Marietta's Melanie Moore wins 'So You Think You Can Dance'

I stopped by the Moore celebration party at Lassiter High School, where she graduated in 2010 (and was homecoming queen, to boot.)

More than 1,500 people showed up to watch the show on a 26-foot screen- fans, teachers, friends, family, high school alums. They cheered every appearance of Melanie, every mention of her. There was a nervous tension in the air as the results approached.

And just as host Cat Deeley was about to name the winner, the satellite link froze up for a second. Bill Goode, handling AV, paused, stunned, then frantically pressed the button. ("Murphy's law," he said later.) We ended up missing the actual announcement but the crowd figured out quickly Melanie had won once the link returned.  For several minutes, eardrums took a pounding from the cheers and screams in the gymnasium.

"She's got the it factor," said Amanda Ketcham, who was one of Melanie's teachers over 12 years at Center Stage School of Dance in Marietta. "She has it from top to bottom. Everything - her personality, her flexibility, her overall facility in her body. She was born to dance."

Rhonda Webb, a history teacher who taught Moore and helped organize the event, said Melanie would have hated the event. "She's so modest, this would have embarrassed her," she said. "But she was such an important person for Lassiter. She was well liked by every cross section of student here. This was a way to honor her."

Moore, from her very first audition at the Fox Theatre this spring, was an immediate early favorite to win it all. Her elegant audition, choreographed in part by Rhythm Dance Center dancer Katie Carroll and Tonya Hughes, actually went over the 90 seconds recommended by the judges. But they let her do the entire routine, a rarity.

Over the season, Moore was a one-woman highlight machine, her technical prowess, her fluidity, her grace, her exuberance all working in her favor. The judges - especially Nigel Lythgoe - praised her almost universally week in, week out.

"I would push myself to the front of the line to work with you," said "Dirty Dancing" choreographer Kenny Ortega Wednesday night.

Moore never had to dance for her life. Four of her most notable two-person dances were brought back for the season finale tonight, including the top 16 lyrical hip-hop dance involving her kissing Marko and her mesmerizing top 8 dance with Neil Haskell where she leaps into his arms. The duet between Sasha and Melanie from Wednesday was the final dance tonight as well.

Carroll,  who watched Moore progress over five years as a dancer, called her a choreographer's dream. "She knows her body and adjusts to whatever is thrown at her. She knows what feels good for her," Carroll said.

It helps that Moore is supremely confident in her own abilities but isn't arrogant. She doesn't buckle under stress. And that Mary Lou Retton upbeat demeanor we see on TV? No different off camera, Carroll said. 'She is very positive all the time," she marveled. "I have never seen her be Debbie Downer."

Watching her on the verge of winning $250,000 and the SYTYCD crown, Carroll - enjoying the reflected glory - said it felt "dreamlike and surreal. Yet it's real!" After Moore  won, Carroll cried and said she had to go home and watch the actual results herself.

Metro Atlanta the first seven seasons of this show could not conjure up a single contestant. This year, we had two top 10 finishers, including Atlantan Mitchell Kelly.  And now we have a winner.

[Show ratings this year appear to be down from last year. This past Wednesday's episode drew about 5.7 million viewers. UPDATE 8/12: The finale drew 6.3 million viewers, down a bit from a year ago.]

Both will be at the Gwinnett Arena stop of the "So You Think You Can Dance" tour on Sept. 20.

Credit: Rodney Ho

Credit: Rodney Ho

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By Rodney Ho, rho@ajc.com, AJCRadioTV blog