So several days late and dollars short, but SYTYCD finale . . . oh, my. Ballet, bitches! And Alex Wong shouting out the two ballet kids taking it all was the cutest thing ever. I would watch Eliana and Alex Dance on Fox every single week without fail. Somebody needs to get on that.
I thought the finale was better than it had any right to be given that the season was not all that great. I loved all the judges' picks except Mary and Tasty. Mary wasted her pick on that tired Tasty Dead Daddy Dance 7.0 and Tasty wasted his on NappyTab. I mean the Love Cats dance was cute enough but not very challenging. Good to see Big Pasty II on my screen again, though. That fool can move his body for a boy that big.
I loved Miss Debbie Allen and her pounds of weave and the way that she looked at George and Chehon with such covetous glee. I feel you, sister friend. I feel you.
I wasn't blown away by the group dances. The Sonya/Chris Scott dance was no Ramalama. I'm just saying. Hardly the best group dance ever. they spent way too much time crawling around on the floor for like the first three eight counts. But it was solid. I enjoyed the other Chris Scott with Twitch, Comfort, Cyrus and the man himself, but I think at this point I'm just so over Cyrus and the whole animation thing that it didn't really do it for me. NappyTab turned in an inferior version of the Tasty Broadway group dance to the Lion King music that featured Sabra and Original flavor Danny, so there was that. Dragon House with Brian Gaynor was made of awesome!
I really did think the choice of repeat numbers made the season seem a lot better than it was (although smart Buffistae pointed out that four of the dances were from the first episode). I thought the Tiffany/George number was performed even better than the first time. And I could watch Witney throw down on that hip hop with Twitch every day. I may or may not have been doing that since it first aired as well as trying to learn the dance most especially the little shoulder shrug, the over the head clap and the waiting for the bus move. Travis' Titanic dance for Audrey and mini-Ryan Gosling (who's name I had completely forgotten before they called him out as Matthew) was also enjoyable. And Alex/Eliana in Bang Bang is maybe the only dance from the whole season that I'd hold up with the best of seasons past.
Overall, a good show. And so, so pleased with the winners. Eurotrash Danny won the title that Danny couldn't win. And I'll co-sign on the idea that the the fact that he was foreign black not black black helped a lot in getting him over the cold/arrogant/too aloof stereotype they were trying to hang on him early on. I also agree that he seems like kind of a goofball, which I'm sure helped as well. And lastly, I must reluctantly give props to Nigel and his producer manipulation-fu. I suspect he realized that the credibility of the show might take a hit if Cyrus actually wone the whole season. Past "non-trained, street" dancers have all been just bullshit stories cooked up by Nigel. Josh and Russell were both trained dancers. Josh had studied with Miss Debbie Allen prior to coming on the show and Russell attended a performing arts HS. Yes, they were primarily hip hop dancers but they were also trained. And they were put through their paces by the choreographers. Cyrus was truly a street dancer only and it showed. And he got coddled by the choreographers all season including tonight. Was he even in the Lion King number or the opening Chris Scott/Sonya piece? I couldn't have picked him out. And of course his pick for favorite dance was the one piece he did most in his style all season. He could not have legitimately won this season because he was not even amongst the top 5 boys if you want to get around to it, let alone the top 1 (that would be George for those scoring at home although I'm perfectly content with the Chehon win) Nigel smartly made it OK to really like Cyrus and appreciate his growth on the show - because he did grow a ton! - and still not vote for him. Well (continued...)