Mercedes Ellington, Broadway, Dance Times Square Student Comp

So, on Saturday, because Tony Meredith and Melanie LaPatin are in Canada choreographing for Canadian So You Think You Can Dance, Mercedes Ellington took over emceeing responsibilities at the Dance Times Square student / teacher in-house competition.

It was interesting seeing her emcee since she talked a lot about the various musical pieces played for the comp and ran little trivia contests on who was the singer (Lena Horne, Bobby Darin, Johnny Mathis, etc. I got none right). At one point she asked the crowd what all Broadway shows they’d seen lately. People shouted out various shows. I think Spring Awakening had the most shout-outs. “Well hurry up and go see all these shows before they close,” she said, “so you can tell your ancestors that there was once this great thing called Broadway.” OUCH…

Here are the judges: former champs Vibeke Toft (who also coaches at the studio), Allan Tornsberg (of the always interesting hair, and snarky Blackpool commentary), and current top competitor Plamen Danailov (my friend Mika’s former pro/am partner, who was judging for, I think, the first time).

Hunky new Latin teacher at Dance Times Square, Manuel Favilla, with his students.

Long-time teacher Michael Choi in foreground, with his student.

All students did very well. It’s amazing how fast people improve at that studio. Some of Michael’s students began same time as I did, and they are so amazingly good now…