Thursday, August 7, 2008

So Joshua Can Dance

Joshua Allen Photos

He had the build of a football player and began with the skills of a street dancer.

But in the end it was untrained teenager Joshua Allen, 19, who won the fourth season finale of "So You Think You Can Dance" Thursday. He's the first from a hip-hop background to win the show, though he proved to have kind the kind of versitility and athleticism that recalled Gene Kelly.

After "nearly 60 million votes," according to host Kat Deeley, the Ft. Worth, Texas, native edged out another untrained dancer in Twitch Boss, 24, of Montgomery, Ala. for the $100,000 prize, the title of "America's favorite dancer" and a part in the upcoming film, "Step It Up 3-D."

A nearly speechless Allen, whose most recent dance partner, Katee Shean, was also in the top four, finally said amid the confetti drop: "Never let anybody tell you can't do anything. No matter what you do, you can always go far. the sky is the limit. Don't let amybody tell you can't do anything. Because God is the control. And with God you can do anything."

The two 20-year-old women finalists in the final four were picked off first: Spitfire Courtney Galiano of New York first and then Shean of San Jose, who was surprised with a first time prize of $50,000 as last remaining woman .

It capped a fairly entertaining two-hour finale for a fairly entertaining summer series.

Along with marquee performances form the Jonas Brothers and Cirque So-leil Think You Can Dance, it brought back the Top 20 together and apart, and a series of favorite dances from the season as named by the expanded panel of choreographers sitting on the judges' panel.

Judges got to hoof it as well, with Mary Murphy managing not to scream during her routine and toothy producer/judge Nigel Lythgoe out among the young Debbie Allen Dance Academy of tap dancers in the show's most superfluous dance.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Where was Sabra??? I loved Joshua, Twitch and Katee, but I was really looking forward to seeing Sabra's performance.