So You Thought You Could Dance: Finale Edition

On last night's SYD, everyone danced with everyone else, and then they all danced together. And they all danced solos. It was an exhausting two hours.

First, Twitch and Courtney danced hip-hop to a T-pain song with choreography by Tabitha and Napoleon, in which Courtney was a "crazy girlfriend" -- it was cute, and featured Twitch spinning Courtney around on his head (her stomach as the contact spot).

About Courtney, judge Mandy Moore (not that one) said "You got a little Jersey coming out of you, huh Courtney?"

About Twitch, Nigel said "Twitch, what is it with you that choreographers look to give you a crazy and deranged girl?"

It was a good start to a crazy night, and Twitch's costume -- a church outfit with suspenders down, to correlate with T-pain's "I'm gonna take you to church" -- made the whole thing that much funnier and interesting to think about.

The Courtney did her solo, after an interview with Cat. Courtney said “In my house, nobody talks, everyone yells. I know I’m not the best dancer. I don’t think that this show is about being the best dancer. I don’t think you have to be in love with someone to have chemistry with them. That jazz that I did with Sonja was my favorite.”

In front of the judges, Courtney wept with joy at their accolades -- earning her possibly a higher spot in America's voting than she'd have had otherwise, I suspect. Nigel said "You’re always the bright spirit that says ‘good morning, how are you’ and I would love to see you become a teacher as well, because you just energize everyone around you.”

Katee and Joshua were next -- the only regret I had is that they came so early in the show -- with a Wade Robson contemporary routine. As the camera rolled on their rehearsal, they discussed the theme of the dance: “Love is hard work but it’s the best thing that you’ll work for in your life,” Wade said.

Joshua: “We have a good chemistry onstage, and a good chemistry offstage.”

Katee: “Josh is my boo.”

Oh, you win, Katee, you win. (You know how I love people using the word "boo.")

Bizarrely, Joshua got to wear regular clothes for this routine, while Katee appeared to be in a nighty. The look of the dance called up all the previous contemporary routines I'd seen Joshua and Katee do, and struck me overall as a beautiful "Thriller" -- the movements were jerky and strange as in the Thriller dance, but there was a finesse to the way they were executed and in the emotion Katee and Joshua portrayed that brought it together beautifully.

Nigel said "This for me, particularly great because everything show-bizzy was taken out of it. Here she is now, almost in tears before the routine begins – and didn’t she dance it brilliantly. With Joshua, what Joshua has is uncontrolled control, so this is not a normal dancer. This is a brilliant dancer. Between the pair of them, they’re two of the best dancers we’ve ever had on this show."

This was my second-favorite routine of the night...followed by one of the most terrible routines I've ever seen on this show.

Katee and Courtney danced a Tyce Diorio Broadway routine (already, ick to Broadway) in which they were two girls on the town, trying to catch the train.

First of all, if we hadn't been told they were trying to get the train, the cavorting across the stage they did through the whole routine would have seen like...well, meaningless cavorting across the stage. Since we knew they were going to the train, it seemed like...meaningless cavorting across the stage. What can I say.

Secondly, their costumes were hideous. They looked like Powerpuff girls dipped in cake frosting. The atrocity of these costumes surpassed even the "Push It" costumes of last year, and even the Cat Dealy horror show "tuxedo" dress of earlier this season.

The first thing Mandy Moore said, of course, was “Well, it was so cute. You look adorable. Those costumes are beautiful.” I stopped listening to her at this point.

Mary said the kindest things that could be said of this routine: "“Who wouldn’ tlike seeing the two of you dance together? You know, dancing with an umbrella as a prop is very dangerous, and you guys pulled it off."

Nigel followed: "It really is tough. Gene Kelly showed that in singing in the rain. I agree with Kelly, it’s so nice to see girls dancing with girls.” (Ha ha!)

Next was Twitch's solo, before which he was interviewed: “[My desire to dance] comes from a number of things. I would dance all the time in the most inappropriate places. There is not a lot to do [in Twitch's hometown], so you have to use your imagination and make the place work for you. The Viennese waltz that Jean-Marc did (was his favorite routine). The reason why I danced all the time to me it’s the least that I can give back to the art form, because it’s given so much back to me already.”

