Alright boys and girls. Here we are. Final four. Brandon, Kayla, Jeanine and Evan. I have to say, at the beginning of the season, Brandon and Kayla were pretty much a given for the finals, Jeanine was a ‘possible’...but Evan? Totally outta nowhere! I mean, I don’t think he’s got a snowball’s chance in hell of winning, but good on ‘im for making it here! No kidding!
For the first time ever, our finale performance show is being filmed at the Kodak Theater to accommodate a much larger audience and provide a larger stage. Joining us on the judging panel tonight is Adam Shankman!!!! Yay!! Each dancer will be dancing with all the other dancers tonight as well as solos, so allowing for flashbacking, we should have a packed full show.
For any new readers, I’m don’t comment on flashbacking. It’s all been discussed before.
After much blabber from the judges, we get right to it with a group number choreographed by Wade and Amanda Robson. It’s about football players and cheerleaders. Wade doesn’t normally go so....real life with his stories so I’m interested to see where this one goes.
They’re dancing to ‘Boys Boys Boys’ by..oh for fuck sakes...Lady GA GA. Can we retire her after this season? Please? The dancers are all dressed in Varsity hip. Evan pulls off the jock part really well for someone of his...stature. Everybody’s really sharp and together. I totally giggled when the guys had the pom poms. Definitely not my favourite Wade piece, but it was cute. This piece was so unlike anything I've ever seen of his before... very light and happiness... I think I prefer him dark and twisty.
The only video I could find for this was disabled, so I wasn't able to put it into the blog... :(
Before we head out to commercial we get an extensive preview of Season 6, premiering in a mere matter of weeks. September 2nd, I believe...? For those of you who also watch So You Think You Can Dance Canada along with us, that’s right, it’s going to be busy TV watching and here on the blog.
Back from commercial and we head into the first pair routine with Jeanine and Evan doing a Sonya Tayeh routine. It’s about a guy who wants a girl, but she doesn’t want him. Evan’s getting the crap kicked out of him in rehearsals.
They’re dancing to ‘Heartbreaker’ by MSTRKRFT featuring John Legend. If Carra doesn’t already have this song, she’s downloading it tonight, guaranteed. How can I resist, it's so 80's sounding...! Sonya is great for choreographing with different movement. There’s always stuff I’ve never seen before in her pieces and these two are executing it really well. It doesn’t appear to me that one overpowered the other and this just flowed really well.
Adam says it was great. He says both of them were completely unexpected in the Top 4 but is glad they are there. Mary says they’re a great partnership, but Jeanine stood out a bit more. Nigel says Jeanine is powerful enough to hold that big stage, but needs Evan to step up for it.
First solo for the night is Brandon. He’s dancing to ‘Dies Irae’ by Karl Jenkins. Dude...why the shorts? This is reminiscent of last week’s solo; equally powerful, well thought out. But seriously the shorts are throwing me off.
Oh, judges are commenting on solos tonight. This is going to be a long blog tonight!
Adam says it was a ‘Take no prisoners’ dance but he’s unsure about the shorts. HA! Mary had goosebumps and says he is born to dance, then she gets weepy. Nigel says Brandon’s amazing, referencing last week’s solo and saying he wiped out the opposition. Last week was his best solo by far...
Next up is Kayla and Brandon doing a Tyce Diorio Broadway routine. They’re doing a piece from ‘All That Jazz’ with a Tyce spin. They're dancing to ‘Bye Bye Love’ from the All That Jazz soundtrack. This piece is very sparkly and showy. Lots of great extensions for Kayla’s benefit, lots of lifts for Brandon’s. For a Broadway number, this was really good.
Adam is up and thrashing around with enthusiasm. He says he always saw Kayla and Brandon both in the Top 4 (Adam and I really are one, aren’t we?). Kayla can do anything and Brandon’s a monster. Mary says they were terrific and says they’re front runners. Nigel says they showed us exactly why they’re in the Top 4. He praises Tyce and makes the ‘your name sounds like a cookie’ comment that all of us fans made years ago. Tasty Oreo!
