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.
“Addiction” was also my favorite piece, and I’m going to go to bat for it a little – hope you don’t mind! You said that it didn’t fit the music as well as Travis’ piece, but I thought the music choice was brilliant. The opening line of the song is “Something always brings me back to you / It never takes too long.” Another line: “You hold me without touch / you keep me without chains.” I’m pretty sure the song isn’t about drugs, but it is a painfully poetic cry about addiction nonetheless. The first part of the dance is quiet but menancing, and then as the song picks up, Kayla’s frantic attempts at escape become ever more desperate. The climax is Sarah Bareilles’ “You’re keeping me DOWN” as Kayla reaches for the sky and Kupono holds her down with that ugly smirk. And then! Right after that proof of strength, he tenderly cups her head, as if secure in the knowledge that he doesn’t have to fight to keep her – she’s belongs to him, heart and soul. She pulls away at the end, but they are in the same tableau that started the dance, indicating that the whole fight will happen again, with probably the same result. This is a very truthful — and incredibly painful — portrait of addiction. This piece has a great story, great characters, it creates beautiful pictures with the dancers’ bodies, there are moments of high energy and moments of stillness, and it has a complete story arc. It doesn’t get any better.
Plus, as much as I enjoyed seeing Travis’ work, many felt that the heart pendant was distracting and unnecessary. So, in a choreography battle, I feel it must loose out to “Addition.”
That said, DEFINITELY looking forward to discussing the choreography next season with you!! Welcome! 🙂
PS…maybe this shows that I’m not on par with everyone else on the planet, but I also thought that “Crash Test Dummies” fit the music very well, and also had just amazing characterization. From a choreography standpoint, the movements of the dummies were brilliant because they were so inhuman, and yet didn’t feel contrived. Both this piece and Mia’s piece definitely hit a chord with me! 🙂
I agree with the selection of Travis’s piece. It was so emotional, powerful, and the music really fit the movement. You should watch Ade’s piece to “this woman’s work” on youtube (from a competition) versus his “this woman’s work” with Melissa. It’s a great example of choreographer differences…the former showcases Ade’s strengths well, but doesn’t fit the flow of the music well at all. The latter isn’t as technically complex but fits the music perfectly.
Great idea on the choreography awards. I’m looking forward to seeing this as the sixth season goes on. 🙂
I have to completely disagree. Not even close. Hands down the winner goes to Mia Michael’s ADDICTION. The choreography and perfect song makes this one of the best dances ever on SYTYCD. The dancers were so into this piece and the faces were so intense. It is so powerful it brings tears every time I watch it. Travis Walls choreography is good but lacks the power factor.
Stephanie and Brandon-
Like I said, the addiction dance was my personal favorite, but I was trying to be objective in my choice.
What I mean by “musicality” is that the choreographer chose movements that fit the MUSIC, not the lyrics. The addiction piece is one of those that focuses more on the story than on bringing the music to life through the story. Both work, but I prefer the latter, which is why I chose Travis’.
But I completely agree (as you shall see in a later post) that Mia did an excellent job of interpreting the lyrics and creating a provoking story and movements to match. It took my breath away. The only reason I didn’t name it the winner is that it didn’t fit all the beats of the music. But thanks for your comments! They are always welcome. I’m not trying to make anyone have my view, just to explain it.
the Addiction/”Gravity” piece was definitely my most favourite piece this season.
Glad I am in the majority. Go AJ and Stephanie and Beth. Sorry Mandy
Hey, it’s my favorite too. I sat on my couch staring at the tv screen for about 5 minutes after they performed it. It was seriously hard to decide between Mia’s and Travis’, but I just felt that Travis’ piece was your textbook-perfect choreography.
Such a hard choice. However, the fumbling of the chain kind of hurt the choreography on Travis’ piece. However, I loved the kiss at the end. Oh wait, that wasn’t Travis’ choreography.
