The fall season, which started out hobbled by baseball pre-emptions preventing voting, limps to a close with a six-person finale! No group dances! No single-gender pairings! That’s not “sweeps.”
Kathryn and Ryan: samba. Two weeks where Kathryn and Ryan get a Jason Gilkison ballroom number, two weeks where they absolutely nail it to the wall. This one was arguably even better than their cha cha last week, which up until this point was probably the best ballroom number of the entire season – but this killed. On every possible level. Kathryn should simply not be this good at ballroom, but she was, completely. Ryan was as predictably excellent as one could expect. An exceptional opener to the finale.
Ellenore and Jakob: Broadway. A perfectly acceptable Broadway by Tasty (who’s had a really strong season overall). There is not much else to say here other than that it was good and they were good. Not superbly excellent and it wasn’t anywhere close to routine of the night, mind. But it was good enough not to offend.
Ashleigh and Russell: contemporary. Well danced by both of them; Sonya really put together a decent little number here, and I’m glad she’s moved away from the rut she seemed to be in for most of season five. Nigel remarks that Ashleigh disappeared into the background, which A) isn’t true and B) isn’t her fault considering the routine focused on Russell (who will likely win the season despite not really having had a single truly balls-out great routine, which saddens me), but hey, it’s perfecly understandable because Ashleigh took away the spot Mollee deserved in Nigel’s mind, so what can you expect. Shut up, Nigel.
Ellenore and Ryan: jazz. Yeah, this wasn’t really even close to being jazz: this was straight-up Australian Dance Theatre ultra-mod contemporary, but given that the show basically treats jazz and contemporary as being interchangeable labels, whatever. I am a huge fan of Garry Stewart’s choreo – it’s just so fucking cool – but I have to admit that the performance here was not quite perfect: there were one or two moments where the synched movements were not quite synched, and in this routine they became just so noticeable. That having said, this is a minor quibble for what was otherwise a very strong performance by both dancers and a good partnership.
Ashleigh and Jakob: foxtrot. Jakob was genuinely not that great in this foxtrot; lukewarm top 12 fodder at most, and he’s been better in most of his ballroom performances by half. Ashleigh was very strong, which is not surprising. Nigel comments that choreographers keep giving Jakob jetes, which REALLY WHAT FUCKING SEASON HAVE YOU BEEN WATCHING NIGEL LYTHGOE.
Ellenore and Russell: paso doble. Dear Russell: do not grin ever during a paso. Yeesh. Anyway, Russell’s performance in this was mostly a triumph of character over technique; his footwork was occasionally clumsy and his turns a bit stiff to say the least, but once he stopped grinning he really got down into character. Ellenore, however, was far superior to Russell, but since Ellenore is allowed to talk about her training and Russell isn’t, she is officially Not Inspirational Material. Tough luck, Ellenore! Maybe next time you’ll have a dead sibling or something that makes you cry, rather than just being “the quirky one.” You got to plan these things.
Kathryn and Jakob: contemporary. One of the best performances on this show, ever. Desmond Richardson and Dwight Rhoden, on top of two Jason Gilkisons, a Jean-Marc and Sonya? They’re really bringing on the best choreographers right at the end. Anyway. Yes. Easily the best performance of the entire season, and although both dancers were flat-out excellent I think I have to give more credit to Kathryn than Jakob simply because her parts were less intuitively “contemporary.” Christ, this was a good fucking dance!
Ashleigh and Ryan: contemporary. So that makes two contemporary numbers, two “jazz” numbers, plus a jazzy Tasty bit of Broadway. GOSH I WONDER IF THERE IS AN INSTITUTIONAL BIAS ON THIS SHOW TOWARDS A PARTICULAR FORM OF DANCE! This dance was honestly kind of basic (sad truth: Ashleigh is probably the least technically able dancer ever to advance to a “finale” – even Twitch or Evan were much more advanced than she), but it made up for that by being genuinely lovely and sweet as Ashleigh and Ryan got to dance with one another. I would have preferred to see them fucking rip up the floor with a salsa, but this was nice. Nigel “I Hate You For Taking Mollee’s Spot Ashleigh” Lythgoe comments that Ashleigh has better chemistry with Jakob than her husband, which is fucking retarded. Shut up, Nigel.
Kathryn and Russell: hip-hop. Nappytabs? Well, at least it wasn’t stupid-storyline Nappytabs but an attempt by them to straight-up kick it. I’m not sure how successful it was on that score – there were a couple of bits where the choreo just seemed to lag. But mostly it was very solid. (We will not comment on there being one hip-hop number out of nine fucking dances on the season finale. Well, other than just having done so.) Russell was completely on point through the entire routine and fucking murdered it. Kathryn fell slightly behind at two points, but I’m more inclined to blame that on the choreo rather than her dancing, because at all other moments of the dance she was just on. So really, this was quite good, although I would have preferred to see more Shane Sparks.