Next up for solos is Jeanine dancing to ‘Por Una Cabeza’ from The Tango Project. Interesting song choice for a contemporary dancer. She’s done an amazing piece with it though. Well done. I thought this was fantastic - wow! Her best solo this season...
Everyone’s on their feet including the judges. Adam’s raving, saying she killed it. He praises her risk with that routine. Mary says she’s always been a standout and says that solo was the best thing she’s ever done. Nigel says she was brave and says she’s in the final two as far as he’s concerned.
Now we’ve got Evan and Brandon with a Pop Jazz routine with Laurieann Gibson. Evan and Brandon are in a battle to win. This is going to take a lot to top Neil and Danny’s battle routine from a couple of season’s ago. Of all the 2 guy numbers, that one was my favorite, I still watch it on YouTube...
They’re dancing to ‘Nasty’ by Janet Jackson. This is a good routine, but like my comment on Laurieann’s previous routine, there’s too much synchronized side by side dancing. If this is supposed to be a battle, I want to see them in it the whole way through. That being said they both danced this really well. Brandon definitely stood out though.
Adam says Evan got dusted a bit. He says Evan wasn’t nasty enough to overcome his sweetness. Mary asks what the nastiest thing Evan has ever done is. He says the list is long, but Mary doesn’t believe him, which is sort of her comment about the dance. Nigel says there isn’t a nasty bone in Evan’s body so it wasn’t comfortable. Brandon outdanced him. The choreography didn't give him (Evan) much to work with, in my opinion...
After the commercial, we’ve got Kayla and Jeanine with a Mia Michaels Contemporary piece. It’s a journey and about shedding layers. They’re dancing to ‘The Four Seasons’ done in Full Orchestra, arranged (I think) by Steve Reich. The girls are wearing large layered skirts that have pieces that just seem to drop off as they dance. Nice effect. I never would’ve said this at the beginning of the season, or even a few weeks ago for that matter, but watching these two dance side by side, they are pretty evenly matched. Lovely piece and extremely well danced by both.
Adam calls it ‘watching the world’s longest wardrobe malfunction’! He says it was like watching two thoroughbreds racing and praises Mia for the piece, saying the three were a perfect trifecta. Mary seems a little choked up by the piece. She says she’ll never forget it. Nigel references the Neil and Danny piece I mentioned a bit ago and says this will stand out in much the same way. He says it didn’t go on long enough which everyone seems to take as a rude ‘I wanted them to completely strip’ comment, but I didn’t take that way (unusual for me, I know).
Evan’s soloing next dancing to ‘The Best is Yet to Come’ by Michael Buble. Honestly, Evan’s solos are very much what we’ve seen before. Meh. Disappointing. I usually enjoy his solos, but this one didn't do it for me either.
Adam recognizes it as a take off from Evan’s audition piece. He says he did great, but doesn’t seem particularly enthusiastic. Mary says the piece did it for her. She blabs on at length about a lost style and I lose interest. Nigel says Evan’s got something special, but says he hasn’t grown enough and the solo wasn’t strong enough to win. I agree with Nigel.
Kayla and Evan are up next doing the Jive with Tony and Melanie. It’s a quick piece and Kayla appears to be having some issues with the simple steps. They’re dancing to ‘T.R.O.U.B.L.E.’ by Travis Tritt. Another interesting song choice. Kayla’s all decked out ‘country chic’. Both of their kicks seem good to me. The lifts are smooth. They seem pretty well matched for this piece. There’s a fall/spin thing at the end that looks a little messy, but otherwise, it’s pretty good.
Adam says it wasn’t a finale level routine which is more of a hit to Tony and Melanie than the dancers. He praises Evan’s lifts and says they both had the bounce done well. He’s not sure it was enough to pick up the phone. Mary’s really criticisizing Evan but says Kayla stole the show. Nigel says they both came out with guns blazing. Oooh, the whole audience is cheering Evan’s name which obviously chokes him up a bit. I rewound this part of couple of times, it was awesome! He says Evan did great and Kayla had more personality than she’s had all season.
Last solo is Kayla dancing to ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)’ by The Eurythmics. She does this great spin on her heels that I have to rewind and watch again, it was such an interesting move. She’s got some great moves, but I’m not sure it’s as high level as Jeanine’s.
