by Gina Scarpa

 

After an extremely strong showing from Lauren, Kent, and Robert, it's time to find out who America has chosen as their favorite dancer on tonight's season finale of So You Think You Can Dance. The Top 11 are reunited with the all stars for a piece, choreographed by Christopher Scott of LXD, that highlights the strengths of all the dancers. Even Alex is there, sitting as he recovers from his injury, but dancing. I love it.

 

Seven people have squeezed behind the judges' table tonight: Nigel Lythgoe, Mia Michaels, Adam Shankman, Mary Murphy (the engineer of the hot tamale train has returned!), Kenny Ortega, Tyce DiOrio, and Stacey Tookey.

 

Each of them choose their favorite routine of the season for the dancers to perform. Kenny wisely chooses Neil and Kent's baseball-themed Broadway routine, choreographed by Tyce. Nigel picks Stacey Tookey's contemporary routine, featuring Billy and Ade, about a homeless person and a businessman. Definitely one of the best!

 

Neil Patrick Harris sighting in the audience! Love love love! Hok's dance crew, Quest, performs next. How cool are they?

 

Back to the judges' choices. Mia decides that she wants to see AdeChike and Comfort dance their emotionally charged NappyTabs routine about the end of a relationship. Kent and Anya perform their ballroom routine next, but it doesn't seem like anyone requested it. Oh well, it was still really good! Another NappyTabs routine is then chosen by Tyce, who asks to see Robert and Domenic's creepy clown piece again.

 

Nigel hobbles on stage, doing a great job of trying to convince everyone he can't perform because of the season 7 curse - he's injured.

Next thing you know, a little 7 year old named Luke asks to take his place and gives the best tap routine the show has ever seen. I'm still picking my jaw up off the floor. If he can do ballroom, they may have a new contestant for season 8! Two older, yet still amazing, tappers perform next - the Manzari brothers.

 

Back at his seat, Nigel chooses Lauren and Pasha's Argentine tango. After all, the judges did say that she's the best contemporary girl to ever do ballroom on the show. Adam finally brings my favorite piece of the season onto the stage, which is Robert and Allison's contemporary piece by Travis Wall, about a young man trying to take care of his ailing mother.

 

Last season's winner, Russell, hits the stage with choreographer Lil' C for some krumping. After that, Mary sends Domenic and Jose to the stage to perform their b-boy routine from earlier this season. All star Neil is then joined on stage by the winner of So You Think You Can Dance: U.K. for a contemporary routine.

 

The three finalists join Cat on the stage because one of their journeys ends right now. Finishing in 3rd place is... Robert. Not exactly surprising but I'm still sad to see him go. I grew to really love him this season.

 

Adam is the next judge to choose a favorite and he goes with Lauren and Twitch's hip hop routine. Boy, Tabitha and Napoleon are just everywhere tonight and this season for that matter, aren't they? Since Alex is unable to dance (and man, did I want to see his hip hop routine again), a video clip is shown of his contemporary piece with Allison to Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah". Dammit, Alex. Damn you and your injury! You better be back for season 8 or I'll cry. A lot.

 

More picks from the judges. Stacey chooses Robert and Billy's Bollywood routine while Mia goes with Kent and Neil's contemporary piece by Travis Wall. Even though it's going to be one hell of a tour, there are several all stars that are severely going to be missed. Neil and Twitch, I'm talking to you guys.

 

Black Gold performs their song "Shine" that you hear each week when a dancer is eliminated from SYTYCD. Before the results are revealed, Cat has one last surprise for the audience: a performance by Ellen DeGeneres, who recreated Alex's hip hop routine with Twitch by stepping in for the injured dancer. Okay, so the dance is a little bit easier but that... was... amazing. How cool does Alex feel right now?

 

Finally! It's time for the results. The winner of season 7 of So You Think You Can Dance is... Lauren!  

 

(Image courtesy of Fox)

 

Follow Gina at twitter.com/ginascarpa

 

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