Finalewatch: 'So You Think You Can Dance'
It's a two-hour results show extravaganza on, sadly, the last So You Think You Can Dance of the year. No really. An extravaganza. Lots of stuff. Let's get to it shall we?
Spoilers
The finale starts out as all the others have with the introduction of the top 20 dancers in their original pairs when applicable, though Jessica is absent. Rayven and Jamie, we hardly knew ye. Susie & Marquis did that crazy lift/spin thing that was from their Latin number, nice. Finalists Joshua, Katee, Twitch and Courtney are the last out.
There are a whopping six judges/choreographers on the panel today - Mia Michaels, Adam "The Big Shankizzle" Shankman, Debbie Allen (making her first appearance), and Lil' C join the ever-present Mary and Nigel. Shankman confirms his offer of a feature dancer role in the next movie he's producing for tonight's winner. The cool thing? It's the first dance movie ever shot in 3-D...it's Step Up 3-D to be exact. fantastical.
There's a 4-minute package from the season up to now, including footage from the auditions we may not have seen before. Lengthy? Yes. But it was just to kill time so the Top 20 could change into costumes for their group number.
Oh yes...it's a Shane Sparks Hip Hip number to "Boom" by SIN feat. T-Pain. Terrible camera work. Just terrible. But it's a great number. It's Shane, I expect nothing less. One thing I kept noticing was how good Chris was in it. It's a shame he was out so soon.
Nigel gets two picks tonight for favorite number of the season. Well la-di-da. But he correctly picks Katee & Joshua's Bollywood number. This truly was one of the best routines this whole year. You know, I'd have liked to seen Mark & Chelsie do a Bollywood number. I think that would've kicked.
Mary picks next. Courtney & Gev's Rumba to "Wishing On A Star" by Rose Royce gets her vote. Is that a different costume than the first time around? Somehow I remember Courtney's dress being blue for this, but I could just be confusing it with one of the other numbers. I think I may have liked it this time better.
After some adverts, we get an over-dramatic package leading to the battle between Robert Muraine and Phillip Chbeeb (who couldn't go to the Vegas auditions thanks to a case of pneumonia). Before they even go on, my vote's for Chbeeb. They dance to "Stronger" by Kayne West and again with the bad camera angles. I'm pretty sure Muraine's opening two sets were taken straight from the number he did on the show a few weeks ago. Both are really good, no mistaking it but I'm saying Chbeeb wins.
Mia's vote goes to Chbeeb, Adam's for Muraine. Debbie votes for Robert as does Nigel. Mary also votes for Robert. Boo. And Lil' C votes for him too. So it's Muraine in a 5-1 decision which I actually call b.s. on. Perhaps I'm simply biased since 80% of the respect I have for him disappeared when he bailed before the first round of Vegas auditions got to the halfway point. Quadruple boo.
In Shankman's introduction to his favorite number, he veers somewhat off-topic when he mentions that Adam Sevini and John M. Chu (star and director, respectively, of Step-Up 2 and 3-D) are in the audience. He mentions that they're the founders of the ACDC Crew and that the only reason Miley Cyrus' crew won the dance battle was because she was the host of the Teen Choice Awards. And that's why I heart him. You speak that truth, Shankman. Anyhoo, his choice is the Comfort & Twitch Hip Hop number choreographed by Dave Scott. Great call.
Lil' C gets to pick next and he gives an extremely eloquent explanation as to why he picked it. Heart him. He picks Chelsie & Mark's Hip Hop number to "Bleeding Love" by Leona Lweis and choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon Dumo. Yet another great choice.
Cutting back to the judges table, Mary has disappeared. Oh...and that would be her on stage feeling up Dmitry for the opening of a number. They dance to "Baila, Baila" by Angela Via. Wow, she's got really nice legs. It wasn't particularly challenging but it was cool to see her dance.
Mia's up to bat next. I like her hair. She chooses the Pas de Deux that Katee & Will performed, but this time that turn that got messed up last time went right. Cue Debbie beaming with pride.
Shankizzle goes again and throws it to the Courtney & Mark Jazz piece to "The Garden" by Mirah. So glad he picked this one. It was absolutely one of my favorites this season.
