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Best Group Dance – SYTYCD Season 5 “EmMandy” Awards

In our ongoing series of choreography “EmMandy” Awards, here’s the award for “Best Group Dance” from So You Think You Can Dance season 5 (winner is in Bold). This is the final award, so take a look at the other SYTYCD Season 5 “EmMandy” Awards.

“Best Group Dance”

  • Tyce Diorio, “Send in the Clowns”
  • Tabitha, Napolean and Dimitri, “Calle Ocho”
  • Mia Michaels, “One”, “Higher Ground”

An amazing concept with a heartbreaking story beautifully translated into the choreography. What more could you want? It was a sad dance, but it didn’t pity itself or try to make you cry or feel bad for it. It just was. I loved Jeanine’s smile that faded from her face, and Evan’s sliding down the toy box at the end. It was perfect and beautiful and I could watch it forever. However—I wouldn’t consider it a Broadway dance, more of a contemporary or even ballet. Just because the song is from a musical doesn’t make the dance Broadway. But it did include a generous helping of acting from each performer, and I think they all delivered.

August 25, 2009 I Written By

I am a blogger and reality tv lover. I blog here for SYTYCD but mostly the Canada version, since I live in Vancouver BC. I also blog about other reality tv shows on my own blog www.mandysmind.com

Best Prop – SYTYCD Season 5 “EmMandy” Awards

In our ongoing series of choreography “EmMandy” Awards, here’s the award for “Best Prop” from So You Think You Can Dance season 5 (winner is in Bold). Take a look at the other SYTYCD Season 5 “EmMandy” Awards.

“Best Prop”

  • “The Butt Dance”, Randi’s butt
  • ‘Love Lockdown”, the chain
  • “If it Kills Me”, the necklace
  • “Send in the Clowns”, the toy box
  • “Moses”, the feathers
  • “Crash Test Dummies”, the robot dog

Though I agree with the judges comments about how the chain was an unpredictable, and therefore messy, prop, I LOVED the concept. When you’re in a relationship with another person, doesn’t it feel like there’s a chain holding you together? You can’t go anywhere without the other person, or do anything without the other person knowing. And I loved the end when Philip offered Jeanine the key, a way out. I mentioned in another post that the heart was a cute addition to Travis’ dance but it was not choreographed into it very well. The poor dancers looked like they were having a hard time throwing/catching/biting/etc. the necklace.

August 24, 2009 I Written By

I am a blogger and reality tv lover. I blog here for SYTYCD but mostly the Canada version, since I live in Vancouver BC. I also blog about other reality tv shows on my own blog www.mandysmind.com

Strangest/Worst Carried-out Concept – SYTYCD Season 5 “EmMandy” Awards

In our ongoing series of choreography “EmMandy” Awards, here’s the award for “Strangest/Worst Carried-out Concept” from So You Think You Can Dance season 5 (winner is in Bold). Take a look at the other SYTYCD Season 5 “EmMandy” Awards.

“Strangest/Worst Carried-out Concept”

  • Brian Friedman, “Aliens”
  • the producers, “Russian Folk Dance”
  • Tabitha and Napolean, “Halo” (pregnancy)
  • Joey Dowling, “Dance at the Gym”

I’ve been dying to talk about this one. I was really dissapointed with Nappytabs because the concept seemed so promising, and they are usually great with concepts. But this dance fell flat. Reason being: there was nothing to suggest Randi was pregnant. If I hadn’t watched the intro, I would have thought it was about getting engaged (because of Evan’s “proposal”). The movements did not illustrate the concept at all (with exception to when Evan rubbed her stomach) and there was no conflict. They never seemed scared or nervous about the baby. As for Joey’s piece, besides the beginning there was minimal connection between the dancers. If you’re in love at first sight, you don’t want to take your eyes off them!

August 21, 2009 I Written By

I am a blogger and reality tv lover. I blog here for SYTYCD but mostly the Canada version, since I live in Vancouver BC. I also blog about other reality tv shows on my own blog www.mandysmind.com

Most Innovative Concept – SYTYCD Season 5 “EmMandy” Awards

In our ongoing series of choreography “EmMandy” Awards, here’s the award for “Most Innovative Concept” from So You Think You Can Dance season 5 (winner is in Bold). Take a look at the other SYTYCD Season 5 “EmMandy” Awards.

“Most Innovative Concept”

  • Shane Sparks, “Shadow”
  • Dave Scott, “Battle”
  • Sonya Tayeh, “Vampires”
  • Tabitha and Napolean, “Love Lockdown”
  • Wade Robson, “Crash Test Dummies”

All of these were great concepts that pushed the boundaries of dance, but I have to give it to Wade. What a great idea! The movements were strange, but exactly what a dummy would move like. He had a concept and a story, something not generally attempted, but it made the piece that much more entertaining. I liked Shane’s idea for the shadow, but it really wasn’t carried out very well. The story was not moved along at all.