Adam says the solo wasn’t the greatest for her, but that she’s going to rank among the best dancers on the show. Interestingly, all the ones he lists never won. Is he making a prediction? I totally thought that too as he was listing them all off... Mary says it was exquisite. Nigel blabbers on at length and ultimately says she deserves to be there.
Another commercial and we’re back with our last dance with Brandon and Jeanine doing a Paso Doble with Louis van Amstel. Jeanine’s falling a LOT in rehearsals. I’m really quite excited to see how this is going to turn out.
They’re dancing to ‘Tetsujin’ from The Matrix Revolutions soundtrack. Jeanine looks hot. The outfits are very Matrix-esque. This is a hot piece. A little out there which I totally go for. Just sharp and fast and hard and great. These two are really fighting for it. I actually rewound this to watch it a second time through. Very well done and a great close to the show. Loved. It. My favorite of the night. The music was killer, so were the costumes, and they both were brilliant.
Everyone’s on their feet again. Adam says they followed through with all the movements really well and says they ‘shredded’ it. Mary’s screaming. She says it was phenomenal and praises them on all the technical aspects. More screaming. Oh goody, Nigel’s screaming too. He says they carried it off and then makes some actually lewd comments and Adam tries to cover up for him hilariously. He says these two are in the front of this competition.
After the recap, Cat asks the judges who they think is going to win. Adam wusses out and Cat totally calls him out by asking Mary if she’s going to be more of a man than Adam was. Nigel actually bucks up a bit and says it’s going to come down to Brandon or Jeanine.
So that’s it. I started the show (and the season, frankly) thinking the winner was going to be Brandon or Kayla, but I honestly think it’s going to come down to Brandon or Jeanine and I honestly think Jeanine’s going to take it. I would laugh my ass off though, if the winner turned out to be Evan as a flip of the bird to the judges from his fans. I don’t think it’s going to happen, but I would laugh if it did.
We’ve got a two hour finale tomorrow night. Keep your eyes open for our recap. I’m also thinking of doing a ‘Season in Review’ post over the weekend, but no guarantees.
Anyways, that’s it for tonight. Cross your fingers for your favourite. Go Brandon Go!
See y’all tomorrow! Cheers!
For the first time ever, our finale performance show is being filmed at the Kodak Theater to accommodate a much larger audience and provide a larger stage. Joining us on the judging panel tonight is Adam Shankman!!!! Yay!! Each dancer will be dancing with all the other dancers tonight as well as solos, so allowing for flashbacking, we should have a packed full show.
For any new readers, I’m don’t comment on flashbacking. It’s all been discussed before.
After much blabber from the judges, we get right to it with a group number choreographed by Wade and Amanda Robson. It’s about football players and cheerleaders. Wade doesn’t normally go so....real life with his stories so I’m interested to see where this one goes.
They’re dancing to ‘Boys Boys Boys’ by..oh for fuck sakes...Lady GA GA. Can we retire her after this season? Please? The dancers are all dressed in Varsity hip. Evan pulls off the jock part really well for someone of his...stature. Everybody’s really sharp and together. I totally giggled when the guys had the pom poms. Definitely not my favourite Wade piece, but it was cute. This piece was so unlike anything I've ever seen of his before... very light and happiness... I think I prefer him dark and twisty.
The only video I could find for this was disabled, so I wasn't able to put it into the blog... :(
Before we head out to commercial we get an extensive preview of Season 6, premiering in a mere matter of weeks. September 2nd, I believe...? For those of you who also watch So You Think You Can Dance Canada along with us, that’s right, it’s going to be busy TV watching and here on the blog.
Back from commercial and we head into the first pair routine with Jeanine and Evan doing a Sonya Tayeh routine. It’s about a guy who wants a girl, but she doesn’t want him. Evan’s getting the crap kicked out of him in rehearsals.
They’re dancing to ‘Heartbreaker’ by MSTRKRFT featuring John Legend. If Carra doesn’t already have this song, she’s downloading it tonight, guaranteed. How can I resist, it's so 80's sounding...! Sonya is great for choreographing with different movement. There’s always stuff I’ve never seen before in her pieces and these two are executing it really well. It doesn’t appear to me that one overpowered the other and this just flowed really well.
