So You Think You Can Dance Malaysia 2 - Grand Finals

The Grand Finals of the So You Think You Can Dance Malaysia 2 which was held on Friday August 1 2008 at Ruums Bar & Club Kuala Lumpur started at 8.30 pm with a dance performance by the Top 20. Singer Zainal Abidin next gave a rendition of his hit song Senang Senang. After he had finished his performance, the Top 4 finalists stepped onto the dance floor to the applause of the crowd. The 4 top finalists were Ng Kar Fei (Black) 25, Ong Tze Hong (Hong) 27, Hoi Cheng Sim (Sim) 27 and Yong Ling Shi (C C) 21.

Looking immaculate in a white pantsuit, the lovely host Aishah Sinclair then cooly walked onto the dance floor to welcome the audience and introduce the panel of judges. They are the indefatigable trio of Pat Ibrahim, Ramli Ibrahim and Judimar Hernandez, all of whom are renowned dancers and choreographers in Malaysia. Aishah then announced that tonight one of the Top 4 dancers will be crowned "Malaysia's Favourite Dancer" and walk home with a cash prize of RM50,000 and a scholarship from 8TV. It was then time for the battle royale to begin.

In this finals, the format was changed. The competitors had to perform 4 dances over 4 rounds. In the first round Sim and CC had to partner each other to perform a Contemporary/Jazz piece whilst Black and Hong had to dance a Contemporary/Cha Cha Cha number together. In the second round the competitors had to switch partners, with Hong and Sim first executing a Contemporary/Hip Hop fusion followed by Black and CC dancing a Contemporary/Street Jazz mix. In the third round all the dancers performed a contemporary Malay dance. In the fourth and final round, the dancers had to dance solo. The dances they had to perform were:-

1) Hong - Hip Hop

2) C C - Samba

3) Black - Hip Hop

4) Sim - Contemporary

Whilst waiting for the sms votes to come in, the Top 20 gave another excellent Hip Hop dance performance. After their performance, it was time for host Aishah to announce the winners. Before announcing the winners Aishah asked the judges who they thought would be the winner. Pat picked C C, Judimar selected Hong and Ramli chose Sim. Ramli felt that Sim was the best dancer as she was able to bring out the physical and the emotional aspects of the dances the most. Sim was also the only dancer to have sailed through to each round without ever being placed in the Bottom 4 or 6.

The winner of the title of "Malaysia's Favourite Dancer" was C C. Personally I thought that Sim was the best dancer that night and deserved to win but this is the reality in a dance reality show like SYTYCD. After all the title is "Malaysia's Favourite Dancer" and not "Malaysia's Best Dancer" and this is the reality we have to accept. With that the So You Think You Can Dance Malaysia competition, Season 2 came to a close.

Warmest Regards,

Dance Aficionado