Jeanine Mason: Hollywood here I come!

Ashton Kutcher's new partner? Jeanine Mason, 'So You Think You Can Dance' winner.

By Olivia Smith DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, August 11th 2009, 10:59 AM

Ashton Kutcher on "Dancing with the Stars?"
The A-lister, currently promoting his movie "Spread," probably won't be putting on his ballroom shoes anytime soon.
But if he ever decides to pursue a dance career, his partnering skills aren't too shabby. On "Live with Regis and Kelly" on Monday, the actor gamely took "So You Think You Can Dance" winner Jeanine Mason on a spin. Here's the video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydl6qfBMKJw
After performing the solo that helped her twirl her way to victory last Thursday, the 18-year-old Florida native straddled Kutcher's neck, and he stood up to his full height with the young dancer on his shoulders, legs shooting out past his face.
Mr. Demi Moore then pretended to fall to the ground, resulting a tangle of his head with Mason’s bare legs as they rolled around on the floor together.
The Twitter-prone actor later Tweeted to his followers, "So much fun on Regis and Kelly. What a blast I'll comeback anytime."
We wonder if Demi, who arrived with him for his appearance on the show, feels the same.
Moments before their duet, Kutcher grilled Mason about the steamy kiss she shared with fellow contestant Jason on the hit reality show.
Mason first made it clear that the two "are very good friends, and that's it, though. So we'll clear that up right now."
But Travis Wall, who choreographed the romantic routine that ended in the steamy liplock, had told the dancers to make it real, and maybe they got a little carried away.
"You should know this Ashton, being an actor, things happen," Mason teased him.
"It looked real to me," Kutcher said.
So less than a week after her win, Mason is chumming around with a major star and maybe even jumpstarting her second career (or will it be her first?): acting.

SYTYCD: THE END OF SEASON V AND THE BEGINNING OF SEASON VI. IT'S A SHORT WITHDRAWAL THIS TIME AROUND

The Gallery comes to life when the lights dim and that first choreography of the top 20 Season 5 dancers brightens up the stage. In feathers, shorts and colorful makeup the dancers have coordinated fun and showmanship. Good job, boys and girls!
Terpsichore Cat, beautiful as usual, leads us through clips of the season, not without letting us know first that the prize will be $250K and the title “America’s Favorite Dancer” in front of 3,500 people in the theater (good host this gal, she is).
At the jidges table we find the designated upper tier choreographers and judges Lil’ C’, Mia Michaels, Tyce Diorio, Debbie Allen, Adam Shankman, Mary Murphy and Nigel Lythgoe. The audience includes all the others, in strategic spots, ready to raise their hand and smile when called upon. Cat starts going down the jidges’ table in search of replays for the favorites. First we get Adam’s top number, “Mad” with Phillip and Jeanine (one of my own tops), then Nigel claims the Tango by Brandon and Jeanette (I must say also a favorite of mine, but I did not place it in my links). Miss Allen goes all romantic with Vitolio and Asuka’s waltz, not in my list, and Mary screams out that her favorite is Travis’ heart on a chain routine by Jeanine and Jason which they perform beautifully and—they kiss again! Cat calls on Mia’s favorite and Mia claims her favorite is another Louis Van Amstel choreography, a samba with Kayla and Maks, a boring long routine which I did not like then and I don’t like now.
After the obligatory plug for Fame (ok, so it looks like it could be a cool movie, I hope it is), Debbie Allen (who was in the original Fame) gets a chance to redeem herself by choosing a group number and selects that hot and steamy top 16 “calle ocho” choreographed by Dimitri, Tabitha and Napoleon, where Jeanine and Janette stand out, Brandon gets in front of it all, and Kayla (placed in the front also) nearly stumbles.
We get to see in a break of the action the winner of Australia’s SYTYCD, Talia Fowler, who is amazing, has the most beautiful feet and extensions, as well as technique.
Lil’ C’s scripted bucc favorite is Caitlin and Jason’s Jai Ho! That first show’s outstanding number, crowd pleasing Bollywood in Hollywood! (and Jason gets kissed once again! What is it with this boy?).
In the first report of results, Cat delivers the news to Kayla. Logic prevails and this telegraphs good news for Jeanine (I think). Kayla is a beautiful dancer. Her long legs will become a long memory that can make us forget a bit of her shortcoming in technique issues. But definitely there were better dancers in the show, and apparently at least one that was more popular, despite his own, greater, shortcomings.
Adam is required to request another routine and he calls for the butt dance! That was a good dance by Randi and Evan, one of my listed favorites (see link to the side) and probably the only number that Evan performed that could not have been better danced by anyone else. Another Louis Van Amstel number gets selected, this time by Mary, and with good reason—Jeanine and Brandon’s Paso Doble from last night, a matrix revolution all and into itself. Love this one!!!!
Let’s do some scoring right now: out of the judges’ favorites, three Jeannine, two Brandon and one each for Evan and Kayla (one less than Jason for each). A pattern seems to emerge. Nigel seems to notice and gets that great choreography, Mia’s Addiction, danced barely fairly by Kupono and Kayla. This is a tour filler routine danced that way, that I would rather pay to see performed by Mark Kamemura and Jeanine, to truly make the number addictive to all who see it. Then Tyce calls it in, and gets Brandon and Jeanette’s high energy and kick*** disco number on the floor! So, Brandon and Jeanine are tied now, three a piece in the jidges favorites! (and Jeanette, Jason and Kayla are tied at two each, Evan only one—but Katie Holmes has had no votes). Mia gets the final choice of the favorite routines, and she chooses that heartbreaking routine choreographed by Tyce and danced so well by Melissa and Ade: the breast cancer homage.
Just before the end, the judges come out from behind mirrors for their own moment in the limelight. Reflections on the season, puffed as peacocks, they revel in the applause by the audience at the theater, satisfied to the end of a well executed season and TV show (yet I can’t help but think I know that this was taped—after all that is what my spoiler sources said, and I don’t mean Spoiler Sal).
The joy of Jeanine as Cat announces her as the winner is contagious. I am happy with her win, just as I would have been with Brandon. She is a talented and smart girl that carefully played the game and strategically positioned herself to get where she got. Yay Jeanine! You are a great role model! Hope this win leads to many more accomplishments in your future. The best won this time around on SYTYCD.

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