SYTYCD: Buffalo’s Tony Bellissimo could make it to the 20.
I started watching So You Think You can Dance last season and was hooked. I don’t watch Idol, I could care less about who’s Got Talent, but SYTYCD manages to keep me interested. The boyfriend DVR’d it for me and even he was sucked in last night. This year, we have a local Buffalo boy in the competition, and he held his own in Vegas, despite having to “dance for his life.” We’ll find out tonight if he makes it to the final 20.
His name is Tony Bellissimo, lives in Hamburg, and has been dancing since he was a little kid. He attended the Future Dance Center in Buffalo, and was instructed by Denise and Gino Vaccaro. He also belonged to Tremaine Performance Company for a year or so, and his specialty is Hip-Hop.
Tony has a lot of potential. He has a great body, he’s tall and lanky, and full of humor and personality. His solo piece in Las Vegas snagged the judges when his routine exposed various mugshots of Nigel Lythgoe to the tune of “Somebody’s Watching Me.”
Hip Hop dancers sometimes have trouble when it comes to Jazz and Contemporary but Tony breezed through most of it. After a bit of gut-wrenching suspense from the Judges (not even SYTYCD is free from crafted commentary from the judges), Tony exploded in emotion and joined the top 32 after wiping his tears on Cat’s shoulders, who has a thing for boys with feelings (or is it boys she can feel up?). 12 people will be sent home tonight; I hope it isn’t Tony, I’d like to see this local boy make it.
The other thing that’s awesome about SYTYCD is that the music doesn’t suck, with routines set to Black Eyed Peas and the Ting Tings… it only gets better as the season progresses.
Last year, I used a now shutdown service called Red Lasso to display clips from the series. Since that went belly up, I’m still looking for a legalesque method of showing my favorite clips…
Bonus! – Check after the jump and see Tony make an appearance in “Pinch,” a local short film comedy making a tribute to Star Trek.
UPDATE:: Thursday night comes and goes, and Tony makes the Top 20!!!! Way to go Buffalo!!!
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How this is not being picked up by the local news channels is beyond me.
C’mon WGRZ, WIVB and WKBW, this is a big deal! With all that fawning over that red-headed Williamsville kid on Idol a few years back, you’d think this would at least get a mention.
Tony’s living, local proof that dance is not just for girls and gay guys. It’s time for this community to wake up and take notice.
He has a lot of charisma and a lot of talent when it comes to hip hop, but he lacks classical training. He’s lacking the foundations of ballet and modern which are evident in his lack of flexibility and poor technique when he is asked to dance complicated choreography. Mia’s contemporary number exposed his lack of training.
He’ll improve with the right instruction and should be a top vote getter from the teenage girl crowd on this show.
tony
just wanted to say i think you got robbed on the show…you definitely should have gone a lot further…you were GREAT…keep it up . best of luck in the future .. geo