The second season So You Think You Can Dance (Malaysia) began airing on 1 May 2008 on 8TV. Auditions were held in Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur. Aishah Sinclair hosts this season, while Pat Ibrahim, Ramli Ibrahim and Judimar Hernandez return as permanent judges.
Contestants vied for RM50,000 and an 8TV scholarship as the grand prize. In the Grand Finalé on 1 August 2008, Cecilia Yong Li Shi, known throughout the competition as CC, was crowned "Malaysia's Favourite Dancer" through popular voting.
On 7 November 2008, the second season of So You Think You Can Dance was nominated and won the Anugerah Skrin 2008 award in the category of Best Reality Program.
Early stages
Auditions
SYTYCD auditions were held in two locations, i.e. the Imperial International Hotel, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, on 9 March 2008, followed by the Panggung Bandaraya DBKL, Kuala Lumpur (the sole audition ground in the first season) on 18 March. 423 signed up for the preliminary auditions – 106 in Sabah and the rest in Kuala Lumpur.
Out of this, seven from Sabah and 123 from Kuala Lumpur moved on to the "main auditions" on 19 and 21 April, but it was reported that only four out of the Sabah audition qualifiers made it to Kuala Lumpur. The format in this stage is different from that of last season, in which one would either be sent straight to Boot Camp or the Callbacks – this time there is no Callbacks; just two stages of auditions which all who made it in the first stage will undergo the second.
Boot Camp
From the main auditions, 70 made it to the Boot Camp – three days of intensive pre-competition training. Day 1 witnessed the judges training the dances; Judimar kicked off the Boot Camp by 'warming up' the contestants with contemporary dance. Little did they expect that Pat and Ramli broke out to them that they had been watching them too, reprimanded them for their lack of seriousness toward the competition, and shockingly sent off four of them. Thus, the pressure was on the remaining 66 to perform better as they were split into groups and performed in front of all three judges later in the day.
Halfway into the day, the dancers were split into two large groups: Pat called the hip-hoppers, freestylers and breakdancers while the rest who specialized on ballet, lyrical and contemporary went to Ramli, before the two judges switched groups to get the dancers "out of their comfort zone." After a session to adapt to unfamiliar dance genres, the dancers were split again into smaller groups to perform in front of the judges. The last elimination of the day saw the dancers divided into groups again to face the judges, 14 of which were sent away before the last group to appear were given another chance to prove their mettle. And from that group, three did not make the cut into Day 2.
On Day 2, choreographers were brought in to train four different routines: Boojay & Ali – hip-hop Azwa – Malaysian contemporary Suhaili Micheline – contemporary Fasilito – salsa
Early in Day 2 there had been one elimination – a contestant was late for training after oversleeping and had to be sent off. After each lesson from the choreographers, the dancers were divided into groups of six to show what they learned from their choreographers to the judges. For the first two genres, pleasant comments came from the panel, but after the third, the judges and dancers exchanged grouses. To settle them down, Judimar asked the dancers to hold each other's hands and scream to relieve stress, while Pat advised them to "have fun" in the next choreography.
The last choreography session required the dancers to pair up for the salsa routine. After they performed in front of the judges, it was crunch time on the end of Day 2, after which 35 dancers proceeded to Day 3.
On day 3, the dances performed solo dances in genres of their respective choices in their last chance to impress judges and enter the Top 20. At night, the judges took four hours debating on who should enter the real competition, leaving the dancers in extreme suspense. It was after midnight that the first dancer was called to face the panel – Joshua, who joined the first season and dedicated his journey in the competition to his late friend, was dejected in learning that he was turned away in spite of positive remarks by the judges.
Top 20
The following are the 20 contestants who made it into the competition rounds:
Notes
¹ Ages were accurate at beginning of competition. ² Occupations were accurate before competition.
Competition
The So You Think You Can Dance competition takes place in Ruums KL as was the previous season, aired "live" on 8TV every Thursday, 9.30pm.