Let's Talk About Those Emmy Award Dance Numbers

September 22, 2013

If you’re like me, you were really, really sad for the first half of last night’s Emmy Awards. Song-and-dance king Neil Patrick Harris was hosting, and we’d been promised big, dance-y things. But for more than an hour there was nary a dancer in sight.

Then came the middle of the show. And there was a number there. Called “The Number in the Middle of the Show.” Featuring NPH being the song-y, dance-y NPH we all know and love. And the “Emmy Gold dancers” doing some very flashy choreography indeed. (And, for some reason, actor Nathan Fillion and comedian Sarah Silverman.)

Don’t get us wrong: It was nice. The lyrics were cute. (“Here’s some really sexy dancing in the middle of the number that’s the number in the middle of the show!”) We were feeling a little better. But it wasn’t the knock-’em-dead, we’ll-never-forget-this extravaganza we were expecting.

We needn’t have worried.

When it came time to present the Outstanding Choreography Emmy, we were transported to a crazy, weird, wonderful dancetopia, where the characters in our favorite shows were played by some of our favorite dancers (Melanie Moore! Jeremy Hudson! Kayla Radomski! Jaimie Goodwin! Dana Wilson! Kathryn McCormick! Teddy Forance! Nick Lazzarini!)—plus the Emmy nominees themselves (Derek Hough! Allison Holker! Mandy Moore! Tabitha and Napoleon D’umo! Travis Wall! Sonya Tayeh!). It was a world where “Mad Men”-ers tangoed, “Boardwalk Empire”-ers Charlestoned, and “Breaking Bad”-ers breakdanced (break-bad-danced?). In short, it was fabulous. (Congrats to Derek Hough, who, after all of that amazingness, took home the Emmy!)