‘So You Think You Can Dance’: America’s favorite dancer is ... Jeanine!
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For a two-hour program, Thursday night’s ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ finale offered about five minutes of must-see material (including the announcement of the winner). But other than the obligatory video flashback to the season that was, the episode featured encores of the favorite dances of all of tonight’s judges: Lil C, Mia Michaels, Tyce Diorio, Debbie Allen, Adam Shankman, Mary Murphy and Nigel Lythgoe. It was kind of nice because you could tune out during those dances you didn’t need to see a second time and focus up and feel good when your old favorites came back. I personally especially enjoyed watching Jeanine Mason and Jason Glover’s Travis Wall dance about friends falling in love, and was happy to see a second time Evan Kasprzak and Randi Evans’ infamous Mia Michaels ‘butt dance’: that was the one dance where Evan did in fact get a wee bit nasty (or creepy old man, if you prefer). I thought it was rather, um, interesting of the Fox producers to cut to actress Christina Applegate after Tyce Diorio’s dance about breast cancer. I liked revisiting the fun of Janette Manrana and Brandon Bryant’s disco routine, but the one dance I really wanted to see again was Janette and Brandon’s Wade Robson jewel heist dance. Which were your favorites that they either showed or didn’t show?
In other news that doesn’t involve reprised dance or the results, the kids from the show met last season’s Kherington Payne for a sneak preview of the new ‘Fame’ movie (I will reserve judgment since we only saw a few tiny clips) and we saw an impressive solo performance from ‘SYTYCD Australia’ winner Talia Fowler.
The main performance highlight of the show was the one tweaked piece, choreographed by Mia Michaels, that had the top eight dancing to ‘One’ from ‘A Chorus Line.’ I loved the somewhat broken-down doll-like, sinister moves of the dancers as they performed in front of cracked mirrors. It turned a showbiz standard into something way more interesting and creepy. Of course, what made the performance newsworthy of was the end, when all the judges (minus Lil C for some reason) joined them onstage, in nifty white top hats and tails. Mia especially seemed to be tickled to be up there.
When it came to eliminations, I had a sneaking suspicion that Kayla Radomski would be the first to go, and I was right. I think Evan just had more love out there in America than she did, but the bottom two, as the judges predicted, came down to Jeanine and Brandon. Not terribly surprisingly, since she was Miss Personality, Jeanine won. I loved that she seemed so thrilled to win, yet was so quick and off-the-cuff onstage, joking ‘I’d like to thank the Academy,’ as a nod to the Kodak Theatre. What was heartwarming to see was that the judges and the other dancers, who carried Jeanine on their shoulders, seemed happy that she had won as well.
So our fifth season is wrapped up, for better or for worse. Whether you’ll miss ‘SYTYCD’ while it’s gone or can’t wait to move on to the next season, have no fear, because the sixth season returns (and so will the Showtracker) on Sept. 9!
-- Claire Zulkey