These were my top 2 as well and while I DID post Travis’ piece on my FB page (and watched it over and over), I had to finally agree that the judges (or majority) were right about the prop issue. In the finale Jeannine dropped the necklace and had to (oh so quickly, she is THAT good) grab it and catch up to Jonathan.
When we hear the word addiction, we automatically presume that it’s drug addiction. I think that Stephanie is dead on here in that this piece speaks (through Sarah Bareilles’ music) to any number of different types and layers of addiction. Your (Stephanie) telling of how you see the dance played out made me think of it again and think “ohhh… yeahhhh”. Thank you for that.
And thank you Mandy, for your selections… another fave for me was Brandon and Janette’s sallllllsa. Mmmmm.
I sat with a large group of people watching the SYTYCD ep with Mia’s Addition piece. Two of the guys in our group were sitting toward the back of the living room and heckling (but they were outnumbered by females who wanted to watch…lol). The entire room was silent for several moments after that piece. As I was discreetly trying to wipe away tears I heard one of the guys clear his throat in the back. I found out later that he was so moved by that piece he talked about it for days afterward. In my mind, it gets extra points for silencing the critics of SYTYCD.
But on the other foot – I’m a HUGE Jason Mraz fan, and found the Jason and Jeanine piece abosolutely breathtaking. So I’ll ride the fence and not pick between the two. I’m happy to love both routines equally.
I loved the addiction piece, but it didn’t feel like it flowed as well to me in terms of choreography. I dunno why.
Now, emotionally, Travis’s piece, the addiction piece, Karla and Jonathan’s piece and the Woman’s work piece were the most moving to me. But that’s not all because of choreography…the addiction piece was moving as much because of the backstory (just like “woman’s work”) as it was because of the dancing itself.
Just my opinion, anyhow. 🙂
Well, I don’t really care who wins our little competition…just seeing that list of dances makes me so proud of SYTYCD5!
Just out of curiosity, did you consider any of the group numbers or the solos for nomination? I feel like one of Jeanine’s solos might have made the cut (MAN, I wish they were longer!!) or Tabitha, Napoleon, and Dimitri’s Top 16 number. What about any of the ballrooms? I don’t know the first thing about ballroom, so those dances usually don’t do much for me. I can’t really think of any that might make the list…maybe Brandon and Janette’s Cha Cha or Melissa and Ade’s Samba. Maybe? Hm, maybe not! 😀
The group numbers have a separate award, but I didn’t critique the solos. Mostly because it would just be a “I heart Jeanine” post. And I actually wouldn’t mind seeing the demise of ballroom on SYTYCD. Not a big fan. The dancers who get it are generally in the bottom unless they’re like Janette, spicy!
After reading Stephanie’s (1st) post, I agree that the Addiction piece was marvelous. Kupono danced it SO much better in the finale. He was much stronger as if he had embraced the character rather than fear it (his friend caught up with addiction etc)
I know it came back full circle in the end but it didn’t really occur to me until you really pointed it out, that when addicted, you’ll be back to do it again, and again and again. A never ending cycle.
Not to take away from Travis wall’s routine. I loved that routine too. Both routines required skill and intense emotions which you could feel. They are simply on opposite ends of the spectrum; Fighting whether to run away and Fighting whether to be together. Well…similar but different results. Interesting ya?
Melissa and Ade also had intense emotions. Watching that Cancer dance really makes me feel teary-eyed especially when the judges start speaking about it.
I also want to just add to the Cancer piece that Melissa and Ade did. The next day my co-worker cancelled a meeting with me since she had to go to chemotherapy. I told her about the piece and emailed the youtube link to her and you should have seen how grateful she was that I was thinking of her. She forwarded it to a number of other people at work and a number of them came and told me how nice it was of me to send that and that it was great for them to watch too.
Anyway, I’m not sure it wins a choreography award, but it does win an award of some sort. It affected many people’s lives I believe for good.