‘So You Think You Can Dance’: Lauren Froderman’s Is America’s Favorite Dancer—Ellen DeGeneres Is Not

Erika Brooks Adickman | August 13, 2010 8:02 am

All that “campaigning” on Wednesday night must have worked because SYTYCD‘s lone girl standing, Lauren Froderman, took home the title of America’s Favorite Dancer last night! Speaking of favorites, Thursday’s finale also gave us a look back at the judges’ (including Mary Murphy!) most beloved dances from this season. Jump below for a look at how Lauren managed to steal the SYTYCD crown from Wonder Boy Kent, and who after last night has become Idolator’s Least Favorite Dancer.

Last week, when AdeChike came in fourth place, we mentioned joked last week that not making it to the finale simply meant not coming in third to Kent. So there was no surprise when Robert was named Season 7’s Number 3 guy last night—though it was surprising that he was able to dance that Bollywood number with such joy just moments after being told he’d lost the chance at $250,000.

To the untrained eye, Kent’s loss last night may have come as a huge surprise. Week after week, K-boy has gotten the biggest cheers from young girls in the SYTYCD audience, and unlike Lauren and Robert he’s never been in the bottom three. So what went wrong (or right in Lauren’s case)? We mentioned last week that Kent was looking tired. This is a competition of dance and personality, but also of endurance (and avoiding the Season 7 curse). This exhaustion may have worked to his favor with his serious Stacey Tookey dance routine that made Nigel crown him an artist, but by this point in the competition audiences didn’t want to pick up the phone for “Brooding Kent” they wanted the “Cool Kent!” they fell in love with. We don’t think the routines on Wednesday night did him any favors: Bollywood, Male-on-Male tango, a moody Contemporary routine. He needed another “Shoeless Joe From Hannibal Mo” up beat number that made viewers pick up the phone.

Lauren’s Hip Hop routine on Wednesday night was exactly the kind of dance she needed to pull ahead and she danced it to perfection. And the use of Kanye West’s “Power” could not have been more appropriate. Lauren had just as much ability and personality as Kent, but what she had over her competitors was strength(which in this injury-filled season was a must) and raw power—staying power. Even as Cat brought Kent and Lauren to hear the results it looked as though Lauren could go on forever in this competition and Kent looked like he needed a long nap.

The night was also filled with some surprise performances. We were treated to 7-year-old tapper Luke Spring, and a set of tap dancing brothers that Nigel found at National Dance Day in D.C. (all of whom were light years better than this season’s tapper, Melinda). We also got to watch Season 6 winner Russell team up with Lil C.

Then we saw the now infamous psychiatrist’s couch and realized this was the moment Cat had been telling us about when we would get to see a dance legend perform in place of Alex Wong to this season’s best Hip Hop routine. Our minds went, “Michael Jackson? No wait he’s dead. Um, Usher? Mikhail Baryshnikov.” Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. It was ex-American Idol judge Ellen DeGeneres.  Oy vey. 

The reason people watch SYTYCD or any talent show reality is to marvel at people with a born gift and to imagine that if we were to get up and try a NappyTabs routine we would look like Alex Wong or Twitch Boss. Watching Ellen attempt the “Outta Your Mind” routine was a sad reminder that we would probably look like Ellen—stiff, awkward, swag-less—if we got on stage with Twitch. It turned out that Ellen had contacted the show and asked to perform this, she wasn’t agreeing to a plea from Nigel. And so Ms. DeGeneres, and we mean this in the nicest way possible, save it for your own show. If you want to spend time with Tabitha and Napoleon and have them teach you a routine from SYTYCD, you have a stage and an audience every day. Why not perform there!

And there you have it folks! The season is done America has spoken and we couldn’t agree more with their decision. We hope to see a lot from our new Favorite Dancer. We wish all of the Top 11 from Season 7 the best of luck. We’re sure we’ll be seeing some of their lovely faces as All-Stars in Season 8. And as for Kent, well he’ll be going on the SYTYCD tour with Lauren soon and maybe that “Prom Dance” kiss will eventually turn into wedding bells someday. In any case we’re sure they’ll live (and dance) happily ever after. See you in Season 8, ya’ll.

::What did you think of Ellen’s performance? Are you happy Lauren won? Will you be attending the SYTYCD tour?