Welcome to Pure So You Think You Can Dance

Congratulations to Jeanine Mason, winner of So You Think You Can Dance Season 5 and America’s Favorite Dancer. All I can say is that it was very well deserved. Her performance yesterday knocked it out of the park for me.

I’m really happy to say that the readers of Pure SYTYCD did a great job “predicting” Jeanine to be the winner of So You Think You Can Dance Season 5 in both yesterday’s SYTYCD 5 Poll and even predicted Jeanine Mason to be the So You Think You Can Dance winner back on June 17th. I think that second one might have been a little bit of luck, but obviously readers of this blog saw Jeanine’s stardom early on. In fact, somehow I even ranked Jeanine at the top of my So You Think You Can Dance Top 20 power rankings. Probably a little bit of luck there as well, but I had to at least take a moment to brag about the readers of Pure SYTYCD!! Woot!!

Also, fans of Jeanine Mason will like the videos I posted of Jeanine Mason before SYTYCD here and here.

I’ll save the rest of the minutiae related to the So You Think You Can Dance finale for another post tomorrow and I encourage everyone to share those thoughts in the SYTYCD finale discussion thread. Otherwise, let’s celebrate Jeanine and her beautiful dancing in this thread!!

Congrats Jeanine!! I’m really looking forward to seeing you on the So You Think You Can Dance tour!!

UPDATE: Also read this story about Jeanine Mason’s medical issues before SYTYCD. Amazing that the show never brought it up, but I think this makes me appreciate Jeanine even more.

Our last entry in our season 5 list of So You Think You Can Dance top music from the final show of So You Think You Can Dance. Of course, this list includes a bunch of music from previous episodes as well. Check out the music below or take a look back at the full list of music from SYTYCD season 5.

Jeanine Mason and Phillip Chbeeb danced Hip-hop to the song “Mad” —Ne-Yo choreographed by Tabitha D’umo and Napoleon D’umo

Janette Manrara and Brandon Bryant danced Argentine tango to the song “Libertango” from Forever Tango choreographed by Miriam Larici and Leonardo Barrionuevo

Asuka Kondoh and Vitolio Jeune danced Waltz to the song “Dreams Are More Precious” —Enya choreographed by Louis van Amstel

Jeanine Mason and Jason Glover danced Contemporary to the song “If It Kills Me” (The Casa Nova Sessions)—Jason Mraz choreographed by Travis Wall

Kayla Radomski and Max Kapitannikov danced Samba to the song “Jum Buh Day”—House of Gypsies choreographed by Louis van Amstel

Caitlin Kinney and Jason Glover danced Bollywood to the song “Jai Ho” choreographed by Nakul Dev Mahajan

Randi Evans and Evan Kasprzak danced Contemporary to the song “Koop Island Blues” —Koop featuring Ane Brun choreographed by Mia Michaels

Jeanine Mason and Brandon Bryant danced Paso Doble to the song “Tetsujin” from The Matrix Revolutions choreographed by Louis van Amstel

Kayla Radomski and Küpono Aweau danced Contemporary to the song “Gravity” —Sara Bareilles choreographed by Mia Michaels

Janette Manrara and Brandon Bryant danced Disco to the song “Loving Is Really My Game” —Brainstorm choreographed by Doriana Sanchez

Melissa Sandvig and Ade Obayomi danced Contemporary to the song “This Woman’s Work” —Maxwell choreographed by Tyce Diorio

Group dances:
Top 20: “Brand New Day” from The Wiz (Broadway; Choreographer: Tyce Diorio)

Top 16: “I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)” —Pitbull (Hip-hop/Latin ballroom; Choreographers: Dmitry Chaplin, Napoleon and Tabitha D’umo)

Top 8, Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy, Adam Shankman, Mia Michaels, Debbie Allen and Tyce Diorio: “One” from A Chorus Line (Contemporary; Choreographer: Mia Michaels)

Guest Dancers:
Talia Fowler, the season 2 ballerina champion of So You Think You Can Dance Australia performed a piece to “Shot You Down” by Audio Bullys, choreographed by Sonya Tayeh.

