SYTYCD: Stumbling to the End

So You Think You Can Dance: Finale Performance Show

It's the Season 8 finale already. Time to close out a season that featured a lot of great dancers, if not a lot of especially memorable moments.

• Cat is wearing a peach-ish strapless mini with a bejeweled bodice. Paired with a lovely updo.
• The judges are Kenny Ortega, Katie Holmes, Mary and Nigel.
• I hope this doesn't me that we have to pretend that we think Kenny's remake of Dirty Dancing is a good idea. It isn't.

Marko and Melanie (Doriana Sanchez disco):

• The featurette: You know, I was just thinking, "Gee, there hasn't been much disco this season. How pleasant!" and then, bam!
• The dance: Ok, nothing about Marko and Melanie says "disco" to me. This is easily the roughest routine this pair has done all season. I don't see anyone really selling this one (the music is too spacey), but their performance is rocky. They pulled off some hard lifts, but, yeah, no.
• The judges: Kenny tries to tell us it was good. Katie claims that she loved it and "believed the story they were telling," which suggests that she might not have been watching at all. Mary claims she adores disco and Doriana and Marko and Melanie, but finally speaks the truth that some of the lifts were rocky and that they went in and out of the style. Nigel totally agrees, saying "It was a little bit of a struggle." He says they seemed uncomfortable with the style and hopes they'll be better in other routines tonight. Mel and Marko look like they're glad it's over.

Sasha with Mark (Sonya Tayeh jazz):

• The featurette: Well, this has "cool" written all over it. I hope Sonya brings it with the choreo this time; I wasn't sold on her Sasha/Mel number. Not to mention the chandelier thing last week. 
• The dance: EEESH! Mark's facial expression at the beginning was FIERCE. Does Mark ever wear shirts these days? Mark's one of the few dancers who can come up to Sasha's level of fierceness. I think he might be stealing the show a bit here though. She throws him to the ground at the end to try to make up for it.
• The judging: Mark does a royalty-style wave as he walks off stage. Katie loves everything about it, of course. Mary says "WOOHOOOOO!" Nigel says that Sasha has just thrown down Lady Gaga's principal dancer and has thrown down the gauntlet tonight.

Tadd with Joshua (Lil C hip-hop):

• The featurette: Lil C says this is about nothing but the hustle. I was afraid he meant The Hustle, as in "do The Hustle," and was concerned, but he is referring to another kind of hustle.
• The dance: I LOVE JOSHUA. There's a slight difference between how they're dancing, and I think Josh is more natural and organic, while Tadd is more, "Hey guys! I'm doing hip-hop!" He did a good job though. But the only thing these last two routines have accomplished is making me nostalgic for Season 4.
• The judging: Cat thinks Josh is so delicious that she grabs him by the face. Cat says from her outside perspective, Tadd was hustling hard. Mary says Tadd has a "sweetie factor" but did enough to overcome that and do a hard hip-hop number. Nigel tries to channel Lil C in his praise of Lil C. Nigel thought Tadd was good, but was a little too sweet. Not bad, but not as strong as Nigel would like it. Cat on Tadd's red shoes, "If Dorothy were in the 'hood, this is what she'd be wearing." I'm just going to ignore the comments of Kenny and Katie until one of them actually says something of worth.

Melanie with Robert (Stacey Tookey contemporary)

• The featuette: Ugh, it's unrequited love again. And I'm not buying it either. Mel, it's Robert. You can do better. ;-)
• The dance: They had to bring Robert back for this to make up for making him do Bollywood in purple pants earlier this year. And they had to give Mel an emotional contemporary to make up for that heinous disco. The highlight was the side-by-side leaps. Still, I've seen more impressive contemporary numbers from Mel: the one with Neil the other week, Travis' statue routine, etc.
• The judging: Nigel says beautiful choreo by Stacey and beautifully danced. Kenny would love to work with Mel. Hey, I hear he's doing a new Dirty Dancing (groan!). Cat even takes this moment to lobby for a part in Dirty Dancing for Mel, and Kenny agrees. Cat wants 20% of Mel's earnings. Mary says that Mel has a unique ability to draw the audience in and she's loved watching her from her first audition until now.

