Welcome to Pure So You Think You Can Dance

I promise that this blog won’t become the Elisa Toffoli blog. In fact, I’m considering starting a blog just for Elisa. However, I think it’s really fun to highlight the influence that music from So You Think You Can Dance has had on people’s lives. People don’t just enjoy the music, but absolutely fall passionately in love with the variety of music on So You Think You Can Dance. Elisa Toffoli’s music is a perfect example.

Below is the story of John Bialoglow and how Elisa Toffoli’s music seems to have changed his life.

MY ELISA STORY Part 1 by John Bialoglow

I happened to find this website accidentally and am happy to have a chance to talk about one of my favorite subjects, the amazing Elisa Toffoli.

Like others here in the U.S. my first exposure to Elisa’s music was the very first dance routine of the “final 20″ of season 3, the contemporary dance routine choreographed by Mia Michaels’ and performed by Lacey Schwimmer and some guy (sorry, guy). It was awesome. Everything about it–the choreography and the performance made even more special by this amazing song sung with this compellingly beautiful and delicate voice. I have to be honest, when the competition started I was not a Lacey fan. Even though I loved Benji I thought they were hyping her and she was riding her brother’s coattails (sorry). So even though I was compelled to find out who did that amazing song (thank-you Youtube), after I heard it again my anti-Lacey biased spilled over and I said to myself, “You know, I think this Elisa is not as good as she is in this song. I think she just got lucky. I think this amazing song fell into her lap and she just happen to get lucky and nail it in the studio.”
Read more…

The music of Italian singer Elisa Toffoli has been featured a number of times on SYTYCD. Here’s a list of all Elisa Toffoli’s So You Think You Can Dance connections.

Since thousands of people are still visiting this site to check out all the great So You Think You Can Dance music, I decided that I should give away a couple of Elisa Toffoli’s CDs.

One CD I plan on giving to one person at random from anyone who comments on this post or if you want to remain private you can ask to be entered in the contest by asking on our Contact Us page.

I haven’t decided how I’ll give away the other CD. Try and blow me away somehow. Do something cool and exciting. For example, post a link to this blog somewhere that will drive thousands of people to it. Make an incredibly insightful and cool comment somewhere. Make me laugh. Basically do something that will be beneficial for the Pure SYTYCD community or at least get my attention in some nice way.

I’ll end the competition September 29. Enough time for you to get Elisa’s CD before Elisa’s US and Canadian Tour.

Any questions, feel free to ask away.

If you don’t want to wait for the giveaway, then you can always go buy Elisa Toffoli’s CD: Dancingon Amazon.

I figured I might as well round out my Elisa Toffoli posts (see my previous coverage of Elisa’s music on So You Think You Can Dance) by listing all of Elisa’s Canadian tour dates and US tour dates. I’m sad that she won’t be coming to Las Vegas, but there’s a decent chance that I could be in Salt Lake City on November 15th and it would be a lot of fun to catch Elisa in Salt Lake City.

Wed. Oct. 29 Toronto, ON - The Mod Club - Buy Tickets
Thurs. Oct. 30 Montreal QC - Le Savoy
Sun. Nov. 1 Allston, MA - Great Scott - Buy Tickets
Tues. Nov. 4 Vienna, VA (D.C.) - Barns of Wolf Trap
Wed. Nov. 5 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom - Buy Tickets
Frid. Nov. 7 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s - Buy Tickets
Tues. Nov. 11 Chicago, Il - Martyrs’
Wed. Nov 12 St. Louis, MO - Off Broadway - Buy Tickets
Sat. Nov. 15 Salt Lake City, UT - Venue TBD
Wed. Nov. 19 Los Angeles, CA - The Roxy - Buy Tickets
Thurs. Nov. 20 San Francisco, CA - Café Du Nord - Buy Tickets
Sat. Nov. 22 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
Mon. Nov. 24 Seattle, WA - Triple Door

