Cat Deeley. Cat Deeley. Oh, Cat Deeley. Those were the first thoughts running through Michael, Jessica and my heads last night as we tuned in for the finale of SYTYCD. The camera came up on Ms. Deeley’s second atrocious outfit of the week (after her Golden Girls garb from the night before) and we hoped it wouldn’t signify the tone of the night. Jess noted that if we were watching a Bjork retrospective, perhaps it would be an appropriate collection of fabric, but for the most massive acronym ever? Not so much. Instead of looking like a sane host of a television program, she looked like a capsule sponge you drop into the water and it grows into some strange creature. Every time she came back on screen her layers seemed larger and larger. Mary had also borrowed her feathers from last week and tacked them to her shoulders. What were we getting ourselves into?
Fortunately after our eyes stopped bleeding, everything was relatively smooth sailing all the way through the crowning of Sabra as the first female winner ever. After watching some of the ridiculous interviews from the night before, where the contestants seemed to butcher the English language (I’m willing to blame this on the lack of sleep in their grueling week) I was happy to see the eliminations start with Lacey. I thought she peaked rather early in the season and perhaps her weave just got too stinky to support the crown. Neil peaked at just the right time but his last minute surge wasn’t enough to propel him past Danny and Sabra.
After watching the finale dancing show, I was more impressed than ever with Danny’s gorgeous line and technique, which he showed off perfectly in his solo. He seems to be the only one that thinks out his solos (Sabra’s was especially frantic) although I got a little frustrated that he felt the need to throw in the tumbling pass. The rest of the dancing from the night before was rather forgettable but I thought Sabra was stunning in the strangely attacked Wade Robson “Fox” number.
Even though the finale show was rather lackluster, the results show brought in the greatest hits from the season to remind us of all we’d forgotten. Lauren, who I was never much of a fan of, impressed me in her great robot hip-hop number with Pasha and in the Matrix group number. It also gave the audience a chance to see the wonderful cha-cha number between Danny and Lacey Crazy Faces (I mean does she stop staring at the audience?) For me, the best choreographer of the season was Shane Sparks, whose hip-hop routine for Sabra and Dominic was a particularly high point. What was odd about Sparks was that as great as his highs were, his lows were just as extreme, most notably with Danny and Sara’s cracked out trip back to the 90’s with baggy sweatshirts and his routine for the finale show. Getting a chance to watch Wade Robson’s gorgeous hummingbird routine for Jaimie and Hok demonstrated what an incredible talent he is and how this program can really expose America to thoughtful contemporary dancing. Mia Michaels was able to do that as well with a few of her pieces but manipulative dances like her ode to her late father left me rather cold. Tony Meridith also contributed some especially entertaining work. Tice Diorio, a favorite from past seasons, didn’t make much of an impact except for a few of his numbers.
I was relieved to find Sabra victorious although it seemed like poor pacing left us little time to enjoy her win. Cat “Butterfly” Deeley announced it and in a sea of confetti Sabra was toppled by the top 20 dancers as the end credits swept her into anonymity. It will be interesting to see if any of the dancers from these seasons will continue to have a strong presence in the dance world or if by the time Cat Deeley’s parade of bad outfits starts next season, we’ll have forgotten everything about them.
(One more Mary Murphy for the road. This is the image painting my nightmares.)
I’m writing this during the middle of a particularly ridiculous musical number in the World Premiere of “High School Musical 2.” It’s been a few evenings of classy artistic television and I must now give the Disney Channel my undivided attention. I could live blog it I think it would a little bit like:
1. Bad acting
2. Bad Songs
3. Is Zac Efron hot or extremely scary looking?
4. Loving every minute of it.
(Why are your eyebrows so shaped Mr. Efron?)
Off to Virginia City today with Michael and Jess, so look for exciting road trip blogging in a few days!
ah, Mary Murphy - and her frantic laugh when she has nothing to say (which, not surprisingly, is often). i wonder if we can replace the judges on the show by, oh let's just say, kevin mckenzie? maybe peter martins thrown in as well for good measure? hehe that would be worth watching.
Posted by: jolene | August 20, 2007 at 09:24 PM