Marko and Sasha (Spencer Liff Broadway):

• The featurette: Yikes, first disco, now Broadway. At least it's a Spencer Broadway not Tyce. That should help a little.
• The dance: Aww, Marko's wearing glasses as part of his "serious waiter" costume. Sasha's doing some nice kicks and leaps (and a nice stomach spin on the table). Marko did a cool jump/fall thing and some flipping too. And does a good job of looking stunned at the end.
• The judging: Kenny says he didn't even recognize that it was Marko (that's a good thing). He says Sasha went from warrior princess to sophisticated lady, and he thinks she can do everything. Here's a banner piece of judging from Ms. Katie Holmes: "Marko, I loved when you jumped up." Ha ha ha. Mary says she barely recognized Marko too because he's such a little actor. Nigel wasn't blown away though. He thinks Sasha's a better warrior than vamp. And he didn't think Marko's character embodiment was as good as the others seem to think.

Melanie's interview and solo: Melanie's favorite moment of the season was when she got to launch herself at Neil. That was one of my favorite moments too! Her solo: Slow, lovely violin music. Another one of her solos that really should have gone on for about another hour.

Marko's interview and solo: Marko's favorite piece was the statue routine. Oh, yeah, I forgot again that Marko's the one who got shot. Thanks for bringing that up again, Marko! Ooh, solo to "The Fear You Won't Fall" (but a faster version). He's really kinda boogieing to this (usually) slow, melodic song. Marko's dad is here for the first time tonight.

Sasha and Tadd (Mark Ballas cha cha):

• The featurette: Now they're making Tadd and Sasha cha cha?! Are we even trying to put on a good show tonight?
• The dance: I'm very distracted by Tadd's super skinny pants and heels for a while. This cha cha is rather slow and un-cha cha-ish, in my opinion. I'm not impressed.
• The judging: Wow, I don't think Katie even liked it! She totally avoided discussing the dancing. Mary says she has to call it like it was: lots of missed hand connections and footwork and all kinds of problems. Nigel agrees. He thinks Tadd couldn't cope with the style at all. He thinks Sasha was somewhat better, but it still was not good for her. Kenny says they should just turn around and forget about it and come back strong in their next dances. Lol at Natalia's facial expression in the audience!

Marko with Lauren Froderman (Tessandra Chavez contemporary):

• The featurette: Hey! It's a doomed love story! No kidding!
• The dance: Lauren's dress is pretty. Now we're talking; this routine is actually cool. The choreography is actually intricate and looks like there was thought put into it. Lauren's looking awesome, but so is Marko. Very good.
• The judging: Mary says Marko thrusts greatness upon himself. She loved the soul in that performance. Nigel says he's been a little disappointed thus fair, but he thinks Marko just joined in the finale because that was fabulous. Kenny thinks Tessandra gave Marko and the audience a lovely gift of choreography. And he loves Marko with Lauren. Kenny was swept away and taken to another place and time. Katie loved the little moments and the pictures Marko created. Katie tells Marko to "keep doing it," which is great advice, because I'm sure Marko was really thinking about packing it in with 40 minutes left in the season.

Tadd's interview and solo: I think the show is trying to make Tadd the new Dominic, but I just don't buy into it. Tadd's favorite routine was Travis' vulture dance. We could really use some Travis Wall in this finale (darn Step Up 4!). Yeah, I really don't have anything to say about Tadd's solo.

