Is it a Disco Ball? Is it a Golden Statuette? Is it $$$$$$$? Tonight, the final 4 battle it out in SYTYCD Season 5 and I don't even know the prize!

Is it a Disco Ball? Is it a Golden Statuette? Is it $$$$$$$? Is it a spot in Cirque Du Soleil? What is it? Tonight, the Final Four battle it out in SYTYCD Season 5 and I just realized that I don’t even know what the prize is this time around, do you?!?

Hollywood’s Kodak Theater, home to the Oscars, has more than 3,000 people plus four cool dancers tonight, and they are called out by Cat, cavorting, tumbling and smiling to a cheering crowd. I do not quite understand what Cat’s wearing, but well I’ll just have to look at it some more. Adam (as I posted in my spoilers) is back, and he quickly implies that he expected Brandon (obviously) and Kayla (former assistant to Brian Friedman and Tyce Diorio at several conventions) to get this far, but not Evan and Jeanine, clear crowd pleasers and vote getters with their winning ways.

As the dancing starts, in a funny(?) group number choreographed by Wade Robson, the girls outdo the boys, but it seems a little slow (lame, almost?) for an opening number with the top 4 (don’t you think?). Despite the visual jokes, it is not a demanding or discriminating dance. I could perhaps say that it seems that Jeanine was a little better than the rest, but maybe that was just because I saw more of her. I guess these dancers really do not care about cheerleading. With some clips regarding season six auditions and after the dancing big belly jelly (Ok, I am gonna have a hard time getting THAT picture out of my head) we go to a brake and return to…

Jeanine kicking Evan’s butt! I have to agree with Mia’s way of saying things sometimes: That number was sick! Actually, to be precise, I must say that Sonya is sick! IT WAS GREAT CHOREOGRAPHY! Too bad that the dancing lacked energy. Jeanine was the better of the two, literally carrying Evan’s weight. Oh, how much I would have like to see this number danced by Jeanine and Brandon instead! Part of the problem was, as Nigel does point out, that the stage is big. So far, the dancers have not been as big as the stage that they are on now. We’ll see as the night plays out what happens.
(Ok, maybe Cat’s outfit is a fancy pajama top with a matching mini…)

So, Brandon’s solo is strong, athletic and dynamic but, a bit all over the place! One trick to the next, a move here, a move there. A bit more cohesiveness and choreography would have been welcome. His surfer dude board costume also, well… can’t quite imagine him in that crowd.

Tyce’s choreography for Brandon and Kayla allows Brandon to showcase Kayla: He is such a good partner! Kayla dances awesome with him! This is the last number from All That Jazz where the choreographer/dancer dies (see the movie, it is great!). They do fill the stage with this dance, as Nigel says, but I just have to imagine the difference between a great partner and two great dancers! Seeing Brandon here with Kayla doing D’Orio’s cookie makes me just wonder the missed possibilities of that Wonder Sonya’s choreography with Brandon and Jeanine instead of Brandon and Kayla. That would have been such a sick sickening number! No question about it, but I guess we will see how those pairings do in a few minutes. By the way, Nigel, if you like those legs over your attacked heart, why don’t you put a ring on it!

Travis raves over Jeanine’s solo and with reason! Just the pirouettes are amazing, but the fast moves combined with the slow ones perhaps will make you understand what I meant when I said that Brandon’s solo seemed to have no choreography. The right combination of simple and complex moves make it a great showcase for her skill and personality! (Is Adam going to revert from his old ways for Jeanine? You almost would have thought so after he gushes and compliments her beauty, her body and her smile but then he says “girrrl drop that flower” with such gusto, that I guess not—then we see why! As he gets that flower from her mouth and shares a bite of it with the jidges).

Evan and Brandon’s number by Laurieann has aggressive moves and tries to be nasty, depicting a danced-off street fight with stereotyped costuming out of a James Dean 50’s movie. This number shows that Evan deserves to be in the top twenty, maybe that he has grown enough to deserve to be in the top ten… now… (he has grown despite what Nigel said last week)… but it also clearly shows that he did not deserve to be in the top four. No way! Brandon, however, is sharp, clean and self assured in his dancing. He was the better of the two no question about it.

Mia choreographs a contemporary piece for Jeanine and Kayla that is as close to a strip tease as you can get on a show like this. Nigel is, of course, excited, but Adam defines it as, well, the world’s biggest wardrobe malfunction. I do not quite understand where Mia was coming from, first moving the dancers like chickens shedding feathers and then ending in an emotional heart grabbing gesture. Perhaps one day I will not have mixed feelings about Mia’s choreographies, but this was not the day. Let us hope that strip teasing does not become a permanent fixture of SYTYCD (though perhaps Nigel will try hard to do so) as randomly as Bollywood and Russian Folk Dance have become a permanent “style” (oh, and since we’re at it, how about cheerleading also becoming one of the “classics” for contestants to draw out of the hat?). All I can say is that Jeanine was smoother in her moves and jumps than Kayla, and, again, seemingly more self assured.

In the next solo Evan’s butt sticks out a little too much, in what almost seems a caricature of the Gene Kelly style of dancing (maybe this is the Laurel & Hardy version of it?). Is it perhaps a modern take? I don’t think so… he is a nice guy, he has some good moves, and if he wins it could only be because of his lost puppy eyes. In the end this is a show looking for America’s Favorite Dancer, after all, is it not? I would be disappointed a bit, though, if the winner was not Brandon or Jeanine whom I think are nice guys with amazing moves, charming smiles and looks—and are also great dancers!

OK, at this point, I am forced to, but do not want to comment on the Evan/Kayla Jive routine. Was it comedy? I truly did not like this number, which did (as Adam said) not seem to be a Show Finale kind of routine. But the dancing! Kayla seems genetically incapable of turning out, which makes her be in the wrong spot for each next move, making her lose smoothness; Evan’s kicks were sadly unenergetic… maybe he was tired?… Kayla was lucky however, because Evan was not up to par and she over-danced him. Brandon helped her with her partnering; Evan, because he was dim next to her. She has a chance with the voting public! When she does her solo, next, it shows her technique deficiencies once again. She has charm, but her technique falters. Ok, so she has long legs (and long feet)…

Then comes the final competition number of the night, a Paso (Louis Van Amstel’s) with Brandon and Jeanine. Expectations fulfilled, this is the best number of the night!!!!! This Paso a la The Matrix was really, rreeally, rreeaaalllyyyy gooooood!!!!! Ok, so maybe these guys are my favorites, but it made Nigel scream a la Mary! Nigel talks about how in the Paso Brandon does what he wants with that woman and he wants to do it too! That was really creepy, Nigel. Maybe you really should put a ring on it!

With the dancing done, Cat (in that outfit that I can’t decide how to describe) puts the judges on the spot, and the two ladies in the panel cannot bring themselves to fess up as to who they like best. Nigel says that he thinks that the winner will be either Jeanine or Brandon (if logic prevailed, no shocker here)—which will probably make Evan’s and Kayla’s fans twitch hard tonight! It is up for grabs. My favorite—you know it—is Jeanine, but all I can say now is that it is time to let my fingers do the talking.

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LINKS TO TONIGHT'S SHOW RELATED VIDEOS:

All That Jazz - Bye Bye Life
Gene Kelly's Singing in the Rain
More Gene Kelly
Usher Tribute to Gene Kelly's Singin' in the Rain