Directly after, the four finalists come on stage and Cat reveals that Courtney has come in fourth place. But the second place girl with ain't half bad. During her highlight package, they show her reaction when she learned that Gev was her partner. I miss those moments. They really need to bring that back next season. But I digress. Courtney is all smiles but there are also some tears as she expresses how much this whole experience has impacted her for the better.
After the break, the Top 5 guys repeat the Nigel choreographed "Five Guys Named Moe." Thankfully there was no monkeying around with the camera angles this time around. A whole number showing everyone from a long shot, thus enabling us to get the full effect of the piece? The hell you say!
Our first special guest is the cast of Cris Angel's Believe show in Vegas (they're seemingly members of Cirque du Soliel as well). Wade Robson choreographed it and it starts with a title card that says "Homage to all the Rabbits who died in the hands of incompetent magicians." The song is aptly named "Homage to the Rabbits" by Eric Sierra and all the dancers are dressed of stylized rabbits - some with full heads, others with just bunny ears - with the spotlight on a tiny casket with bunny ears sticking out of it at the front of the stage. It's weird but good. Kind of like Alice in Wonderland on acid, Jaeger and shrooms.
The remaining finalists rejoin Cat on stage and it's revealed that Katee has come in third place this season. After she says a tearful yet appreciative farewell, Cat has a surprise for her. This year, the overall winner isn't the only one who gets a prize. As the top female dancer, she's been awarded $50,000. Get some.
Debbie Allen's presence brings with it a performance from some of her students. It starts with a massive tap number with boys and girls, I'd say average age of 10, to Earth, Wind & Fire's "Boogie Wonderland." And...what what what?!? Nigel joins the kids about halfway through. Okay, I gotta give it up to the old man. He was impressive. And they all walked off the stage like penguins at the end. Good times. Chantel Heath (hopefully I spelled that right) and her assistant Nicole Nicholas are the choreographers. Nicole is a descendant of the famous Nicholas Brothers. If you don't know who they are, shame on you. Go find video of them this instant.
After the number, Shankman says he'd never let Nigel go on to Vegas if he auditioned. He also challenged Nigel to a dance off next year. I might pay money to see that. Debbie adds that everyone (meaning the judges) should perform on the show, which I absolutely agree with and hope will happen next season.
Next up, Twitch & Katee perform Mia's "door number" to "Mercy" by Duff as Mary's second pick. She thinks Mia should win an Emmy for it.
The Jonas Bros. perform their newest single "Burning Up." Commence with the tween screams. The sound isn't well balanced - the instruments are much louder than the vocals. Oh...and the one who gets his hair straightened is wearing a purple headband. How very Flashdance of him. Wait, who's this large man rapping? That's new. They still make me want to throw on some Hanson and get my "MmmBop" on. And their more recent stuff is good too. Don't hate.
Debbie's pick is to watch Kherington & Twitch perform Jean-Marc's Ballroom dedication to his daughter to "A New Day Has Come" by Celine Dion. This marks the 312th number Twitch has danced in tonight.
Nigel gets the last encore pick of the night and his nod goes to the first of Tabitha and Napoleon's Hip Hop routines this season - Katee & Joshua's "No Air" piece.
Next we get a lovely package featuring some dancers from seasons past and what they're doing now or advice to the final four - Sandra, Ashle, Blake, Ryan from Season 1; Donyelle, Benji, Travis, Dmitry from Season 2; and Lauren (who still bugs me), Dominic, Hok, Jesus, Allison, Cedric, Neil, Sara (back-up singer and dancer for Avril Lavigne), Lacey from Season 3. The coolest thing to me is that Donyelle is choreographing with Shane Sparks on his new movie The Jump-Off. She's also getting married, but probably not to Benji. Also, Blake has been touring with Janet Jackson and is a judge and choreographer for SYTYCD Canada.
we get a number from the collective forces from seasons past to "Don't Stop The Music" by Rihanna. The All-Stars included Allison, Neil, Anya, Lauren, Benji, Travis, Ivan, Dmitry, Hok, Ryan, and Dominic. I couldn't clearly see the other few girls but I'm fairly sure they were from Season 1. They're joined at the end by this year's cast.
Back from one last commercial, it's come down to Joshua and Twitch - the first two "street dancers" to ever make it to the finale. They both look like they're going to pass out. When Cat announces Joshua's name as the winner, he just walks across the stage in disbelief and full of emotion as the crowd goes nuts. Twitch retrieves him and hugs him, very happy for his friend. At the end, his fellow contestants rush out to congratulate him and the credits end with Will and Twitch lifting Joshua on their shoulders.
