Friday, August 17, 2007

The Best Things About Last Night's SYTYCD Finale

The day after the American Idol finale, I posted the Ten Best and Five Worst Things about the two-hour extravaganza. I had intended to do the same for this year's So You Think You Can Dance finale, but I ran into a problem -- I couldn't possibly name five bad things!

Yep, the finale was that good. Not as good as last year's, I must admit, but pretty entertaining from start-to-finish. Just to get it out of the way, so we can focus on the brilliance of the dancers, I'll acknowledge that Cat Deeley's dress was perhaps the most hideous (and distracting) sartorial creation I have ever seen in my entire life; that the promised Cat/Nigel coupling was nothing short of insulting to the viewers; and that Kameron was unceremoniously ignored last night (would it have killed them to feature his sensational Mia Michaels dance with Lacey?)

But enough about the negative -- let's talk about what was great.

-Danny's attitude
Danny Tidwell was like a different person last night than he was for most of the season -- smiling, passionate, relaxed, and charming. His journey, and his dancing, was one of the most satisfying parts of the entire season.

-Sara's showcase
Good for B-girl for Sara for appearing in three of the encore dances. Who knew she had been a part of so many of the season's most memorable moments?

-Lacey letting it down
All season long Lacey had a bit of a performance sheen, but when it was announced that she was "not America's favorite dancer," we saw a vulnerable Lacey that we had never seen before. If she had shown that side of herself more often, she might have walked away the winner.

-Revisiting greatness
Lacey and Danny's samba, Pasha and Lauren and Dominic and Sabra's hip hop, Neil and Lacey's contemporary, and Neil and Sabra's jazz were all joys to come back to. In some cases, the encore performances were actually stronger than the originals!

-The return of the clogger and the robot-kid
I usually don't like novelty acts, but both of these performers were worthy of celebration.

And, finally...

-The celebration of dance and genuine talent
I love this show, and I fell head over heels in love with these kids (again!) Thanks to all the Idol Thoughts readers for joining me on the journey through the So You Think You Can Dance season.

Who's going to the tour? I know I'll be there!!

Click for more So You Think You Can Dance

3 comments:

Unknown said...

i completely agree with you about lacey and kameron's contemporary. imo, that was the best dance this season and i was so disappointed that it wasn't featured in the finale.

do you know if they're still dating?

Anonymous said...

I agree, great show - but I could have done without the singers.

I couldn't decide whether Cat's dress reminded me of a pumpkin or a turkey! It was hideous. I was so happy when she said she was getting changed to dance with Nigel . . . and ready to turn the TV off when I saw what they did.

One more negative - ending the show so abruptly! They must have been running out of time - Sabra wins, goodbye! The networks have no problem running the sports broadcasts over time, why not extend the same policy to other live shows?

Anonymous said...

i agree, it was a great show!!!

i think they didn't do the kameron & lacey routine because they decided to do the neil & lacey routine. she had already had done the samba routine with danny. (they all got to do two routines)

great blog by the way. see you for ai7