Tadd and Melanie (Ray Leeper jazz):

• The featurette: Melanie has caught Tadd cheating on her.
• The dance: She throws a shoe at him. Now she's dancing with one shoe off and one on; that's a little tricky. Melanie' is creating some really nice lines here. Not sure that the overall choreography is maximizing her efforts though. I'd like there to be more to a routine than just her yanking off Tadd's clothes in a malicious fashion.
• The judging: Cat: "When all else fails, bring out a pair of comedy boxers." Nigel says that just brought his evening to life, which I think is a bit strong, but whatever. Nigel says Melanie had a character well before she even started dancing and that Tadd totally redeemed himself in that routine. Kenny liked the chemistry and the story. Katie loved it and thought it was fun and a breath of fresh air. Because Katie's just been hating everything else so far tonight... Mary thought Tadd was really sexy and that he was really hitting it. And as for Melanie, "Was that a strut across the stage, or was that a strut across the stage?!"

Sasha's interview and solo: Sasha's favorite moment was when Lady Gaga threw her shoe at them. Cat's favorite Sasha dance was the one with Twitch. Preach, sister! Sasha's solo: Slower than she sometimes does, but no less awesome. I like how she does most of her solo dancing an a crouching position (or on the ground). It's interesting.

Sasha and Melanie (Stacey Tookey contemporary):

• The featurette: This piece is about a pair of suppressed housewives from the 1950s. Hey, finally a premise that is actually different and interesting!
• The dance: Their Betty Draper-style dresses are fantastic. The white picket fence props may be a bit literal, but it's kind of cool. They allow for some Sound of Music gazebo-style stuff, which is cool. Most importantly, the dancing is great. Very lovely; I liked this one.
• The judging: Kenny calls them two actresses that can dance. He thinks it was a beautiful piece that was beautifully executed. Katie loved the exploration of friendship and the strength that two women can give to each other. And she loves their outfits. Mary enjoyed every single second of the piece. She said the movement just filled up every bit of the music. Nigel says it doesn't matter who wins, because either of them could grace any dance company in the country.

Marko and Tadd (Chuck Maldonado gumboot stepping):

• The featurette: Dance style originally used in Africa to communicate in the mines, which is where stepping actually came from. Interesting.
• The dance: Wow, these outfits are rough. What kind of miners are they supposed to be?! Marko gumboot stepping is kinda like Ricky waacking. As in, it's not good. Tadd's not too bad though. I'd like to see Twitch give this a whirl. Um, awkward moment at the end there when the quitting whistle blows (I guess) and Tadd throws himself into Marko's arms. Uh, what?
• The judging: Katie appreciates that they gave it their all and the athletic ability it took. Mary says they looked like they were mining for gold, and she thinks they found it. Well, that was kind, Mary. She loves them both to pieces. Nigel thinks this style probably works better in a larger group. He says they weren't quite together. He thinks they stood up as well for themselves tonight as they could with the routines they had, but he still thinks a girl will win. Kenny says, "Guys, you did your job."

I know I've complained of being underwhelmed by SYTYCD finales in the past, but I don't know if I've ever been as thoroughly uninspired as I was by this one. It's a struggle for me to even pick my three favorite routines tonight. They gave them too many routines to do, and the quality of each routine suffered as a result. Plus, they picked the finale to finally give people some really out-of-comfort-zone styles to do (disco, stepping, cha cha), which seems like a bizarre choice. If there's ever a time to showcase the fabulousness of the remaining dancers, it's the finale.

My favorites:
Marko and Lauren's contemporary
Sasha and Melanie's contemporary
Joshua and Tadd's hip-hop / Sasha and Mark's jazz / I have no idea.

It's a tough call for me as to who I think should win. I usually end up changing my mind after I know the results anyway. (After the fact, I changed my mind and, to varying degrees, wished that Travis beat Benji, Twitch beat Joshua, and Jakob beat Russell.) One of the girls should obviously win. I've loved Melanie throughout the competition, but Sasha is pretty undeniable as well. Melanie's been pretty top-notch the entire time (except for disco tonight and last week's poorly choreographed hip-hop), while Sasha has had a few more peaks and valleys. But I have to wonder if Sasha's peaks didn't transcend Melanie's SYTYCD body of work. I don't know. It's a tough, tough call. Which is actually great, because we're faced with two fantastic dancers and everyone can just pick the one whose style he or she likes best. Either way, we'll have a great winner.