u/honoraryweasley

I'm gonna preface this to say - Taylor herself has said she's not the greatest dancer. And even for moments when she is clearly not performing (like being on fancam at MTV Video Music Awards or dancing during the Grammys), she draws a lot of criticism when she's just vibing to music that to me seems kind of unwarranted.

But when it comes to the Eras Tour... a lot of the choreography (to me and maybe some others here?) is not very good. I'm not saying that the dancers were not good - they are very personable and charismatic, the ability to put on a 3 hour show for Taylor and the dancers requires unimaginable stamina and hard work.

I'm saying that Mandy Moore interpolates dancing into the songs on such a very literal, and repetitive, level that a lot of it becomes over the top and hammy (Lover comes to mind with The Man and You Need to Calm Down).

Some of the sequences are great - Fearless has really cute simple choreography; Ready For It goes hard; 1989 has a great set-up with the bikes and smashing the car from Blank Space; TTPD, in particular, like I Can Do It With A Broken reusing the choreography from other sections says a lot about how Taylor has used art for her break-ups and how it's consumed for people wanting more. Midnights overall is very good. And there's a lot of things going on in Fortnight and Mastermind. I think Moore did a good job balancing where people's eyelines are supposed to go (usually centering the dancers around Taylor but also giving them enough solo moments too).

But when Taylor is on her own, a lot of it is miming to her own lyrics. Vulture had an article about this - I tried to link the article without the paywall but it wasn't successful. But they pretty much point out that if there's a lyric of seeing, hiding, thinking; she and the dancers point to their heads. And there's more other examples of that throughout. When she sings about dying or being in pain, she makes a stabbing motion towards her stomach. ETC. It's kind of something you can't unsee once you see how common it is.

At times, when I pull back from watching Taylor, the other choreography is also kind of cringe. Some sequences that come to mind is Shake It Off. I know ppl will it's kind of silly to criticize dancing for this song 'cause it's mean to be playful. But there are parts where the dance is what I can only describe is a chicken squawking from like the polka? And, random jumping up and down?

Enchanted also comes to mind, where the female dancers are basically left to run around in circles twirling the ends of their dresses. Your eyes are supposed to be on Taylor on the stage lift, but looking at the dancers, it's not very connective to the song itself.

A lot of songs also recycle moves - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together uses a rowing(?) motion that's used elsewhere a lot. This side step from Bad Blood is used a lot as well.

I can see why people might downvote me for something that Taylor and a lot of people are already aware of that Taylor is not a good dancer. But the choreography was something that I noticed and wondered how other people felt....especially because I felt like Reputation stadium tour was able to center around Taylor with choreography that (even for a pop concert) was very expressive and complex, let her mime here and there and dance on her own...but it wasn't so on the nose.

EDITING this to say - a lot of ppl are saying 'just don't watch her tours for the choreography'. I don't watch her concerts primarily for the choreography, but since dancing is a part of the whole concert, I was just noting how I thought the choreography could be disjointed. I thought my post was fairly objective in thinking out loud about the strengths and weaknesses. I didn’t drag anyone? But go ahead and downvote I guess lol