August 8, 2008
Joshua Allen Wins So You Think You Can Dance Season 4
Written by: John
Congratulations to Joshua Allen! A well deserved win and I couldn’t be happier. Ever since Joshua made the top 20, there was a certain humility about him that I found very endearing. Looks like America did too.
However, let’s dig a little deeper into why I think Joshua won this year’s So You Think You Can Dance. The fact is that maybe it wasn’t so much what Joshua did, but what others did that led Joshua to the win. For example, I really think that America didn’t like the fact that Twitch was in Hairspray. America loves an underdog and Twitch was the supreme come back kid. Twitch was Rocky coming back for another fight after being knocked down how many years in a row. Unfortunately, I think that his underdog polish was smeared when people found out he’d been in Hairspray.
Katee Shean was a beautiful dancer and certainly a joy to watch. I wonder if she wasn’t too good. I only say that, because she was so good that the judges just absolutely gushed over her. The only question is whether Katee fans just thought Katee had it in the bag and decided not to vote or whether all the gushing over Katee made Twitch and Joshua fans get out and vote even more. Either way, at least Katee went home with $50k. That should ease her pain of being third a little.
Courtney Galiano, well I honestly don’t know why she didn’t do better, but America just didn’t like her as much as the others. My mother absolutely adored her, but unfortunately my mother doesn’t pick up the phone and vote. I guess Courtney needed to target a little bit younger demographic of voters.
Of course, I think Joshua actually was given a gift by the producers of So You Think You Can Dance that pushed him over the top. Joshua was seen as this likable, humble, strong man. As a street dancer he can certainly play the underdog card really well, but yesterday’s episode he hit it out of the park.
During Joshua’s segment he told a true underdog story about a guy (Joshua) who came from humble means, but wanted to dance so much that he’d clean the dance studio in order to pay for lessons. Sounds like something right out of a movie, no? All of America took Joshua under their arms and voted so they could make this great American story have it’s fairy tale ending.
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Personally, I think the voters this season have been either blind or dumb. I’m sorry, but Joshua and Courtney in the Top 4? And then Josh wins?? Ridiculous. Anyone who knows and appreciates brilliant dancing knows that Chelsea should have been in the finale with Katee. Those two practically nailed every routine they performed. As for the guys, Will should have been in the finale, no question. Yes, Joshua is a good dancer, and very strong. But they guy needs tons of technical training and I never felt that he perfomed anywhere near the level of some of the better dancers. I think his win is a slap in the face to the dancers who have spent years in training to get to a place like this … only to be voted off by morons who don’t know the difference between basic and brilliant.
You hit the nail on the head with - what did the other dancers NOT do. Once you turn the judging over to America, it becomes more about personalities than dancing. Let’s face it, the average person doesn’t know how to spot great technical dancing - they just like the overall look of what the dancers are doing on the stage.
Katee’s personality wasn’t strong enough to win or take 2nd place. Her dancing could have won her the competition, but her lack-luster persona didn’t induce people to pick up the phone as much as Josh’s had the opposite effect.
And on another note - can you believe my DVR didn’t record the finale?!?! GRRR!! Thankfully I turned the TV on in time to catch the last 15 minutes of the show, but I still missed everything that came before that. So bummed.
There’s plenty of technical dance competitions out there. I say that if you want to compete in a technical competition, then go somewhere else. It’s not just personality, but also that IT factor that allows a dancer to entertain, express emotion and feeling better than another dancer. That’s why Joshua won.
The sad thing is that I think Katee could have had the personality to go farther, but she never went after it. She always deferred to her partner and so we didn’t get to see her personality as much. Did you see the finale when she let Will talk rather than her saying something?
Amy, sorry to hear about your DVR. I’ll see if I can find the videos for you later.
I know the reason that Josh won (and I actually like him) is because the judges kept portraying him (as well as Twitch) as untrained dancers, when in fact Josh (as well as Twitch) have had a lot of training. The judges tried to paint what Josh was doing on the stage as a miracle. It’s not a miracle, he’s been training in ballet since he was like 7 (no miracle there). I can’t believe the other contestants let the show get away with this. I think I would have grabbed the microphone at one point if I were Josh’s partner and explain to the audience at home and in the theatre that Josh is a trained dancer. He even admits this on the website.
SYTCD banks on the fact that the viewing audience is stupid—so they can pick the winner by lying about the dancers training. I did actually like Josh, but only second to Katee. As they are both trained dancers, Katee was far superior and my personal favorite.
Joshua never did hide his training, though it was intermittent. The show decided to ignore the great story of his struggles to get some training. Not his fault and America could see that.Joshua had no training at all in ballroom, yet I’ve read recap by ballroom experts who were impressed with his skill in that area. For example, Jill Kennedy, on Dance Minute, even said his technique in the paso doble was impressive and better than Katee’s. She was surprised that the judges failed to point out Katee’s topline during the judging. Yes, Nigel did a disservice to dancers by implying that anyone can just walk off the streets and miraculously dance. But viewers were shown Joshua explaining his training from Top 20 and I give them credit for ignoring Nigel’s idiocy. Joshua has done extremely well given the limitations (not the absence) of his training. It was a well deserved win and I congratulate him on his perseverance.
I agree and disagree with some of the points already made. I was actually not that impressed with Joshua - I thought he tended to get sloppy of lazy near the end of his routines, esp once he got to the point of performing more than one a night.
Unlike the previous comments, I did not find that the show or Joshua (remember he’d left this out of his application which is why the judges made a point of commenting that they’d find out how much training he’d really had once they got him on the show) gave an accurate picture of his background/experience prior to the show, and I feel that this is both an insult, and an injustice to all the other dancers on the show, esp the ones with prior training who where in essence told that they, with all there training, were not as good as someone who was portrayed as having had no training.
I am disappointed that he won - I don’t think he had the quality, or personality, but the pity vote - and I am more disappointed for all the other dancers who were disadvantaged by this fallacy. Shame. Shame. Shame.