And cue music...

Posted: Friday, August 13, 2010 by Travis Cody in
9


Welcome to the finale!

We've got our fru-fru finery, our wine and cheese, and our CAKE.  We are ready to find out who will be named America's Favorite Dancer for Season 7.

Will it be Kent Boyd?  Will it be Lauren Froderman?  Will it be Robert Roldan?

Let's have a final round of encores, shall we?  These are our favorite routines from Wednesday's performance finale.  It looks like the embed police got to these, so I'll just give you the links.


We liked the contemporary piece from Lauren and Robert.  Click here...the dance begins at about 0:52.


We liked the Cha Cha Cha from Lauren and All Star Pasha.  Click here...the dance begins at about 0:53.


The Broadway piece from Robert and All Star Kathryn could have been our choice dance of the night.  Grrrrrrrr...could not find a clip of this dance.


We gave dance of the night honors to the contemporary piece from Kent and All Star Allison.  Rats!  This clip is also missing.


Season 7 Top 3 - Robert, Lauren, Kent


Best of luck to all three finalists...here we go!


The group number features a combination of our All Stars and the return of our Top 11 dancers.  Yes, I said the Top 11...including Alex Wong, who makes an appearance on stage in a chair.  The stage is full of dancers and the piece finishes with our Top 3, front and center.  It was choreographed by Christopher Scott.

Cat is looking stunning with the free flowing hair and a soft peach colored frock.  LEGSSES for the last time!


We have a packed judging table with Nigel Lythgoe, Mia Michaels, Adam Shankman, Tyce Diorio, Stacey Tookey, Kenny Ortega...and the return of the fabulous Mary Murphy.  I have missed the Hot Tamale Train!

Let's begin the parade of favorite dances from Season 7.


Kenny Ortega selects the Shoeless Joe number choreographed by Tyce Diorio, danced by Kent and All Star Neil.  Click here.


Billy Bell, Top 6
Nigel selects the amazing Mad World number choreographed by Stacey Tookey number, danced by Billy and All Star Ade.  This piece competes for my "moment" of the season.  Click here.


Special guest...Quest, featuring SYTYCD alums Ryan and Hok.  Wow!


AdeChike Torbert, Top 4
Mia selects the emotional Fallin' piece choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon, danced by AdeChike and All Star Comfort.  This is basically hip hop theatre, and another competitor for my "moment".  Click here.


Kent and All Star Anya recreate their Cha Cha Cha, danced to My First Kiss.  Click here.


Tyce selects the Scars number choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon, danced by Robert and All Star Dominic.  This is the scary clown number, and another piece of hip hop theatre.  Click here.

Now we have some footage from National Dance Day, which was 31 July.

Special performance...it's Nigel, but he walks out on a pair of crutches with a huge bandage on his foot.  That's a reference to the horrible injury luck we had this season.  This cute little guy comes out and says he'll fill in...he's 7 and his name is Luke Spring.  And he's a ringer!  He's got every tap step you can name. 


Special guests...the Manzari Brothers, a pair of outstanding tap dancers from National Dance Day.  Click here.


Nigel selects the Argentine Tango choreographed by Miriam and Leonardo, danced by Lauren and All Star Pasha.  Sorry, couldn't find the clip.


Russell, Season 6
Adam selects the Fix You piece choreographed by Travis Wall, danced by Robert and All Star Allison.  Click here.


Season 6 champion Russell Ferguson returns to krump with Lil C.  I don't generally like this style of dance, but this young man is stunningly talented.

Jose Ruiz, Top 6
Mary Murphy selects the Battle for the Beat hip hop piece choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon, danced by Jose and All Star Dominic.  Click here.


Special guest...Charlie Bruce, winner of SYTYCD Great Britain, dancing with All Star Neil in a piece choreographed by Mandy Moore.  She is tremendous.  Click here.


Oh...it's the first elimination.  The third place finisher is Robert Roldan.  He flirted often with the bottom three, and the judges rewarded his potential each time by selecting him to stay in the competition.  He finally started to connect with voters and I'm glad.  I think he has grown so much over the competition and should look forward to an amazing career.  



Now it's down to Kent or Allison.  

Adam selects the My Chick Bad number choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon, danced by Lauren and All Star Twitch.  Click here.  


