Are the suburban dance schools of the country out to smear the name of affable So You Think You Can Dance Australia judge and frosted tips enthusiast Jason Coleman? That's the word from the man himself, who reckons that the stage mothers and fathers of the country are unimpressed with his decision to have a break from choreographing major events while stepping into the razzle dazzle world of ten-year-old prima donnas. His competitors have hit him with everything from rumours of impending bankruptcy to his supposed lack of skills as a choreographer.

One competitor admitted his nose was out of joint, saying the well-known choreographer was "selling a dream that doesn't exist".

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Remember Graeme Isaako from So You Think You Can Dance Australia? The slightly earnest young insect who liked to have a cry after dancing for his life, looked like he thought partner Kate was a bit of alright, and surprised everyone by announcing, upon being booted, that what he really wanted to do was sing?

Well, some forward-thinking Herald Sun scribe got in touch with Isaako and asked him if he was going to play reality TV two-up.

"My goal, even before the show, was to do recording and stuff and I think now is the perfect opportunity," he said.

"But I'm not going to go for Idol. How embarrassing. Everyone would just look at me and go: 'Reality-TV whore'."

There's something quite poignant about the sort of last-gasp press tidbits that emerge about reality/talent show winners before their inevitable slide into obscurity; today's Confidential piece about So You Think You Can Dance Australia winner and Defamer Australia Associate Editor pin-up Jack Chambers is a perfect example of this artform.

What's be been up to? Dunno! What's he about to do? Go on a glorified holiday disguised as a prize that will help his career!

While he is committed to performing in the Australian SYTYCD tour until August, Chambers will then head to LA to perform for star American choreographer Mia Michaels before taking a bite out of the Big Apple.

"I'm going to see a Broadway show and then hopefully stay and get a feel for what it's like," Chambers told Confidential.

Jack, if you're reading Defamer Australia in the Qantas lounge before your flight, hop over the jump; I've prepared some educational videos for your benefit.

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Guy Smiley aka Jack Chambers won So You Think You Can Dance Australia on Sunday night, which didn't really surprise anyone, considering the odds were in his favour, though those who were rooting for runner-up Rhys Bobridge were disappointed there was no shock upset.

We were mildly shocked that hoofer Kate Wormald managed to come third ahead of irrepressible B-girl Demi Sorrono, which indicated that perhaps the voting public had decided to vote for talent before personality.

Suffice to say Jack was probably shocked when Hugh Jackman - who, remember, used to be way into musical theatre; your Associate Editor and her mum saw him in Beauty & The Beast in the '90s and knew he'd be a star - admitted he was a fan of the 19-year-old jazz dancer and vowed to meet him on Broadway.

"The fact that he knew my name just gave me shivers," Chambers said.

"I was just standing there and he looked at me and he goes: 'Jack, congratulations man, you're wonderful', and I'm like, 'oh my God, Thank you'."

Chambers said he was blown away by the comments from Jackman, who won a Tony Award for playing Peter Allen in the Boy From Oz.

"He said: 'I'll guess I'll see you at Broadway some time' and I said: 'Yeah, I love it' and he said: 'I'll see you there'."

And what did we all think of the Dance finale? It started brilliantly; the Matt Lee-choreographed opening number was great, and having all the judges dance was inspired (hello, high-kicking Bonnie!). Tap Dogs for once didn't make us psychotic with rage, and Khaly's robot-costumed "futuristic hip hop" routine was stupid/fun, too.

But then, WTF, the "greatest hits" performances (i.e. "your favourite" couples' routines from the season) were, no jokes, the worst of the series. We knew the selections were a little off when they chose that Marko and Stephanie jive (the Veronicas/1976 punk one) and were just about projectile vomiting when they got the worst performance of all - Rhiannon and JD's botched tango - back for a second chance draw. Fortunately our television set was just saved from getting a brick through it by an encore of Jason Gilkison's brilliant African samba for Henry and Vanessa.

Jack and Rhys' vaguely West Side Story-esque routine pulled it all together at the end (and made us feel a bit funny in the pants), and then The Bass confirmed the franchise would be back for round two next year, so here's hoping all the stuff-ups, dodgy "corrie" and lacklustre atmosphere will have been gotten out of the way and 2009 will go straight to 11.

And next year? No more advertorial from Nacho Pop, please. Just stick to dancing like a robot and stop showing us your wicked fresh Sony Handycam.

It's the pointy end of So You Think You Can Dance Australia and that means we're close to finding out who is Australia's Favourite Dancer™, out of a choice of Jack, Rhys, Demi and Kate. We'd actually be pretty happy about any of those four winning, though the odds are on Jack, with Rhys steadily gaining in second place, and Demi and Kate coming third and fourth in the betting respectively.

Assuming SYTYCDAus is following the US model, we should be able to look forward to a 'greatest hits' package for the finale - the only problem is, we can't think of more than a handful of routines we'd care to see again.

Are we the only ones having this problem? As we draw to the close, what is your take on this inaugural season of the local version? Personally, we can't wait for - and hope Channel Ten bloody well show - the next round of "the real thing".

Booted So You Think You Can Dance Australia contestant and beanpole Anthony Ikin has come out sooking following his 'eviction', reckoning that were it not for dodgy choreography, he'd still be in the contest.