Here’s a quick biography of Elisa Toffoli:
Italian-born singer-songwriter Elisa, a multi-platinum, award-winning star in her native country, will launch her first tour of the United States and Canada on October 29. As acclaimed internationally for her powerful live performances as for her inspired, emotionally direct pop-rock recordings, Elisa has appeared on various world stages with music legends including Andrea Bocelli, Luciano Pavarotti and Tina Turner. To date, though, her only North American engagements have been singing the Italian national anthem at the closing ceremony of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and two sold-out shows at NYC’s Joe’s Pub in April 2008. Elisa’s highly anticipated upcoming tour is in support of her North American debut album Dancing, released July 15 on Sugar/Universal.

The itinerary kicks off with a show in Toronto on the 29th followed by one in Montreal the next night. The remainder of the tour encompasses coast-to-coast dates in the U.S., beginning with a Boston-area show at Great Scott in Allston on November 1. Highlights also include bookings at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC (11/5), Martyr’s in Chicago (11/11), the Roxy in Los Angeles, CA (11/19) and San Francisco’s Café Du Nord (11/20).

Stateside fans first became familiar with Elisa when Dancing’s title track was featured in a breathtaking routine on So You Think You Can Dance in June 2007. Organic fan reaction from that airing has since accumulated over 1 million views of the clip on YouTube, and propelled the song to the Top 20 on iTunes, where it reached close to 100,000 paid downloads prior to the album’s release. Another stand-out track from Dancing, “Rock Your Soul,” has also been featured on the hit program.

Other album highlights include the ethereal, hypnotic ballad “Rainbow,” which has a new video spotlighting Lacey Schwimmer, who originally danced to “Dancing” when it captivated music lovers on SYTYCD. Also featured are the passionate album opener “The Waves,” the heartbreaking “Broken,” the rock-flavored “Stranger” and an elegiac take on Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” Another cover, Elisa’s dreamlike rendition of the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses,” is available exclusively on the iTunes version of the album.

To date, Elisa’s artistry has been honored with major awards including five from Italy’s prestigious Festival di Sanremo, an MTV European Music Awards Best Italian Artist win and a Tenco Award for Best Debut Album for Pipes And Flowers (’97). With her North American album and touring debut, Elisa is poised to win honors and hearts in the new world as well. “Having the opportunity to play here, especially, is very important because for me, it really comes down to the face to face with an audience,” says Elisa. “I’m very curious about what that will be like on the tour. I believe that we are all the same, that the world is one place. I want to see if that is true.”

I don’t know how many of you have been following my list of So You Think You Can Dance Music, but one of the interesting artists that’s had their music on multiple seasons of So You Think You Can Dance is Elisa Toffoli.

So far, Elisa Toffoli’s music has been on SYTYCD at least 3 times that I know of:
Lacey Schwimmer and Kameron dancing to Elisa’s song “Dancing” to Mia Michaels choreography. Here’s a video of Lacey Schwimmer and Kameron dancing to “Dancing”:

Some people have called this dance their favorite SYTYCD dance of all time. My favorite part is when Lacey leaps into Kameron’s arms at about the 1:15 mark.

The song Dancing sung by Elisa was also performed by Kelli Baker during the Salt Lake City/Dallas audition show:

Finally, Courtney Galiano danced a Top 6 solo to the song “Rock Your Soul” by Elisa

Well, it turns out that Lacey Schwimmer made an unofficial video for Elisa Toffoli’s song “Rainbow.” Honestly, I would have loved to see Lacey do a Rhumba to this song, but Lacey actually did a pretty credible job as an actor in this video. Enjoy:

Also, watch this blog over the next couple weeks, because I plan on giving away some free Elisa Toffoli CDs. My only hint is that if you want some free Elisa Toffoli CDs and music, then it would be a good idea to start adding thoughtful comments to my blog.

A little bit of So You Think You Can Dance season 4 wrap up. Enjoy the video.

Who’s going to the So You Think You Can Dance Tour?