August 20, 2009 I Written By

I am a blogger and reality tv lover. I blog here for SYTYCD but mostly the Canada version, since I live in Vancouver BC. I also blog about other reality tv shows on my own blog www.mandysmind.com

Best New Choreographer – SYTYCD Season 5 “EmMandy” Awards

In our ongoing series of choreography “EmMandy” Awards, here’s the award for “Best New Choreographer” from So You Think You Can Dance season 5 (winner is in Bold). Take a look at the other SYTYCD Season 5 “EmMandy” Awards.

“Best New Choreographer”

  • Stacy Tookey
  • Travis Wall
  • Youri Nelzine and Lilia Babenko (the Russian Folk people)

I picked Stacy because I really see her making history of SYTYCD. Her “Falling Slowly” really should have been on the finale, and both of her pieces deserved much more praise than they were given. I love her style’s fluidity and how she endows each movement with purpose. I also see Travis making a name for himself, but I think most of this is due to his “alumnus” status. Would people be lauding his name as much if he wasn’t a former contestant? The Russian Folk choreographers are mostly on there because I couldn’t remember any other new choreographers. Max had said earlier that the choreography made the dance the “worst of the season”, but I have to disagree. I blame the style of dance for its lack of an enthusiastic reception. The choreography was textbook Russian Folk and I can find nothing that breaks the cardinal rules of choreography (dynamics, energy, force).

August 19, 2009 I Written By

I am a blogger and reality tv lover. I blog here for SYTYCD but mostly the Canada version, since I live in Vancouver BC. I also blog about other reality tv shows on my own blog www.mandysmind.com

Best Choreographer – SYTYCD Season 5 “EmMandy” Awards

In our ongoing series of choreography “EmMandy” Awards, here’s the award for “Best Choreographer” from So You Think You Can Dance season 5 (winner is in Bold). Take a look at the other SYTYCD Season 5 “EmMandy” Awards.

“Best Choreographer” (group of work)

  • Tyce Diorio
  • Mia Michaels
  • Wade Robson
  • Tabitha and Napolean
  • Louis Van Amstel
  • Sonya Tayeh

My criteria for this category was story-line, musicality, music choice and innovativeness. These guys are choreography powerhouses. Not only do they include an interesting and novel story-line, but they always have flawless musicality and really bring the music to life. Plus they continuously seem to be re-defining hip-hop as a style. Louis had the most dances in the finale, but none of them pushed the boundaries of Ballroom enough to be called innovative. But I do want to mention Mia’s impeccable music choice for “Gravity”—it brought new meaning to a song that the artist has said is about her “first big heartbreak”.

August 18, 2009 I Written By

I am a blogger and reality tv lover. I blog here for SYTYCD but mostly the Canada version, since I live in Vancouver BC. I also blog about other reality tv shows on my own blog www.mandysmind.com

Best Choreography – SYTYCD Season 5 “EmMandy” Awards

Hi, everyone! I’m Mandy, the brand-new choreography expert here at Pure SYTYCD. When Season 6 kicks off, I’ll be doing weekly posts about the a-mazing choreography on the show, including the auditions and solos.

But since Season 5 has ended, instead of going week-by-week to share my opinions, I’ve chosen to highlight the best of the best, and the worst of the worst. It’s kinda like our very own “Outstanding Choreography” Emmy awards, but with lots of sub-categories!

Hopefully we’ll be able to set up a voting system when we do this again at the end of season 6, but for now I’ve selected my personal “winners”. Feel free to post yours in the comments section.

So without further ado… (winners in bold)

“Best Choreography”

  • Tabitha and Napolean D’umo, “Mad” (Jeanine and Phillip)
  • Wade Robson, “Crash Test Dummies” (Ashley and Kupono)
  • Stacey Tookey, “Falling Slowly” (Karla and Jonathan)
  • Mia Michaels, “Addiction” (Kayla and Kupono)
  • Travis Wall, “If it Kills Me” (Jeanine and Jason)
  • Tyce Diorio, “This Woman’s Work (Melissa and Ade)

I chose this piece because it contains everything a moving piece of work should—a solid, provoking story-line efficiently and beautifully moved along by the choreography, phrases that highlight and play on the dancers strengths, and true musicality. The other nominees either had a great story but didn’t move it along as well (Falling Slowly, This Woman’s Work) or didn’t fit the music well enough to really hit a chord with the viewer (Addiction, Crash Test). All of them, however, were standouts of the season and will be remembered for years to come. (The addiction dance was my personal favorite though)

Keep watching Pure SYTYCD. Over the next week we’ll be awarding the SYTYCD Best Choreographer, Best New Choreographer, Most Innovative Concept, Strangest/Worst Carried-out Concept, Best Prop, and Best Group Dance.

August 17, 2009 I Written By

I am a blogger and reality tv lover. I blog here for SYTYCD but mostly the Canada version, since I live in Vancouver BC. I also blog about other reality tv shows on my own blog www.mandysmind.com