The Dancing Was the Best Part of The VMAs, Right? RIGHT.

August 25, 2013

Oh, the MTV Video Music Awards.

So they happened last night—shout-out to Brooklyn!—and they were…you know.

Here’s the thing: The VMAs have always been awesome and edgy and it’s the awards show where the celebrities can really go crazy. There was that time in the late ’90s when Gwen Stefani dyed her hair sky blue and wore a matching fur bikini top, and there’s always madness happening onstage (think “Taylor, I’mma let you finish, but…” Kanye-style).

Of course, we here at Dance Spirit rarely tune into these awards shows—no matter how outrageous they plan to be—hoping to catch a great acceptance speech or groundbreaking presentation of some lifetime achievement award. We’re in it for the dancing, and at last night’s VMAs there was plenty of killer choreography to get us excited.

No. No. No. NOOOO!

First, though, let’s address the evening’s tragedies, because that’s fun:

Miley Cyrus, everyone is talking about you today.
And it’s not because you were so cool and out there and youthful and fun. It’s because your nude underwear was hanging out of your weird one-piece with the drugged-out-looking bear on it, and your tongue was hanging out the entire time and everything you did was so wildly inappropriate and crass. Hannah Montana would not approve, and neither did I. And twerking? I’m over it.

OK, so that’s it for the tragedies! Way to hold it down, Miley!

And, in my opinion, the highlights:

Pop Quiz: Can you name the member of *NSYNC on the far right? It’s OK if you can’t. Focus on the gorgeous gentleman in the middle.

Two words: Justin Timberlake. The man can do no wrong. He’s talented, he’s classy and yeah, he’s gorgeous—he was also the real winner of the entire evening, and he also employs some darn good backup dancers! I was psyched to see so many familiar faces grooving onstage at The Barclays Center with J-Timbs, including Ivan Koumaev, Dana Wilson, Nick Bass and David Moore. The Timberlake Show lasted, what was it, 11 minutes? I was actually disappointed when they launched into the *NSYNC reunion portion of the performance because I wanted the dancers to keep going! Plus, it seems like they’re having an absolute blast up there, which is a pleasure to watch.
Lady Gaga.
Well, Gaga’s dancers at least. They’re always awesome. I was sad not to see Mark Kanemura up there with her, but thrilled to see longtime favorite Gaga dancers Montana Efaw and Sloan Rabinor getting their “Applause” on. One of my other favorites, Karen Chuang, was there, too! Well done, dancers, and way to nail those costume changes for your leading lady!

Katy Perry.
Honestly, I thought her “Roar” performance was kind of “meh,” but I appreciated the hyper-choreographed routine and dug the Legally Blonde: The Musical-esque jump roping portion of it.

Everything else about the night was pretty forgettable, in my opinion. Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez looked pretty, the guys of One Direction looked like they were ready to battle the boys (OK, grown men) of *NSYNC and Will Smith’s family looked completely terrified of Miss Miley.

We felt the saaaaaame way, Willow.