Congratulations to Joshua! Yay! I expect to see Twitch a whole lot more, both as a dancer and a choreographer. Your thoughts on a surprisingly, wholly entertaining finale? What were your favorite number(s) of the season? Did you enjoy seeing the dancers from seasons past? Do you agree that Phillip Chbeeb should've won the Popping battle? Thanks for watching along and we'll see you next year!
Yay, after the "where they are now" montage and "special" finale routine, I love SYTYCD again! Not to mention, the RIGHT person won!
Did Joshua throw gang signs at the end? If so, how can they show that on TV?
The "popping duel" was lame, the "rabbit" dance was lame, Joshua seems to be a nice lad, and Mia Michaels reminds me of those weird snow monkies that live in the mountain regions of Japan.
Devastatingly boring. This finale showed just how weak this season was. Even with that said, they picked some truly terrible numbers to repeat. The Twitch Comfort hip hop was pathetic. The Twitch Katee door dance was awful. Glad Josh won. It would have been historically bad, and perhaps the end of the show, if Twitch would have won. He didn't even belong in the Top 20. Very, very weak overall.
I think the editing would have been better if they left Katee and Joshua as the final two. The show started with a dance by the two of them and ended with the dance that started their partnership. Then to have them at the end together waiting for the results would have brought the whole thing full circle. At least, they both did end up winning some money. I would love to see both of them dance together on that Step Up 3 movie too.
Did anyone else think that Wade Robson number was DREADFUL? It looked he was trying to recapture the magic of Rama Lama Bang Bang, but it was so hokey. And kind of stupid. Overall, I thought this was a pretty bad finale. Bad dancers this season didn't help, and all the fake praise for the choreogrpahers, who were worse this season than any other.
I really enjoyed the show as a whole. Most of my favourite routines from the season were done (Bollywood, Sonya routine from last week, Chelsie/Mark "Bleeding Love") but I did want to see teh Trepak again along with any ballroom routine with Chelsie so that we could see her crazy legs again.
Tamara, you were right about the costume change for Courtney in the Rumba -> they showed the original blue dress in her elimination package. Not sure why they changed - it was basically the same dress, just a different colour.
I thought Debbie Allen would pick Will and Katee to do the Pas de Deux -> good call by the producers to have another judge pick it (Mia).
Really cool of SYTYCD to give a prize to top of each gender, in this case Katee (top girl) the $50K prize. Hopefully they continue this for future seasons.
Nigel really impressed me with his tap -> I thought he was strictly ballroom ala Mary.
I'm so with the suggestion that the judges/choreographers dance in addition to judging/choreographing routines.
As for the popping contest, no real loser as it was just awesome. I think Robert was better, but I liked how Phillip ended each set he did -> like he was saying (in his best famous episode from the Cosby Show voice) Challange -> spelt like that on purpose.
I was disappointed to not see video packages for both Joshua and Twitch prior to the announcement, but I'm not sure if that was a choice or it was cut b/c they were running long as they didn't even get reactions from Twitch and Joshua (very short) after the announcement (when compared to the time given to Courtney and Katee).
Lastly, it was really nice to see so many of the faces from the previous 3 seasons. I only wish they could have included more -> especially those like Heidi and Pasha who have choreographed for the show. It was nice to give time to Blake since SYTYCD Canada will be starting its first season in the fall (no start date announced yet).
Courtney - Those absolutely, 10,0000% percent were NOT gang signs. Everyone has been doing that, from the dancers to the judges to LL Cool J, for weeks. It stands for "IV Real" or "4 Real" - though I can't say what it is specifically (though most signs point to a charity), I can guarantee that it's not gang related.
Rishi - Maybe something happened to Courtney's original costume? Like it got damaged or something. Also, good call on the challenge! that Phillip was doing. Again, I still say he won if for no other reason than Robert was recycle moves from that performance he did a few weeks ago. Boo! lol
Janet - I wouldn't call the Rabbit Number "dreadful" per se but it definitely appeals to a specific aesthetic. I can see how people could hate it. Honestly, if I were in a different mood when I watched I could easily have despised it.