I’m sure all you Joshua Allen fans are going to love watching this video.

Welcome to Pure So You Think You Can Dance! This blog plans to be your best source for So You Think You Can Dance Music, Videos and News. Luckily, we already have a good start on covering So You Think You Can Dance, because we’ve been doing it for a couple years on Something for Nothing and SYTYCD.

Very soon I’ll be moving all my So You Think You Can Dance posts from the other blogs into this blog to get it started. Let me know if you’re interested in participating in the Pure So You Think You Can Dance blog. I’m always interested in giving people a platform to speak their mind about TV shows like So You Think You Can Dance. Plus, you’d have the opportunity to write something that last season reached 25,000 pageviews in one day.

The Pure TV Network welcomes Pure So You Think You Can Dance!

Completing the list of the videos from the SYTYCD finale, here’s all the incredible special group performances. The Wade Robson Cirque Du Soleil video is incredibly unique and different, but the battle between Phil and Rob was the best part of the whole night in my opinion.

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale - Cirque Du Soleil

Robert Muraine & Phillip Chebeeb battle danced to the song “Stronger”—Kanye West

- Original Music Video
Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale - Pop N Lock Battle Phil n Rob

Debbie Allen Dance Academy featuring Nigel Lythgoe danced to the song “Boogie Wonderland”—Earth, Wind and Fire

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale - Debbie Allen Academy feat. Nigel

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale - Mary Murphy and Dmitry

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale - Past Dancers and Their Success

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale - The Best of SYTYCD

Here’s the videos from the SYTYCD finale eliminations.

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale - First Elimination

Courtney Galiano was eliminated to the song “It’s Only Life”—Kate Voegele

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale - Second Elimination

Katee Shean was eliminated to the song “From Where You Are”—Lifehouse

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale - Final Elimination

Along the same lines as my previous SYTYCD Finale posts, here’s all the judges favorite videos from the final results show.

Nigel Lythgoe’s Pick
Katee Shean and Joshua Allen danced Bollywood to the song “Dhoom Taana” from Om Shanti Om choreographed by Nakul Dev Mahajan

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale - Joshua & Katee

Mary Murphy’s pick
Katee Shean and Stephen “Twitch” Boss danced Contemporary to the song “Mercy”—Duffy choreographed by Mia Michaels

- Original Music Video
Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale - Katee & Twitch

Top 5 Male dancers group dance to the song “Five Guys Named Moe” from Five Guys Named Moe (Broadway; Choreographer: Nigel Lythgoe)

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale - The Top 5 Guys

Adam Shankman’s Pick
Courtney Galiano and Mark Kanemura danced Jazz to the song “The Garden”—Mirah choreographed by Sonya Tayeh

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale - Courtney & Mark

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale - Katee & Will

Lil C’s Pick
Chelsie Hightower and Mark Kanemura danced Hip-Hop to the song “Bleeding Love”—Leona Lewis choreographed by Napoleon D’umo and Tabitha D’umo

- Original Music Video
Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale - Chelsie & Mark

Adam Shankman’s pick
Comfort Fedoke and Stephen “Twitch” Boss danced Hip-hop to the song “Forever”—Chris Brown choreographed by Dave Scott

- Original Music Video
Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale - Comfort & Twitch

Mary Murphy’s Pick
Courtney Galiano and Gev Manoukian danced Rumba to the song “Wishing on a Star”—Rose Royce choreographed by Tony Meredith and Melanie LaPatin

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale - Courtney & Gev

Nygel Lythgoe’s pick
Katee Shean and Joshua Allen danced Hip-hop to the song “No Air”—Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown choreographed by Napoleon D’umo and Tabitha D’umo

Video of So You Think You Can Dance Finale - Katee & Joshua

Debbie Allen’s pick
Kherington Payne and Stephen “Twitch” Boss danced Viennese waltz to the song “A New Day Has Come”—Celine Dion choreographed by Jean-Marc Genereux

- Original Music Video