Another season of So You Think You Can Dance is almost over. This week the final 4 dancers take the stage for the last time before one of them gets crowned “America’s Favourite Dancer.” Before that happens though, I thought it’d be nice to take a look back at the past season.

After the phenomenal season 7, we were left to wonder how SYTYCD would top itself this season. For starters, they (slightly) changed the stage again and went back to a Top 20 instead of a Top 11, with the All-Stars introduced at Top 10. Mary Murphy came back as a permanent judge and every week had at least one guest judge. Not all the guest judges did well, but the ones who did were either expected to or a very nice surprise. The key to being a good judge is giving the dancers/contestants criticisms, things that they can work on. I suppose being a former contestant himself, now being a choreographer on the show, and coming full circle to be a judge, Travis Wall showed to be one of the best guest judges of the season. But if we’re talking about people outside of the show, Neil Patrick Harris and Christina Applegate were terrific – both funny (of course) but also critical.

Now, one of the first of many surprises this season was that at the end of the first results show, a decision was made to not eliminate anyone and give all the contestants a second chance to make an impression on the audience. That’s not to say none of them sparked. As a matter of fact, it was a pretty great group of dancers so you can understand the reasoning behind the judges’ decision. That first week of competition gave us a great Travis Wall routine danced by Melanie & Marko, who from that point on I dubbed the best SYTYCD pairing since Katee & Joshua from S4 (but more on them later).

The second week of competition gave some memorable performances from Sasha & Alexander

…as well as Jordan & Tadd

As the weeks went on, we saw the show bring on new choreographers to bring something fresh to the table. We saw an unprecedented number of pairs being eliminated, up until Top 12 results.

Now, as previously mentioned, the All-Stars were brought in once we got into Top 10. But in a change from last year, each week we got a different group of SYTYCD alums, probably because a lot of them have other commitments. But I’m not complaining! I love seeing the older dancers back, especially those we hadn’t seen for a while (like Ivan from S2!) And as it always does, things got kicked up a notch going into Top 10, plus the presence of the All-Stars meant things had to be damn good. Take Sasha & Twitch’s Christopher Scott hip hop

…or Caitlynn & Pasha’s Argentine tango

…or Jess & Kathryn’s Stacey Tookey contemporary piece

Everything was just great!

Results for the Top 10 come in and surprise! Turns out the judges still get a say as to who’s going home, as opposed to previous years where once we got into Top 10, it was completely based on viewer votes. At first, I was just as confused as everybody and maybe a little mad when it continued for the Top 8 results. But then I realized it was kind of a good thing.  From the way I saw it, the judges getting a little bit more of a say at that particular point, prevented the possibility of a shocking elimination like when Allison Holker and Janette Manrara got eliminated at Top 8 week in their respective seasons (that’d be S2 & S5).

Now onto the Final 4 dancers – Melanie Moore, Sasha Mallory, Marko Germar, and Tadd Gadduang. By no means was it a couple shocker that these 4 ended up as the final 4, but each and everyone of them more than deserved to make it to this point. I said previously that Melanie & Marko were the best pairing since Katee & Joshua, but to add to that, this has got to be one of the best finale group since season 4 (I almost wrote ‘best final 4 since S4′ but to be fair S6 had a top 6 and S7 was a top 3).

Melanie’s one of those dancers who embody everything about the dance. She has the technical skill, but she gives performances as well. The judges noted it in her Broadway routine with Tadd last week, and it’s completely true. There’s been talk about how Melanie may not have been challenged as much as the others, but you look at what she’s done outside of her genre, and she is nothing short of amazing. Without a doubt, Melanie is up there with Allison Holker as one of the best female dancers ever on the show. And you know I say that as a huge Allison fan.

Not to be outdone, Sasha is a powerhouse herself. I will admit that sometimes I don’t see what the judges see when they rave about Sasha’s dancing. But in certain routines, you do see the power and passion she puts in her movements, and it’s a great thing to see.

Tadd is unbelievable. The judges always make mention of it, but you can’t ignore it. Here’s Tadd, who is a b-boy, and you see him do these ballroom and contemporary/jazz numbers with such incredible ease, you can’t believe it. And it’s not like this started happening somewhere in the middle of the season. That second week of competition, when he got that Viennese Waltz, you watch him and see he’s got the frame and the lines; it’s ridiculous.

Last but not least, there’s Marko. I have to say this first: I have always been biased with Marko because like Katee, Paula van Oppen, and Alexie Agdeppa before him (not to mention his fellow competitor this season Alexander), he was (and hopefully continues to be after this) a Paris By Night dancer. I can’t help it. As I’ve said so many times in my blog, I’m Vietnamese, I watch PBN religiously, and I have always loved the dancers that come on, whether they were only in 1 show or have been with the show for years. So when any of them venture out to do stuff like this (or tours and other stuff), I give my full support to them. Anyways, Marko, like Melanie, has pretty much done no wrong this season. There may have been a couple things here and there with the ballroom stuff, but overall, he has been a fantastic dancer.

I want to say that come Thursday, I don’t really care who wins (which I kind of don’t because they’re all great) but honestly, for me it’s between Melanie and Marko. They’ve been my favourites from the beginning, they’ve never been in the bottom, one of them has to win.

Now for a little mini-rant (because it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t rant about something): for whoever it was at Entertainment Weekly who wrote this “The final four vie for the title, which will be awarded tomorrow. But is winning the show’s worst season to date really a victory?”, as well as anyone who agrees with that sentiment – what are you talking about?! The dancers themselves have been great this season, sure there haven’t been as many memorable routines as season 4 or last season, but worst season to date? Really? Did you seriously forget that mess of season 6, which aired in the fall of 2009? You want the worst season? That’d be it.

End of story: MELANIE or MARKO FTW!!!

And just because I feel like it, my favourite group routine of the season, which I really hope they do on tour