To open the finale, the original Top 20 dancers from So You Think You Can Dance season 8 performed a jazz routine, choreographed by Sonya Tayeh and set to "Wanna Get Hype" by District 78.
SYTYCD Season 8 Finale - Judges
An extended panel of judges was brought back to comment on the season. They included: choreographer and producer Nigel Lythgoe, ballroom expert Mary Murphy, krumper Lil' C, Pussycat Dolls founder Robin Antin, choreographers Tyce DiOrio and Sonya Tayeh, and actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson from Modern Family.
With the Top 4 dancers on stage (Tadd, Sasha, Marko and Melanie), each judge commented on the dancers and the season as a whole.
SYTYCD Season 8 Finale - Favorite Dances
As in previous seasons, the judges had a chance to re-introduce some of the favorite dances from the season. Mary was first, and chose the contemporar piece by Sasha and All-Star Kent, choreographed by Tyce DiOrio and set to "Fool of Me" by Me'Shell Ndegeocello. This was the "wall dance", which highlighted Sasha's powerful, emotional style.
Nigel introduced Melanie and Marko for their first of two performances together in the finale: "I Got You" by Leona Lewis, a hip hop routine choreographed by Tabitha & Napoleon. Robin then chose a jazz routine choreographed by Mandy Moore: Tadd and All-Star Lauren's dance to "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen. This time, Tadd was able to keep his hat with him throughout the piece.
Lil' C introduced one of his favorite hip hop routines, choreographed by Tabitha & Napoleon, with Miranda and Robert dancing to "Break Ya Neck" by Busta Rhymes. Host Cat Deeley also got to choose a dance this year, and introduced a replay (not live) of the Top 8 circus routine choreographed by Tyce DiOrio and set to "The Circus Sets Up" on the Water for Elephants soundtrack.
Another of Mary's favorite dances from the season was Melanie's contemporary routine with All-Star Neil, set to "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler and choreographed by Mandy Moore. Jesse picked yet another emotional contemporary piece, Marko's dance with All-Star Allison, choreographed by Sonya Tayeh and set to "I Know It's Over" by Jeff Buckley. Tyce then introduced the "geisha dance", which was Sonya Tayeh's jazz routine to "Pop Drop & Roll" by Chonique Sneed for the Top 10 Girls.
For Lil' C's second choice, he introduced Ashley and Chris in their Broadway routine set to "Please Mr. Jailer" by Rachel Sweet and choreographed by Spencer Liff. Another of Nigel's favorites was a hip hop routine choreographed by LXD's Christopher Scott, for Sasha and All-Star Twitch. It was set to "Misty Blue" by Dorothy Moore, and was dubbed the "soggy cornflakes" routine by Nigel.
Sonya (whose routines were chosen for 3 out of the 14 favorite numbers, more than any other choreographer) re-introduced the Top 10 Guys in their fusion routine choreographed by Christopher Scott and set to "Velocity" by Nathan Lanier. While they re-performed this live (including Mitchell, who was originally injured that week during the season, and Alexander with freshly bleached hair), the next dance was replayed from the original episode: Jesse chose Caitlynn and All-Star Pasha's Argentine tango set to "Malajunta" by Orquesta Color Tango and choreographed by Miriam & Leonardo.
Mary's final choice was Melanie and Marko's "statue dance" from the first competition episode, choroegraphed by Travis Wall and set to "Return to Stone" by Ingrid Michaelson. To end the performances, Nigel chose a jazz piece choreographed by Sonya Tayeh for Melanie and Sasha and set to "Game On" by District 78, the infamous performance after which Lady Gaga was moved to toss her shoes to both the dancers and choreographer.
SYTYCD Season 8 Finale - Guest Performance
Mixed in with the favorite routines was a special guest performance by So You Think You Can Dance U.K. Winner Matt Flint. Matt is a tapper, and performed a special tap routine alongside Top 20 contestants Jess and Nick. They danced to "Can't Buy Me Love" by Michael Buble.
Also during the episode, the Top 4 were shown attending the Glee 3D Movie premiere in Hollywood with dancers from the show.
SYTYCD Season 8 Finale - Results
The season's final results were:
4th place - b-boy Tadd
3rd place - jazz dancer Marko
2nd place - contemporary dancer Sasha
Winner - contemporary dancer Melanie
The voting was incredible, with Sasha pulling 32% of the viewers' votes, and Melanie receiving 47% of the votes. Although Nigel apologized early in the episode for telling the Top 2 guys last night that a girl would win the competition, that did not deter anyone from voting for the women.
Melanie now holds the title of "America's Favorite Dancer", wins the $250,000 grand prize, and will be featured in an ad campaign for Gatorade and on the cover of Dance Spirit Magazine.
Terry Finch - Terry Finch is a dance teacher and choreographer in Central PA with an extensive training and teaching background in many forms of ...
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