, danced off with a $250,000 cash prize, the title of America's Favorite Dancer and a cover feature in the March issue of Dance Spirit Magazine.
So You Think You Can Dance was created by Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe and is produced by 19 Entertainment Ltd. and dick clark productions, inc. The series is executive-produced by Simon Fuller, Nigel Lythgoe and Barry Adelman.
Show Format
After travelling around the country looking for the best dancers, producers invite 500 of the most talented to attend casting sessions in major cities across the nation.
At the casting sessions, each dancer must perform their own routine in front of a panel of judges, who then decide immediately who is good enough to continue.
Those chosen to stay work on a routine as a group, and after a further round of eliminations followed by a choreographed routine with a partner, the final 50 are selected to move on to the Dance Boot Camp.
At the Dance Boot Camp, each of the dancers is put through their paces by 5 choreographers, who take them through a variety of dance styles, from Hip Hop, to the Flamenco.
At the end of the camp, the group is immediately cut down, 20 of whom will be chosen to move forward to the studio shows after one-to-one interviews with the choreographers. This group is then cut down to a final 10.
Each studio show is structured the same way. As contestants are eliminated the remaining participants are randomly paired together, and the dances they need to perform the following week are drawn from a hat.
We follow each couple as they learn their routine by a top choreographer, before performing that routine in front of the panel of choreographers, and a live studio audience.
Once all the couples have performed, the panel identify the 3 weakest couples (or in later shows, 2 weakest couples) to go up for elimination by the public who vote for their favourites to stay.
Each dancer has an opportunity to encourage voters to keep them in the competition by dancing a solo routine for 45 seconds immediately before the phone lines are opened.
Each week, one guy and one girl is eliminated until only 4 dancers remain.
After performing for the last time, all 4 dancers are put to the public vote and it is the public who decide the final winner.
Dance styles featured on the show include jazz, contemporary, pop, modern, American jive, swing, disco, hip hop, krumping, paso doble, quickstep, lyrical, Broadway, Viennese waltz, smooth waltz, Argentine tango, mambo, cha cha, Cuban rumba, and salsa.
There are three judges on each show, one of whom is always producer Nigel Lythgoe. The other two judges are a rotation of professional dancers and choreographers.