Final order should be: 1.) Kathryn 2.) Jakob 3.) Ellenore 4.) Russell 5.) Ryan 6.) Ashleigh
Final order will be: 1.) Russell 2.) Kathryn 3.) Jakob 4.) Ellenore 5.) Ryan 6.) Ashleigh
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“What? No one’s watching our ludicrously planned fall So You Think You Can Dance? Umm… Call Gordon Ramsey and that chick from How I Met Your Mother. We’ll burn this like an Osbournes special.”
1. Kathryn Or Russell 3. Jakob 4. Ellenore or Ashleigh 6. Ryan
I was talking to my friend (my Canadian friend; you probably know her) and she only watched seasons 2 and 5 and she was like season five was probably as good as it could get, which just made me realize how disappointing this last two seasons have been. Depending on the season, I doubt anyone other than maybe Kathryn or Russell would’ve made it into the top 10 had they been cast then in stead of now.
As of 2009, SYTYCD is just an overproduced mess. Someone really should’ve told Nigel not to quit his day job, because it was the only thing that kept him from sticking his fist deep into the used-to-be cool, breezy demonstration of talent packaged with Cat Deeley.
Long-time reader, first-time commenter. MGK, I love reading your recaps, and I find that I agree with your assessments more than any other SYTYCD-blogger that I’ve read. You were the one who influenced me to watch S2 of the Aussie version of SYTYCD, which I thank you for because I agree with you that it was the best season of SYTYCD anywhere ever.
However, I do have to say that your labeling of your recaps as “Inferior American SYTYCD Bloggin’” reflects a mindset that I dislike intensely, and which Nigel and co. possess all too frequently, which is: deciding before watching the actual product what angle/bias they want to promote. It’s subtle, but I do think that it has affected your critical eye in how you’ve looked at the season.
It’s true that the new stage this season has (even after they figured out how to light and shoot it), overall, detracted from the dances, making them less involving and more “dry.” It’s true that the contestants themselves this season are way too aware of what roles they have to play up in order to gain votes. It’s also true that Nigel and co.’s production this season was piss-poor in planning and execution (no voting in the first two weeks, a rushed top 6 performance finale instead of a real top 4 performance finale).
But I guess what I’m trying to say is that there WERE individual dances to be celebrated this season, where the production, camerawork, choreo, performance, and judging were all top-notch in the same way as S2 of SYTYCD:AUS (like Gilkison’s cha-cha last week for instance), and I feel like your celebration of such dances was all too often lost under your snarky banner of “This American season sucks.” Anyway, food for thought, hopefully. I still look forward to any and all of your SYTYCD recaps. Peace.
I think that Russell probably deserves to win on the strength of the overall season; there were so many dances that he carried entirely and so many that he just sold on the basis of his strong dancing and tremendous performance quality.
Kathryn is definitely #2; she’s had a strong season throughout, and the past two weeks especially she just killed everything she touched. Really, I had her pegged as the strongest girl from about week three, but her last few performances still surprised me.
Jakob just lacks that emotional connection to the performances, and given we’ve had dancers like Allison and Jeanine in the past who were the same age as Jakob, I’m not buying age as an excuse for his lack of expression. Technically brilliant, sure, but dance is as much about artistry as athleticism, and he just doesn’t bring that extra depth to anything he does.
Ellenore and Ryan are really both just kind of there at this point compared to the other three. Ellenore is solid and quirky and fun, but wasn’t on the same level of amazing as Kathryn, and while Ryan’s been a good partner, he’s had fewer standouts than the other two. As much of a fan as I am of good ballroom, especially good ballroom guys, (insert cheering for Pasha here) Ryan was pretty lucky to beat out Legacy to make it here, although I do believe he proved he deserved that spot with his performances this week.
Ashleigh… yeah, was just outclassed. Shoulda given her and Ryan a Latin dance just to let them own the floor and be done with it.
Dude, that’s a joke based on the fact that Canada has it’s own SYTYCD and as a Canadian I must inevitably consider all other versions of the show dramatically inferior. It is my patriotic duty!
This season has been a scheduling mess culminating in what never felt like a finale. I hate the new stage, and the lack of cycling judges is only so-so (and I like Shankman plenty). The repeated begging to please vote is all very telling.
That said, there’s been plenty of talented choreo and I was pleased as often as not with the dance. But man, chalk this up to a failure and move back to summer where you rule.
A three person finale? Gah!
–M