I thought tonight’s finale was rather eh. Nothing blew me away; last week was so much better. Well, that’s not entirely true — I loved Twitch and Joshua’s Hip Hop / Russian thing choreographed by Youri Nelzine. At first I thought the choreographer was calling it a Chekhov dance; I was like, Chekhov choreographed? Then I realized he was saying “Trepak,” as in the Russian Dance from The Nutcracker. I thought it was actually pretty ingenious of him to combine Russian folk and Hip Hop like that, playing on both dancers’ strengths — Twitch’s amazing thigh muscles and all that movement close to the floor, and Joshua’s crazy jumps. Loved the splits jumps, that twisting corkscrew of a jump. I wonder if we’re going to see a Nutcracker this year somewhere with those two performing that dance, like we saw Sabra and Neil do last winter…
Anyway, too much fun, those guys. I really want one of them to win. Twitch grew on me this week, so now I’m divided between him and Josh.
I was also impressed by Courtney, who I think has improved tremendously. She’s standing out so much more now. She really has become so theatrical. She’s become a real actor, and her movements are so much sharper than before. I don’t think she’ll win — I think the others still have more overall clout by this point, but I think she should be very proud of herself.
The two last dances were the worst, unfortunately. The Jive totally lacked energy and bounce and height. The kicks and the sailor shuffles, and just all the fancy footwork — not there at all. That’s what’s so fantastic about jive — the lightening-fast footwork, the crazy fun, the electric charge of the dance, not the aerials — which were excellent by the way, but it’s like they saved their energy for those. And what was that Mia Michaels number in the end? It looked like Shakers who’ve been kept from society for a little too long and have gone a bit haywire. I liked the very beginning though, with the unfolding of the satiny-looking crimson sheets. But that’s the only part I liked…
Anyway, my post on the results should be up on HuffPost on Friday.
Who do you guys think will win??? I predict Josh or Katee.
I agree — there was something unsatisfying and I was actually glad that Nigel brought some reality into his feedback although I thought they overdid it with the “you are so beautiful but you don’t really have what Katee has” bit for Kourtney. Little do they know how amazing it is for a girl from Commack to make it big like that! And Mandy Moore suggesting to Katee that she take ballet classes (which I’m sure she does) was also odd. I’m thinking it’s going to be a surprise ending with Joshua and Twitch standing together at the final minute — hope they won’t cut to Roseanna and Ernie 5 seconds after the announcement as they did last year (sorry for the nycentric referral) — now I want to take samba and jive lessons too . . .
Hey Tonya,
I generally don’t expect much during these typically underwhelming finales that way if something amazing does happen, I will appreciate it more. Initially, I only thought the Trepak was interesting until I rewatched the Wade Robson lyrical piece again, which is now my favorite of the night. Both dancers captured the intended emotion. I agree with Matt Murphy, however, that I wished there weren’t all the stops in the routine so it would have flowed better. Like you, I saw nothing spectacular about the group number at first. I will say this though, I felt Twitch shined the brightest throughout the entire piece. He did something with his feet that was pretty cool looking and had the most energy. He is a great performer when you least expect it! FYI: I prefer Wade Robson’s SYTYCD2 Top 4 group number to JT’s “Sexy Back”. My favorite Mia Michael’s group number overall is Season 3’s Top 10 feat. Imogen Heap’s “The Moment I Said It .” All I can say is that I missed Robson’s cor. this season.
OK. As far as voting, I voted for the first time this season after finally watching the show on a real flat screen tv versus my laptop. At one point, I was on the house and cell phones for like a solid hour just redialing Josh’s number, which was initially busy a lot, and a few times for Katee b/c I enjoyed her throughout the season as well. I don’t remember being able to just keep voting ad lib like that for 2 hours in the past.
My final analysis: Great finale featuring two hip hop dancers like Nigel said and the two trained dancers. Future non-trained or hip-hop dancers will need to raise their standards to meet or exceed Joshua, who was just fantastic this season. I can’t wait to hear what Josh is doing in his future career! Thanks for the post Tonya.
Oh. I just read Marilyn’s entry and wanted to comment. Now I could be wrong, but Katee said she took tap dance from age 3 for several years before switching to jazz and contemporary. She never mentioned ballet and as we saw with the Desmond Richardson and Partner’s piece, Katee needs to work on her flexibility, extension and her turn out that way her developees, lines and the like will be even better than it is currently. Mandy said the same thing to Courtney, but we could all see that she needs the additional training. Ballet is considered the technical gold standard for all styles that evolved from its origins like modern and jazz; I guess b/c ballet has been around since the 1500’s. I think ballet is so difficult to master that many people switch to other forms of dance. But like I said, I could be all wrong about that 😀
Just checking in because my son didn’t believe I had predicted the top 2 this afternoon and saw your response Chimene — totally agree ballet is the basis, just meant that it felt like the wrong time to bring that up — back to the show!
Thanks you guys — it looks like you guys called it for the two at the top! I’m so happy 😀 Chimene, that’s funny but I watched the Mia Michaels again too and liked it so much better the second and third times. Weird but I often feel that way with her: I won’t like something I see of hers the first time but on second and third viewing I see so many things I missed. Anyway, yay Josh 😀