VIDEO: Ellen DeGeneres Wows on ‘So You Think You Can Dance,’ Spreads Dance Power Joy Love

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, ELLEN DEGENERES? WELL, GOOD NEWS, YOU CAN:

As has been expressed more times than necessary, I h8 reality television shows, especially reality docu-series and also especially the competitive shows where they take extra-long pauses and needless two-hour-long finales to whittle a judging pool down from 2 to 1.

Unfortunately I do not live alone in a cave and occasionally I am subjected to certain televised experiences based on their proximity to the person who just made dinner. Anyhow, So You Think You Can Dance tends to be one of the better ones because of the singing & dancing. AND LAST NIGHT SOMETHING AWESOME HAPPENED AT THE END. I even had to turn around from my I’m-protesting-the-television position (back to the TV, it’s easy) and feel feelings like JOY! and DELIGHT! and SURPRISE!

Also, hey look, there’s a straight teenage guy and a 52-year-old lesbian dancing on the teevee and a million people are cheering exuberantly. That was nice. OH MY GOD it was so good, just watch it, it will make you smile.

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TV Squad Reports:

We worked with her last year (on her show) and she’s such a fan of dance,” Tabitha recalled. “She told us, ‘I’m on my summer break and I’m a little bored, let’s cook something up.'”

Napoleon added, “I think she was thinking [of doing something for] National Dance Day, and then something for the opening of her show again, and then Tabitha mentioned doing this.”

“She was such a fan of the number and so sad that Alex got injured,” Tabitha explained. “She was like, ‘I’m so devastated. I loved him.’ So I said, ‘Why don’t you learn his dance?'”

At the time, Napoleon protested, “Why did you tell her to learn that one? It’s really difficult!” but Tabitha told him, “I think she can do it.”

How long did it take Ellen to learn the routine? No longer than Alex himself had, said Tabitha: “She had maybe a week to rehearse. We only had hour rehearsals here and there.”

Obviously, the routine needed some modification, but not as much as you might expect. “I think the only thing that we trimmed down to make it a little bit easier was the ballet moment when Alex had his leg to his ear. OK, Ellen isn’t able to do that. But we played on her strengths: her comic timing, the slapping, but really step for step, it was almost the same routine.”

“For her to go out there and just roll it off in front of that many people, live, is just amazing,” Napoleon raved. “The choreography in that routine is really difficult, but she did an amazing job.”

Ellen powered up pre-show at a Vegan Lunch with Portia De Rossi:

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Riese

Riese is the 41-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3262 articles for us.

16 Comments

  1. This made me SO HAPPY! I love Ellen and Portia. So hot and amazing. They make me smile and that is never a bad thing. :)

  2. I was watching the finale last night with a big group of people and we all flipped out and cheered when it was Ellen.

  3. I got sucked into watching this show against my will a couple of weeks ago by a friend and it took me around 2 seconds to form the biggest monster crush on Cat Deeley. Goddamnit she’s adorable!
    and WOOOOOOOOO ELLEN WORK IT!

  4. Even though I totally knew who was behind that door, I almost kind of lost my shit when she showed up. Like, seriously, this woman is my hero.

  5. is it me or did ellen just get sexier??
    i really never thought she could dance… talk about modesty.

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