Adam says it was great. He says both of them were completely unexpected in the Top 4 but is glad they are there. Mary says they’re a great partnership, but Jeanine stood out a bit more. Nigel says Jeanine is powerful enough to hold that big stage, but needs Evan to step up for it.
First solo for the night is Brandon. He’s dancing to ‘Dies Irae’ by Karl Jenkins. Dude...why the shorts? This is reminiscent of last week’s solo; equally powerful, well thought out. But seriously the shorts are throwing me off.
Oh, judges are commenting on solos tonight. This is going to be a long blog tonight!
Adam says it was a ‘Take no prisoners’ dance but he’s unsure about the shorts. HA! Mary had goosebumps and says he is born to dance, then she gets weepy. Nigel says Brandon’s amazing, referencing last week’s solo and saying he wiped out the opposition. Last week was his best solo by far...
Next up is Kayla and Brandon doing a Tyce Diorio Broadway routine. They’re doing a piece from ‘All That Jazz’ with a Tyce spin. They're dancing to ‘Bye Bye Love’ from the All That Jazz soundtrack. This piece is very sparkly and showy. Lots of great extensions for Kayla’s benefit, lots of lifts for Brandon’s. For a Broadway number, this was really good.
Adam is up and thrashing around with enthusiasm. He says he always saw Kayla and Brandon both in the Top 4 (Adam and I really are one, aren’t we?). Kayla can do anything and Brandon’s a monster. Mary says they were terrific and says they’re front runners. Nigel says they showed us exactly why they’re in the Top 4. He praises Tyce and makes the ‘your name sounds like a cookie’ comment that all of us fans made years ago. Tasty Oreo!
Next up for solos is Jeanine dancing to ‘Por Una Cabeza’ from The Tango Project. Interesting song choice for a contemporary dancer. She’s done an amazing piece with it though. Well done. I thought this was fantastic - wow! Her best solo this season...
Everyone’s on their feet including the judges. Adam’s raving, saying she killed it. He praises her risk with that routine. Mary says she’s always been a standout and says that solo was the best thing she’s ever done. Nigel says she was brave and says she’s in the final two as far as he’s concerned.
Now we’ve got Evan and Brandon with a Pop Jazz routine with Laurieann Gibson. Evan and Brandon are in a battle to win. This is going to take a lot to top Neil and Danny’s battle routine from a couple of season’s ago. Of all the 2 guy numbers, that one was my favorite, I still watch it on YouTube...
They’re dancing to ‘Nasty’ by Janet Jackson. This is a good routine, but like my comment on Laurieann’s previous routine, there’s too much synchronized side by side dancing. If this is supposed to be a battle, I want to see them in it the whole way through. That being said they both danced this really well. Brandon definitely stood out though.
Adam says Evan got dusted a bit. He says Evan wasn’t nasty enough to overcome his sweetness. Mary asks what the nastiest thing Evan has ever done is. He says the list is long, but Mary doesn’t believe him, which is sort of her comment about the dance. Nigel says there isn’t a nasty bone in Evan’s body so it wasn’t comfortable. Brandon outdanced him. The choreography didn't give him (Evan) much to work with, in my opinion...
After the commercial, we’ve got Kayla and Jeanine with a Mia Michaels Contemporary piece. It’s a journey and about shedding layers. They’re dancing to ‘The Four Seasons’ done in Full Orchestra, arranged (I think) by Steve Reich. The girls are wearing large layered skirts that have pieces that just seem to drop off as they dance. Nice effect. I never would’ve said this at the beginning of the season, or even a few weeks ago for that matter, but watching these two dance side by side, they are pretty evenly matched. Lovely piece and extremely well danced by both.
Adam calls it ‘watching the world’s longest wardrobe malfunction’! He says it was like watching two thoroughbreds racing and praises Mia for the piece, saying the three were a perfect trifecta. Mary seems a little choked up by the piece. She says she’ll never forget it. Nigel references the Neil and Danny piece I mentioned a bit ago and says this will stand out in much the same way. He says it didn’t go on long enough which everyone seems to take as a rude ‘I wanted them to completely strip’ comment, but I didn’t take that way (unusual for me, I know).
