E: Usually when it comes to SYT, I spend days making lists of the season’s best routines and figuring out which pieces I hope the dancers reprise in the finale. Unfortunately, this season has been so truncated, so brief, that I really can’t present a reasonable list. With only four live shows before the finale (as opposed to 7 in last season’s already shortened showing), how much time has there been to do great work, or watch dancers grown across the season? We spent far more time with dancers eliminated at the Academy like Emily, Kyle and Dustin than we did dancers with less initial air time who actually made it through the audition. Think about it; the first two dancers eliminated, Evan and Chelsea, actually danced in half of the live shows before the finale. HALF. This year half the season was two shows.
Don’t get me wrong; any dancing is better than nothing. I’ve enjoyed watching it, even though time didn’t permit me to blog it. But I hope FOX will do as Nigel begged and grant them a top twenty season last year. It was so nice, at least, to have real partnerships; how much better would a season be with time to breathe?
In lieu of my big list, this year I will only ask for the very most obvious, the one piece that will truly stick with me from this season. There’s been a decent amount that I liked, and I do have my rooting interest in a winner (Team Hannahlei!) but the routine of the season was Travis’s searing indictment of gender conformity, “It Takes a Lot to Know a Man” for Darius and Taylor, and I look forward to seeing it again tonight. And I hope for more dancing and less absurdity next summer.
Relatively Entertaining 