(We'd say something here about the INTENSE sexual tension between Ikin and The Bass on Monday night, but we think our picture - above - speaks for itself, particularly if you listen to Somewhere while you look at it. "Theeeeere's aaaaa plaaaace for uuuussss...")

Apart from a handful of solo performances, the former sport aerobics champion is peeved that he never really got a routine he could sink his teeth into thanks to some less than earth-shattering choreography.

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Once we'd recovered from hearing that the So You Think You Can Dance Australia kids were happy to shag anything with a pulse, and then suffered the indignity of having respected choreographers calling their high-stepping "hideous", we kind of forgot about the show. Its momentum wasn't exactly captivating and we'd begun to realise that there was about as much personality in its combined cast as there is in fat-free granola.

So, along those lines, comes the scintillating news that Melbournites Rhys and Demi took a well-earned break this week just past. And, er, that's it:

They both let off steam at their favourite nightspots.

Rhys Bobridge dropped into Prahran's the Market, where he works as a drag queen, while Demi Sorono visited South Melbourne club Seven and tried a few of her moves.

"I wasn't up on a podium or anything but I busted out a few freestyle moves and I got a bit of a circle around me watching," she said. "It was pretty cool."

Bobridge also caught up with his boyfriend and said it was hard saying goodbye again and returning to the high pressure of being in the final 10.

There goes whatever tenuous reason most people were using to watch the show. Now they'll have to, like, actually dance well and entertain the viewers, shock horror!

You've probably noticed that we've been a little reticent when it's come to our 'regular' coverage of So You Think You Can Dance Australia the last week or so. As much as it pains us to admit it, since we're not fans of cultural cringe, we've been feeling that the local version of our favourite talent quest ever is, well, a bit shit.

The set looks reasonably swish, and there have been a few good moments, but generally, it feels stilted, the camera-work remains perplexingly fearful of close-ups and the dancers themselves... well, they're just not good enough!

Fortunately for our bruised hearts, we're not alone in our assessment of the show - choreographer Meryl Tankard has spoken out about Ten's great hope for 2008, and it's probably safe to say she's not a massive fan.

"It's a hideous show, I think it's just terrible,'' Tankard said. "It's good I guess that it gets people thinking about dance, but it's not really dance."

Now a world renowned choreographer, Tankard began her career as a dancer with the Australian Ballet in 1975. Her latest production, Sydney Dance Company's Inuk 2, will premiere on March 29.

Tankard also questioned what the contestants would get out of the TV series, hosted by Natalie Bassingthwaighte, and if it would help their careers.

"It's a reality show, it's not a dance show,'' she said. "They have those poor kids up all night and they get tired and they cry.

"I don't even know where those sort of dancers dance.''

Tankard rejected offers to work on the show, which has been a ratings winner for a Ten, drawing in up to 1.8m viewers.

No Tankard, no Graeme Murphy, no Gideon Obarzanek, no Dein Perry, no Stephen Page... Hell, surely they could've even coughed up to fly Wade Robson back to his hometown? If they were desperate they could've even picked up Deanne "Call On Me" Berry for a ring-in.

At least they've got Jason Gilkinson, but so many of the other choreographers have been criticised for the routines they've created (a la Sunday's capoeira "dance"), with Jason prone to telling the dancers "It's not your fault", that you have to wonder why they're still working for the show.

As for the ridiculous genre mash-ups the show seems to be fond of - "swap"? "Soul swing"?? - it's no wonder most choreographers are running a mile in the opposite direction.

More than anything, though, we think what needs to be really sorted out on the topic of SYTYCDAus is the hair and make-up:

No one needs to see that shit.

When we saw the picture on your left pop up on the news.com.au front page, we put two and two together and concluded JD and Rhys from So You Think You Can Dance were cock-bonding in the few precious and no doubt savoured moments they're not learning how to bust out Emotional Hip Hop or Dramatic Jazz Waltz (or whatever weird style of choreography we've never actually heard of that they've unluckily pulled out from the Magical Hat Of Dance Moves for the week).

Sadly, it seems News Ltd's choice of photo is not indicative of the saucy couplings going on behind the scenes, and JD and Rhys are simply chums (FOR NOW), but the article itself does reveal a couple of interesting things when it comes to the sex lives of contestants.

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... for Marko and Stephanie. No doubt our Associate Editor will talk more about last night's boot(scoot)ing off of the aforementioned two contestants, but we did find it interesting that Jason Coleman's plea worked so quickly.

So You Think You Can Dance judge Jason Coleman says he and the other judges were devastated at having to eliminate Hilton and Kassy last week. Could the show be losing its best dancers because Sydney viewers aren't voting for their own?

"I really care about the integrity of the competition and not just the popular people from small town cities,'' Coleman told Insider, before begging NSW to get behind Graeme, Rhiannon, Henry, Vanessa and Kate.

Sorry Stephanie, but he thinks you're only there because of the Perth support for your partner Marko.

Poor Marko and Stephanie. They should have done what The Bass demanded - and now, now she must kill them.

(Thanks to Tom for reminding us of that amazing and frightening photo of The Bass)