I went to the SYTYCD auditions and NIGEL TOUCHED MY ARM YOU GUYS

YOU GUYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYS!

Aw look you guys it's Alex Wong! (Not actually present at auditions.)

I am usually a professional, adult person. I am an experienced reporter. I have interviewed many famous people before. I have interviewed people who make stuff I love before. But — you guys. 

I got to go to the So You Think You Can Dance season 11 auditions!!!!! I WAS RIGHT NEXT TO NIGEL AND HE WAS REALLY CHARMING YOU GUYYYYYYYYYYYYS

OK, enough fangirling. It was a completely normal press junket thing, aside from the snow. You sit around and wait for the opportunity to talk to the famous people for 10 minutes, at which point you will awkwardly journo-battle the reporters you were just shooting the shit with, everyone tensed to jump in with a question the nanosecond the celebrity appears to have finished speaking — it's a bit like playing Jeopardy! (Which, as you'll be able to tell from the Q&A transcript, Ellen Dunkel totally won. Props, Ellen!)

I usually hate this type of press event, and I rarely go to them. But I walked several blocks in the middle of a blizzard to get to this one on Tuesday, because I love SYTYCD. Not familiar? It's a dance reality competition, sort of like American Idol, but with artistic integrity. The dancers and choreographers are incredibly legit, and even though the eliminations are essentially done by popularity contest, the people who stay in because of their personality are nowhere near as egregious as others. 

and there's no manufactured interpersonal drama — the best encapsulation of the interactions on the show is an enormous group hug. Even other creativity-based reality shows like Project Runway or Top Chef tend to sleep-deprive, physically exhaust or liquor up their contestants in an effort to stir up some conflict plot lines. On a dance show, where any of those things could cause a career-harming injury, you can't do that. 

But even if it could, it doesn't feel like the show's creators would want that. They seem to share my fascination with watching people create stuff, and boredom with people getting in one another's faces. Unsurprising — when you achieve the freakish levels of technical excellence 

Somehow, this show that is almost completely about making art and lacks all the bitchiness and conflict that reality-show people 

TL;DR: I love this show. 

Mary Murphy comes out first, followed by Billy, followed by Nigel. 

Ellen Dunkel: So, what do you think of Philadelphia?

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