The Rage Boyz Crew: “Feel It” —Colby O’Donis & Mauli-b (Hip-hop; Choreographer: Tiffany Burton)

Montage Video Featured:
“Dance With Me” – The Sounds

“It’s Your Life” – Francesca Battistelli

So You Think You Can Dance Elimination Songs
The female dancer’s elimination montage is to the song “Already Gone” by Kelly Clarkson
The male dancer’s elimination montage is to the song “On Your Own” by Green River Ordinance
In This Life by Delta Goodrem for the Jeanine/Brandon montage before the winner announcement.

We hope that all of you will keep coming back for season 6 of So You Think You Can Dance. We’ll need everyone’s help again next season to put together the list of music from the audition episodes of So You Think You Can Dance season 6. I couldn’t even come close to making that list on my own, so I appreciate everyone’s help in figuring out the SYTYCD music.

This should be one of the most interesting discussion threads of the season. Did America get it right? Yes, I understand the irony of that statement. If it’s America’s Favorite Dancer and America votes, then how could they be wrong right? Well, I’ll leave that for you to discuss. Are you happy with the winner of So You Think You Can Dance? Were there any dances that they should have featured on the finale of So You Think You Can Dance season 5? Anything else that shocked you? Let’s hear your thoughts!!

Also, I want to thank all of you for stopping by Pure SYTYCD so often. I’ve loved having so many people comment and provide new perspectives on their favorite dancers. I hope you’ll keep coming back to talk about the SYTYCD tour and also season 6 of So You Think You Can Dance. Also, if you like blogging about SYTYCD, I’m always looking for more people to help out so drop us a line.

It’s time to announce the winners of the So You Think You Can Dance Get Fit DVD giveaways. Luckily, for this contest, there are going to be 5 big winners. The winners will get both the So You Think You Can Dance Get Fit: Cardio Funk and So You Think You Can Dance Get Fit: Tone and Groove.

First I want to thank all those who entered. We had about 400 total entrants to the contest. This type of participation means that we should be able to do more free giveaways in the future. Now, without further ado, the winners of both the So You Think You Can Dance Get Fit: Cardio Funk and So You Think You Can Dance Get Fit: Tone and Groove DVDs.

WINNERS!!
Danielle
Becky
Jill
anne
Katie (That links to her Twitter account, but her subscription to the Pure SYTYCD email is what won)

I’ll be sending the winners an email/tweet. If they don’t respond by Friday, then I’ll pick some new names. Sorry to those who didn’t win. I put the links below to be able to buy the DVDs on Amazon for those interested in still having them.

So You Think You Can Dance Get Fit: Cardio Funk (Lauren Gottlieb, Travis Wall, and Courtney Galiano)

So You Think You Can Dance Get Fit: Tone and Groove (Twitch, Katee Shean, and Dmitry Chaplin)

A good friend of mine, Montana Miller, is a former circus performer and gymnast and a current pop culture professor. She just contacted me with a “tidbit” from a friend of hers, a PR Executive in L.A. who wishes to remain anonymous and who was at last night’s taping. Here it is:

“…the amount of criticism the judges gave Evan became torturous (they cut a lot of it from the actual show) to the point where everyone felt so bad they started chanting Evan’s name. Sympathy win is more than possible – its likely. However, Jeanine had the most fans there. I would love to see her win it.”

That certainly explains where the chant came from! What do y’all think? I’d rather Evan not win anything on sympathy alone. He’s a good dancer and, an even more phenomenal performer. However, I was uncomfortable with what criticism they did show on last night’s episode, which was apparently the tip of the iceberg. But then, it has been going on all season. Are the judges trying to do a “reverse” and get us to vote for Evan by dissing him? Or do they just not feel like he’s the strongest competitor and that they need to critique him so soundly? I wonder how the Kasprzaktivists feel about this.