On August 11, Melanie Moore won the title of America’s Favorite Dancer on So You Think You Can Dance. She spoke with reporters the next morning on winning, exactly how much she practiced and the importance of good carry-on luggage.
On how she was always that cute:
Melanie Moore: “Yes, I was Homecoming Queen in high school, which was really exciting for me.”
On her immediate future:
Melanie Moore: “I have 10 days off, and I was definitely planning on being at my studio and taking classes… I’ll probably sleep for about a day, and then I’ll be ready to go again… I’m ready to step out of the spotlight, for at least a couple of minutes.”
On her more-distant future:
Melanie Moore: “I feel like my dream is always to be in a company… I would be more suited to a company atmosphere… I really want to be able to sustain a living dancing.”
On her time as a SYTYCD frontrunner:
Melanie Moore: “Going into the finale, I definitely felt like I had a chance… But… I don’t know how America picked… I definitely felt confident about what I did on Thursday and in the competition… I didn’t want to put any extra pressure on myself by thinking that I was a favorite.”
On that flying leap into All-Star Neil Haskell’s arms:
Melanie Moore: “Neil and I sort of clicked from the very beginning… I wasn’t too nervous. ‘Cause Neil’s got a lot of muscle… I feel like whoever I’m partnering with, I have complete trust in them… We were sort of fearless together in that respect.”
On the possibility of working with Lady Gaga (only one of many who offered Melanie a job):
Melanie Moore: “I would definitely be interested in going on tour with Lady Gaga. She’s an amazing artist… I would be more than happy and overjoyed to work with her.”
On how she succeeded on So You Think You Can Dance:
Melanie Moore: “I feel like the reason why I did so well, it was probably because… First up my partnership… I feel like we really carried each other… Marko and I put so much hard work in the beginning… We were the only couple who rented studio space outside of the time that we got.”
“Marko half of the time wanted to kill me, because I’m so nitpicky… I need to have things in line before we go on stage… In that way, Marko wanted to kick me half of the time.”
On how she thought Sasha would win:
Melanie Moore: “I really did think Sasha was going to win. Well, first up, she’s an absolutely amazing dancer… Usually the person who’s the favorite or the frontrunner doesn’t win… Sasha, really, she has improved so much… I have nothing but absolute love and so much respect for her.”
“Any of the four of us that were on that stage, really could have taken it.”
On the possibility of participating in the Dirty Dancing remake:
Melanie Moore: “Of course I’ve seen Dirty Dancing. It’s one of my mom’s favorite movies… I just feel like it would be so much fun, and the choreography would be absolutely amazing.”
“Everybody saw [Kenny Ortega’s offer], so I hope that was a verbal contract.”
On which routine she was most proud of:
Melanie Moore: “The routine that… I think I was the most proud of was the tango routine with Marko… Marko and I just kept working on it and working on it… It was such a relief, because we worked so hard. We just wanted our first ballroom number to come out well.”
On studying art (not dance) at Fordham University in New York City:
Melanie Moore: “I knew that I wanted to go to New York, because I have always loved it… It was sort of my mom and my decision. We just thought that dancing is such a hard profession to get into… It’s smarter to have a backup plan.”
“That was my decision because art is definitely my second love… I knew that I could take amazing classes in the city… It was a nice compromise between my mom and me.”
On how she won by such a wide margin of votes:
Melanie Moore: “I really have no idea. I was so surprised. Literally, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! 47!'”
On how the judges’ comments affected her:
Melanie Moore: “I can’t say that there is really anything that stuck out in my mind in particular… Really, how I felt about the dance is what’s important to me… At the end of the day, it really matters how I felt and how America felt about me.”
On the difficulty of dancing hip hop with Twitch:
Melanie Moore: “I don’t move so hard and so quick. And it was so fast… It was super, super challenging, and I don’t think I would have gotten through it without Twitch.”
On whether she would like to be an All-Star next season:
Melanie Moore: “Oh my gosh, I have already told them, I don’t care what I do, I will be an All-Star next season… I really want to be an All-Star.”
On the choreographer that meant the most to her SYTYCD time:
Melanie Moore: “I definitely think that… the choreographer, she challenged me the most, she pushed me the most… was Sonya Tayeh… She has just been so inspiring through the entire process… She’s been life-changing… I could not ask for somebody better to work with.”
On what she plans to do with her $250,000 prize money:
Melanie Moore: “Everyone has said to sort of indulge myself in one thing… and then put the rest the way… I really want to get some really cool carry-on luggage… Or like a watch or something. I don’t know.”
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(Image courtesy of FOX)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
Laurel grew up in Mamaroneck, NY, Grosse Pointe, MI and Bellevue WA. She then went on to live in places like Boston, Tucson, Houston, Wales, Tanzania, Prince Edward Island and New York City before heading back to Seattle. Ever since early childhood, when she became addicted to The Muppet Show, Laurel has watched far too much TV. Current favorites include Chuck, Modern Family, Supernatural, Mad Men and Community. Laurel received a BA in Astrophysics (yes, that is possible) from Colgate University and a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies and History of Science from Columbia University before she realized that television is much better than studying.