Jean-Marc's routine was dedicated to his disabled daughter, and clips showed Kherington and Twitch backstage with Jean-Marc after the performance, crying. A tearful Jean-Marc clutched one of each of their hands and squeaked out a French-accented "she's going to love it."

This interview could win Twitch the competiton, I thought.

Twitch and Joshua danced together next, the video of their practice playing up the rivalry between them.

Twitch: “The rivalry between Josh and I started way back when.

“Twitch, are you ready for that? Are you ready for those?” Joshua shows his biceps. “Of course, my tricks are so dynamic.”

Twich: “He’s just a pansy. I have already taken it, Josh.”

They had insisted that the dance, the Russian trepak, was "testosterone-driven" -- making me laugh aloud when music from The Nutcracker came on.

I have to say, I didn't really understand this routine, which was a lot of back-and-forth, high-jumping for Josh and going around on his knees for Twitch, but it was pretty fun to watch -- or would have been if the camerawork had been less frenetic.

Nigel had obviously been wanting this routine for awhile, comparing everything to the trepak since Bollywood: "I was expecting you to be good at that. That was street dancing – Russian street dancing. Now how tough is that on your thighs??”

Twitch: "Very!"

Joshua: "What thighs?"

“It’ll be something that is spoken about for many years to come," continued Nigel. "And we’ll remember you two for doing the trepak on this show, fo’ sho.”

Katee's solo was next, and was improved from the usual desperate-contemporary by the requirements of the music -- Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek" -- which stopped and started in a way that allowed Katee to break up her movements and show her technical proficiency (rather than her ability to run across the stage a lot in smooth, flowing motions).

Sadly, her interview and the judges' comments weren't very memorable, which I suspect will hurt her in the final vote.

Katee and Twitch danced a foxtrot, which was beautiful and jazzy despite being ballroom. Afterward, the judges asked Twitch to introduce himself as James Bond. Twitch played it up, asking Nigel to do the impression first, and then copying admirably.

Joshua did his solo. The interview with Cat was actually pretty funny, showing more of Cat's personality than we've typically seen: Joshua said “I’ve had a lot of struggles coming up. We didn’t have a lot of money to take a lot of classes. If I did go to classes, they let me do chores. I just never would have thought that I could have done it. I’m normally not a crier, at all.”

Cat stopped him: "You are the biggest blubberer on this show!" And she fake-cries.

Joshua finishes: "I’d rather be here, dead [from fatigue at practicing] than be at home doing nothing. Because everything here is a blessing.”

Excellent interview, Joshua -- could be enough to win you the competition. When he performed his solo, Josh went up onto the judges' stand and spent about half his thirty seconds dancing there.

The jive with Joshua and Courtney was probably the technically worst dance of the night, coming as it was at the end of the competition, and being a very quick step.

Nigel didn't pull any punches, though: "It didn’t have the great feel that the jive should have. [People began to boo, and Nigel spoke directly to the audience.] I really like people to learn and to get better. [Back to the dancers.] It isn’t to knock you because you are superb dancers and you’re exhausted superb dancers. It wasn’t brilliant, it was tired. It was tough on you. Tough. That’s a dancer’s life. Be better. Every single time, be better.”

Finally, all four dancers performed a Mia Michaels contemporary routine to the Vitamin String Quartet's "Hallelujah." They all wore Scottish kilts, possibly explaining my reaction to this dance.

They didn't dance as well as they had earlier in the night, when they were fresher. They didn't dance as though they were a company that had been together for years. The camerawork was shite.

But I loved. This. Routine.

When I was in China, we foreigners would sometimes be treated to performances of Chinese minority dances -- a bunch of Chinese girls in variously complicated traditional costumes, performing a series of subtle moves that could be basically mastered by anyone (even, I suppose, me) -- and I struggled not to cry every time.

This Scottish routine made me feel the same elation I felt watching the ancient dances of the Tibetans or the Yi. There's something about the history and collective-ness of this kind of choreographed, concerted movement that gets me every time.

Lovely, lovely end to the best season of competition I've seen so far on SYD.

I can't wait to see who wins, but I almost don't care. They really have all earned it.