Congratulations to Joshua for winning this edition of So you think you can Dance? He did a fantastic job, has been incredible all season and it was a surprise to see both him and Twitch standing there at the very end. It was great to see Hip Hop Dancers going so far in the competition, although I was a tad surprised that Katee wasn't part of the final two. When you look over all the favorite numbers that were performed last night, you can clearly see that she was in the vast majority of them and I really expected her to be there to the very end. Must have been cause Twitch is so damn hot....Giving her the $50,000 and congratulating Katee on being the best girl... I just found that to be quite insulting, mildly pandering and very sexist. It was the first mention of any kind of "Runner up" prize and it seems kind of cheap considering that the best boy gets $250,000. I think it was the Judges way of saying that they thought she should have won and wanted to congratulate her for being so amazing. I guess I shouldn't complain but she deserved better.
As for the performances last night, it was just astounding to see the big number choreographed by Shane Sparks. It was nice work and a very hot number and even better that Shane was back, I wasn't sure if he was just busy or not interested in the show since he has his own full time Judge duties on America's Best Dance Crew.
There were Judges a plenty last night as Debbie Allen returned, along with Adam Shankman, Lil C, Mia Michaels, and regulars Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy. I loved how all of them chose different favorite numbers and we got to see most of the Top Ten perform again in various numbers. It's a great chance to see my faves like Gev again, and I bet the show with the Top Ten touring the States is a hot ticket. Too bad they don't come here to Montréal. (side note -- we will be having our own Canuck version of the show starting this September in Canada, so we won't be dance deprived until the next US version.)
The biggest scream of the night had to be the hot little number between Mary Murphy and Dmitry (season 2's often shirtless hot one) doing a Samba. Major Cougar alert and damn can that woman move, and she has got a great pair of legs. It's nice to see one of these Judges put their money where their mouth is and show their stuff. Later in the evening we get treated to a performance by the Debbie Allen Academy and Nigel joins them. He impresses me as well and it looks like the Judges agree that if you sit on the panel then you have to be able to dance.
It's nice to see a reality show that requires a certain level of knowledge if you want to be considered as a Judge. It's a shame that other shows aren't as picky about these things.
The other stand out for the evening for him had to be the insanely good Wade Robson number. All you nee to do is take a mad genius like Wade, mix in some Cirque du Soleil and set it to the music " Homage to the Rabbits" by Eric Serra.What a wild whacked out number -- it was simply amazing with a multitude of representations of rabbits from all different kinds of books and mythologies, and the piece had the most phenomenal ending with all the characters unmasking as they paid "Homage to all the Rabbits who died in the hands of incompetent magicians.". I can not get enough of Wade and I hope we get to see more of him next season.
The Pop Off between Robert and Philip was not a fair fight (Robert just slaughtered the competition), but it was astounding to watch and Robert is one whacked out dude. I have never seen anyone move like that and it always seems so surreal.
The other big surprise of the night was the appearance of the "All Stars" of all of the seasons of the show rocking it to "Don't Stop the Music" by Rihanna (one of my favorite tunes). We got some views and great moves from a whole bunch of the previous participants including Dominic,Allison, Neil, Anya, Benji, Travis, Ivan, Jesus, Dmitry, Hok, Cedric,Ryan, and the entire Top 20 of this season. That was a number that could have gone on and on for me as I would have loved to have seen more of some of the other dancers one more time. There was a nice interview segment where there was some chat with previous dancers and it's great to see faces like Donyelle, Benji, Travis, and Lacey. It's like getting news from old friends.
This season felt short and sweet due to the way they ran the elimination this year, and I hope we get the chance to see more World Music next season.
I am just crossing my fingers and hoping that the first season of the Canadian version is as interesting -- I'll let you know when things get started, I am pretty sure that we have got some great talent here as well.