Evan’s soloing next dancing to ‘The Best is Yet to Come’ by Michael Buble. Honestly, Evan’s solos are very much what we’ve seen before. Meh. Disappointing. I usually enjoy his solos, but this one didn't do it for me either.
Adam recognizes it as a take off from Evan’s audition piece. He says he did great, but doesn’t seem particularly enthusiastic. Mary says the piece did it for her. She blabs on at length about a lost style and I lose interest. Nigel says Evan’s got something special, but says he hasn’t grown enough and the solo wasn’t strong enough to win. I agree with Nigel.
Kayla and Evan are up next doing the Jive with Tony and Melanie. It’s a quick piece and Kayla appears to be having some issues with the simple steps. They’re dancing to ‘T.R.O.U.B.L.E.’ by Travis Tritt. Another interesting song choice. Kayla’s all decked out ‘country chic’. Both of their kicks seem good to me. The lifts are smooth. They seem pretty well matched for this piece. There’s a fall/spin thing at the end that looks a little messy, but otherwise, it’s pretty good.
Adam says it wasn’t a finale level routine which is more of a hit to Tony and Melanie than the dancers. He praises Evan’s lifts and says they both had the bounce done well. He’s not sure it was enough to pick up the phone. Mary’s really criticisizing Evan but says Kayla stole the show. Nigel says they both came out with guns blazing. Oooh, the whole audience is cheering Evan’s name which obviously chokes him up a bit. I rewound this part of couple of times, it was awesome! He says Evan did great and Kayla had more personality than she’s had all season.
Last solo is Kayla dancing to ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)’ by The Eurythmics. She does this great spin on her heels that I have to rewind and watch again, it was such an interesting move. She’s got some great moves, but I’m not sure it’s as high level as Jeanine’s.
Adam says the solo wasn’t the greatest for her, but that she’s going to rank among the best dancers on the show. Interestingly, all the ones he lists never won. Is he making a prediction? I totally thought that too as he was listing them all off... Mary says it was exquisite. Nigel blabbers on at length and ultimately says she deserves to be there.
Another commercial and we’re back with our last dance with Brandon and Jeanine doing a Paso Doble with Louis van Amstel. Jeanine’s falling a LOT in rehearsals. I’m really quite excited to see how this is going to turn out.
They’re dancing to ‘Tetsujin’ from The Matrix Revolutions soundtrack. Jeanine looks hot. The outfits are very Matrix-esque. This is a hot piece. A little out there which I totally go for. Just sharp and fast and hard and great. These two are really fighting for it. I actually rewound this to watch it a second time through. Very well done and a great close to the show. Loved. It. My favorite of the night. The music was killer, so were the costumes, and they both were brilliant.
Everyone’s on their feet again. Adam says they followed through with all the movements really well and says they ‘shredded’ it. Mary’s screaming. She says it was phenomenal and praises them on all the technical aspects. More screaming. Oh goody, Nigel’s screaming too. He says they carried it off and then makes some actually lewd comments and Adam tries to cover up for him hilariously. He says these two are in the front of this competition.
After the recap, Cat asks the judges who they think is going to win. Adam wusses out and Cat totally calls him out by asking Mary if she’s going to be more of a man than Adam was. Nigel actually bucks up a bit and says it’s going to come down to Brandon or Jeanine.
So that’s it. I started the show (and the season, frankly) thinking the winner was going to be Brandon or Kayla, but I honestly think it’s going to come down to Brandon or Jeanine and I honestly think Jeanine’s going to take it. I would laugh my ass off though, if the winner turned out to be Evan as a flip of the bird to the judges from his fans. I don’t think it’s going to happen, but I would laugh if it did.
We’ve got a two hour finale tomorrow night. Keep your eyes open for our recap. I’m also thinking of doing a ‘Season in Review’ post over the weekend, but no guarantees.
Anyways, that’s it for tonight. Cross your fingers for your favourite. Go Brandon Go!
See y’all tomorrow! Cheers!
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