- Generally speaking, as with so many other things, Nigel Lythgoe should apply some of SYTYCD's finer points to that other little show he produces. Cat wasn't kidding when she said there wasn't going to be a lot of filler. Sure, I never care about the guest performers (who was that chick-in-a-box past whom I fast-forwarded, anyway?), but redancing the best dances of the season is both (a) excellent advertising for the tour and (b) infinitely preferable to the customary bloated ridiculousness that is the annual AI coronation.
- One obvious complaint, however: one would think that in a two hour finale packed to the gills with umpteen different dances, someone might have thought to leave enough room at the end for something more than "and the winner is . . . SABRA!" [Roll credits while sparkly things fly through the air.] Just a smidge on the anti-climactic side, especially since Lacey and Neil got to have all sorts of retrospective celebration that neither Danny nor Sabra received. (Not that I minded seeing clogging guy and small-movements-to-that-awesome-Christina-Aguilera-song guy again, but I didn't really need the live performance of the goodbye song.)
- Did anyone else find it jarring to see Cat in casual clothes during the clips from the audition process? I've grown so accustomed to seeing her in full-blown regalia twice a week. I will miss Cat -- I particularly appreciate her breezy, vaguely maternal rapport with both the dancers and the judges.
- Was there any doubt in anyone's mind from the instant Nigel started talking about "choreographers using their dancers' strengths" that this was the lead-in to the hummingbird dance? You may recall that I was irate when Hok was cut prior to the top ten -- the main thrust of my pissed-off-edness being "you idiots, now you can't have the hummingbird dance on the tour!" But of course Nigel is an enterprising soul, and thus we now have the disclosure that hm, perhaps those alternates will do a little dancing on tour. So we'll get the hummingbird, and perhaps also that lovely Danny Astaire / Anya Rogers routine as well.
- I thought it was interesting that Sara was in so many of the judges' picks for favorite dance.
- As for the final dances themselves: I personally really enjoyed the foxes routine, and thought that both Lacey and Sabra captured it beautifully. I hate the fact that when the choreographer has an off night in the eyes of the judges, they have such trouble putting aside their gripes with the choreographer and focusing on the performance. Mia's Two Princes dance was fine, but it wasn't fair to kvell over Danny and Neil to such a degree just because Wade's choreography pissed them off. (I am totally on board, incidentally, with Isaac's theory that The Powers That Be obviously insist on a total desexualization of any same-sex dance.) As for the co-ed dances, I hated the hip hop, loved the waltz, and was fairly ambivalent on the cha cha (cha?) and lindy hop. Ultimately, I thought that the dancers had way too many dances to learn in much too short a time -- and it showed.
- The lindy hop did, however, prove up one axiomatic truth of SYTYCD: anything in the swing family invariably impresses both the judges and the audience. It's the luckiest draw one can get.
- I would have been fine with either Danny (those leaps across the stage during his solo? Genius.) or Sabra as America's Favorite Dancer, but I am particularly pleased with Sabra's win. I don't know that Danny's career would benefit from the added push to the same degree that Sabra's likely will.
I am also happy to report that on October 9, I will take the heretofore unprecedented step of driving to the Nassau Coliseum to see the tour. I've never gone to any sort of post-reality-show concert or appearance, so I'm expecting it to be quite the interesting experience.
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