Alex Wong, injured
Cat picks a favorite...it's the Hallelujah routine from the first week, choreographed by Sonya Tayeh and danced brilliantly by Alex and All Star Allison.  We get it on tape because Alex is still unable to dance due to injury.  Yet one more candidate for my "moment" of the season.  Click here.


Stacey Tookey selects the Bollywood piece choreographed by Nakul, danced by Billy and Robert.  Click here.


Mia selects the How It Ends piece choreographed by Travis Wall, danced by Kent and All Star Neil.  There are so many amazing moments from this season.  One more candidate for my "moment" of Season 7.  And it was even better this second time.  Click here.


Special musical guest...Black Gold performing the exit song Shine.


Now it's the big surprise...remember the fantastic hip hop number danced by Alex and Twitch?  Well guess who recreates it?  Twitch and...Ellen Degeneres!  HA!  Don't kid yourself.  The gal can get it done.  She's no Alex, but she was doing her thang.  Here's the awesome original version.  Yeah...that one's on my list of moments too.

I think you get the idea...this was a great season driven by outstanding choreography and an incredibly talented group of dancers.  It's a shame that there were so many injuries that cut short the time for two promising dancers.  But that's part of the game, and I say it takes nothing away from what turned out to be an excellent summer season of dance.


Oh...it's time.


Second place is Kent Boyd.






That means America's Favorite Dancer for Season 7 is Lauren Froderman!




Lauren joins former champions Nick Lazzarini, Benji Scwimmer, Sabra Johnson, Joshua Allen, Jeanine Mason, and Russell Ferguson.


Well done young Lady!!







9 comments:

  1. Honestly, I thought Cat's little black dress from the previous night was much better than the finale dress.
    If Alex had been able to dance, the night would have indeed belonged to Nappy/Tabs. There may have been as many as four hip-hop routines among the favorites.
    Congratulations indeed to Lauren. She was my favorite for sure. I though Mia Michaels paid her the ultimate compliment when she said, "I would want to dance like you." Lauren brought everything to the dance floor, power, beauty, grace, personality. You couldn't ask anything more from a dancer. I can't wait until season 8 starts.

  1. Driller: I also forgot to credit the Alex and Twitch hip hop number to Tab & Nap, so that's 5 of the favorite routines from last night. I love it when they do the lyrical story telling in their choreography, which we will now evidently refer to as hip hop theatre. But this season, to take so many contemporary dancers and turn in such incredible dances...Tab & Nap were as much stars of the show as the dancers were.

  1. I think this was the best group of dancers ever and I am sad that it all went too fast.

    I love how dancers are so supportive and sensitive of one another. I adored Kent, Robert and Lauren.

    I was happy that she won. All three were incredible.

    Thanks Travis for going the extra mile for those of us that love SYTUCD. You did a wonderful job of keeping us informed.

    Why did we not see Janine this year?

  1. Anonymous says:

    Trav: Thanks for the wrap-up. I missed it. Having too much fun dodging raindrops on our vay-cay, I guess! Wine cheese AND cake! Sounds like a great evening. Bug-bitten and tired: GGG

  1. That Lauren won was right. She simply made the most improvement over the season and the whole season was great. Thank you for taking us along with your expertise.

  1. What a show and season. Nappy/Tabs did own the night with their routines.
    I am very happy for Lauren. She did a remarkable job.

    But Kent and Robert will be working soon - they are both incredibly talented young men.

    Thanks for the recaps again Travis

  1. Marsha says:

    Great recap as always. Nappy/Tabs owned the season really, their dances were so awesome this time around. But you've picked my favorites as well, across the board, so many good choices but have to say the Alex/Twitch routine was my very favorite. When it got to the top three at that point I wasn't going to complain who won, all three did so well.

  1. Pam: That's a good question about Jeanine...no idea why she wasn't part of the finale since she and Russell combined as champions for a year, with seasons 5 and 6 happening so close together.

    GGG: But at least you were having a good time!

    Jamie: I would argue that Robert also showed tremendous improvement, but it's really splitting hairs. I think all three were evenly matched in terms of talent. Lauren is a worthy champion.

    V: Tab & Nap sure did have a great year, as did some newer choreographers to the show.

    Marsha: I think I enjoyed about 80% of the routines this season, to one degree or another.

  1. Julie says:

    Finally caught up here. It was a lovely finale and I was able to enjoy it uninterrupted! A delight to the eyes...and ears!